United States Ninth Circuit

In cases arising from the federal investigation of the Bay Area Lab Cooperative (Balco) and its alleged distribution of illegal steroids to professional baseball athletes, orders quashing subpoenas seeking information regarding drug tests performed on baseball players are affirmed over the government's appeal where: 1) the government failed to timely appeal one of the orders, which determined that the government failed to segregate intermingled data, and thus the order had preclusive effect on the other pending cases; and 2) Fed. R. Crim. P. 41(g) was an appropriate means of obtaining the return of property improperly seized by the government.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/18/2008
• Decided 08/26/2009
• Published 08/26/2009

Judges

• Before: ALEX KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, ANDREW J. KLEINFELD, SUSAN P. GRABER, KIM McLANE WARDLAW, W. FLETCHER, RICHARD A. PAEZ, MARSHA S. BERZON, CONSUELO M. CALLAHAN, CARLOS T. BEA, MILAN D. SMITH, JR. and SANDRA S. IKUTA, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Argued by Joseph Douglas Wilson, Assistant United States Attorney, San Francisco, CA, who was joined on the briefs by Erika R. Frick, Assistant United States Attorney, San Francisco, CA, for the United States., Argued by Elliot R. Peters, Keker & Van Nest LLP, San Francisco, CA, who was joined on the briefs by David J. Silbert, Keker & Van Nest LLP, San Francisco, CA, and Ethan Atticus Balogh, Coleman & Balogh LLP, San Francisco, CA, for the Major League Baseball Players Association., David P. Bancroft, Sideman & Bancroft LLP, San Francisco, CA, and Jeffrey C. Hallam, Sideman & Bancroft LLP, San Francisco, CA, for Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., Peter Buscemi, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae Chamber of Commerce of the United States.