Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Appeals Court Blocks South Dakota Law on Doctors’ Statement to Seekers of Abortion
The New York Times reports, “The federal appeals court in St. Louis yesterday blocked the enforcement of a South Dakota law that would have required doctors there to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure would ‘terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.’” As the report points out, however, “The United States Supreme Court in 1992 and federal appeals courts since then have upheld such laws, which typically require that medical information about the procedure and its health risks be provided to women before they can proceed with it.”
Monday, October 30, 2006
Ark. Students Allowed to Resume Dress-Code Protest
The First Amendment Center reports, “A federal judge has issued a temporary injunction that allows students in the Watson Chapel School District to wear black armbands without fear of reprisal in protest of the school’s dress code.” According to the report, the court determined that the case was similar to Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, a 1969 case where the U.S. Supreme Court decided that under the First Amendment school officials could not bar students from wearing black armbands in protest in the Vietnam War.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
New Jersey Court Backs Rights for Same-Sex Unions
According to The New York Times, “The State Supreme Court in New Jersey said today that same-sex couples are entitled to ‘the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples under the civil marriage statutes.’” “But the court, in its 4-3 ruling, that whether that status would be called marriage, or something else, ‘is a matter left to the democratic process.’”
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Federal Judge Orders New York Times To Identify Confidential Sources
“A federal magistrate in Virginia has ordered the New York Times to identify three confidential sources used by one of its columnists, Nicholas Kristof, in articles he wrote about the FBI's investigation into anthrax-laden mailings that killed at least five people in 2001,” reports The New York Sun. According to the report, “The order came Friday in a libel suit filed by a former Army scientist who was eventually described by the Justice Department as a ‘person of interest’ in the anthrax probe, Steven Hatfill.”
Monday, October 23, 2006
Supreme Court Allows Arizona to Use New Voter-ID Procedure
“The Supreme Court ruled unanimously late Friday that Arizona could put its new voter-identification rules into effect for the Nov. 7 election while challenges to those rules proceed in the lower federal courts.” According to The New York Times, The Supreme Court opinion made clear that it was not ruling on the merits of the case, in which the plaintiffs contend that Proposition 200, adopted by Arizona voters in 2004 requiring proof of citizenship before a person can register to vote, places an unconstitutional burden on members of minorities and others who do not have ready access to the forms of identification required to register and to vote.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Judge Orders Cheney Visitor Logs Opened
According to The Associated Press, “A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President Dick Cheney's office and personal residence, an order that could spark a late election-season debate over lobbyists' White House access.”
State Court Rules Against Catholic Church on Insurance
“New York State’s highest court ruled yesterday that the Roman Catholic Church and other religious organizations must abide by a state law that requires most employee health insurance policies to cover the cost of contraception.” Reporting on the decision, The New York Times explains, “The 6-to-0 decision by the Court of Appeals upheld rulings by the State Supreme Court and the Appellate Division, and left intact the state’s Women’s Health and Wellness Act of 2002, which requires company health insurance policies that provide coverage for prescription drugs to include ‘coverage for the cost of contraceptive drugs or devices.’”
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Court Upholds Jewish Group's Terrorist Designation
“A federal appeals court in Washington has upheld the State Department's designation of a militant Jewish group, Kahane Chai, as a terrorist organization.” “In a unanimous ruling yesterday,” reports The New York Sun, “a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found ‘substantial support’ for the State Department¹s action in 2004 reaffirming its ban on the group.”
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Will the Supreme Court Shackle New Tribunal Law?
“The terror legislation set to be signed into law Tuesday by President Bush sits atop an ideological fault line that sharply divides the US Supreme Court and highlights the emerging power of Justice Anthony Kennedy,” reports The Christian Science Monitor. According to the report, “The new law rejects at least five key holdings by the liberal wing of the court and sets the stage for what many analysts believe will be yet another historic showdown between the courts, the president, and Congress.”
Mo. High Court Strikes Down Voter ID Law
“The Missouri Supreme Court struck down the state's new voter identification law Monday that would have required voters to show a photo ID card at the polls starting this fall.” According to The Associated Press, the new law would have required voters to show a photo identification card issued by Missouri or the federal government before they could cast a ballot and voters lacking the ID would be allowed to cast a provisional ballot this fall, but after that, only the elderly, disabled and those with religious objections could vote without one, and only by provisional ballot.
Lawyer Gets Prison Term in Terrorism Case
According to The New York Times, “Lynne F. Stewart, the firebrand lawyer who was charged as a terrorist for helping a client in prison on terrorism charges to communicate with his followers, was sentenced today to 28 months in federal prison, far less than the 30 years the government had sought.” The report explains, “Prosecutors had argued that Ms. Stewart repeatedly flouted the law to aid the violent designs of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in plots to blow up five New York landmarks and assassinate Egypt’s president.”
Monday, October 16, 2006
High Court to Hear 2 More Texas Capital Cases
“The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear two more Texas death penalty cases to decide whether lower courts are complying with its previous rulings on faulty jury instructions,” reports The Houston Chronicle. According to the report, “The instructions, which guide Texas jurors as they decide between life sentences and death penalties, were rejected by the Supreme Court in 1989 and corrected by the Texas Legislature in 1991.”
Friday, October 13, 2006
Judges Can Solicit Election Funds, Court Rules
The New York Times reports, “Kentucky may not prohibit judicial candidates from personally soliciting campaign contributions, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.” According to the article, Judge Karen K. Caldwell of the Federal District Court rejected the state’s argument that its interest in preserving the appearance of judicial impartiality justified the ban, finding instead that the ban violates the First Amendment.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Court Turns Down Case of Ex-Nazi Guard
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down the case of a former guard at a Nazi slave camp suffering from Alzheimer's Disease,” reports The Associated Press. The ruling comes in response to the Justice Department’s decision to revoke the U.S. citizenship of 86-year-old Iwan Mandycz of Sterling Heights, Mich., who could face deportation.
Court Rejects Roe V. Wade Companion Case
The Associated Press reports, “The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned aside the case of Sandra Cano, one of the women behind the legalization of abortion, who had sought to reverse the victory she won 33 years ago.” According to the report, “Cano says she never wanted an abortion and that her difficult early life resulted in her becoming the anonymous plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known case which the justices ruled on the same day in 1973 as the landmark Roe v. Wade.”
Friday, October 06, 2006
California Court Upholds State’s Ban on Same-Sex Marriage
“In the latest turn to a long and winding legal fight over same-sex marriage, a California appeals court on Thursday upheld the state’s ban against it.” According to The New York Times, “The 2-to-1 decision, which reversed a lower court’s finding that the ban violated the California Constitution, said the plaintiffs in the case were asking the courts “to recognize a new right,” a step it said only the Legislature or the voters could take.”
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Judge: Patriot Act Challenge Can Proceed
The Associated Press reports, “Nearly three years after hearing arguments in the case, a federal judge has ruled that an American Civil Liberties Union challenge to the constitutionality of the USA Patriot Act may proceed.” “The ACLU's clients, including Muslim charities, social services organizations and advocacy groups, have shown they have been harmed by the anti-terrorism law adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood said in a 15-page ruling issued Friday.”
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!
Time magazine takes a look at what to expect from the Supreme Court this term.
Texas Case is One of Two Being Used to Define how Far Punishments of Immigrants Can Go
Patty Reinert has this article today in The Houston Chronicle.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Supreme Court Begins New Term
“A new Supreme Court term opened today as a former Nazi concentration camp guard lost an appeal over the government's decision to revoke his U.S. citizenship,” reports The Washington Post. According to the article, “Justices declined to review the case of John Hansl, a member of the SS Death's Head battalion that guarded concentration camps at Sachsenhausen near Berlin in 1943 and Natzweiler in France in 1944. In other decisions today, ex-Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent lost an appeal in a dispute over royalties, and the Court declined to revive a libel lawsuit filed against two Philadelphia newspapers by a critic of violent rap lyrics.”
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