Injunctions

NFL players saw the labor fight tip in their favor Monday as a federal judge ordered the league to end its lockout, meaning football will continue while owners and players bicker over how to divide more than $9 billion in annual revenue. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson in St. Paul, Minn., ordered an end to the 7-week-old lockout, saying she believed the players' argument that the situation was causing irreparable harm to their careers. "It's one step closer to trying to do what we brought this case for — to make sure that there's football, that players can play and fans can watch," players attorney Jim Quinn told The Times in a phone interview.

A three-judge appeals panel, in a ruling released on Monday, held that a federal judge did not abuse her authority when she blocked provisions of the Arizona law that targeted illegal immigration. The panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a request by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who asked the jurists to lift an injunction imposed by U.S. District Judge Judge Susan Bolton the day before the law was to go into effect on July 29. Among the controversial aspects of the law was a requirement that local police check the immigration status of anyone they detain during an investigation.

Reporting from St. Paul, Minn. U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, in a hearing in St. Paul, Minn., urges NFL players and owners to make labor peace while she decides whether to impose an injunction that would end the lockout of players. — A federal judge subjected the NFL to a series of difficult questions and maintained a skeptical tone toward its lead lawyer Wednesday as the league tried to defend its current lockout of players that threatens the season. Inside an expansive federal courtroom that included a handful of players suing the league, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson told attorneys from both sides they are "at risk" and urged them to try to make labor peace at the table of a federal mediator over the next "couple weeks" while she decides whether to impose an injunction that would end the lockout.

For years Cristian Gheorghiu craved the thrill of the chase. Spray-paint can in hand, he lived on the edge, always a step ahead of the law. His canvas was L.A.'s lampposts, brick walls and concrete riverbeds where he scrawled ragged images and his own nickname, "Smear" ? probably thousands of times. The graffiti made him a subculture sensation. Fans compared his art to that of another graffiti artist, the critically acclaimed Jean-Michel Basquiat. But just as the East Hollywood graffiti artist's career was taking off, his past has threatened to overtake him. First came jail and a whopping fine.

In their ongoing battle against the city's entrenched gangs, Los Angeles prosecutors and police increasingly have relied in recent years on a favorite legal weapon: court-ordered injunctions. The injunctions aim to severely curtail gang activity by, among other things, prohibiting gang members and their associates from socializing with each other, carrying weapons or wearing certain clothing anywhere inside of so-called "safe zones" that typically encompass the neighborhoods where the gangs are active.

The Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries that won an injunction blocking enforcement of key parts of the city's pot ordinance must post a nearly $350,000 bond within 10 days for the court order to take effect, a judge ruled Monday. David Welch, an attorney who represents many dispensaries, said he was confident the bond would be posted. "It's a sizable bond, but it's not insurmountable," he said. "It's our intent to go forward. " Almost 50 dispensaries and operators asked for the injunction, which Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr issued last month.

The judge who declared that key parts of Los Angeles' medical marijuana ordinance are unconstitutional refused to stay his injunction Friday as the City Council works on an amended version, and he rebuffed the city's request for advice on how to rewrite the law. "I don't want to legislate. I'm not the City Council," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr said at a hearing. "I really think I'm going to decline that invitation. " The judge also decided that the dispensaries that asked for the injunction must post a bond.

A judge handed Los Angeles a setback in its faltering drive to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries, granting a preliminary injunction on Friday that bars the city from enforcing key provisions in its controversial six-month-old ordinance. The decision, issued by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mohr, leaves the city with limited power to control pot stores, which opened by the hundreds, angering neighborhood activists when city officials failed to enforce a 2007 moratorium.

The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy can remain in effect indefinitely while the government challenges a judge's ruling that declared the policy unconstitutional, a U.S. appeals court said Monday. The 2-1 ruling extends a temporary order handed down two weeks ago by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. It set aside an injunction issued by a federal judge in Riverside, who told the Pentagon it must immediately suspend enforcement of the 1993 law that calls for discharging openly gay men and women.