Today we have a case waged by five orca whales — Tilikum, Katina, Corky, Kasatka and Ulises — through their Next Friends, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), against Sea World. Proving that Justice isn’t blind to plaintiffs of the water-based mammal variety, a federal court dismissed the claim this week with prejudice.

PETA and the whales claimed that Sea World violated the Thirteenth Amendment’s prohibitions against slavery and involuntary servitude by capturing the plaintiffs, and forcing them to live in grotesquely unnatural conditions and perform tricks. Sea World argued that whales aren’t people.

Okay, so it was a little more complicated than that.

The California Supreme Court revived a plaintiff's slip and fall case against a jewelry store this week under the theory of respondeat superior, noting that it was no ordinary slip and fall case.

The difference in this premises liability case? The plaintiff was not a customer, but an independent contractor who was injured in an employees-only area.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision today in Perry v. Brown did not say that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to wed, (like Judge Vaughn Walker's previous ruling in the case), nor did it immediately lift the California Prop 8 same-sex marriage ban.

Instead, Judge Stephen Reinhardt's narrowly-tailored decision relied on Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's reasoning in the 1996 case, Romer v. Evans, to find that, after the gay community won marriage equality, a law rescinding that right was unconstitutional.

So why Romer v. Evans? And why no constitutional right to marriage equality? Perhaps because Judge Reinhardt was trying to keep this case out of the Supreme Court.

An Anaheim pimp prevailed in a death penalty appeal before the California Supreme Court yesterday for the 1995 burning death of a prostitute. The unanimous court ruled trial judge failed to articulate that jurors had to find that the pimp meant to kidnap his victim, as well as kill her, to warrant the death penalty, reports the Associated Press.

The victim, Kelly Gordon, was a prostitute who worked for defendant Gary Galen Brents. Gordon agreed to sell $100 in methamphetamine for him. When Gordon failed to return either the drugs or the money to Brents, he killed her.

California Courts could face a new budget structure if Assemblyman Charles Calderon (D-Whittier) has his way.

Calderon is the author of AB 1208, a California court budget restructuring proposal that narrowly won approval in the legislature this week. The bill would strip the Judicial Council — and the court bureaucracy, the Administrative Office of Courts (AOC) — of its control over the court system’s $3 billion budget, and return control over the budget to the legislature, reports the Associated Press.

The California Supreme Court unanimously upheld the Citizens Redistricting Commission's new State Senate maps on Friday. The Court's decision means that Democrats will likely secure a two-third majority in the State Senate come fall, which would allow them to pass tax bills without Republican cooperation, reports The Sacramento Bee.

The Citizens Redistricting Commission -- a new body created through a 2008 ballot measure to adjust voting districts after the decadal census -- released new voting district maps in August 2011. Republicans challenged the implementation of the senate and congressional maps on constitutional and statutory grounds, and lost.

There are a number of ways that you can while away the day on your iPhone. Angry Birds. Facebook. Antograph. Apps, you see, have replaced eyes as the windows to the soul.

Now, California lawyers have a new app option: the FindLaw Legal News App.

Sure, legal news is available all over the Internet, but the FindLaw Legal News App lets you search by topic, (e.g., criminal, injury, family), or geographic location, (e.g., Los Angeles, New York, Chicago), to quickly find the news that's relevant to you. That saves you time, and relieves the guilt associated with reading information that you can't bill for.

California's Second Appellate District Court ruled today that parents can request records involving a school district's investigation and reprimand of one of its teacher under the California Public Records Act (CPRA).

In the case, Marken v. Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, the teacher, Ari Marken, attempted to enjoin the release of the records, arguing that the disclosure of his personnel records was not authorized under the CPRA and would violate his constitutional and statutory rights of privacy.

California cannot impose its own restrictions on how Golden State slaughterhouses must address non-ambulatory animals.

In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today in National Meat Association v. Harris, and ruled that the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) preempts a California statute that prohibits slaughterhouses from buying, selling, or receiving non-ambulatory animals.

Before you find yourself in a tizzy over this headline, let's be clear: We're not promoting marijuana use. Frankly, we write posts and headlines about marijuana because you, dear readers, like to read them. And for that, we thank you.

The latest news in California medical marijuana law is that the California Supreme Court has unanimously voted to review three medical marijuana cases involving local ordinances that limit or ban marijuana dispensaries, reports the Los Angeles Times.