Court Of Appeals U S

Border Patrol agents may not consider an individual's "Hispanic appearance" as a factor in deciding whether to stop motorists for questioning near the U.S.-Mexico border, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. "Stops based on race or ethnic appearance send the underlying message to all our citizens that those who are not white are judged by the color of their skin alone," the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 7-4 ruling.

From prisoners' rights to environmental protection, laws set by the West's powerful appeals court were overturned in 15 of the 16 cases reviewed this term by the U.S. Supreme Court. The reversals affect a broad range of civil rights and business practices challenged in the nine states and two Pacific territories covered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

He is surrounded by the trappings of power: the designer building afew blocks from the White House, the Wall Street Journals in the waiting room, the corner office overlooking an atrium of glass and tubular steel. But David S. Tatel is not impressed by them. For one thing, Tatel, a senior partner at Hogan & Hartson, an influential Washington law firm, has devoted his professional life to the least powerful members of society, poor children in urban areas. For another, Tatel is blind.

As the sun rose over a wind-swept stretch of desert just east of Palm Springs, Cameron Barrows tramped over a series of dunes, identifying animal tracks in the sand -- kangaroo rat, shovel-nosed snake, cottontail, pocket mouse, sidewinder rattlesnake.

From prisoners' rights to environmental protection, laws set by the West's powerful appeals court were overturned in 15 of the 16 cases reviewed this term by the U.S. Supreme Court. The reversals affect a broad range of civil rights and business practices challenged in the nine states and two Pacific territories covered by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

A federal felon whose civil rights have been restored by a state after completion of a prison sentence can possess a gun, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The ruling by the U. S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the first by any appellate court on the issue, gives a broad interpretation to a 1986 federal law allowing states to decide when certain former felons may have guns. Federal law makes it a crime for a person convicted of a state or federal felony to possess a gun.

Two days after House members raised charges of racism because of the Senate's foot-dragging on judicial nominees, senators approved Friday the first black female judge for the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Johnnie B. Rawlinson, 48, of Las Vegas, was elevated to the appellate court on a voice vote. The circuit covers California, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

As the sun rose over a wind-swept stretch of desert just east of Palm Springs, Cameron Barrows tramped over a series of dunes, identifying animal tracks in the sand -- kangaroo rat, shovel-nosed snake, cottontail, pocket mouse, sidewinder rattlesnake.

A decision last month by the U. S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that could speed California's first execution since 1967 came on a sharply divided vote, with 13 of 26 judges favoring a hearing for murderer Robert Alton Harris, The Times has learned.

A tough San Diego curfew law banning youths from hanging out in public after 10 p.m. is unconstitutional because it's too broad, too vague and interferes with parents' rights to raise their children as they choose, an appeals court ruled Monday. While all 31 Orange County cities have curfew ordinances of some sort, mostly affecting teens under 18, it was not clear Monday whether the ruling will affect them.

A federal appeals court dealt a blow to cigarette makers Friday by upholding a landmark 2006 legal ruling that the companies lied for decades about the dangers of smoking. In a 93-page opinion, a three-judge panel cleared the way for new restrictions on how cigarette companies market and sell their products.

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a death sentence against a Nevada man convicted of killing two young girls a quarter-century ago, because the prosecutor made false statements to scare jurors into believing only execution would keep the killer off the streets. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Nevada authorities to remove Ricky David Sechrest from death row pending possible further appeals and resentencing.

A federal appeals court said Monday that the U.S. military improperly labeled a Chinese Muslim held at Guantanamo Bay an "enemy combatant" and it ordered that he be released, transferred or granted a new hearing. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington marks the first time a federal court has weighed in on the issue of a Guantanamo detainee's classification and granted him the opportunity to try to secure his release through civilian courts.

A federal judge in Los Angeles who was reprimanded for official misconduct last year could face a harsher punishment -- or be cleared of the charges altogether -- after a ruling this week by a panel of fellow judges. The ruling by the Judicial Conference Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability in Washington, D.C., came in the case of U.S. District Court Judge Manuel L. Real.

United Parcel Service Inc., the world's largest package delivery company, must prove that allowing deaf workers to drive its smaller trucks is unsafe if it wants to continue barring them from such vehicles, an appeals court said Friday. The panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco, reversing rulings by three of its members and a lower court, said Atlanta-based UPS must be given the chance to show a connection between deaf drivers and safety.

A federal appeals court has ruled that a Los Angeles gang member, a legal immigrant from El Salvador who was ordered deported because of several felony convictions, is not entitled to humanitarian refugee status because of fears that he will be targeted by rivals in his home country. Jean Pierre Arteaga, who came to the U.S.

A federal appellate court struck down California's term limits law Tuesday, using the surprising reasoning that voters didn't realize the 1990 initiative barred legislators for life from seeking their old offices once they were forced out. Term limit defenders vowed to appeal the decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court, which already has an appeal pending before it, could announce as early as Monday whether it will take the California case.

The U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Thursday overturned a 1990 federal ruling that declared obscene a sexually explicit album by the Miami rap group 2 Live Crew. According to the appellate court, no evidence was presented in the June, 1990, Ft. Lauderdale trial to prove that the group's controversial "As Nasty as They Wanna Be" album is without serious artistic value, an obscenity definition previously adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Google Inc., owner of the most frequently used Internet search engine, must answer a Wisconsin company's lawsuit over a browser toolbar feature that generates Web links from computer search data, a federal appeals court decided Wednesday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit revived part of HyperPhrase Technologies' lawsuit, throwing out a lower court ruling that Google's AutoLink feature didn't infringe the company's patents.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday excoriated a federal immigration judge and a Los Angeles lawyer for their conduct during a deportation hearing in 2003. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals accused Judge Thomas Y.K. Fong in Los Angeles of "badgering" Jorge Mario Mendoza Mazariegos during the hearing and said that the judge had, in effect, forced the Mexican national to proceed without a lawyer after his attorney, Steven S. Paek, "deserted" him.