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

FDA trans fat regulations governing the contents of the Nutrition Facts Panel did not preempt California's unfair competition laws proscribing false or misleading advertising elsewhere on a food product's label. The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal of a putative consumer class action alleging that The Kroger Company sold Kroger Bread Crumbs that included misleading labels in violation of California law. The panel held that plaintiff had standing to challenge the legitimacy of defendant's product advertising on the face of the label that it contained "0g Trans Fat per serving." The panel took the occasion to reinforce and apply it's holding in Reid v. Johnson & Johnson,780 F.3d 952, 960 (9th Cir. 2015), that a requirement to state certain facts in the nutrition label was not a license to make that statement elsewhere on the product. The panel also held that plaintiff's labeling claims were not preempted because the FDA regulations did not authorize the contested statements. View "Hawkins v. The Kroger Co." on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit vacated defendant's 20 month sentence imposed after revocation of supervised release. In this case, in its order sentencing defendant, the district court relied on the probation officer's confidential sentencing recommendation, which included factual information that had not been disclosed to defendant and to which she had no opportunity to respond before her sentence was imposed.The panel took the opportunity to address the procedure employed by the district court, holding that even if the defendant is given an opportunity to appear and speak before the magistrate judge, the district court must provide the defendant an additional opportunity before the actual sentence is imposed. In this case, defendant's failure to obtain a hearing before the district court by objecting to the magistrate judge's finding and recommendation did not constitute an explicit waiver of her right to be present and allocute at the imposition of her sentence. Therefore, the panel remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. Gray" on Justia Law

Objecting class members challenged the district court's approval of a class action settlement over claims alleging that defendants enrolled consumers in a membership rewards program without their consent and then mishandled their billing information. The Ninth Circuit vacated the fee award and held that the district court failed to treat credits as coupons under the Class Action Fairness Act when calculating the award. The panel held, however, that the district court did not abuse its discretion by approving the use of cy pres in this case or to approve the particular recipients. Finally, it was unnecessary to reverse the entire settlement approval in conjunction with the panel's vacatur of the fee award. The panel remanded the award of attorney's fees but otherwise affirmed the settlement. View "Romero v. Provide Commerce, Inc." on Justia Law

After noncitizen minors entered the United States unaccompanied by a parent or guardian, they were placed in the custody of the United States Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). ORR subsequently released plaintiffs to a parent or sponsor when they concluded that each minor was not dangerous to himself or the community, and was not a flight risk. In 2017, the minors were arrested because of alleged gang membership and transferred to secure juvenile detention facilities.The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of a preliminary injunction, requiring a prompt hearing before a neutral decisionmaker at which the minors could contest the basis for their rearrest. The panel held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in concluding that the minors were entitled to some sort of due process hearing and ordering the government, pendente lite, to provide members of the minor class with the procedural protections set forth in its order. In this case, the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting the preliminary injunction, and the preliminary injunction was entirely consistent with the mandate in the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 that ORR place unaccompanied children in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child. View "Saravia v. Sessions" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit vacated the district court's judgment for Led Zeppelin in a copyright infringement suit alleging that Led Zeppelin copied "Stairway to Heaven" from the song "Taurus," written by Spirit band member Randy Wolfe. The panel held that several of the district court's jury instructions were erroneous and prejudicial. Therefore, the panel remanded for a new trial.The panel also held that the scope of copyright protection for an unpublished work under the Copyright Act of 1909 is defined by the deposit copy, and the sound recordings of "Taurus" as performed by Spirit could not be used to prove substantial similarity. The panel also held that the district court abused its discretion by not allowing recordings of "Taurus" to be played for the purpose of demonstrating access. Finally, the district court was well within its discretion when it chose to exclude expert testimony on the basis of a conflict of interest. The panel vacated and remanded the district court's denial of defendants' motions for attorneys' fees and costs. View "Skidmore v. Led Zeppelin" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that King County unconstitutionally refused to display plaintiffs' submitted ads concerning global terrorism on the exterior of its public buses. The Ninth Circuit held that the County permissible rejected the factually inaccurate ad because the First Amendment did not require the County to display patently false content in a nonpublic forum. The panel held, however, that the County's disparagement standard discriminated, on its face, on the basis of viewpoint. Finally, the disruption standard was facially valid but the County unreasonable applied the standard to plaintiffs' ad. Accordingly, the court affirmed in part and reversed in part the district court's grant of summary judgment to the County. View "American Freedom Defense Initiative v. King County" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's holding that the general partnership interests at issue qualified as securities under federal law and that defendant violated federal securities law by selling unregistered securities and defrauding his investors. In this case, the general partnership interests at issue were stripped of the hallmarks of a general partnership and marketed as passive investments.The panel held that, in light of defendant's death during the pendency of the appeal and the executor replaced as the name party, as well as intervening Supreme Court precedent, several aspects of the district court's judgment require vacatur and remand. Therefore, the panel vacated the civil penalty order and the disgorgement order, remanding for further proceedings. View "USSEC v. Schooler" on Justia Law

In these related appeals brought under the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR21), at issue was whether the district court properly compelled arbitration of plaintiff's claims for whistleblowing retaliation. The Ninth Circuit affirmed as to the retaliation claim against plaintiff's employer, American Airlines, holding that the Airline did not waive its right to arbitrate by waiting to move to compel until after an agency investigation into its conduct was complete, nor was there reason to believe private AIR21 retaliation claims were inherently nonarbitrable. The panel reversed as to the retaliation claim against the Union, holding that the Union was not a party to the arbitration provision at issue in these cases and was not otherwise entitled to enforce the provision. View "American Airlines, Inc. v. Mawhinney" on Justia Law

Insitu designs and manufactures unmanned aerial systems (drones) and Fidelitad is a value-added reseller of Insitu's drones. Fidelitad filed suit in Washington state against Insitu, alleging that Insitu improperly delayed shipment of its orders, wrongfully terminated a purported distributorship agreement, and then moved into the Latin American market, appropriating Fidelitad's prior groundwork. Insitu removed to the district court under 28 U.S.C. 1442(a)(1).The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's denial of Fidelitad's motion to remand and grant of summary judgment to Insitu. The panel held that the motion to remand should have been granted because, even construed in the light most favorable to Insitu, the notice of removal did not establish that Insitu was acting under the direction of a federal officer in its relevant dealings with Fidelitad. Furthermore, the defect was not cured prior to entry of judgment and no party has suggested a basis for subject matter jurisdiction other than section 1442(a)(1). Accordingly, the panel remanded with instructions to remand to state court. View "Fidelitad, Inc. v. Insitu, Inc." on Justia Law

Although not all convictions under the Travel Act represent violations related to controlled substances, meaning that the statute is not a categorical match to the removal statute, the Travel Act is divisible in that respect. Petitioner challenged the BIA's finding that he was removable for a controlled substance offense and ineligible for cancellation of removal.The panel denied the petition for review in part and held that petitioner's conviction qualified as a controlled substance offense under the modified categorical approach. The panel held, however, that the BIA's conclusion that petitioner was ineligible for relief under 8 U.S.C. 1229b was not supported by substantial evidence. The panel held that section 1229b states that the relevant time period ends "when the alien is served a notice to appear." In this case, the BIA used the date on which the notice to appear was issued, not the date when it was served on petitioner. Therefore, the panel granted the petition in part and remanded for the BIA to consider petitioner's claim for cancellation of removal. View "Myers v. Sessions" on Justia Law