The National Law Journal's L.A. Legal Pad

Jet Propulsion Lab case to go before U.S. Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments tomorrow in a case involving 28 government contractors at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who object to what they say are unrestricted and overly intrusive background checks.

The plaintiffs, who are engineers and scientists at the lab in Pasadena, say that their work is low-risk and unclassified, and therefore security clearance isn't required. The Justice Department has responded that the background checks are "minimally intrusive."

The suit was initiated in 2007.  After the Federal District Court in Los Angeles dismissed it, the Ninth Circuit sided with the scientists and issued an emergency injunction putting a halt to the checks.  The federal government appealed, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

JPL is run by the California Institute of Technology and is famous for for sending unmanned spacecraft to Mars and the outer solar system.

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Taylor rejoins Wilson Sonsini in Palo Alto

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati has announced that Barry Taylor has rejoined the firm as a partner in the corporate and securities practice. He will be based in their Palo Alto office.

Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, he had been a senior corporate partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. As a managing director in the technology, media, and telecom group at Warburg Pincus, Taylor participated in the investment process for new deals and supported existing portfolio companies in Silicon Valley. He also managed the Menlo Park office for eight years and worked with Warburg's professionals in India and China on cross-border investments and servicing India- and China-based portfolio companies active in the United States.

In his prior 16-year tenure as a partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's corporate and securities practice, Taylor represented public and private companies in a wide range of matters, including private financings of preferred stock, convertible debt, and bridge loans with warrants, as well as both issuers and underwriters in public offerings. He also advised clients on public company governance and disclosure, reporting, and proxy matters, and negotiated and structured merger and acquisition transactions.

Taylor was a member of the New York Stock Exchange's Legal Advisory Board for three years and the National Association of Securities Dealers' Legal Advisory Board for six years. He received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1975, and a B.A. in political science from Dickinson College in 1970.

Ninth Circuit sanctions Sanai

Attorney Cyrus Sanai was sanctioned last Thursday by the Ninth Circuit Judicial Council for filing frivolous complaints against 19 judges.

Sanai is most widely known as the lawyer who discovered exually explicit material on Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski’s personal website -- a discovery that led to the judge being admonished. Kozinski, who as chief judge chairs the council, did not participate in the matter.

The council also publicly reprimanded Sanai and ordered that a copy of its order be served on the State Bar of California for consideration of further discipline.

Sanai told the Metropolitan News-Enterprise that he was being retaliated against for trying to call attention to judicial misconduct, and that the judges in question "acted from improper motive" when they rejected his prior complaints in order to protect their colleagues.

'Crash' impacts another lawsuit, this time from Matt Dillon

Yesterday actor Matt Dillon filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming he is still owed at least $100,000 in profits for his work in the movie Crash, according to an audit performed by his own company, Matthias Prods.

According to the complaint, when Dillon presented executive producer Bob Yari and execs with the audit, they "deliberately authorized [the production entity] to apply an incorrect formula for the calculation of [Dillon's] contingent compensation," allegedly allowing Yari and his partners to falsely increase profits paid to another "Crash"-related company and cheat Dillon out of his share.

This is hardly the first Crash-related suit to hit the courts.  Full story at THR, Esq.

Alleged terrorist sympathizer may have all charges dropped

Federal prosecutors in Santa Ana have asked U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney to dismiss perjury and naturalization-fraud charges against Ahmadulla Sais Niazi, a Tustin man alleged to be a terrorist sympathizer.

Prosecutors alleged in 2009, when Niazi was taken into custody, that he lied on his applications for citizenship, leaving out his ties to Amin al-Haq, suspected to be the security coordinator for Osama bin Laden. Court documents also showed that Niazi had been under FBI surveillance since 2006. 

Federal public defender Chase Scolnick argued that Niazi was targeted by FBI agents after refusing to become an informant himself.

This week, Assistant United States Attorney Patrick R. Fitzgerald filed a motion to dismiss the indictment against Niazi. The declaration refers to "[e]videntiary issues, including the unavailability of an overseas witness."

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Students will hear arguments in major immigration case, among others, in Fresno

The California Supreme Court is coming to Fresno and it's inviting 300 students across the Valley to hear arguments in eight cases over two days.

Students will have the chance to hear arguments in Martinez v. UC Regents, a class-action lawsuit that challenges California's practice of allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state fees at public colleges and universities. Plaintiffs in the case say the state law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment as well as federal immigration laws prohibiting states from providing a public benefit to illegal immigrants and not to U.S. citizens.

The case was chosen by the justices for this event because of its potential effect on young people, according to presiding justice James A. Ardaiz of the Fresno appellate court.

Full story at Fresno Bee.