United States Ninth Circuit

In an action claiming that the California Department of Corrections violated a prison newspaper's First Amendment rights, the district court's award of attorney's fees is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs could recover attorneys' fees under 42 U.S.C. section 1988 for monitoring the state officials' compliance with the parties' settlement agreement; and 2) the district court's determination of the fee amount was not an abuse of discretion, because it was reasonable for the district court to conclude that the 31.5 hours spent corresponding with inmates was part of plaintiff's efforts to monitor state officials' compliance with the agreement. However, the judgment is vacated in part where the court of appeals was unable to conduct any meaningful review of the district court's refusal to terminate jurisdiction over the agreement.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/10/2009
• Decided 06/09/2010
• Published 06/09/2010

Judges

• Before DIARMUID F. O'SCANNLAIN, ROBERT E. COWEN, and JOHNNIE B. RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Emily L. Brinkman, Deputy Attorney General, San Francisco, CA, argued the cause for the defendants-appellants and filed the briefs. Edmund G. Brown Jr., Attorney General, Jonathan L. Wolff, Senior Assistant Attorney General, and Michael W. Jorgenson, Supervising Deputy Attorney General, were also on the briefs., Ernest Galvan, of Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP, San Francisco, CA, argued the cause for the plaintiff-appellee. Sanford Jay Rosen, of Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP, filed a brief. Kenneth M. Walczak and Blake Thompson, of Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP, were also on the brief., George C. Harris, of Morrison & Foerster LLP, San Francisco, CA, filed a brief on behalf of Columbia Legal Services, Florida Justice Institute, Inc., Legal Aid Society, Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, Inc., National Center for Youth Law, National Police Accountability Project, Prisoners' Legal Services of New York, Southern Poverty Law Center, Uptown People's Law Center, and Volunteer Lawyers' Project for the Southern District of Florida as amici curiae in support of the plaintiff-appellee and in support of affirmance. Sarah E. Griswold, of Morrison & Foerster LLP, was also on the brief.