Justia U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the jury's verdict awarding "loss of life" damages to the family of Fermin Valenzuela, Jr., who died after an encounter with the police. The jury awarded the Valenzuela family a total of $13.2 million in damages on multiple theories of liability, including $3.6 million for Valenzuela's loss of life, which was independent of any pain and suffering that he endured during and after the struggle with the officers. Defendants argue that because California state law did not recognize loss of life damages, neither should 42 U.S.C. 1983.The panel reviewed the relevant in- and out-of circuit case law, including Chaudhry v. City of Los Angeles, 751 F.3d 1096 (9th Cir. 2014), and concluded that section 1983 permitted the recovery of loss of life damages and that California state law to the contrary was inconsistent with the federal statute's goals. As the court recognized, to hold otherwise "would undermine the vital constitutional right against excessive force—perversely, it would incentivize officers to aim to kill a suspect, rather than just harm him." The panel saw no meaningful way to distinguish Chaudhry from this case. The panel resolved the remaining issues on appeal, including qualified immunity, in a concurrently filed memorandum disposition. View "Valenzuela v. City of Anaheim" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's order compelling arbitration in a putative class action brought by Massachusetts residents who have worked as Uber drivers, seeking a preliminary injunction prohibiting Uber from classifying drivers in Massachusetts as independent contractors, as well as an order directing Uber to classify its drivers as employees and comply with Massachusetts wage laws.The panel concluded that Uber drivers, as a nationwide class of workers, do not fall within the so-called "interstate commerce" exemption to mandatory arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The panel explained that Uber drivers, even when crossing state lines or transporting passengers to airports, are merely conveying interstate passengers between their homes and their destination in the normal course of their independent local service. Therefore, interstate movement cannot be said to be a central part of the class members' job description. The panel found the analysis of the minority of district courts that have found to the contrary unpersuasive.The panel also concluded that plaintiffs' claims and requested injunctive relief are arbitrable by the terms of the arbitration agreement and plaintiffs' requested injunctive relief would have upended the status quo rather than maintained it. Therefore, the district court properly addressed the motion to compel arbitration first.Finally, the panel concluded that the injunctive relief requested, reclassification of drivers' status from "independent contractors" to "employees" is not a public injunctive relief that may be allowed to them to avoid arbitration. In this case, the relief sought by plaintiffs is overwhelmingly directed at plaintiffs and other rideshare drivers, and they would be the primary beneficiaries of access to overtime and minimum wage laws. View "Capriole v. Uber Technologies, Inc." on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit granted the petition for review of the BIA's decision concluding that petitioner was inadmissible under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii) for making a false representation of U.S. citizenship for a purpose or benefit under Nevada law. The panel held that, because petitioner was not an applicant for admission, the BIA impermissibly applied the clearly and beyond doubt burden of proof in finding him inadmissible and therefore ineligible for adjustment of status. The panel remanded for the BIA to apply the preponderance of the evidence standard. View "Romero v. Garland" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit granted the petition for review of the BIA's decision concluding that petitioner is removeable under 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2)(A)(ii) because his two prior convictions for violating Hawaii’s fourth degree theft statute, Haw. Rev. Stat. 708-833(1), constitute crimes involving moral turpitude (CIMTs).The panel applied the categorical approach and held that section 708-833(1), a petty misdemeanor involving property valued at less than $250, is overbroad with respect to the BIA's definition of a CIMT. The panel explained that Hawaii's definition of "theft" does not always require the government to prove the defendant acted with an intent to permanently deprive or substantially erode the owner’s property rights. Furthermore, section 708-833(1) is indivisible because it proscribes one crime that can be committed eight different ways, not eight distinct crimes. Accordingly, the BIA erred in concluding that petitioner's section 708-833(1) convictions were CIMTs rendering him removable. View "Maie v. Garland" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit granted in part and denied in part a petition for review challenging the FCC's order finding that a competitive local exchange carrier's tariffed rate was void ab initio because it violated the FCC's benchmarking rule by exceeding the established step-down rates.The panel held that the FCC did not err in concluding that Wide Voice's tariff violated the benchmarking rule by deviating from the established stepdown rates. In this case, the FCC's conclusion that Wide Voice's tariff was unlawful because it violated the benchmarking rule was neither arbitrary nor capricious However, the panel held that the FCC's determination that the tariff was void ab initio after being "deemed lawful" in accordance with the governing statute was arbitrary and capricious. The panel followed the lead of the D.C. Circuit in concluding that the FCC impermissibly disregarded the "deemed lawful" status of Wide Voice's tariffs in contravention of Congress' unambiguously expressed intent to provide a mechanism to achieve that "deemed lawful" status. Furthermore, the FCC elided its own prior ruling, as well as prior court rulings precluding retrospective remedies for "deemed lawful" rates later determined to be unreasonable. View "Wide Voice, LLC v. Federal Communications Commission" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit dismissed, based on lack of appellate jurisdiction, AdTrader's appeal from the district court's attorneys' fee award in a class action brought by AdTrader on behalf of itself and advertisers who used Google advertising services but did not receive refunds for invalid traffic.The panel concluded that this is neither a traditional common fund case nor one that meets the requirements of the collateral order doctrine. In this case, the litigants and the district court may have agreed that attorneys' fees should be determined in light of common fund principles, but they also agreed that "any award of attorneys' fees here would not come from a sum that Google has been ordered to pay the class." The panel explained that this alone shows that this case neither fits the situation under which the "common fund" doctrine developed nor meets the requirement of unreviewability that is essential to the limited collateral order exception to finality. The panel also considered plaintiffs' other arguments for an immediate appeal and found them to be without merit. View "AdTrader, Inc. v. Google LLC" on Justia Law

The previous opinion is withdrawn and replaced by the following opinion concurrently filed with this order. On remand from the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit (1) affirmed the district court's bench trial judgment upholding Alaska's political party-to-party candidate limit; (2) reversed the district court's judgment as to the individual-to-candidate limit, the individual-to-group limit, and the nonresident aggregate limit; and (3) remanded.In this case, at issue are Alaska's limits on contributions made by individuals to candidates, individuals to election-related groups, and political parties to candidates, and also its limit on the total funds a candidate may receive from out-of-state residents. On remand, the court's resolution of the challenges to the political party-to-candidate and nonresident limits remains the same, affirming the district court's decision upholding the former but reversing the decision upholding the latter. However, the panel reversed the district court's decision upholding the individual-to-candidate and individual-to-group limits, applying the five-factor Randall test and concluding that Alaska failed to meet its burden of showing that its individual contribution limit was closely drawn to meet its objectives. The panel explained that, on top of its danger signs, the limit significantly restricts the amount of funds available to challengers to run competitively against incumbents, and the already-low limit is not indexed for inflation. Furthermore, Alaska has not established a special justification for such a low limit. The panel also concluded that, similarly, Alaska has not met its burden of showing that the $500 individual-to-group limit is closely drawn to restrict contributors from circumventing the individual-to-candidate limit. View "Thompson v. Hebdon" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed defendant's convictions and sentence for online enticement of a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2422(b), travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2423(b), and engaging in illicit conduct in foreign places in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2423(c).The panel affirmed the district court's denials of defendant's motion for a competency hearing. The panel explained that, at no point in the proceedings was there substantial evidence of defendant's incompetence. Rather, the evidence reveals a consistent pattern of intentionally disrupting the proceedings and feigning incompetence to avoid trial and later, sentencing. The panel concluded that the district court acted within its discretion by excluding the testimony of defendant's psychiatrist. Under either de novo or abuse of discretion review, the panel concluded that the district court correctly denied defendant's Faretta request, which was made for the purpose of delay. The panel also concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the testimony of a forensic-psychologist. Finally, the panel concluded that the district court did not err in applying USSG 4B1.5(b)(1), which requires that the defendant engaged in a "pattern of activity" involving prohibited sexual conduct. View "United States v. Telles" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review challenging the EPA's findings and its conclusion that Arizona had achieved the statutory required reduction in ozone concentration by July 2018, in compliance with the Clean Air Act. After a major wildfire broke out in the San Bernardino National Forest in southeast California (the Lake Fire), three hundred miles east of the fire, six air quality monitors in the Phoenix region registered abnormally high concentrations of ozone, in excess of the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS).The panel concluded that EPA did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in finding a clear causal connection between the Lake Fire and the June 20, 2015 exceedances. The panel explained that the evidence demonstrates that smoke (including ozone precursor chemicals) from the Lake Fire reached the exceedance monitors and caused abnormal ozone readings relative to similar historical conditions. Furthermore, petitioners failed to produce evidence sufficient to overcome the required deference to EPA's technical factual findings where EPA considered each of petitioners' comments during the proposed rule phase and addressed them with specificity; articulated a rational connection between the evidence and its own conclusions; and the resulting conclusion, based on the weight of the evidence, is rational.The panel also concluded that EPA did not act contrary to the Clean Air Act when it suspended the Phoenix nonattainment area's attainment contingency measures requirement after EPA issued a section 7511(b)(2) Attainment Determination. The panel concluded that the Clean Air Act is silent as to whether State Implementation Plans (SIPs) must contain attainment contingency measures after the attainment date and granted EPA's reasonable construction of 42 U.S.C. 7502(c)(9) under Chevron deference. View "Bahr v. Regan" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed defendant's convictions and sentence for conspiracy with intent to distribute at least 50 grams of methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.The panel held that the district court did not err by allowing the government to rebut defendant's entrapment defense in its case in chief, or by allowing the government to introduce evidence of his affiliation with gangs to rebut that defense. Furthermore, any error in allowing defendant's parole officer to testify was harmless. Finally, the panel concluded that the district court did not err by applying a two-level sentence enhancement under USSG 2D1.1(b)(1) for possession of a firearm during a drug-trafficking offense. View "United States v. Gomez" on Justia Law