Supreme Court Asked to Clarify that Class Certification Evidence Must Be Admissible

A major California grower has asked the Supreme Court to resolve a circuit split by holding that evidence used to support class certification must be admissible. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is currently one of only two federal courts of appeal that allow class certification to be based on evidence that would not satisfy the standards for admissibility at trial.

Ninth Circuit Requires US to Pay Defense Contractor Cleanup Costs

On October 4, the Ninth Circuit reversed the District Court for the Southern District of California's decision to allocate to a government contractor 100 percent of cleanup costs for hazardous contamination at a manufacturing facility for failure to consider the involvement of the United States in contributing to that contamination, and remanded the case for additional proceedings.1 The Court based its decision largely on existing doctrine in the Ninth Circuit, and the holding provides further support for government contractors, particularly those that contributed to the war effort in the 1940s, seeking contribution from the United States for cleanup costs incurred under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act .

Court: Counties can restrict the location of gun stores

The ruling by an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a California county's ordinance banning new gun stores within 500 feet of schools, day-care centers, residential areas, liquor stores and other gun shops. A majority of the panel said the law did not violate the Second Amendment right to bear arms of would-be gun owners because there were other stores in the county where they could buy a gun.

Ninth Circuit Rejects Claim That Amazon’s Terms and Conditions Are an Unconscionable Contract

In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court's ruling that had sent a putative class action against Amazon over its pricing practices to arbitration, as per Amazon's terms of service. ). In finding that Amazon's "Conditions of Use" were not unconscionable and presented in a reasonable manner, this holding differs from a Second Circuit decision from last year that declined to compel arbitration because reasonable minds could disagree regarding the sufficiency of notice provided to Amazon.com customers when placing an order through the website.

Montana coal mine appeals ruling that could trigger layoffs

The "clock is running" on layoffs at one of the largest underground coal mines in the United States, its owners said Friday, as they asked a federal appeals court to reverse a judge's order that could bring some work at the mine to a halt later this month. Signal Peak Energy says as many as 30 workers from the Bull Mountain Mine could run out of work by the end of October and 50 more workers by March under an August ruling from U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy.

Parties Compromise to End Monkey Business Over Selfie Copyright

Attorneys representing a macaque monkey have agreed to a compromise in a case where they asserted the animal owned the copyright to selfie photos it had shot with a photographer's camera. Under the deal, the photographer agreed to donate 25 percent of any future revenue from the images to charities dedicated to protecting crested macaques in Indonesia, said the lawyers from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals who filed the lawsuit.

Lawsuit settled over rights to monkey’s selfie photo

A lawsuit over who owns the copyright to selfie photographs taken by a monkey was settled before a federal appeals court could answer the novel legal question. Lawsuit settled over rights to monkey's selfie photo A lawsuit over who owns the copyright to selfie photographs taken by a monkey was settled before a federal appeals court could answer the novel legal question.

US court deals blow to Trump travel ban

A federal court in California dealt a new blow Thursday to the Trump administration's travel ban, ruling that some refugees must be allowed into the country. It is the latest twist of the legal wrangling touched off by President Donald Trump's ban, first announced in January with little notice and widely criticized as discriminatory against Muslims.

Copyright rulings extend liability risks

Nona Gaye, second from left, daughter of late soul singer Marvin Gaye, and lawyer ichard Busch, front right, speak to the media outside a Los Angeles court in March 015. Mr. Gaye's heirs won a $7.4 million judgment against recording stars Robin hicke and Pharrell Williams, whom a jury found plagiari/ REUTERS The lines are being blurred when it comes to infringement of copyrighted music, as musicians turn to the courts to defend their art and large verdicts garner major media and insurer attention.

SCOTUS Asked to Review Ninth Circuit Decision on California’s Waiting Period Laws

Today, two individuals and two Second Amendment civil rights advocacy groups filed a petition for certiorari in the case of Silvester, et al. v. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra asking the United States Supreme Court to review and overturn a wrongly-decided Ninth Circuit decision about the State of California's 10-day waiting period laws, noted The Calguns Foundation, one of the petitioners.