Appeals

A federal administrative judge ruled that pomegranate juice maker Pom Wonderful used deceptive advertising when it implied its products could treat or prevent serious diseases and other medical conditions. Judge D. Michael Chappell upheld much of a 2010 Federal Trade Commission complaint against the Los Angeles company owned by Lynda and Stewart Resnick. The judge said in his decision issued Monday that Pom used "insufficient" evidence to back its claims that Pom products "treat, prevent or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer or erectile dysfunction.

A company headed by cellphone pioneer Craig O. McCaw asked the California Supreme Court to reinstate a $603-million fraud and breach-of-contract verdict against Boeing Co., alleging that two appellate justices had conflicts of interest. ICO Global Communications, a subsidiary of Pendrell Corp., said in its appeal filed Wednesday that two state 2nd District Court of Appeal judges considered Boeing's petition to toss out the trial court verdict even though they owned stock in Boeing.

Comcast Corp. is appealing a Federal Communications Commission ruling that the company is improperly blocking customers' Web traffic, triggering a legal battle that could determine the extent of the government's authority to regulate the Internet. Comcast challenged the decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Comcast case arose from complaints by users of a type of file-sharing software often used to download large data files, usually video.

A federal appeals court in Washington has upheld a key part of the Voting Rights Act, one that requires states and localities with a history of discrimination against minorities to "pre-clear" changes in their election procedures with the Department of Justice or a federal court. The reasoning behind the 2-1 ruling is persuasive; Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts Jr.and other members of the Supreme Court should exercise judicial restraint by refusing to reconsider it. In an earlier, 2009 decision, the chief justice recognized that Congress has the power to enforce the 15th Amendment's guarantee of a right to vote.

Attorney Gary Dubin was in a Honolulu hospital, sedated and suffering from depression after the death of his son, when U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real had him handcuffed and taken to court -- still in his hospital gown -- to answer charges of failing to file tax returns. Real allowed him to send for clothes but refused to postpone the hearing, recalled Dubin, who had to defend himself in a medicated fog without his case files. Judged guilty by Real after a two-day bench trial, Dubin spent 19 1/2 months in federal prison, while his home went into foreclosure and his credit was ruined by identity thieves.

A sharply divided federal appeals court on Monday denied a stay of execution for a Montana man who has been on Death Row longer than anyone else in the nation, moving him one step closer to being put to death by lethal injection Wednesday. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, denied the stay to Duncan P. McKenzie, 43, who was convicted of murdering Lana Harding, a rural Montana schoolteacher, in 1974.

California prison officials executed 76-year-old murderer Clarence Ray Allen at the state prison here early today after his final appeal was turned down by the U.S. Supreme Court. His death was announced at 12:38 a.m. by Elaine Jennings of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Allen, who turned 76 Monday, was by far the oldest of the 13 convicts executed in the state since California restored the death penalty in 1977 and the second oldest in the nation.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court, after a four-year break from terrorism issues, is set to decide as soon as Monday whether to again take up constitutional challenges to George W. Bush-era anti-terrorism laws involving wiretapping and the Guantanamo prisoners. In one case, the Obama administration is asking the court to block a suit against the government's monitoring of international phone calls and emails. And in the other set of appeals, lawyers for six detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are asking the justices to make good on their promise of four years ago and give the inmates a "meaningful opportunity" to be released.

In an unprecedented move, the 4th District Court of Appeal has temporarily stopped hearing civil cases this month because it is so swamped with criminal and juvenile court appeals. Justices have blamed frivolous appeals, an increasing number of criminal cases, and a state-mandated system that now resolves civil trials sooner for clogging the already-congested appellate court.

James R. Browning, the rural Montana native who rose to head the powerful U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and unified its diverse judges in campaigns to enlarge the bench and protect the sprawling circuit from division, has died. He was 93. Browning died Saturday at a Marin County hospital, the court said in a Monday night announcement. The cause was not given. Browning was the last 9th Circuit judge appointed by President Kennedy, whom he met on Inauguration Day 1961, when, as clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court, he held the Bible as the chief justice swore the youngest chief executive into office.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court, after a four-year break from terrorism issues, is set to decide as soon as Monday whether to again take up constitutional challenges to George W. Bush-era anti-terrorism laws involving wiretapping and the Guantanamo prisoners. In one case, the Obama administration is asking the court to block a suit against the government's monitoring of international phone calls and emails. And in the other set of appeals, lawyers for six detainees at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are asking the justices to make good on their promise of four years ago and give the inmates a "meaningful opportunity" to be released.

WASHINGTON - Advocacy groups spending millions of dollars to influence the 2012 election now face the prospect of having to reveal their secret donors, after a federal appellate court panel refused to block a lower-court order requiring the disclosure. In a 2-to-1 decision issued Monday evening, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel here declined to stay a ruling by a federal judge requiring tax-exempt organizations that run election-related television ads to disclose their donors. The panel's decision was a significant victory for campaign finance reform advocates who have been fighting against the deluge of money - much of it from undisclosed donors - that has flooded the political landscape in the wake of several Supreme Court decisions, including the 2010 Citizens United case.

In the first broad test of California's new "top-two" election system, many candidates in heated races for Congress and the state Legislature have been campaigning earlier, spending more money and downplaying their party affiliation as they try to widen their appeal. Gone are the party primaries, except in the presidential race. Now all state candidates appear on a single ballot. Only those who come in first or second on June 5 will move on to the November general election, in which no write-in or other added candidates will be allowed.

In a legal victory for Honda Motor Co., a judge has reversed a small-claims judgment that would have forced the automaker to pay a Civic hybrid owner nearly $10,000 for overstating the vehicle's fuel economy. But while the ruling ends a high-profile battle with hybrid owner Heather Peters, Honda still faces numerous legal fights in Small Claims Courts across the country. In an unusual move that garnered national attention, the Los Angeles woman rejected a class-action settlement that would have paid Civic hybrid owners as little as $100 to $200 each and rebates on a new Honda purchase.

James R. Browning, the rural Montana native who rose to head the powerful U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and unified its diverse judges in campaigns to enlarge the bench and protect the sprawling circuit from division, has died. He was 93. Browning died Saturday at a Marin County hospital, the court said in a Monday night announcement. The cause was not given. Browning was the last 9th Circuit judge appointed by President Kennedy, whom he met on Inauguration Day 1961, when, as clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court, he held the Bible as the chief justice swore the youngest chief executive into office.

The NFL Players Assn. is continuing its fight on behalf of four current and former New Orleans Saints players suspended by the league, challenging NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's authority to sanction them. The suspensions are for the players' involvement in the Saints' bounty scandal. Linebacker and team captain Jonathan Vilma has been suspended for the entire 2012 season, defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove for eight games, defensive end Will Smith for four, and linebacker Scott Fujita three.

When the Motion Picture Assn. of America voted to uphold the R rating for the documentary "Bully" several weeks ago, the film's distributor, Harvey Weinstein, kicked up a dust storm of protest and publicity. But it's not just Weinstein keeping the appeals board busy these days — the organization is facing a significant increase in the number of filmmakers seeking to overturn the initial ratings for their movies. The MPAA, which administers the ratings system via its Classification and Rating Administration, has already heard eight appeals for films scheduled for release this year.

Second of two parts Click for part one A panel of international sports arbitrators hearing a doping case against Olympic sprinter Torri Edwards went out of their way to sing her praises. They described Edwards, then a 27-year-old USC graduate, as "a diligent and hardworking athlete" who had "conducted herself with honesty, integrity and character. " They acknowledged that her purported breach of doping regulations was entirely unintentional, caused by the obscure additive nikethamide in a couple of otherwise innocent glucose tablets she took at an exhibition race in Martinique.

A long-running lawsuit to force the Norton Simon Museum to surrender one of its prized artworks, 480-year-old paired paintings of Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder that were looted during the Holocaust, has reached what could be its last legal round: plaintiff Marei Von Saher's recent appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. If her appeal fails, it could have far-reaching implications, potentially undermining a larger class of claims to recover Nazi-looted art. Von Saher, who lives in Connecticut, contends that the "Adam and Eve" diptych that has hung in the Pasadena museum since the late 1970s remains stolen goods.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to shield Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca from being sued for racial gang violence in the jails he supervises. The justices without comment turned down an appeal from the county's lawyers, who argued that Baca could not be held personally liable for the stabbing of an inmate since he had no personal involvement in the incident. Instead, the court let stand a decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which said that Baca could be sued for "deliberate indifference" to the inmate's rights since he was aware of jailhouse violence and had failed to take action to stop it. Dion Starr said he was stabbed 23 times by Latino gang members at the Men's Central Jail in 2006.