After the Ninth Circuit ruled in favor of the plaintiff pepper spray victims, reinstating their lawsuit against law enforcement officers who had assaulted them with pepper spray, the defendant agencies filed a petition for further review with the Ninth Circuit. The petition for rehearing, directed to judges Pregerson, Fletcher, and Bright (the panel that had overruled District Court Judge Vaughn Walker and reopened the suit), asked the court to reconsider the original decision in favor of the plaintiffs.
The panel denied the request for rehearing and reissued the opinion. The defendants also petitioned for en banc review, a rehearing before the full Ninth Circuit of the failed appeal. Such requests are directed to each of the more than twenty judges who sit on the Ninth Circuit. Not one judge requested en banc review of the decision, and the request therefore was denied.
So what happens next? Attorney Brendan Cummings anticipates a status conference within the next thirty days in front of Judge Walker, who will once again preside over the case. Cummings expects that a new trial date will be set at that point.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Winter 2001