U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 1991

The court affirmed the district court’s partial grant of habeas relief. It held that the state waived its challenge to the finding of constitutional error by failing to object below and raising the issue for the first time in its reply brief, and it concluded that the state had not shown the error harmless beyond a…

The Ninth Circuit reversed a summary judgment that had dismissed a six-year-old's section 1983 suit arising from his father's fatal shooting by alleged LAPD officers, solely because the child was a fetus when the killing occurred.

The en banc court held that a claimant who presents objective medical evidence of an impairment reasonably likely to cause the alleged pain need not also produce objective medical evidence corroborating the pain’s severity.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of appointed counsel and further discovery, affirmed summary judgment for Morales, and upheld dismissal of the claims against Brewer. It also held that Terrell had to exhaust available administrative remedies before suing Phillips, but that dismissal for failure to exhaust must be…

The court held that Baxter did not waive her appeal by failing to object to the magistrate’s report because she retained the right to challenge legal conclusions, including whether substantial evidence supported the agency’s decision.