Ridley-Thomas defense team petitions Ninth Circuit to rehear case

September 2026

This week, a team led by partner Alyssa Bell filed a Petition for Panel Rehearing and a Petition for Rehearing En Banc on behalf of Dr. Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose fraud and bribery convictions were upheld by the Ninth Circuit last month. In the petition, Alyssa and her team—which includes CW partner Michael Schafler, CW counsel Neil Jahss, Dean Erwin Chemerinsky of UC Berkeley Law, and King & Spalding partner Paul Watford—argue that the panel's decision unfairly expands federal bribery law and potentially exposes public officials across the Ninth Circuit to prosecution for ordinary political activity.

They also challenge the panel’s decision to reject Dr. Ridley-Thomas' Batson challenge, which would have established new precedent in the Ninth Circuit. Once the government denied Dr. Ridley-Thomas a fair trial by intentionally striking Black women from the jury, Alyssa and her team argue, the court had a duty to recognize intersectional discrimination in order to "fulfill Batson’s promise of rooting out insidious discrimination in the jury selection process[.]" As one contributor to LA Focus Newspaper noted, "If justice requires jurors to examine their blind spots before deciding another person’s fate, surely the law should be willing to examine its own."

The filing was covered by media outlets across Los Angeles, including LA Focus Newspaper and MyNewsLA.