U.S. Courts

Alleged S.F. Road Warrior Omeed Popal to Face 35 Felony Counts

Bush to California: screw you and your ocean

Damn, That Move Was Expensive: Douchebag movers busted

SF Eateries Drag U.S. Supreme Court Into Fight Over Health Insurance

US Supreme Court to SF Restaurant Association: Pay Up!

Back In Court

State Supreme Court To Review Gay Marriage Ban

The Supreme Court of California just announced that it will consider the constitutional challenge to the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8, but it will not issue a stay, which means the state considers gay marriages illegal pending the outcome of the constitutional challenge. San Francisco, San Jos ... More >>

The Gathering Storm: Lawyers, Loonies, Activists Ready for Prop. 8 Battle

Civic Center Plaza, 6:58 a.m. By 7 a.m., the anti-homosexual zealots were roaring, the police were telling the guy with the Sodomy-Will-Destroy-America message mounted on his Japanese-made truck to move along, and the gay and lesbian chorus with the pink-haired director (quite good!) were warming u ... More >>

Leader of Down Below Gang blames PTSD for killings

Civic Center Plaza, 6:58 a.m. By 7 a.m., the anti-homosexual zealots were roaring, the police were telling the guy with the Sodomy-Will-Destroy-America message mounted on his Japanese-made truck to move along, and the gay and lesbian chorus with the pink-haired director (quite good!) were warming u ... More >>

Whipped and Gagged

Is government spending obscene? Well, it paid to train S&M filmmakers.

Lawyers Behaving Badly

Featured Stories

The Chron Behind Bars

A judge has ordered two Chronicle reporters to serve time unless they divulge their source on Bonds' steroid use. Do you think they should be made to spill the beans?

Split Decision

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

Legal Pirouette

Marin County DA Ed Berberian switches his office's position, agreeing to Catholic Church demands to withhold sex-abuse documents from the press

Law and Borders

Prosecutors, judges, governors, a sex offender, and a woman with a penchant for poor judgement entangle California and Texas in an epic child custody war with two sure losers -- aged 7 and 9.

Yellow-Bellied Journalism

Hearst executives' behavior in the Examiner sale was nothing less than cowardly

Slave Wages

Those forced to labor for Japan in World War II are now suing in California courts

Letters

Those forced to labor for Japan in World War II are now suing in California courts

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.

Bus to Nowhere

Why San Francisco's Byzantine school desegregation program systematically fails the children it was designed to help

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.

Chronic City: Court Says Patients Can Collectively Grow Medical Marijuana

photobucket.comOfficer, release that plantSome rural sheriff's departments still haven't really come to terms with the fact that medical marijuana is now legal in California, despite having had since 1996 to adjust to the concept. But in a landmark ruling, an appellate court today protected the righ ... More >>

Breaking News: State to Pay Out $335K Settlement for Carole Migden's Erratic Driving

Boom! There goes another $335K.The state of California will pay out a $335,000 settlement in the matter of a former senator's case of DWM -- Driving While Migden. The San Franciscan's much-publicized 2007 highway incident left a 30-mile trail of terrified 911 callers and ended with the veteran ... More >>

City Attorney May Seek Court Ruling on Legality of New Sanctuary Policy

City Attorney Dennis Herrera indicated today that he might seek a ruling from a federal court assuring the legality of San Francisco's newly minted sanctuary policy, shortly after supervisors voted to override Mayor Gavin Newsom's veto of the law. The new city policy establishes a more permissive ap ... More >>

Medical marijuana growers score a defense

City Attorney Dennis Herrera indicated today that he might seek a ruling from a federal court assuring the legality of San Francisco's newly minted sanctuary policy, shortly after supervisors voted to override Mayor Gavin Newsom's veto of the law. The new city policy establishes a more permissive ap ... More >>

Federal Judge: California Cities Can Sue Wall Street

​A group of California cities and counties can proceed with a lawsuit alleging shenanigans by some of the world's largest financial institutions, a federal judge ruled today.In a decision delivered in federal court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Victor Marrero denied a motion to dism ... More >>

Memo to Elena Kagan: Come Out of the Closet

Elena Kagen's life as a -- ahem -- softball player shouldn't be a big secret​"She's a lesbian!" said Betty White over and over again on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. White was talking about a character in a Little Women parody but she might as well have been talking about Elena Kagan, ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Elena Kagen's life as a -- ahem -- softball player shouldn't be a big secret​"She's a lesbian!" said Betty White over and over again on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. White was talking about a character in a Little Women parody but she might as well have been talking about Elena Kagan, ... More >>

Feds' Case Against Bonds Evaporating

Feds Losing Their Heads​The quest to incarcerate home run champion Barry Lamar Bonds took a perhaps fatal twist on Friday, when a judge ruled that prosecutors cannot use key evidence in their case to prove the 45-year old slugger lied about using steroids.

SF Weekly Appeal Finally Heard, But No Decision Yet from the Court

​ Twenty-seven months after a San Francisco jury levied a gargantuan $16 million judgment against SF Weekly and its parent company for allegedly trying to "injure" the Bay Guardian, the California Court of Appeal heard oral arguments in the case Friday morning. The brief session before a thr ... More >>

Google Age Discrimination Suit by 'Fuddy-Duddy' Brian Reid Moves Forward

Brian Reid's Google stock options would have been worth between $45 million and $60 million​Brian Reid is revered in the tech industry for helping to craft the first firewall, the AltaVista search engine, and the the alt.* hierarchy of newsgroups in Usenet. But he is 60 years old -- twice the age ... More >>

Judge Vaughn Walker Targeted for Impeachment

Judge Vaugn Walker is not universally popular these days​ In an effort to undermine his Prop. 8 ruling, the American Family Association is leading a campaign to impeach Judge Vaughn Walker. The right-leaning pro-family organization states in a letter on its website that Walker should not have been ... More >>

Man Sues For Right to Carry Gun Near Cole Valley's Grattan School

Matt SmithDon't mind me, kiddies...​After San Francisco school officials refused to allow local programmer Kevin Hall to carry a sidearm near Grattan School in Cole Valley, he sued in federal court Thursday demanding respect for what he calls his Second Amendment rights."I want to open carry in Sa ... More >>

Lawsuit Over Bungled City Housing Program Moves to State Courts

You can't go home again​Following a setback in federal court, a lawsuit over a badly managed affordable-housing program has been refiled in San Francisco Superior court, where the lawyers for aggrieved residents enrolled in the program say they hope they'll have better luck.The troubled housing pr ... More >>

Wronging the Rights

You can't go home again​Following a setback in federal court, a lawsuit over a badly managed affordable-housing program has been refiled in San Francisco Superior court, where the lawyers for aggrieved residents enrolled in the program say they hope they'll have better luck.The troubled housing pr ... More >>

Zynga Scams Lawsuit to Move Forward

Treacherous ground?​A federal judge has found that Zynga is responsible for allegedly misleading business offers marketed to players of its popular Facebook games, setting the stage for a class-action lawsuit against the San Francisco-based company to move ahead.The plaintiff in the case, Rebecca ... More >>

Fantasy Voter Fraud

Treacherous ground?​A federal judge has found that Zynga is responsible for allegedly misleading business offers marketed to players of its popular Facebook games, setting the stage for a class-action lawsuit against the San Francisco-based company to move ahead.The plaintiff in the case, Rebecca ... More >>

Duraflame Burned in Court

You! Put it out! ​Last month, SF Weekly reported on just what happens if you light a fire on a Spare the Air Day: They ask you not to. Then, if you're busted a second time, you're out $400. And while the Bay Area Air Quality Management District uses the term "wood fires," there's a broad variety o ... More >>

Playstation 3 Owners Lose Court Battle Against Sony

This does not resemble a personal computer​Playstation 3 owners who have been grousing over their video game gadgets have something more to complain about.A federal judge has dismissed most their claims filed in a class action lawsuit against Sony last year. A group of gamers accused the entertain ... More >>

Kamala Harris Wants Federal Appeals Court To Allow Gay Marriages Now

Harris: Let the people marry​Supporters of same-sex marriage just got a powerful ally: California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The newly minted AG is urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to allow gay couples to marry while it considers a federal appeal over the constitutionality of Propositi ... More >>

Gay Couples Can't Get Married ... Still

Nope​There will be no white weddings for gay couples -- at least not yet. A San Francisco federal court ruled today that same-sex marriages would not be allowed while courts decide whether Proposition 8 -- the state's ban on gay marriage -- is constitutional or not. It's another blow for same-sex ... More >>

U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United Ruling Cost S.F. $290,000

They're not using real money to elect pliant candidates, are they?​The U.S. Supreme Court's crappy Citizens United ruling, which allowed unlimited corporate funding of independent political advertising, just cost San Francisco $290,000.That Supreme Court's 2010 ruling, it turns out, affected the o ... 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 >>

Supreme Court Shoots Down State Ban on Violent Videogames

Keep shooting, kids​Kids can continue to legally play ultraviolent videogames after the Supreme Court ruled this morning that California cannot restrict kids from buying or renting the shooting games.  The court voted 7-2 that such a ban, which was spearheaded by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Franci ... More >>

Sanford Wallace, Facebook Spam King, Surrendered to FBI

Spam King​Sanford "Spamford" Wallace, the notorious social-networking spammer, self surrendered to FBI agents today, nearly a month after he was indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple counts of electronic mail fraud. The 43-year-old Wallace spam artist appeared in federal court today where h ... More >>

Alameda Gun Ordinance to Go Before Full 9th Circuit Appeals Court

​The quest for the rights of ordinary, hardworking Americans to carry bazookas and roll Abrams tanks across government property continues its slow advance. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has  agreed to revisit an Alameda County couple's claim that a law banning guns on county land ... More >>

Husband and Wife Charged with Sex Trafficking Teens

Husband and wife busted​A Federal Grand Jury indicted a Bay Area couple, charging the pair with conspiring to traffic teenage girls and force them to provide sex acts to customers in exchange for money and drugs.According to United States Attorney Melinda Haag, Mahendar "Mike" Singh, 40, and his w ... 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 >>

Former Hells Angels President Sentenced to Jail for Pot-Growing Mortgage Scheme

​Raymond Foakes, a former Hells Angel, was sentenced yesterday to 70 months in state prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme.U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup also ordered Foakes, 48, to pay $1,085,000 in restitution. On Oct. 25, 2011, Foakes, the former president ... 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 >>