U.S. Courts

Supreme Court to Hear Prop 8 Arguments Tomorrow

Tomorrow, the United States Supreme Court will begin hearing two cases that will decide the fate of same-sex marriage -- Prop 8 and DOMA. According to Buzzfeed, people have been lining up outside the Supreme Court since last Thursday, hoping to score a front-row seat for the landmark proceedings. ... More >>

James Craig Davis, Berkeley Bank Robbery Suspect, Arrested in Missouri

On January 16, a man holding a gun stole $6,014 from Mechanics Bank in Berkeley. Security camera footage showed the man point the gun at a teller, then lean over the counter and grab the cash from the drawer. The video also caught a distinguishing feature on the robber: what appeared to be a tatto ... More >>

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 >>

State's DNA Collection Laws Face Appellate Court Review

Last week, opening arguments began in the murder trial of William Payne. Prosecutors have charged Payne with killing a 41-year-old man named Nikolaus Crumbley in 1983. The trial will spotlight the advancements of DNA technology. Payne was arrested earlier this year, after the state's Department of ... 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 >>

State Supreme Court, Legislature Want to Give Juveniles Serving Life Sentences a Shot at Parole

On June 6, 2007, Rodrigo Caballero, a 16-year-old member of the Vario Lancas gang in Los Angeles, jumped out of a green Toyota and opened fire on three Val Verde gang rivals walking down the street. He missed two of his targets, but the third caught a non-fatal gunshot wound near the shoulder blade. ... 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 >>

Michael Breyer: Good Job, Dad!

Michael Breyer, the Assembly candidate who will duel Phil Ting to represent the segment of San Francisco where people have lawns -- and mow them -- made an announcement today. The candidate let it be known that this morning's Supreme Court ruling upholding Obamacare was to his liking. In this, he wa ... More >>

San Francisco Has Mixed Feelings About Arizona Immigration Decision

In April 2010, Supervisor David Campos issued an official resolution to boycott the state of Arizona to demonstrate his opposition toward the controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070, which gave cops the authority to check the status of residents without probable cause. Campos wanted to "stand in soli ... More >>

Jim Crow Returns: New State Laws Could Take Obama Out This Fall

Medical Marijuana Cancer Patient Booted from UCSF

​Angel Raich is busy dying. The famous marijuana activist -- who took the federal government to the Supreme Court of the United States for the right to use medical cannabis -- was, earlier this year diagnosed with an inoperable terminal brain tumor, a condition that causes frequent seizures as wel ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Fantasy Voter Fraud

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 >>

Wronging the Rights

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Medical marijuana growers score a defense

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 >>

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 >>

Whipped and Gagged

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

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 >>

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 >>

Back In Court

US Supreme Court to SF Restaurant Association: Pay Up!

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

Bush to California: screw you and your ocean

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

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.