Left Coast Appeals
Keeping Tabs on the Ninth Circuit

Topic Archives: This Week at the Ninth

  • This Week at the Ninth: Remand Review and Tax Evasion
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: Remand Review and Tax Evasion

    By: James R. Sigel and Lena H. Hughes

    This week, we look at one decision navigating the complicated jurisprudence governing review of remand orders (which one might think would be unreviewable), and another addressing the available penalties when taxpayers fail to disclose multiple foreign accounts. ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC v. CONTINENTAL CASUALTY
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  • This Week at the Ninth: Payment and Prayer
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: Payment and Prayer

    By: James R. Sigel and Adam L. Sorensen

    This week, the Ninth Circuit issued two decisions addressing interesting employment-discrimination issues. In the first, a divided panel held that a university’s policy of raising the salaries of professors who threaten to leave for other posts may constitute gender discrimination under federal and Oregon
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  • 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: Arbitration and Accommodation
    - This Week at the Ninth

    This Week at the Ninth: Arbitration and Accommodation

    By: James R. Sigel and Adam L. Sorensen

    This week, we take a look at one Ninth Circuit decision exploring the enforceability of an arbitration clause precluding a party from acting as a “private attorney general,” and another addressing whether the Fair Housing Amendments Act imposes liability for a landlord’s failure to
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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 and Adam L. Sorensen

    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 and Adam L. Sorensen

    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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