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Two senior Republican senators want to know why a group of federal judges and court employees plan to hold a convention this summer at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa, an oceanfront hotel where the website invites prospective guests to “frolic,” “pamper” and “play.” Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Jeff Sessions of Alabama said the conference for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco could ultimately cost taxpayers more than $1 million.

On the heels of the scandal surrounding one government agency's lavish Las Vegas conference, federal judges in the western U.S. circuit are catching flak from Congress for a planned Maui getaway that could cost taxpayers more than $1 million. The Maui meet-up is scheduled for August under the banner of the 2012 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, and will include judges, attorneys, staff and "special guests" from various federal courts spread across nine western states -- including judges on the California-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. While in Hawaii, the guests are scheduled to stay in the upscale Hyatt Regency Maui...

While the Obama Justice Department continues to pretend that voter ID is racially discriminatory and a violation of voting rights, courts keep on ruling against them. Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals – an incredibly liberal appeals court – ruled that Arizona’s voter ID law was largely constitutional. Opponents of the law had argued that the fee to obtain an ID amounted to an impermissible “poll tax”; the Court thought otherwise. The Court did rule, however, that Arizona cannot turn down federal voter registration forms, which simply ask applicants to check a box indicating that they are US citizens....

A 12-year legal battle over an Alameda County ban on gun shows on public property may end with a soft pop instead of a bang. With a scathing dissent from the chief judge, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ordered county lawyers and gun show promoters Russell and Sally Nordyke into settlement talks to resolve a case that was expected to break new ground in Second Amendment law. The brief order, signed by nine judges, would leave unresolved questions about the constitutionality of local laws banning gun shows on government property. The 9th Circuit order was prompted...

Affirmative action proponents took a hit Monday as a federal appeals court panel upheld California’s ban on using race, ethnicity and gender in admitting students to public colleges and universities. The ruling marked the second time the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned back a challenge to the state’s landmark voter initiative, Proposition 209, which was passed in 1996. 0 Comments Weigh In Corrections? Personal Post . Affirmative action proponents, who had requested that the court reconsider its 1997 decision after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that affirmative action could be used in college admissions, said they...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Obama administration asked a federal appeals court Monday to speed up its review of a San Francisco gay-rights case and consider tough scrutiny for laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation - a standard that could legalize same-sex marriage. The Justice Department made the unusual request to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which is considering the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that denies federal benefits to same-sex spouses. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White declared the law unconstitutional Feb. 22, calling it an irrational act of discrimination....

California salmon and salmon fishermen won in federal court Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said the federal water project is obliged to provide enough water to double the salmon population. You can read the decision here. Under the ruling, only surplus water from the bay-delta water system can be delivered to water users in the San Joaquin Valley, not water from the 800,000 acre-foot allotment promised to fish under a 1992 federal law.

an Francisco (AP) -- A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday that the U.S. government cannot deny health benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee by relying on the 1996 law that bars government recognition of same-sex unions. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said that because the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutionally discriminates against same-sex married couples, the government's refusal to furnish health insurance to Karen Golinski's wife is unjustified. "The Court finds that DOMA, as applied to Ms. Golinski, violates her right to equal protection of the law ... by, without substantial justification or rational basis,...

When a federal appeals court issued a ruling describing a prosecutor’s misconduct that forced a halt to a drug-trafficking trial in Tucson, the U.S. attorney’s response was to ask the court to erase the prosecutor’s name from the published decision. Bad move. After republishing the name of the errant prosecutor, Jerry Albert, the court pointed a finger at the U.S. attorney’s office and said it was time to start taking responsibility for the misdeeds of its employees. “When a prosecutor steps over the boundaries of proper conduct and into unethical territory, the government has a duty to own up to...

In a direct challenge to the Obama administration, a federal appeals court temporarily halted the deportation of seven immigrants until federal authorities explain whether they should be deported. "It has caused quite a stir," said San Jose immigration lawyer Bernadette Connolly, whose client David Aranda Rodriguez is one of the seven who won the unexpected reprieve Monday. A panel of the San-Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to give the Obama administration until March 19 to explain if Aranda Rodriguez and the other immigrants deserve a break under a new enforcement policy known as prosecutorial discretion. The...

SAN FRANCISCO – Supporters and opponents of California's ban on same-sex marriage were anxiously awaiting a federal appeals court decision Tuesday on whether the voter-approved measure violates the civil rights of gay men and lesbians. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that considered the question plans to issue its long-awaited opinion 18 months after a trial judge struck down the ban following the first federal trial to examine if same-sex couples have a constitutional right to get married. The 9th Circuit does not typically give notice of its forthcoming rulings, and its decision to do...

It's not every day that a federal appeals court cites late comedian Groucho Marx in a decision, especially one as important as overturning California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8. But a three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did exactly that Tuesday, citing Marx's quip that "marriage is a wonderful institution...but who wants to live in an institution?" It was one of several cultural references (another was to the title of a Marilyn Monroe movie, "How to Marry a Millionaire") in the decision that was narrowly hinged on whether the state had the right to withdraw the right...

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional,

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 31, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Barack Obama’s new appointee for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals “will be one of the strongest pro-abortion justices on the ninth circuit,” according to Clarke Forsythe, senior counsel at Americans United for Life (AUL). Senate hearings began Thursday for Andrew D. Hurwitz of Arizona, whom the president nominated for a seat on the controversial court. Hurwitz has boasted of playing a role in laying the groundwork for Roe v. Wade. In a 2002 article for the New York Law School Law Review, Hurwitz wrote of the “remarkable” career of Judge Jon O....

Mayor Jean Quan vowed Wednesday to quickly reform the scandal-plagued Oakland Police Department after a frustrated judge threatened a federal takeover if it fails to quickly make good on changes agreed to nine years ago. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said he "remains in disbelief" that the department has failed to adopt the reforms. Henderson's frustration with the pace of improvements was evident throughout a scathing five-page ruling issued Tuesday. "This department finds itself woefully behind its peers around the state and nation," he wrote. In his ruling, Henderson increased the oversight authority of a court-appointed monitor. Oakland Police Chief...

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Thursday that none of the challengers had legal standing to file the lawsuit. The plaintiffs included some of Obama’s political rivals, taxpayers and military personnel.

States can't cut in-home care for elderly and disabled people if there's a serious risk they'll be forced into nursing homes, a federal appeals court has ruled in a decision that could forestall a 20 percent reduction in services to 372,000 Californians. Friday's ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco did not directly involve California and came instead from Washington state, where officials reduced home-care hours for 45,000 residents by 10 percent in February. But the issues are similar to those now before a federal judge in Oakland, who has scheduled a Jan. 19 hearing...

Another episode in the long legal saga of California's same-sex marriage ban is scheduled to unfold in a San Francisco courtroom. A federal appeals court plans to hear oral arguments Thursday on whether a lower court judge who ultimately struck down voter-approved Proposition 8 should have recused himself because he was in a same-sex relationship.

A federal appeals court on Monday once again decided to weigh in on an epic 12-year-old gun rights showdown over an Alameda County ordinance banning guns and ammunition on public property. In a brief order, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to rehear a legal challenge to the 1999 law, which restricts gun shows on county property, including Alameda County's fairgrounds. The order, which calls for an 11-judge 9th Circuit panel to hear the case, wipes out a ruling last May by three 9th Circuit judges who unanimously agreed to uphold the legality of the ordinance.

WASHINGTON – Carlos Martinez Gutierrez got caught smuggling three Mexican children into California. Now, his travails have reached the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the court agreed to hear Gutierrez's case, which raises questions potentially crucial for other children of illegal immigrants. If Gutierrez wins, some immigrants may find it easier to avoid removal and stay in the United States. "The case is significant," Gutierrez's appellate attorney, Stephen Kinnaird, said Tuesday, adding that "you can have possible breakups of families" in certain circumstances. Gutierrez's attempted alien smuggling through the San Ysidro port of entry in December 2005 does not, by...

<p>San Francisco, CA - Judge Pamela Rymer of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has died after a years-long battle with cancer.</p> <p>The federal court on Thursday announced the passing of the 70-year-old Rymer, .. Rymer was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and died Wednesday with friends at her bedside.</p>

Even as federal officials laud the end of the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay troops, Justice Department lawyers are trying to dissuade a federal appeals court from deciding if the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy was unconstitutional. They filed a motion Tuesday asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to vacate a lower court ruling last September that found the ban violated the civil rights of gay service members. The gay political group Log Cabin Republicans, which brought the case, wants the appeals court to address the ban’s constitutional implications.

Federal prosecutors are asking an appeals court to reconsider a ruling that threw out a California man's criminal conviction for threatening Barack Obama while he was a candidate for the presidency in October 2008. In July, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled, 2-1, that comments Walter Bagdasarian posted on a financial internet bulletin board did not constitute a "true threat" to Obama, even though the suspect was later found to have six firearms in his home. After Bagdasarian waived a jury trial, a federal judge convicted him of two counts of threatening...

In 2009, Arizona passed a law that eliminated health-insurance coverage for same-sex partners of public employees. But the 9th Circuit yesterday ruled that the law violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, the Arizona Republic reports. The 9th Circuit upheld a lower court injunction that has blocked the law from taking effect. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit concluded that while the state is not obligated to provide health-care benefits it cannot deny them to a specific group of employees, the Republic reports.

Pacific Justice Institute has filed its opening brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, located in San Francisco, in a case that challenges the constitutionality of taxpayer-funded charter schools that are based on occult teachings. "This case is truly stranger than fiction," noted Brad Dacus, president of Pacific Justice Institute. "It is incredible that we as taxpayers are still supporting schools founded on a belief system that incorporates elements of Hinduism, European occultism, and a heretical form of Christianity. We cannot have a constitutional double standard where mainstream Judeo-Christian beliefs are excluded from public schools while...

A federal appeals court ruling this week could significantly diminish public university religious groups' ability to restrict membership and leadership to students who agree with their teachings. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday (Aug. 2) that San Diego State University (SDSU)'s nondiscrimination policy for officially recognized campus groups is constitutional and does not violate the rights of two Christian groups. The policy is based on a nondiscrimination policy used at all the schools in the California State University system. The two Christian groups, sorority Alpha Delta Chi and fraternity Alpha Gamma Omega, had sued SDSU in 2005, alleging...

A federal appeals court ruling this week could significantly diminish public university religious groups' ability to restrict membership and leadership to students who agree with their teachings. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that San Diego State University's nondiscrimination policy for officially recognized campus groups is constitutional. The policy is based on a nondiscrimination policy used at all the schools in the California State University system. Two Christian groups sued SDSU in 2005, alleging the policy violated their free-speech and religious-freedom rights. For the groups to be recognized as official campus groups, they were required to allow all...

A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of a San Diego man who authorities say threatened Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign. A divided three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that Walter Bagdasarian's violent and racist screed against Obama was "repugnant" but not criminal.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is back in place for the time being, with one major caveat: the government is not allowed to investigate, penalize or discharge anyone who is openly gay. A San Francisco federal appeals court ordered the military to temporarily continue the controversial policy in an order late Friday, the court's response to a request from the Obama administration.

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court has barred further enforcement of the U.S. military's ban on openly gay service members.</p> <p>A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday the "don't ask, don't tell" policy must be immediately lifted now that the Obama administration says it's unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.</p>

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, July 6, 2:34 PM SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court has barred further enforcement of the U.S. military’s ban on openly gay service members. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Wednesday the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy must be immediately lifted now that the Obama administration says it’s unconstitutional to treat gay Americans differently under the law.

The White House announced Wednesday evening that President Barack Obama is nominating Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. "I am proud to nominate this outstanding candidate to serve on the United States Court of Appeals," Obama said in a statement. "I am confident Justice Morgan Christen will serve the American people with integrity and distinction."

WASHINGTON -- A liberal legal scholar is withdrawing his nomination to an appeals court judgeship after Senate Republicans blocked a vote on his confirmation last week. Goodwin Liu, 40, said in a letter to President Barack Obama Wednesday that he and family need "to make plans for the future" now that there is little prospect of a Senate vote on his nomination.

Unions spent an estimated $200 million electing President Barack Obama and re-electing Democratic majorities in Congress in 2008. Union officials ought to be ecstatic with Obama’s performance since then because he has delivered everything he promised the unions, and more. Obama’s largesse is all the more amazing when it is remembered that unions represent fewer than 7 percent of all private-sector workers. Fortunately for the country, Democrats in Congress don’t always share Obama’s loyalty to the union label. Consider Thursday’s cloture vote in the Senate on Obama’s nomination of 39-year-old UC Berkeley School of Law professor Goodwin Liu to the...

Senate Republicans are poised Thursday to use a filibuster to block the confirmation of law professor Goodwin Liu to an appellate court. * * * In moving to block Liu, Republicans are warning President Obama that his next Supreme Court nominee is likely to face a more difficult path to confirmation than did his first two selections. “If we prevail, it ought to send a signal that the White House ought to send up people who are more mainstream,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday. Grassley predicted that he had the votes...

WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans may hand President Barack Obama his first defeat on a judicial nomination, as they appear to have sufficient votes to sustain a filibuster against liberal law professor Goodwin Liu. Democrats chose to force a vote Thursday to end GOP blocking tactics against the University of California, Berkeley, scholar. Senate aides from both parties said it did not appear the majority party could attain the 60-vote super-majority needed to stop a filibuster.

Grants Pass, Ore. (AP) -- A federal appeals court has reaffirmed that muddy water running off logging roads after rainstorms is pollution that requires a special permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Supreme Court refused Monday to review a ruling that blocked a lawsuit alleging a Boeing Co. subsidiary helped the Central Intelligence Agency seize terrorism suspects abroad and secretly transfer them to other countries for interrogation. The high court rejected an appeal by five men who claimed that U.S. operatives—with support from Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a Boeing unit—abducted them and sent them to other countries where they were tortured. They alleged Jeppesen provided critical flight planning and logistical support to the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. The men were seeking unspecified monetary damages from the company.

PORTLAND — Oregon and Washington have been given permission to resume removing or killing California sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River, a federal agency said Friday. The decision by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration came about six months after a federal appeals court struck down a similar permit aimed at reducing the number of threatened or endangered salmon eaten by the hungry marine mammals. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped the practice last year. NOAA Fisheries officials said they believe the agency has fixed flaws the court pointed out in the original permit issued...

When he steps into the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena on Monday, he'll ask a panel of three judges for a chance to show evidence that the president of the United States isn't eligible for the job. He'll argue that Barack Obama wasn't born in this country and that the plaintiffs in his case—members of the American Independent Party—didn't get a fair shake in the 2008 presidential election.

Only days after the White House released a copy of Barack Obama's "Certificate of Live Birth" from Hawaii, claiming to have put to rest the dispute over his eligibility to hold the office, attorneys will argue on Monday before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the requirements of the U.S. Constitution simply are too important to ignore for the sake of political expediency, even when they involve a sitting president. The case has been pending since the 2008 election. The plaintiffs alleged that Obama's qualifications were not checked properly, and that has resulted in a violation of the...

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a lower court decision that blocked the most contested provisions of Arizona’s immigration law from taking effect. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled that a federal judge did not abuse her discretion in blocking provisions of the law that would, among other things, require police to check immigration status if they stop someone while enforcing other laws. The decision is a victory for the Obama administration,

The nomination of UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to a federal appeals court has been stalled by the partisan gamesmanship that pervades Washington.The Senate Judiciary Committee is finally expected to vote today on whether to advance the nomination, more than a year after President Obama tapped him for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., has suggested that Liu is at "the very vanguard of what I would call intellectual judicial activism." The characterization of Liu as a radical does not hold up to reasonable scrutiny. Unfortunately, reasonableness does not seem to carry...

Make 8 phone calls. Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) have thrice delayed confirmation of the anti-marriage, pro-homosexual Judge Goodwin Liu Keen, but may be about to cave-in and help promote him to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.    Keen News Service reports Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), the SJC ranking minority member, has asked "that the long-standing nomination of law professor Goodwin Liu to join the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals bench be held one more week [until this Thursday 7 April]. Grassley said the additional week would make it less likely Liu’s nomination would face...

California’s liberal Ninth Circuit rejects a specious civil-rights lawsuit.This February, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals—widely seen as one of the more liberal federal courts in the nation—issued its ruling in Darensburg v. Metropolitan Transit Commission, a lawsuit brought by poor, largely minority riders of public buses in the San Francisco Bay Area. The plaintiffs had alleged that, since a large majority of the city’s bus riders were nonwhite, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s preference for rail-expansion projects over bus-expansion projects was racially biased and a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The court ruled against the plaintiffs and...

Arguments in a lawsuit on Barack Obama's eligibility that has been percolating through the federal court system in California since the 2008 election will be heard at the appellate level in just a few weeks. Officials with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today notified attorneys representing several dozen individuals – members of the military, members of state government and even a candidate for president – that oral arguments will be held May 2. "I can't believe it, but after two years of Obama litigation, for the first time the court of appeals scheduled oral argument in [the] Obama...

The Supreme Court's conservative justices signaled during oral arguments Monday that they would vote to strike down another campaign funding law and make clear that states and cities may not try to "level the playing field" between candidates for public office. The justices objected to part of an Arizona law that provides public funds to candidates for state office if they agree to forgo private fundraising. The disputed provision gives extra "matching funds" to candidates who face a well-funded and free-spending opponent. Conservatives and libertarians in Arizona sued and argued that the extra funds unfairly penalized candidates who relied on...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court appears ready to block a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of up to 1.6 million women, and that could make it harder for other workers nationwide to bring class-action claims against large employers. The 10-year-old lawsuit, argued in lively exchanges at the court Tuesday, claims that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest employer, favors men over women in pay and promotions. Billions of dollars are at stake if it is allowed to go forward. The case also could affect the future of other class-action lawsuits that pool modest individual claims into a...

The merchant shipping industry has failed a second time to short-circuit California's effort to combat the toll on the health of its population from air pollution caused by oceangoing vessels. The industry is contesting California's authority to regulate fuel used by seagoing vessels up to 24 miles off its coast. The Air Resources Board estimates the vessels' emissions of particulate matter cause 300 premature deaths across the state every year. California mandates that ships "use cleaner marine fuels in diesel and diesel-electric engines, main propulsion engines, and auxiliary boilers" while operating far beyond the traditional three-mile jurisdictional limit. The Pacific...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court rejected a shipping industry challenge Monday to California's offshore air pollution rules requiring vessels to use low-sulfur fuel within 24 miles of the coast, standards that the court said would save about 3,500 lives over six years while modestly increasing shipping costs. The ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco is a milestone in California's efforts to curb a significant source of hazardous emissions. Low-grade bunker fuel from ships has a sulfur content more than 1,600 times as high as diesel fuel for trucks and exposes 80 percent...