I blogged about this case (written by my former boss Judge Kozinski) in November, when the Ninth Circuit ordered the defendants to “show cause … why they should not be assessed double costs and attorney’s fees for filing a frivolous appeal.”
The defendants (represented by the City Attorney’s office) responded; yesterday the Ninth Circuit issued a follow-up opinion rejecting their explanation, and faulting them for misrepresenting portions of the record. Memo to lawyers: Be sure your descriptions of the facts in the case are completely accurate; as an ethical matter, you should always do this, but as a practical matter, you should be especially sure to do it if the court has already expressed some skepticism about your professional judgment.
The Tacoma News-Tribune, by the way, reports that “City Manager Eric Anderson … Anderson said he’ll hire an independent counsel to study whether the city attorney’s staff acted properly within the scope of their duties in the case.”
UPDATE: A reader kindly passed along the link to the original November opinion, which I couldn’t find before.