U.S. Courts

Proposition 8 Hearing Underway in Supreme Court

Update 8:30 a.m.: The Supreme Court blog is reporting that oral arguments are finished and that the Supreme Court will not make a ruling on same-sex marriage. If this is the case, the lower court's ruling stands and Prop 8 is invalidated. Update 8:24 a.m.: The Supreme Court blog is reporting that J ... More >>

Pro-Gay Marriage Republicans Continue to Emerge

Based on your position on gay marriage, yesterday was either like watching the end of Spartacus or a clip of lemmings jumping off a cliff. More than two dozen Republicans added their names to a brief imploring the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that laws banning same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, ... More >>

Public Nudists Hang Out -- Literally -- at The Courthouse Today (NSFW)

As promised, public urban nudists (as opposed to rural nudists?) descended on the steps of the federal court building this afternoon as a federal judge hears their challenge to the city's public nudity ban, which goes into effect Feb. 1. SF Weekly's Joe Eskenazi is down at the courthouse, but bef ... More >>

Facebook off the Hook for Intifada Pages That Promoted Killing Jews

Last year, Freedom Fighter Larry Klayman took Facebook to court, claiming Mark Zuckerberg was a self-hating Jew. Why? Because the 28-year-old bajillionaire refused to (promptly) take down the "Third Palestinian Intifada" Facebook page. Yes, it's exactly as it sounds. But Klayman officially lost hi ... More >>

Harborside Health Center: Landlord Can't Evict Medical Marijuana Dispensary

California Court Upholds State Law; Federal Court Next on Dec. 20Oakland's Harborside Health Center is in the business of selling medical marijuana. This is obvious to anyone -- and in particular the dispensary's landlord, who last week had her effort to evict the dispensary tossed by a judge.The la ... More >>

Feds Bust 11 Suspects Linked to Largest Meth Seizure in U.S. History

A San Francisco federal grand jury has indicted 11 people on suspicion of possessing and distributing large quantities of narcotics. And when police say "large," they're talking more than 570 pounds of crystal methamphetamine. Federal prosecutors announced the arrests today after cops seized the i ... More >>

Facebook: Should 'Like' Button Be Protected as Free Speech?

We've all seen the Facebook profiles supporting political candidates, the pages for protest, and the mass events that have been organized through this giant social network. Facebook has certainly made its mark on the political scene. Now, the Bay Area-based company wants a constitutional voice.Faceb ... More >>

Obama Officially Wins Health Care Debate

Now is the time to take back all the really mean things you have said about Justice John Roberts. The very conservative Supreme Court Justice gave us a reason to think that thing just might be okay when he not only sided with the liberal justices on Obamacare, but wrote the majority opinion upholdin ... More >>

Days of Rage: Immigrants and Allies Must Fight Back

UC Davis Occupy Pepper Spraying Report Will Become Public, Judge Rules

It appears that more light will be shed on one of the most controversial episodes of police response to Occupy protests across the country last fall, after a judge ruled that an independent report on the pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters by a UC Davis campus police officer can be made public.Th ... More >>

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 >>

Hawaii Governor Refuses to Defend Gay Marriage Ban in Court

​As the battle over the constitutionality of California's ban on gay marriage wends its way through the federal courts, the challenge to a similar law in Hawaii has taken a surprising turn.Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii's Democratic governor, said this week he will refuse to fight a lawsuit in U.S. Dist ... More >>

Apple Settles 'Death Grip' Lawsuit over iPhone Service

​Apple has settled multiple class-action lawsuits alleging that holding the iPhone 4 in a certain way cut off service to the popular smartphone -- what plaintiffs in the case called a "death grip" causing the loss of the phone's signal.As Courthouse News reports, customers in the 16 separate feder ... More >>

Prop. 8 Backers to Ask Appeals Court to Rehear Same-Sex Marriage Case

​As some predicted, Proposition 8 backers are saying they will ask a larger group of judges from the liberal-leaning Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review a three-judge panel's decision to strike down California's ban on same-sex marriage, rather than appealing the ruling directly to the U ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Medical Marijuana Lawyers Challenge Feds to Bust All Pot Dispensaries or Bust None

Pretty sure Hamilton was a pot head ​It's rarer these days, but you can still find some medical marijuana purveyors fond of saying how much they welcome the federal government throwing them in prison for decades. Each dispensary in San Francisco, for example, violates the Controlled Substances Act ... More >>

Oakland Cops Illegally Strip-Searched Black Men in Traffic Stop, Must Pay $205,000

​A federal judge has ruled that Oakland police officers performed unconstitutional strip-searches of two black men they pulled over as part of an unnecessary traffic stop, and must pay $100,000 to each victim as a result.U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel found that Ofc. Ingo Mayer, in t ... 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 >>

It Doesn't Matter That Judge Vaughn Walker Is Gay

You can be gay and impartial​At least that's what a federal judge decided today. Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware ruled on Tuesday that there is no proof that Judge Vaughn Walker, who last year struck down the state's ban on gay marriage, would benefit from his own ruling. Walker only recently ... More >>

List: What Isn't Working in San Francisco

Kamala Harris Files Brief Supporting Federal Health Care Reform

This won't hurt a bit...​California Attorney General Kamala Harris has filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit seeking to aid the defense of President Barack Obama's landmark health care legislation.The so-called Affordable Care Act, perhaps Obama's most significant legisla ... 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 >>

Judge Smacks Down Challenge to San Francisco's Ranked-Choice Voting

​A federal judge has rejected a legal challenge to San Francisco's system of "ranked-choice voting," in which voters can select their three preferred candidates in a race. The lawsuit, filed by failed supervisorial candidate Ron Dudum, had asserted that the system was flawed insofar as it did not ... 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 >>

Jeff Greene, Senate candidate in Florida, linked to alleged Bay Area con man

DA Kamala Harris' Challenge to Crime Lab Ruling Rejected

Kamala -- you've been judged.​Prosecutors in the office of District Attorney Kamala Harris have failed in their efforts to prove a bias claim against the judge who reprimanded the DA's office for its handling of a scandal at the San Francisco Police Department's drug-testing lab. In May, San Franc ... More >>

Supreme Court Won't Hear Challege to Healthy San Francisco

​The U.S. Supreme Court this morning delivered a major victory for gun ownership rights -- and also denied to hear a challenge to San Francisco's universal health care plan. So if you're uninsured and shot within city limits, this is your lucky day.

SF Weekly Letters

Federal Judge Skeptical About S.F. Fishermen's Oil Spill Lawsuit

Next year's catch?​U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston has expressed some misgivings about the strength of a class-action lawsuit against the owners and operators of the Dubai Star, a Panamanian tanker that leaked up to 800 gallons of fuel into San Francisco Bay last October.In a written decis ... 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 >>

Immigration: Defending juvie probation chief proves expensive

It Ain't 'Brave New World' Yet: Federal Court Strikes Down Human Gene Patents

​The Center for Genetics and Society, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that watchdogs bioethics issues nationwide, is trumpeting a ruling from a New York-based federal court that squashed a biotech company's efforts to patent human genes ... YOURS!Just kidding. Well, sort of -- central to the arguments ... More >>

A Higher Court

The legal tussle between SF Weekly and the Bay Guardian rises to a new level.

Judge Dismisses NSA Spying Lawsuit, Asserting Too Many People Were Spied On

You read that right. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker has dismissed a lawsuit in San Francisco's federal courthouse against the U.S. government, stating in his ruling that the plaintiffs' complaint that they were illegally monitored under the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretap pr ... 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 >>

Campaign for California Families Motions to Butt Into Prop. 8 Lawsuit

Just in time for pride weekend, the good ol' nemesis of California gay folk, Campaign for California Families, is trying to butt into the latest lawsuit against Proposition 8. In order to give you an idea of the company the organization keeps, the campaign is represented by Liberty Co ... More >>

Fame, Fortune, and Premature Antifascism

Illustrious S.F. Rock Photographer Profoundly -- and Profanely -- Glad to Settle Lawsuit Over Million-Dollar Archive

Late last month, we wrote about how San Francisco photographer Jim Marshall -- whose cry of "Hey, Johnny, how 'bout one for the warden?" resulted in the above iconic shot of the Man in Black -- filed suit in S.F. federal court against Bill Graham Archives to recover 656 of his prints of rock and jaz ... More >>

Leader of Down Below Gang blames PTSD for killings

Ka-Ching!

The Guardian hits the jackpot — but don't count the money yet, Bruce.

Bill Protects Employment Rights of Medical Marijuana Users

Damn, That Move Was Expensive: Douchebag movers busted

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

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

"I Do" Redux

Do you subconsciously oppose gay marriage? Take our quiz and set your id free!

Cough It Up

The man who created Josie and the Pussycats can't understand why his girls don't belong to him

"Fairfield Wives" Saga Continues

Mormon doctor's conviction for sexual penetration with foreign object upheld; allegation of juror misconduct headed for court

Payday for Charlie Walker

Why did the school district give $12,000 to the mayor's buddy?