Friday, March 31, 2006
Intelligence Redo Is Harshly Judged
“U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Richard A. Posner sharply criticized the restructuring of U.S. intelligence agencies last week, telling CIA lawyers that the overhaul has done nothing to rectify flaws exposed by al-Qaeda's Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that the changes ‘in the end . . . will amount to rather little,’” reports The Washington Post. According to the report, “Posner, who has written extensively on intelligence matters, questioned ‘the wisdom and consequences’ of the intelligence overhaul passed by Congress in December 2004, which he said was based on ‘a deep misunderstanding of the limitations of national security intelligence.’”
Court will Look at Retaliation in Sex Bias Cases
“Following a string of Supreme Court rulings that have helped redefine employment law,” The Boston Globe reports, “the high court will hear arguments next month in a case that could clarify whether employers are guilty of retaliation if they transfer a worker who has filed a sexual harassment or discrimination complaint.”
Judge Says FEC Failed to Curb Soft Money
“The Federal Election Commission failed to give a good reason for refusing to rein in nonprofit political groups that spent huge sums in the 2004 presidential elections, a judge has ruled in a case brought by President Bush's campaign and lawmakers,” reports The Associated Press. “In a 34-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said the FEC failed to give "a reasoned explanation" for its decision not to issues rules to require so-called "527" groups to register as federal political action committees and face the same strict fundraising, spending and disclosure rules PACs do.”
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Federal Judge Cites National Security in Keeping Ruling Secret
The First Amendment Center reports, “A federal judge yesterday issued an order to keep secret his controversial ruling regarding the government's warrantless wiretapping program, citing national security concerns.” In his ruling U.S. District Judge Thomas McAvoy wrote, “The Court finds that the Government's interest in protecting the national security and preventing the dissemination of classified information outweighs the defendants' and/or the public's right of access to these materials.”
American Sentenced for Bush Plot
“An American Muslim was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for joining al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush.” According to CNN, “Prosecutors had asked for the maximum -- a life sentence -- for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a 25-year-old U.S. citizen who was born to a Jordanian father and raised in Falls Church, Virginia.”
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Supreme Court Hints at Concern in Presidential Wartime Powers Case
“Supreme Court justices appear troubled by President George W. Bush's plans to hold war-crimes trials for foreigners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.” According to FindLaw, “Several seemed outraged by the government's claim during arguments Tuesday that a new law had stripped the high court of authority to hear a case brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who once worked as a driver for Osama bin Laden.”
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Scalia's Recusal Sought in Key Detainee Case
“On the eve of oral argument in a key Supreme Court case on the rights of alleged terrorists, a group of retired U.S. generals and admirals has asked Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse himself, arguing that his recent public comments on the subject make it impossible for him to appear impartial.” The Washington Post reports, “In a letter delivered to the court late yesterday, a lawyer for the retired officers cited news reports of Scalia's March 8 remarks to an audience at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland. Scalia reportedly said it was ‘crazy’ to suggest that combatants captured fighting the United States should receive a ‘full jury trial,’ and dismissed suggestions that the Geneva Conventions might apply to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”
Justices Hear Case Involving Prisoners' Reading Material
“The Supreme Court struggled today with how far states can go in punishing their most incorrigible prison inmates.” According to The First Amendment Center, “A lawyer for Pennsylvania asked the justices to allow the state's prison officials to deny troublesome inmates access to secular newspapers and magazines in hopes of making them behave.”
Monday, March 27, 2006
Federal Judge: Calif. Billboard Law Limits Free Speech
Law.com reports, “A U.S. District Court judge ruled Wednesday that a California statute limiting billboard use to commercial messages violates the First Amendment.”
Detainee Case Will Pose Delicate Question for Court
The New York Times has this article discussing the delicate issue facing the United States Supreme Court addressing whether Congress may block the nation’s High Court from reviewing the appeal of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Osama Bin Ladin’s former driver, claiming the Bush administration has been illegally detaining him without due process of law. The article points out, “Not since the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, in a case that arose from the power struggles of the Reconstruction era, has the Supreme Court permitted Congress to divest it of jurisdiction over a case it has already agreed to decide.”
Kansas Death Penalty Statute Heads Back to U.S. High Court
“Three months after the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over the constitutionality of Kansas’ death penalty, justices want to hear them again.” “But this time,” according to The Kansas City Star, “a new justice — Samuel Alito — will hear those arguments.”
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Roberts Dissent Reveals Strain Beneath Court's Placid Surface
“A Supreme Court decision on Wednesday in an uncelebrated criminal case did more than resolve a dispute over whether the police can search a home without a warrant when one occupant gives consent but another objects.” According to The New York Times, “More than any other case so far, the decision, which answered that question in the negative by a vote of 5 to 3, drew back the curtain to reveal the strains behind the surface placidity and collegiality of the young Roberts court.”
Indonesian Christian Gets Asylum Chance
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports, “A court has given an Indonesian citizen a new chance at asylum after his claim of religious persecution was rejected because his grasp of Christianity seemed shaky.” According to the report, “The appeals court wrote that ‘history and common sense make amply clear’ that people who identify with a religion but lack detailed knowledge about it can still be persecuted for their religious affiliation.”
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Supreme Court Backs Searches in Some Cases
“The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police without a warrant cannot search a home when one resident says to come in but another tells them to go away, and the court's new leader complained that the ruling could hamper investigations of domestic abuse.” The Associated Press reports, “Justices, in a 5-3 decision, said that police did not have the authority to enter and search the home of a small town Georgia lawyer even though the man's wife invited them in.”
Court Backs Police in Porn Sting
“The Supreme Court yesterday ruled in favor of police who obtained a search warrant for a man's home in anticipation that he would accept mail delivery of child pornography he ordered as part of a sting operation.” According to The Washington Times, “The unanimous ruling in the case United States v. Grubbs, said such ‘anticipatory’ warrants obtained by police do not violate the Fourth Amendment rights protecting individuals from unlawful searches and seizures.”
U.S. Army Dog Handler Found Guilty of Tormenting Prisoners in Abu Ghraib Abuse Trial
FindLaw reports, “A U.S. Army dog handler at Abu Ghraib was convicted Tuesday of tormenting Iraqi prisoners with his snarling animal and competing with a comrade to make the detainees soil themselves.”
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Justices Weigh In on Use of Tapes and Transcripts
“A crime victim's emergency call to 911, when introduced in court, can provide powerful evidence of the attacker's identity and the circumstances of the crime,” reports The New York Times. “Perhaps too powerful — or so most Supreme Court justices seemed to conclude during an argument Monday on whether the prosecution could use such evidence without violating defendants' constitutional rights to face their accusers in the courtroom.”
9th Circuit Slams DOJ Over Detention
“Ahilan Nadarajah was detained as a terrorism suspect for nearly five years before he got to argue his case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It only took a three-judge panel 10 days to order his release.” According to Law.com, “In a unanimous decision Friday, Judge Sidney Thomas wrote that federal immigration officials can't detain an asylum seeker indefinitely after an immigration court orders his release.”
Supreme Court Won't Consider Voting Rights for Puerto Ricans in Presidential Elections
“The Supreme Court turned down an appeal on Monday that sought to open U.S. presidential elections to voters in Puerto Rico.” According to FindLaw, “The court's action, taken without comment, is the latest setback in a long-running legal fight over voting rights of residents of the U.S. territory.”
High Court Declines to Review: Internet Obscenity, Convicted Spy, Tobacco, Death
Law.com has this article discussing the issues the Supreme Court decided not to hear yesterday.
Monday, March 20, 2006
The President and the Courts
“Since the Republican majority has decided to allow President Bush to usurp Congress's role in matters of national security, the battle to save the constitutional balance of powers moves to the judiciary.” According to this The New York Times article, “A critical test of judicial independence will come this month, when the Supreme Court hears arguments in a case that has become a focus of Mr. Bush's imperial vision of the presidency.”
Judges Overturn Bush Bid to Ease Pollution Rules
“A federal appeals court on Friday,” reports The New York Times, “overturned a clean-air regulation issued by the Bush administration that would have let many power plants, refineries and factories avoid installing costly new pollution controls to help offset any increased emissions caused by repairs and replacements of equipment.”
Court: State Can Offer 'Choose Life' Tags
“A federal appeals court Friday allowed Tennessee to offer anti-abortion license plates bearing the message ‘Choose Life.’” According to CNN, “A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overturned a lower-court ruling that said the tag illegally promoted only one side of the abortion debate.”
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Judge Penalizes Moussaoui Prosecutors by Barring Major Witnesses
“A federal district judge dealt a serious, perhaps crippling, blow on Tuesday to the government's effort to execute Zacarias Moussaoui for the deaths that occurred in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” According to The New York Times, “The judge, Leonie M. Brinkema, ruled that because of three major instances of misbehavior by government lawyers in the trial, she was barring prosecutors from using any testimony or evidence from a handful of government aviation officials.”
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
9th Circuit Backs Teen's Right to Display 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Banner
According to The First Amendment Center, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a school violated a student’s First Amendment right to free speech when he was suspended for displaying a banner that read “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” at a school sponsored event.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Unwilling Father Tests Men's Rights
The Chicago Tribune has this article about a father’s attempt to establish a man’s right to decide whether to have children, claiming he was tricked into fatherhood. According to the article this case has been dubbed “Roe v. Wade for men.”
Refusal to Subsidize Scouting Is Upheld
“California may refuse to provide subsidies to the Boy Scouts of America and other nonprofit groups that fail to comply with government antidiscrimination policies, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.” According to The Los Angeles Times, “The state high court's decision gives cities and government agencies the ability to impose antidiscrimination conditions on any group that receives a public benefit.”
Ark. Death Row Inmate Wins New Trial
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a new trial for a death row inmate convicted of murdering a couple and their two children in a dispute over marijuana plants in 1998. The Associated Press reports, “Ruling 4-3, the Arkansas Supreme Court said a judge shouldn't have let witnesses tell jurors about Billy Dale Green's past acts and reputation for controlling his family.”
Ark. Death Row Inmate Wins New Trial
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a new trial for a death row inmate convicted of murdering a couple and their two children in a dispute over marijuana plants in 1998. The Associated Press reports, “Ruling 4-3, the Arkansas Supreme Court said a judge shouldn't have let witnesses tell jurors about Billy Dale Green's past acts and reputation for controlling his family.”
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Exxon: Torture Suit May Set Bad Precedent
“Exxon Mobil Corp. warned that a U.S. judge's decision to allow villagers to file a lawsuit against the oil company for alleged abuses by Indonesian troops at Exxon Mobil facilities could set a precedent for all American companies operating abroad.” According to FindLaw, “The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit in 2001 on behalf of 11 villagers who said Exxon's Indonesian subsidiary allowed its facilities to be used by soldiers to torture locals and to commit other human rights abuses.”
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Very Little 'Versus' Yet in Roberts' High Court
“Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in less than six months as leader of the Supreme Court, has turned the famously quarrelsome justices, at least for now, into a surprisingly agreeable group that is becoming known for unanimous rulings.” According to The Los Angeles Times, “Monday's decision rejecting a free-speech challenge to having military recruiters on college campuses marked the ninth consecutive ruling in which all of the justices agreed.”
Court Hears Arguments Over FBI Agent Accused of Exposing Probe
“A federal appeals court heard arguments yesterday in a case that highlights the disarray in the FBI's counterintelligence efforts against China during the 1990s.” The New York Sun reports, “A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals took up the case of a fired FBI agent, Denise Woo, who is accused of disclosing the existence of a national security investigation to one of the targets of the probe.”
Judge Rules for California Students in Fee Challenge
According to USA Today, “The University of California owes millions of dollars to students who sued over fee increases and claimed they amounted to a breach of contract, a judge ruled.”
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
South Dakota Bans Most Abortions
“South Dakota's governor signed a near-total ban on abortions in the state into law in what the governor called a "direct frontal assault" on the U.S. Supreme Court decision to legalize the practice 33 years ago.” The Washington Post reports, “Supporters and opponents of abortion rights had been gearing up for a showdown even before Gov. Mike Rounds added his signature to the bill Monday and both sides expected a lengthy battle.”
Court Sidesteps Grandparents' Rights Case
The Associated Press reports, “The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider making it harder for grandparents to win visitation rights, rejecting an appeal from a dad who went to jail to fight a court-ordered visitation.”
Supreme Court Rejects Judicial Ethics Case
“The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether a top judge in Illinois improperly voted to throw out a $1 billion judgment against State Farm Insurance Co. after accepting campaign donations from company lawyers and executives.” According to the Associated Press, “The case raised an important question about judicial ethics: does the Constitution entitle average citizens a day in court before an impartial judge?”
Ruling Holds Zoning Laws Can't Prevent Yeshiva Addition
The First Amendment Center reports, “A federal judge has upheld the controversial Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, holding that the Village of Mamaroneck's zoning laws cannot be used to block a Jewish school's new 44,000-square-foot building.”
Supreme Court Justices Deny Appeal from Family Convicted of Fraud
“The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal by a former California highway engineer born in Algeria who enlisted his wife, brother and parents in an elaborate scheme to stay in the United States.” According to FindLaw, “Zineddine Tirouda, the engineer, and his relatives had asked the justices to determine whether judges should tell juries to be skeptical of testimony from an accomplice when it favors a defendant.”
Monday, March 06, 2006
Supreme Court Upholds Campus Military Recruiting
“The Supreme Court ruled today, 8 to 0, that colleges and universities that accept federal money must allow military recruiters on campus, even if people in the academic community deplore the Pentagon's ‘don't ask, don't tell’ policy on gay people.” The New York Times reports, “Ending a decade-long battle in favor of the Defense Department, the court rejected the argument of law school faculty members that being forced to associate with military recruiters violated their First Amendment rights to free speech and association.”
Thousands of Federal Cases Kept Secret
According to the Associated Press, “Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of public trials, nearly all records are being kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants who completed their journey through the federal courts over the last three years.” The report states, “Instances of such secrecy more than doubled from 2003 to 2005.”
If Judges Won't Stand Up to Bush, Who Will?
According to this column by The St. Petersburg Times, “Federal judges are shrugging their shoulders, just when they need to square them.” The author writes, “With a feckless, partisan Congress refusing to police even the most blatant illegal and unconstitutional actions of the Bush administration, the courts are essential to setting our nation back on the right path.”
Pentagon Releases Gitmo Prisoners' Names
“After four years of secrecy, the Pentagon handed over documents Friday that contain the names of detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay.” According to CNN, “The release resulted from a victory by The Associated Press in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.”
Former Worker Sues CIA Over Spy Training Book
CNN reports, “A member of the CIA's first post-9/11 class is alleging in a federal lawsuit that the agency violated his First Amendment rights by ordering dozens of deletions in his book about spy training after initially approving it.”
Court Allows Suits Over Genetic Screenings
The Associated Press reports, “Parents can sue a doctor if a genetic screening misses a severe or fatal condition that would have caused them to seek an abortion, a divided state Supreme Court ruled Friday.”
Friday, March 03, 2006
'War on Terror' Trials Could Allow Evidence Obtained Through Torture
According to Common Dreams News, “US military officers, breaking with domestic and international legal precedent, said that ‘war on terror’ military tribunals at the Guantanamo naval base could allow evidence obtained through torture.”
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Appeal Planned in Classroom Poster Case
“A public school teacher who was ordered to remove Christian-themed posters from his classroom will appeal a federal judge's ruling that concluded his rights were not violated, his attorney said Wednesday.” According to The Los Angeles Times, “Steve Taylor, an attorney for Tabb High School Spanish teacher William Lee, said he will appeal the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. Taylor is affiliated with The Rutherford Institute, which often takes on religious freedom cases.”
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Mo. Court Upholds 24-Hour Abortion Wait
According to the Associated Press, “The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld the state's 24-hour waiting period for abortions, a decision that turns the focus of the legal battle to federal court.” The unanimous ruling Tuesday by Missouri's highest court, focusing on whether the 2003 law ran contrary to the state constitution, rejected arguments that it was overly vague and deprived people of liberty and privacy rights.
Vermont Campaign Limits Get Cool Reception at Court
According to The New York Times, “The Supreme Court displayed little appetite on Tuesday for making basic changes in its approach to campaign finance law, under which the government may place limits on political contributions but not on a candidate's spending.”
Judge Rules for Cubans Who Got to Bridge
“A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. government acted unreasonably when it sent home 15 Cubans who thought they had safely made it to the United States when their boat reached an abandoned bridge in the Florida Keys.” ABC News reports, “Judge Federico Moreno ordered the federal government to make its best effort to help the immigrants return to the United States, said Kendall Coffey, an attorney for the Cubans and their relatives.”
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