Left Coast Appeals
Keeping Tabs on the Ninth Circuit
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Welcome to Left Coast Appeals

At Left Coast Appeals, we provide insights into all things Ninth Circuit. Check out our Ninth Circuit Statistics page, which offers an empirical window into the Court’s workings. At our En Banc Tracker, we monitor the Court’s busy en banc proceedings. And at This Week at the Ninth, we highlight key recent decisions.

Follow us on Twitter @LeftCoastAppeal. And check out our sister blog Federal Circuitry, which takes a data-driven look at the Federal Circuit.

  • This Week at the Ninth: SLUSA and U.S. Waters
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: SLUSA and U.S. Waters

    By: James R. Sigel

    This week, we take a look at two Ninth Circuit decisions wrestling with issues of statutory interpretation. In the first, the Court considered the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act’s prohibition of state-law claims that might have been brought as federal securities actions, in a
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  • This Week at the Ninth: Biomaterials and Unclean Hands
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: Biomaterials and Unclean Hands

    By: James R. Sigel

    This week, we take a look at the Ninth Circuit’s decisions construing the Biomaterials Access Assurance Act’s immunity for “biomaterials suppliers” and addressing the standard of review when a district court grants summary judgment based on a plaintiff’s unclean hands. CONNELL v. LIMA CORPORATE
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  • This Week at the Ninth: Per Diems and Wages
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: Per Diems and Wages

    By: James R. Sigel

    This week, we take a look at the Court’s decision attempting to navigate the fine line between employer payments that reimburse employees for expenses—and thus need not be considered in calculating the employees’ overtime wage rate—and payments that in fact compensate employees for hours
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  • This Week at the Ninth: Floral Prints and Janitors
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: Floral Prints and Janitors

    By: James R. Sigel

    This week, we take a look at one Ninth Circuit decision addressing how to assess damages among multiple copyright infringers, and another examining the implications of changes in California law governing the distinction between independent contractors and employees. DESIRE, LLC v. MANNA TEXTILES, INC.
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  • This Week at the Ninth: The FTC (Always) Wins
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: The FTC (Always) Wins

    By: James R. Sigel

    This week, a divided Ninth Circuit panel holds (with some apparent reluctance) that constitutional challenges to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cannot be brought directly in federal court, but must instead wend their way through the FTC’s review process. AXON ENTERPRISE v. FTC The Court
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  • This Week in the Ninth: Rest Breaks and Workweeks
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week in the Ninth: Rest Breaks and Workweeks

    By: James R. Sigel

    This week, we take a look at two Ninth Circuit decisions considering agencies’ interpretations of the federal laws governing the employment relationship. In the first, the Court deferred to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s decision to preempt California’s requirements for commercial drivers’ meal
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  • This Week at the Ninth: Habeas and Hair Loss
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: Habeas and Hair Loss

    This week, the Ninth Circuit declines to extend a recent Supreme Court decision on retaliatory arrest to the immigration bond revocation context, and resolves a particularly hairy preemption question about state-law challenges to dietary supplement labeling. JOSE BELLO-REYES v. PETER GAYNOR The Court holds
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