(Subscription required) A divided 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an Oregon school district's ban on an educational specialist displaying children's books about gender identity in his office, with a forceful dissent warning the ruling gives public schools broad authority to suppress employees' personal expression on controversial issues.

A man who bought a four-pack box of a mixed cocktail at a liquor store, noting that the label said it contained tequila, and discerned that it contained none of that type of liquor, sued under a consumer protection statute and settled for $2,500, is entitled to an award of attorney fees, the Court of Appeal held yesterday, rejecting a judge’s theory that there is no “prevailing party” where a statutory offer of compromise is accepted.

(Subscription required) A unanimous 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal judge failed to adequately investigate an alternate juror who expressed apparent bias before trial and later joined deliberations, vacating a defendant's 44 convictions in a Paycheck Protection Program fraud case.

U.S. government lawyers have an ethical obligation to report violations of the law committed by fellow employees when those actions may cause “substantial injury” to government organizations, according to ​a new ethics advisory from the American Bar Association.