Subject: U.S. Court of Appeals

• What? The city's health care plan is illegal? How does that work?

  December 27, 2007

• US Supreme Court to SF Restaurant Association: Pay Up!

  February 22, 2008

• Bush Administration, GGRA Lose Insurance Food Fight

  September 30, 2008

• SF Weekly Challenges Guardian Op-Ed on "Border Crossers"

  By Lauren Smiley Usually SF Weekly lets its stories speak for themselves, yet the op-ed in the Guardian attacking my "Border Crossers" cover story last week -- comparing me to Jerry Springer and the Weekly to the National Enquirer -- calls for a response. My story took a critical yet sensitive look at a quirk in the asylum system: that transgender immigrant women locally and nationwide have succeeded in winning asylum despite the fact that many have prior prostitution arrests on their records,

  December 4, 2008

• Swag from Unabomber's Pending Auction: 'One Razor, Never Used...'

  The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that, despite Theodore "The Unabomber" Kaczynski's legal objections, the serial bomber's possessions can be auctioned off on the Internet (oh, irony). The proceedings will be applied to a $15 million restitution order to his maimed and murdered victims and their families. And Ted can use all the monetary help he can get: U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell, Jr. mandated that five guns taken from Kaczynski's Montana shack be sold to the famil

  January 12, 2009

• Veteran Investigative Journalist: Don't Expect 'Change We Can Believe In' -- Government Won't Alter Stance on Rendition Case

  February 9, 2009

• Supreme Court Sends S.F. Restaurateurs' Order Back -- No Emergency Order For You!

  Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy today informed San Francisco restaurant owners that he found their legal petition to be cold, undercooked, and full of gristle -- before sending it back. Kennedy spurned the Golden Gate Restaurant Association's application for an emergency order that would have immediately curtailed the employer spending requirement of the city's Health Care Security Ordinance -- and, in effect, gutted Healthy San Francisco. The GGRA initially sued the city regarding Healthy

  March 30, 2009

• Letters

  April 10, 1996

• Border Crossers

  Long rap sheet? No problem. Transgender Latina hookers in S.F. are successfully fighting deportation by asking for asylum.

  November 26, 2008

• Frankovich: 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Disables Wheelchair Access Attorney

  September 26, 2007

• The Day the Music Dies

  Internet radio stations like SomaFM have launched bands and influenced what mainstream DJs play. On July 15, they could be gone forever

  June 27, 2007

• Most Taunted

  December 6, 2006

• Powerful Advice

  May 10, 2006

• The Asylum Trap

  Unscrupulous attorneys prey on immigrants seeking green cards with an expensive and fruitless legal scheme. Now 29 Mexicans have joined the disbarment case against one such lawyer.

  May 10, 2006

• Split Decision

  Republicans want to break up "the 9th Circus," the San Francisco-based liberal federal appeals court. Whose side are you on?

  December 7, 2005

• Baring Equality

  The cases of a young defendant and a repeat offender attorney show power and privilege tip the scales

  November 9, 2005

• Suffer the Little Muslims

  A look at the appalling discrimination against Middle Eastern students countenanced by Bay Area public schools

  August 17, 2005

• Profiles in Gumption

  Thanks to SFMOMA, Mattel wasn't able to squash a Utah artist who puts Barbie dolls in blenders

  February 18, 2004

• Case Study: Christopher Taylor

  Taylor's lawyer was suspended from practicing during the robbery trial.

  October 29, 2003

• Play Rotorecall

  October 1, 2003

• The Past and Future Fraud

  Yes, punch-card voting machines are error-prone. The touch-screen systems planned to replace them may be just as bad.

  September 24, 2003

• Postscript

  July 12, 2000

• Craps

  A gambling site operator rolls the dice in court, and loses

  March 8, 2000

• Rolling in His Grave

  At least one San Francisco lawyer had a sense of humor

  February 9, 2000

• Shaky Ground

  Environmental activists adopt a new strategy -- playing the race card

  January 5, 2000

• TheirNameHere.com

  New domains -- including .store -- likely to multiply Internet trademark conflicts

  July 14, 1999

• Riff Raff

  November 18, 1998

• Is This Any Way to Run A Railroad?

  Union Pacific's tenacious fight to gut safety laws passed when a derailment sterilized 40 miles of the upper Sacramento River

  August 12, 1998

• Tale of a Gun

  Following one semiautomatic from manufacture to mayhem

  May 6, 1998

• Dial Saddam for Murder

  Sargon Dadesho survived an Iraqi assassination plot. Now he's out for blood money.

  March 4, 1998

• Letters

  December 17, 1997

• Splendor in the Court

  How lavish can $20 million in cost overruns make a federal court- house? Let's start with the $33,000 desk.

  December 10, 1997

• Dog Bites

  November 12, 1997

• Mulch

  February 19, 1997

• The Fire Next Time

  As a civil rights advocate, Bob Demmons called in the federal government to end racism in the Fire Department. Now that he's chief, he has to remove federal control and prove that firefighters can manage race relations on their own.

  April 3, 1996

• Dog Bites

  February 21, 1996

• Drug Story (Part II)

  Discovered by brain researchers in the early '60s and resurrected by bodybuilders in the late '80s, the semi-illict compound GHB is now marketed on the club and smart-drug circuits as a sexy wonder drug. But beware GHB's knockout punch.

  November 29, 1995

• You Got Served: Case Tailor-Made For Dance-Off Instead Lands In S.F. District Court

  Hammer will arbitrate dance-offs for you -- though it's extra if you want him to wear the parachute pantsWe sift through a fair amount of legal papers here. Most do not strike us as potential candidates for binding arbitration via dance. San Francisco Unified's suit alleging Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to use the district as a catch-all for unwanted city workers? Nope. The 9th Circuit Court's decision that gun shows and Scottish festivals aren't the same thing? Tempting -- but no. A dancer's suit i

  April 29, 2009

• Roto-Nerds of the World Rejoice as Fantasy Football Site Spikes NFL in Court

  Can you imagine paying licensing fees to use Alex Smith's stats?Aficionados of Pleistocene-era sports video games may remember how "Player No. 16" on the nameless San Francisco team with crimson uniforms was really good -- but the lack of licensing fees forbade any notion of the terms "Joe Montana," or "49ers."That won't happen anytime soon with fantasy football as a recent court ruling found CBS Interactive does not have to pay licensing agreements to the National Football League when it uses p

  May 1, 2009

• Chronic City: 10 Years For Medical Marijuana -- This Has Got To Stop

  HR95.orgBryan EpisWhen Californians voted to legalize medical marijuana under Proposition 215 almost 13 years ago, it's a safe bet that not many of them were expecting such prosecutions would continue well more than a decade later. But that's exactly what is happening, thanks to the Drug Enforcement Agency's war on marijuana and its users -- even the medical users who are legal under the laws of California and a dozen other states.Speaking of a decade, that's just about how long Bryan Epis will

  May 5, 2009

• Does Pleading Guilty to a Drug Charge Injure Immigrant's 'Good Moral Character'? Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Says No.

  The San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the government cannot use an illegal immigrant's expunged guilty plea to a simple drug offense as evidence of bad moral character in deportation proceedings. Jesus Romero came to the United States from Mexico when he was 10 years old in 1988. He pleaded guilty to a first-time drug possession offense a decade later, yet the judge deferred judgment against him pending his completion of a rehabilitation program. According t

  June 12, 2009

• Service with a Snarl

  June 17, 2009

• Jesus! Christian Artist's Company Stuck With $2.1 Million Legal Payout.

  Thomas KinkadeThomas Kinkade, who created this nativity figure and boatloads of other 'inspirational' works of art, will now have to draw $2.1 million, according to a San Francisco courtArt critics worldwide are giggling malevolently as the company producing Thomas Kinkade's treacly religious artwork is back on the hook for a $2.1 million arbitration payout to a pair of former art dealers who say they were duped into pouring every last cent into a partnership with the art company. San Francisco'

  June 19, 2009

• San Francisco Federal Appeals Court: Companies Can't Be Forced To Hire Back Illegally Terminated Illegal Aliens

  'Jetson, you're fired! And since you're an illegal alien, I can't be forced to rehire you by the NLRB!'Employers were seemingly given broader license to fire illegal immigrants at will by a San Francisco federal appeals court, which ruled this week that a company cannot be forced to hire back fired employees who can't legally work in the United States.  In a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, an Arizona roofing company does not have to comply with a settlement reached 

  July 2, 2009

• Microcaster DJs get screwed under new licensing fees

  July 29, 2009

• What a Predicament: City Attorney Defends Crappy S.F. Law Against Ultimate Corporate Force of Evil

  I am the law!​ Like a duel to the death with the prize to the victor being death, it seems there are no winners in this morning's legal showdown between San Francisco and Philip Morris at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Well, the winner may be "your lungs," but, at best, the loser would be "your common sense." Allow us to elaborate. In 2008, San Francisco passed a law that forbade pharmacies such as Walgreens from selling cigarettes -- as they were in the "health-promoting business" -- thoug

  August 12, 2009

• Great News: You Can Still Ride BART. If You're Partly Blind, You Can Still Suffer.

  If you can't make out this sign, then riding BART is even more hazardous than you might have thought​ Many riders have been pissed off of late about BART's ongoing labor soap opera. But two riders with bad eyesight may hold BART in special contempt now that the the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an earlier ruling in their favor that BART was violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Vision-impaired riders Sheron George and Sharricci Fourte-Dancy sued BAR

  August 18, 2009

• Activists say the SFPD is unfairly impounding and selling cars owned by illegal aliens

  August 19, 2009

• 'Froot Loops' Lawyer Gratified By City Attorney's Stern Letter to Cocoa Krispies

  You lied to me, bird! ​Last month we reported on Roy Werbel, the East Bay man who sued Froot Loops in San Francisco Federal court because he claims he was misled into purchasing the product for years in the belief it contained fruit. Apparently we're in the midst of  toucan-hunting season both locally and nationally. Kellogg's has come under intense pressure for the ostentatious, green "Smart Choice" check it emblazons on Froot Loops and other sugar-laden cereals -- when only discerning c

  October 29, 2009

• Court Ruling: Man Officially a Dick For Giving Nazi Salute at City Council Meeting

  Welcome to Santa Cruz...​A legal case lasting longer than America's involvement in World War II has ostensibly culminated with the following conclusion: A man who felt the need to give the Nazi salute during government meetings deserved the Stalingrad treatment he got.A Santa Cruz man named Robert Norse twice gave the Sieg Heil to members of that city's government, in 2002 and 2004. Following his '04 ejection, he sued the city for abrogating his First Amendment rights. That case made it all th

  November 6, 2009