California’s second attempt to ban federal immigration officers from concealing their faces with masks appears to be doomed under a new federal appeals court ruling. The court also blocked a new California law requiring federal, state and local police to wear badges or other identification.

(Subscription required) A Los Angeles judge allowed sensitive alternative-cause evidence, declined to delay trial, and weighed summary judgment in coordinated social media addiction cases, as defendants challenge causation and plaintiffs push claims forward.

At the Thursday hearing, PepsiCo attorney Josh Wesneski, representing over a half dozen large food conglomerates with some of the most well-known brands on the markets, said the real party in interest is San Francisco and not California, and the city and county would receive all the potential civil penalties in the case just as an individual would.

The State Bar of California on Wednesday announced the seizure of a Livermore law office that offered immigration help but whose owner they say was not actually a licensed attorney.