Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Supreme Court Rules for Anti-Abortion Groups
“The U.S. Supreme Court sided with anti-abortion groups in a 20-year-old lawsuit by ruling on Tuesday that federal law did not cover the physical violence by protesters cited in the shutdown of health clinics.” “The ruling,” according to Reuters, “marked the third top court decision in the cases that began in 1986, when anti-abortion groups were sued by the National Organization for Women and others for their tactics, including violent demonstrations to block access to clinics where abortions were performed.”
Patriot Act E-Mail Searches Apply to Non-Terrorists, Judges Say
According to The New York Sun, “Two federal judges in Florida have upheld the authority of individual courts to use the Patriot Act to order searches anywhere in the country for e-mails and computer data in all types of criminal investigations, overruling a magistrate who found that Congress limited such expanded jurisdiction to cases involving terrorism.”
Supreme Court Refuses to Broaden Death Penalty Review
“The Supreme Court refused Monday to directly consider whether the drug combination used in executions across the United States amounts to unconstitutional cruel punishment.” According to Law.com, “The justices had already agreed to hear arguments in April in a case brought by Florida death row inmate Clarence Hill about the procedure for lethal injection challenges to be filed in federal court.”
9th Circuit Finds Ore. City Violated Street Preacher's Rights
“A street preacher ejected from events in downtown Portland has won his free-speech lawsuit against the city,” reports The First Amendment Center. “On Feb. 24, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Edward Gathright, an evangelical Christian who preaches outdoors, including at privately sponsored events at Tom McCall Waterfront Park and Pioneer Courthouse Square.”
Ohio Court Orders Resentencing of Hundreds
“Hundreds of defendants will have to be resentenced because judges considered evidence that wasn't presented at trial, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Monday.” According to the Associated Press, “The unanimous ruling found parts of Ohio's sentencing law unconstitutional.”
Monday, February 27, 2006
Death Penalty Trials a Painstaking Process
The Associated Press reports, “After three decades of Supreme Court decisions designed to make the use of the death sentence less arbitrary, juries decide punishment in a distinct and elaborate penalty phase of state and federal trials, as in the case of terrorist conspirator Zacarius Moussaoui.”
Friday, February 24, 2006
Florida Court Acquits Death Row Inmate
CNN reports, “The Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered the acquittal of a death row inmate Thursday, saying prosecutors had not proved he killed two neighbors.” According to the report, the only evidence tying Ballard to the crime was a fingerprint on a bed frame, which according to the state’s high court could have been left there on one of his many routine visits, and an arm hair found in Jones' hand.
Ga. Obscenity Law Struck Down by 11th Circuit
“A federal appeals court,” according to The First Amendment Center, “has ruled that Georgia’s obscenity law unconstitutionally limits the free-speech rights of businesses to advertise.” According to the report, “The three-judge panel’s ruling in This That and the Other Gift v. Cobb County could limit the ability of governments to prosecute stores that sell adult videos and sex-related materials.”
9th Circuit OKs Ore. Ban on Paying Petition-Gatherers Per Signature
“A federal appeals court yesterday upheld Oregon's voter-passed ban on paying gatherers by the signature on initiative and referendum petitions, saying any minor free-speech issues were outweighed by a greater benefit.” “In addition to free-speech issues,” reports The First Amendment Center, “opponents of the measure argued that it essentially restricted the signature-gathering process to labor unions and other large organizations that could afford to pay by the hour or by the day.”
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Supreme Court Debates Defendants' Rights to Blame Others
Law.com reports, “The Supreme Court on Wednesday debated whether states can make it difficult for capital defendants to present to juries evidence that blames others for committing a crime.”
Justices Curb Postal Service's Immunity From Lawsuits
“The Postal Service may be sued by people who trip over packages or other mail that letter carriers have carelessly left in their path, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.” According to The New York Times, “The 7-to-1 decision rejected the government's argument that the service, which delivers some 660 million pieces of mail a day, is immune from lawsuits for negligent delivery.”
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Property Rights Law Is Upheld in Oregon
“Oregon's highest court Tuesday,” according to The Los Angeles Times, “upheld a voter-approved law requiring that landowners be compensated for development restrictions — handing a major victory to the property rights movement and galvanizing efforts to put similar measures before voters this year in Washington, Nevada and Oklahoma.”
Supreme Court Announces it Will not Hear Appeal in College Censorship Case
According to The Student Press Law Center, the U.S. Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will not hear a case that questioned the authority of administrators at an Illinois university to censor a student newspaper that published articles critical of the school.
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Tobacco Companies' Complaint About Ads
“The Supreme Court refused on Tuesday to hear an appeal by two tobacco companies who claimed tough anti-smoking ads paid for by California's state government smeared their reputations.” “R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co.,” according to Findlaw, “had asked the justices to overturn a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that rejected the companies' claims that their First Amendment rights were violated by California's ad campaign.”
U.S. Supreme Court Sends Iranian Terrorism Liability Case Back to Lower Court
Findlaw reports, “The Supreme Court ordered an appellate court on Tuesday to reconsider allowing the brother of a victim of Iranian terrorism to collect $2.8 million (€2.4 million) from a company that owes Iran for a canceled weapons shipment.”
U.S. Supreme Court Sides with Church in Dispute Over Hallucinogenic Tea Drinking
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God.” According to FindLaw, “In their first religious freedom decision under new Chief Justice John Roberts, the judges moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice.”
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Reshaped U.S. High Court Takes Abortion Case
“The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday it will decide whether a ban on some abortion procedures is unconstitutional, a case that could show if the reshaped court will restrict a woman's right to an abortion.” According to Reuters, “The justices agreed to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that declared unconstitutional the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2003, because it lacks an exception to protect the health of a pregnant woman.”
Oregon Property Rights Law Upheld
“The Oregon Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a voter-approved property rights law that requires governments to either pay landowners for losses caused by state land-use regulations or waive the regulation and allow development.” According to the Associated Press, “Opponents of the 2004 law, known as Measure 37, contended it threatened state and local efforts to control development.”
California Execution Delayed as Doctors Walk Out
CNN reports, “The planned execution of a man convicted of raping and murdering a 17-year-old girl was delayed until Tuesday night after two anesthesiologists refused to participate because of ethical concerns.” According to the report, “The American Medical Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the California Medical Association all opposed the anesthesiologists' participation as unethical and unprofessional.”
Monday, February 20, 2006
A Crossroads on Abortion Rights
“When it meets in conference next Friday,” reports the ABA Journal, “the newly configured U.S. Supreme Court will likely find itself at a crossroads in the ongoing controversy over abortion rights.”
Reach of Clean Water Act Is at Issue in 2 Supreme Court Cases
According to The New York Times, “More than half of the nation's streams and wetlands could be removed from the protections of the federal Clean Water Act if two legal challenges started more than a decade ago by two Michigan developers are supported by a majority of the newly remade Supreme Court.”
Lawsuit Filed Against Verizon for Wiretapping
“An attorney and entrepreneur has filed a lawsuit against Verizon Communications Inc. alleging it has illegally collaborated with the National Security Agency's wiretapping operations,” reports Law.com. “The suit by Michael Pascazi of Fishkill, N.Y., seeks to represent millions of Verizon customers in a class action.”
AT&T Collaborated With NSA to Invade Americans' Privacy, Suit Says
“A purported class-action lawsuit against AT&T Corp. alleges the telecommunications giant has allowed the National Security Agency access to its facilities and databases for the purpose of spying on American citizens.” FindLaw reports, “The purpose of the suit is to challenge the legality of AT&T's alleged participation in a ‘secret and illegal’ government program to intercept and analyze Americans' telephone and Internet communications, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.”
Friday, February 17, 2006
Court to Rehear Public Employee Speech Case
According to SCOTUSblog, “The Supreme Court on Friday ordered re-argument in a significant pending case on the free speech rights of government employees -- Garcetti v. Ceballos.” “The decision to order it re-argued may mean that the Court was closely divided on it, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's departure in retirement had left the Court facing the prospect of a 4-4 split.”
Case Pits Your Property Rights vs. Environment
“A sandy farm field in Midland and a swampy tree-studded triangle of land near Mt. Clemens are at the center of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which is poised to define the scope of federal authority over millions of acres of wetlands.” According to the Detroit Free Press, “Oral arguments before the court Tuesday morning will be closely watched by property-rights advocates and environmental groups across the nation as justices determine the fate of so-called isolated wetlands not near lakes or streams.”
Judge Orders Action on Spying Documents
The Associated Press reports, “A federal judge dealt a setback to the Bush administration on its warrantless surveillance program, ordering the Justice Department on Thursday to release documents about the highly classified effort within 20 days or compile a list of what it is withholding.” According to the report, “U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy said a private group will suffer irreparable harm if the documents it has been seeking since December are not processed promptly under the Freedom of Information Act.”
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Rules Would Limit Lawsuits
“The Bush administration is using federal rulemaking to limit consumer rights to seek damages under state laws governing faulty products,” reports The Washington Post. “The Consumer Product Safety Commission will vote today on a rule that would restrict such suits in the case of mattresses that catch fire, the most recent rule changes undertaken by several agencies.”
Jury Urges Millions in Penalties for Nuclear Contamination
“A federal jury,” reports The New York Times, “has determined that cold war military contractors building nuclear bomb components near Denver contaminated lands owned by 12,000 neighbors with plutonium waste, and has recommended $554 million in payments and penalties.”
U.S. Judge Rules California Must Change Execution Protocol
“A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the state of California must change its lethal injection method in an execution next week because the current mix of drugs may constitute cruel and unusual punishment.” According to FindLaw, “U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel in San Jose, California declined to immediately postpone the execution next Tuesday of Michael Morales, but he ordered the state to either have an expert present to ensure he's unconscious from a sedative or replace a three-drug combination with a lethal dose of barbiturate.”
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
3rd Circuit Weighs In on Warrantless Searches
“Police may not ‘manufacture’ an emergency situation to justify the warrantless search of a hotel room, a divided panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.” According to Law.com, “The decision in United States v. Coles overturns a conviction for possession of crack cocaine and sharpens a split among the federal circuits in cases where police claim that a warrantless search was justified by ‘exigent circumstances.’”
Top N.Y. Court Axes Domestic Partner Law
The Washington Post reports New York’s highest court on Tuesday invalidated an anti-discrimination law for domestic partners that the New York City Council had passed by overriding a veto from Mayor Michael Bloomberg. According to the report, “The 2004 Equal Benefits Law required the city to do business only with contractors and property owners that agreed to provide the same benefits for the domestic partners of employees as they did for the spouses of employees.”
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Judge Blocks Handover of Citizen to Iraq
According to the Associated Press, “A federal judge on Monday ordered the U.S. military not to hand over to the Iraqi government a U.S. citizen suspected of being a senior associate of insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.” “The case of Shawqi Omar is the latest legal fight that tests the limits on the Bush administration's power to keep Americans it has identified as terrorists out of U.S. courts.”
Gay Marriage Case Going Before NJ's Highest Court
The Associated Press has this article which begins, “Advocates for and against gay marriage will be watching New Jersey on Wednesday when their debate—which touches on tradition, civil rights and the very definition of marriage—is argued before the state Supreme Court.”
Appellate Court to Hear Phone Records Case
“A federal appeals court on Monday said it would review a lower-court decision that ruled the government was not entitled to see telephone records of two reporters who talked with confidential sources after the 2001 terrorist attacks.” According to the Associated Press, “Judge Robert D. Sack of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ruling deserved another look because, if upheld, it would set a nationwide precedent.”
Monday, February 13, 2006
Judge Lets FEMA Cut Off Katrina Hotel Payments
According to CNN, “A judge let the U.S. government Monday drop some 12,000 families made homeless by last year's hurricanes from a program that has put them up at hotels nationwide.”
'Art' Photo Is Not Subject to Privacy Law, Judge Finds
“A dispute between a top photographer and the Orthodox Jew whose picture he surreptitiously took at Times Square -- then sold 10 prints of at $20,000 to $30,000 each -- turned on the question of whether the photograph constitutes commerce or art.” Law.com reports, “The disputed photograph, Supreme Court Justice Judith J. Gische has ruled, is art,” and therefore not subject to the restrictions set forth in New York's right-to-privacy laws.
Friday, February 10, 2006
Appeals Court Sends Voter ID Bill Back to Lower Court
“An appeals court kept in place an injunction blocking enforcement of Georgia's Voter ID law and told a lower court to reconsider the case in light of a new bill that state lawmakers approved last month,” reports The Associated Press. Although the ruling is viewed merely as procedural—adding little to the substance of the case— “opponents of the state's voter ID law on Thursday portrayed it as another victory in their ongoing legal battle.”
5th Circuit Studies Prayer at School Board Meetings
FindLaw has this article reporting on the oral argument recently held by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the constitutionality of prayer at school board meetings. The article begins, “‘Tell me how this is not proselytizing,’ a federal appeals judge asked an attorney for the Tangipahoa Parish School Board, and read a sentence thanking God for ‘your greatest gift of all, your son Jesus Christ.’"
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
N.J. Homeowners Groups must Recognize Residents' Free Speech
“A state appeals court panel ruled yesterday that homeowners associations must recognize residents’ rights to freedom of speech under the New Jersey Constitution.” According to The First Amendment Center, “The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel stemmed from a case brought by residents of the private Twin Rivers community in East Windsor, who had sued their homeowners association to be able to put political signs on their front lawns, among other things.”
Judge Rules Against Immigration Group
According to The Houston Chronicle, “A judge ruled Tuesday that organizers of Laguna Beach's annual Patriots' Day Parade have the right to exclude members of the volunteer border patrol group Minuteman Project.” “The group's co-founder,” according to the report, “illegal immigration opponent Jim Gilchrist, sought to be included in the parade lineup but the parade committee voted to ban the Minuteman Project on political grounds.”
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Judicial Term Limits Just Fine by Breyer
“Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, now in his 12th year of a lifetime appointment to the court, told high school students in San Francisco on Monday that a 20-year term limit for federal judges wouldn't bother him,” reports The San Francisco Gate. “Breyer, speaking at Lowell High School, from which he graduated in 1955, was asked by a student whether the constitutional guarantee of life tenure for justices still made sense in light of the fact that people on average live significantly longer now than 200 years ago.”
Seizing Property for Religious School Ruled Unconstitutional by Pennsylvania Court
“A city agency violated the U.S. constitution when it seized a woman's home to help a religious group build a private school in a blighted neighborhood, a state appeals court ruled Monday,” reports FindLaw. “In a 4-3 ruling, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court said the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority violated the separation of church and state when it took the property in 2003 so the Hope Partnership for Education could build a middle school.”
Monday, February 06, 2006
2nd Circuit Upholds NYC Policy on School Holiday Displays
“A federal appeals court panel has upheld a city policy on holiday displays for its schools that allows Santa Claus, reindeer, Christmas trees and symbols of Jewish and Islamic holidays but prohibits Nativity scenes.” According to The First Amendment Center, “The 2-1 ruling in Skoros v. City of New York on Feb. 2 by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision of a lower court judge who found that the city's policy of permitting secular symbols had the desired effect of neither advancing nor inhibiting religion.”
Christian Schools Vs. University of California
The First Amendment Center has this article discussing the latest example of clashing worldviews stemming from a California court battle that puts evangelical Christian schools on a collision course with public universities. According to the report, “the outcome could affect religious schools of all stripes across the nation.”
U.S. Army Can't Do Live-Fire Training at Sacred Hawaii Valley
“A federal judge has denied the Army's request to resume live-fire training exercises in a valley that Native Hawaiians consider sacred,” reports FindLaw. In response to the Army’s request to modify a 2001 settlement with the Earth Justice Legal Defense Fund whereby the military could resume training at Makua Valley before thousands of soldiers deploy to Iraq this summer, U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway ruled that the Army has other training areas in California and Hawaii that can be used instead.
Access to Abortion Clinic Records in U.S. State Kansas Blocked by High Court
FindLaw reports the Kansas Supreme Court on Friday temporarily stopped the state attorney general from looking at records from two abortion clinics, saying such a review could violate patient privacy. According to the report, “The Supreme Court said the subpoenas could infringe on the patients' rights to maintain privacy about personal and sexual matters, to receive confidential health care and to obtain a lawful abortion without an undue governmental burden.”
Justices Look into Lethal Cocktail
According to CNN, “The Supreme Court has triggered a debate over the mix of drugs used to carry out death sentences, with the justices delaying three executions and giving hope of eleventh-hour reprieves to other inmates.” “The justices will consider whether a Florida inmate was wrongly barred from pursuing a claim that the lethal drugs cause pain in violation of the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.”
Friday, February 03, 2006
Justices Look Into Lethal Cocktail
According to CNN, “The Supreme Court has triggered a debate over the mix of drugs used to carry out death sentences, with the justices delaying three executions and giving hope of eleventh-hour reprieves to other inmates.” “The justices will consider whether a Florida inmate was wrongly barred from pursuing a claim that the lethal drugs cause pain in violation of the constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.”
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Court OKs Banning Diplay of Police Tattoos
According to CBS News, “A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Hartford, Conn., can ban police officers from displaying tattoos depicting spider webs, disappointing five officers who claimed the rule violated their First Amendment rights.”
Judge Partially Closes Hamas Hearing
The Washington Post reports, “The public and news media won't be allowed in the courtroom when Israeli intelligence agents testify about a man accused of laundering money for the Palestinian militant group Hamas.” According to the report, “The judge also granted permission for the agents to testify using aliases, but she denied a government request that the agents be allowed to wear ‘light disguises.’"
Alito Splits with Conservatives in 1st Case
“New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the court's conservatives Wednesday night, refusing to let Missouri execute a Death Row inmate contesting lethal injection,” reports The Chicago Tribune. “Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas supported lifting the stay, but Alito joined the remaining five members in turning down Missouri's last-minute request to allow a midnight execution.”
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
'Partial Birth' Abortion Ban Held Unconstitutional
“The federal government's first-ever attempt to outlaw a specific type of abortion was declared unconstitutional Tuesday by a federal appeals court in San Francisco, which said the ban would interfere with a woman's right to a safe abortion after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.” According to The San Francisco Chronicle, “Within hours, a federal appeals court in New York issued a 2-1 ruling finding that the same federal law would unconstitutionally prohibit abortions that may be necessary for a woman's health.”
N.A.A.C.P. Is Bush Ally in Connecticut School Case
According to The New York Times, “N.A.A.C.P. officials said on Tuesday that they were trying to intervene in a lawsuit over the No Child Left Behind Law on the side of the Bush administration and against the State of Connecticut because of a core principle: that states do not have the right to ignore federal legislation that aims to help minorities.”
Supreme Court Blocks Florida Execution
The Associated Press reports: “The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the execution of a man who killed a woman in her bathtub a decade ago, granting a stay to a Florida death row inmate for the second time in a week.”
Federal Court Grants Ark. Inmate Access to Prayer Feather
“A man who was held for 18 months in the Benton County Jail has prevailed in a lawsuit he filed to force jailers to give him access to a prayer feather,” reports The First Amendment Center. “Jailers objected to the feather on security grounds, but a federal judge has ruled that Billy Joe Wolfe Jr. of Jay, Okla., demonstrated that the feather was necessary for him to practice his religion.”
New Law Threatens Court's Central Role
According to SCOTUSblog, “Defense lawyers for war-on-terrorism detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan told the Supreme Court Tuesday night that the Court's own role in the plan of the Constitution may be at stake in the interpretation of the new law to strip courts of authority to decide detainee cases. Urging the Court to go forward and decide his challenge to the ‘military commissions’ set up to try captives for war crimes, his attorneys said that the Court should move cautiously in judging whether it has lost its jurisdiction to proceed under the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.”
