(Subscription required) A U.S. Supreme Court decision narrowing the federal Voting Rights Act has become a pivotal issue in a challenge to Huntington Beach's at-large election system under the California Voting Rights Act. The city argues the ruling requires dismissal, while plaintiffs contend it has no impact on state law.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday affirmed an order granting a motion by Google to dismiss an action brought against it by a man who claims the online service provider was obliged to take down a channel that usurps his identity by using a likeness of him as its icon.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday that a party who asserts that he was wrongly incarcerated for murder, before his conviction was overturned for insufficient evidence, raised a genuine issue of material fact as to his claim that an investigating officer deliberately fabricated evidence, drawing a dissent saying that the detective’s actions did not meet the “stringent test” established for such a constitutional violation.

Presiding Justice Teri L. Jackson authored yesterday’s unpublished opinion, joined in by Justices Gordon B. Burns and Danny Y. Chou, saying: “A driver, such as defendant, wearing strong cologne and having red, glossy eyes after completing a day’s work at a construction site, is unremarkable given the multitude of plausible explanations having nothing to do with alcohol impairment.”