U.S. Court of Appeals

Marijuana Still Has No Medical Value, Court Says

The United States Court of Appeals delivered pot smokers some bad news today, ruling that marijuana is a dangerous and highly addictive drug with no medical value. In a 2-1 decision on the medical marijuana reclassification case, Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Co ... More >>

Prop. 8: Supreme Court Sets Date to Hear Case on Gay Marriage

Consider this your very own "save the date." The U.S. Supreme Court this morning said that oral arguments will begin on March 26 for the much-anticipated Proposition 8 case, which will finally bring some closure to the gay marriage debate that started right here in California over four years ago. ... More >>

Wells Fargo's Shady Overdraft Fee Practice Is Legal, Court Rules

Wells Fargo turned overdraft fees into a billion-dollar hustle. Beginning in April 2001, when you made a string of purchases on your debit card, the bank would process the most expensive charges first in order to maximize the number of overdraft fees. Between 2005 and 2007, Wells Fargo made $1.4 b ... More >>

Proposition 8: Supreme Court Takes No Action on Gay Marriage

The LGBT community remained unresolved this morning when the Supreme Court didn't take any action on Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage. Since last week, San Francisco has been anxiously awaiting the court's decision on whether it will hear the Prop 8. appeal. But today, the court took ... More >>

Village Voice Media Executives Can Sue Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Court Rules

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that SF Weekly's parent company, Village Voice Media, can sue the notorious Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Our sister paper, The Phoenix New Times, published the following story after the court made its decision in San Francisco. Nighttime arrests ... More >>

San Francisco Cellphone Safety Law To Be Debated in Court This Week

Cellphone users in the 21st century are just like cigarette smokers were in the 1950s -- addicted to the buzz. But, like cigarettes, do cellphones really need "warning labels" alerting us to the potential health dangers? Well, that's exactly what San Francisco is trying to find out.On Thursday, the ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Advocates to Argue DEA in Federal Court

Is marijuana a medicine, or is it a vitality-sucking, life-destroying devil weed? Cannabis advocates and law enforcement don't exactly see eye-to-eye on this crucial point -- but for the first time, a judge will be called in to decide.A federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C., late last week ag ... More >>

Jared Lee Loughner, Alleged Tucson Shooter, Denied Request to End Involuntary Medication

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied an request to halt the involuntary medication for Jared Lee Loughner who has been charged with the 2010 Tucson shooting spree that killed six people, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford.Loughner has been ordered by the court to take medica ... More >>

KPIX-TV Reporters Weren't Fired for Being Middle-Aged, Court Rules

San Francisco KPIX-TV did not discriminate against two veteran news reporters when it terminated them nearly four years ago, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled today. The three-person panel decided that William Schechner and John Lobertini didn't to prove that they were targeted during company lay-offs ... More >>

Digital Civil Rights Group Says Yelp Isn't Responsible for Bad Reviews

The San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation is urging a federal appeals court to block an attempt by disgruntled businesses" to hold online forums, including Yelp, responsible for customer's reviews. In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ... More >>

Moral Mirkitude: Nixing the Sheriff's Pension Would Be a Feat

Feds Dismiss Medical Marijuana Lawsuits Without Hearings "Because They Know They're Wrong"

​Medical Marijuana Fight May End Up At Supreme Court ... By The Time We Are All Really Old.San Francisco attorney Matthew Kumin was defeated this week, when his lawsuit that challenged the feds' recent crackdown on state-legal medical marijuana dispensaries was dismissed by a federal judge in Sacr ... More >>

Joe Arpaio's 'Cold Case Posse' Concludes Obama's Birth Certificate is Fake

​We last heard from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio back in December, when a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, grilled his lawyer on the sheriff's alleged violation of an Arizona newspaper's First Amendment rights. (Disclosure: That ne ... More >>

Prop. 8 Might Not Go Before the Supreme Court

​Earlier this month, the debate over same-sex marriage in California continued what some have speculated is an inexorable march to the U.S. Supreme Court, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a decision striking down Proposition 8, the state's gay-marriage ban.Yet a story pu ... More >>

Prop. 8 Appeals Court Ruling: Inside the Dissenting Opinion

​Same-sex marriage advocates rejoiced today as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's 2010 decision that Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative banning gay marriage, is unconstitutional.The decision is almost certainly destine ... More >>

Appeals Court to Hear Arguments in Lawsuit Against Sheriff Who Jailed Village Voice Media Executives

Joe Arpaio​The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will hear arguments tomorrow in a lawsuit filed against Arizona law-enforcement officials who falsely arrested two Village Voice Media executives as retaliation for stories printed in the Phoenix New Times in 2007.All 11 judges of the appe ... More >>

Man Who Shot Himself in Leg to Get a Purple Heart Got Convicted Instead

​A man who served three months of 1971 in Vietnam as a cargo specialist shot himself in the leg 20 years later and claimed it was a shrapnel wound. As a result, he earned a Purple Heart and $180,000 in disability benefits from the VA in 1994.He later pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud for steal ... More >>

Get Ready, Facebook: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss Will See Another Day in Court

The Winklevii just love to litigate.​The Winklevoss twins, of Facebook history fame, have just delivered what is essentially a giant "JK" to the social networking site.Aaron Sorkin, we hope you're paying attention to this. By all accounts, Cameron and Tyler Winkelvoss, the identical twins who say ... More >>

Winklevii Twins Lose to Facebook in Court -- Again

Losers​Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the preppy twins who sued Mark Zuckerberg saying he stole their Facebook idea, lost another court battle against the social networking giant. But no, this doesn't bring the high-profile and exhausting saga to an end. A Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Sa ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Providers Go to Prison. Will President Obama Intervene?

This pretty much sums it up​Dr. Mollie Fry and her husband, Dale Schafer, are ill. Fry is a breast-cancer survivor with severe mental-health issues, and Schafer's hemophilia means he is frequently bedridden. So he will have to be in a prison hospital beginning May 2, when the couple will begin fiv ... More >>

The Winklevii Remove All Doubt As to Their Horribleness

Johnnyroe/CC 2.0​I actually kind of liked the Winklevoss Twins, as played in The Social Network by Armie Hammer. The movie portrayed them as having a bit of irony about themselves. They were funny, and self-effacing, while still clearly a little jerky. No such luck in real life: The Winklevii ar ... More >>

Genetically Modified Beets at the Center of Food Safety Debate

Fact: Beet deregulation would be a boon to Schrute family farms ​Beets are not always the preferred vegetable on one's plate, but they are considered among the healthier foods we eat -- until they're not.Food Safety groups are challenging beet growers who are attempting to plant genetically engine ... More >>

New Year Brings Us The Same Ol' Gay Hot Potato: Marriage

Bring In The Gays​Where did we leave off?  In December, a (sort of) repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell was passed by the Senate and signed by the President. I predicted a long, slow and agonizing death of the policy while John McCain lamented the end of DADT saying that soldiers will lose their l ... More >>

Jennifer Roback Morse, Gay Marriage Foe, Redefining Definition of 'Rainbow'

Matt BaumeYou call that a rainbow?​In a futile attempt to reclaim something that was never hers in the first place, Jennifer Roback Morse, a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage, has declared herself a rainbow warrior. The traditional marriage advocate told the website OneNewsNow.com that straigh ... More >>

The Year in Gay, 2010 Edition

What a year it was​Who Will Be The Uppity Fag Of The Year?Let's face it -- this was a messy, messy year for the gays. Much of the news was good, ultimately, but shit dragged on! There were three major federal trials (four, technically -- but two were sorta merged in Massachusetts), promises ... More >>

DADT Repeal: With All Deliberate Speed -- Or None At All?

​The Week in GayThe repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell is fucking mess, but I think there might be a way to fix things. If we act quickly. This is a real longshot -- and it's not guaranteed to work -- but we need get our hands on some mercury. Lots of it. A flock of Ibises in Florida has been rendered ... More >>

Judge Stephen Reinhardt Won't Recuse Himself From Prop. 8 Trial

Harvard Law SchoolJudge Stephen Reinhardt says he'll be there for the Dec. 6 Prop. 8 trial​Judge Stephen Reinhardt has spurned a motion that he recuse himself from adjudicating over the pending 9th Circuit Court of Appeal review of Proposition 8.Supporters of the same-sex marriage ban contended th ... More >>

City Attorney Sues Martin Guajardo, Alleged Immigration Attorney Fraud

Martin Guajardo is accused of being a legendary bloodsucker​ City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed suit today against a San Francisco-based immigration attorney, accusing him of defrauding multiple clients and bilking them of their life savings to fight doomed immigration cases that often led to ... More >>

Albert Greenwood Brown Execution: Court of Appeal Demands Judge Reconsider Delay

California Department of CorrectionsAlbert Greenwood Brown, convicted rapist and murderer, may live to breathe another day​SF Weekly earlier reported that Albert Greenwood Brown's 9 p.m. Thursday execution would come just three hours before the expiration of one of the drugs that would kill him. T ... More >>

Supreme Court Rules State Not Required to Appeal Prop. 8 Ruling

​The California Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a right-wing group's suit that would have compelled the state to appeal Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. Both Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown have come down in favor of Walker's ruling ... More >>

Porn, Sex Talk Justify Airline Pilots' Firing, Court Says

'Something special in the air...'​Just how friendly are the friendly skies? Not friendly enough to accommodate porn use and raunchy sex talk by lecherous pilots, according to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The San Francisco-based court grounded pilots Gregory Hawn, Michael Prince, and Aric Aldr ... More >>

Judge Vaughn Walker May Lift Stay on Prop. 8 Ruling Today; Crowds Gather at City Hall

What'll it be today, Judge Vaughn Walker?​A number of would-be same-sex married couples are already gathering at San Francisco's City Hall, anticipating Judge Vaughn Walker may lift the stay on his ruling overturning Proposition 8 -- which would trigger a same-sex marriage bonanza. A ruling from W ... More >>

Prop. 8 Overturned: Ecstasy and Agony at City Hall

It's uncertain when Rod Wood and Roger Hunt will use these wedding rings.​No guarantee same-sex couples can wed next week, when Prop. 8 is officially overturnedFor 10 whole minutes, Thom Watson was a happy man. The 30-odd same-sex couples crammed into a balmy corridor of City Hall awaiting the wor ... More >>

'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 bot ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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 f ... More >>

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 artwor ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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 ... More >>

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

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 ... More >>

Powerful Advice

Leaders should ignore the temptation to over-regulate energy policy and let competition reign

Case Study: Christopher Taylor

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

Postscript

Mint Conditions

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

Letters

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.

Dog Bites