Free Republic

Sanders should have recused himself from case, ethics experts say. Justice Richard Sanders, who sued the state to get documents about himself, could be awarded much more money because of a ruling he wrote recently for the state Supreme Court. Sanders' lawyers say new legal guidelines -- ones the justice himself created -- mean he should get far more than the $18,112 he was already awarded in his lawsuit... Legal-ethics experts say Sanders probably should not have participated in the high court case because of its similarity to his own. "You shouldn't act as a judge if you stand to...

One Law for All, the group that campaigns against the adoption of Islamic law or sharia in the UK, is planning a mass demonstration in the centre of London tomorrow, Saturday. 'We know we have a huge fight ahead and can only win if we do this together. We must mobilise a mass anti-racist movement that defends people's rights and lives and gives them precedence over culture and religion,' says organiser Maryam Namazie. The protest is timed to coincide with International Women's Day. Maryam says: 'This is your chance to voice your opposition to sharia law and all religious-based tribunals...

Judge throws out $2 million worth of drugs, gun as evidence in case against Springfield man called 'big fish' drug trafficker SPRINGFIELD - Saying the actions of a veteran state trooper and a Holyoke police detective amounted to "lawlessness," a judge has refused to allow close to $2 million worth of cocaine and a loaded handgun to be used as evidence to prosecute a Springfield man described as a "big fish" in drug trafficking. The ruling by in Hampden Superior Court marks the third time in a month that judges have thrown out evidence in cases being prosecuted by the...

Henry Tucker had worked for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. for 17 years when he was told he was going to lose his job _ because he hadn't registered for the military draft when he was 18. Tucker was offered another job as a budget analyst at the National Institutes of Health, but that was withdrawn when the agency learned he never registered. Tucker, now 38, said when he was 18, he didn't know he had to register for Selective Service. "There hasn't been a draft since I was a child. To all of a sudden say this is an...

A special judges panel held its first meeting with campaign lawyers today, a day after DFLer Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman dueled over how broad Coleman's legal challenge to the U.S. Senate recount should be and how long it should take. After the closed-door meeting in St. Paul, attorneys for both campaigns said the three-judge panel is likely to issue an order later today saying when the trial will begin and what the schedule will be. They also said a hearing will be held Wednesday at which the panel will consider Franken's motion to dismiss Coleman's lawsuit. One of...

2008 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary This past November, the Smithsonian Institution completed an acclaimed renovation of its National Museum of American History, which houses many of our Nation’s most treasured historical artifacts. The highlight for many visitors is the Star-Spangled Banner Gallery, which provides a permanent home for the garrison flag that flew over Fort McHenry on the morning of September 14, 1814. The appearance of the flag at dawn marked the success of American soldiers in repulsing a British attack during the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the song that has become...

LIMA (Reuters) - Peru's top court has ruled that workers cannot be fired for being drunk on the job, a decision that was criticized by the government on Wednesday for setting a dangerous precedent. The Constitutional Tribunal ordered that Pablo Cayo be given his job back as a janitor for the municipality of Chorrillos, which fired him for being intoxicated at work. The firing was excessive because even though Cayo was drunk, he did not offend or hurt anybody, Fernando Calle, one of the justices, said on Wednesday.

A 21-year-old citizen of Chad who has been held for seven years at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba must be released, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said the government had not proven that Mohammed el Gharani was an enemy combatant and the detainee must be freed and sent home soon either to Saudi Arabia, where he was raised and his family lives, or Chad. Leon's ruling comes just before President-elect Barack Obama, who has vowed to close the prison camp, takes office on Tuesday. Since Obama's election in November, federal...

A family whose lives were shattered by a mistaken police raid a year ago have been awarded a $612,498 settlement by the city of Minneapolis to make amends. -------------------------cut----------------- "It's only a mistake for them, but it changed our lives forever," Moua said Friday at a news conference held at Heffelfinger's office. "We want what's best for our children. It's a miracle we survived that night. No amount of money can fix what we went through that night." Acting on wrong information from an informant, a SWAT team broke into Vang Khang's north Minneapolis house last December expecting to find...

WASHINGTON – A conservation group filed a federal lawsuit Monday to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the law and clean up the polluted Chesapeake Bay, citing 25 years of failure to restore the nation's largest estuary. The lawsuit asserts that the EPA's failure to meet its obligations "has led to the continued degradation of water quality in the Chesapeake Bay," harming natural resources and the residents who depend on them. Poor water quality caused by pollution has harmed the blue crab population, destroyed underwater grasses and hurt bay fish. The losses have badly damaged the soft shell...

A case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court could have a major impact on the power of corporations and their relationships with unions, banks and vendors. The court will decide whether owners can make business decisions for their personal benefit at the expense of creditors, workers and the corporations themselves or whether they have obligations to those interests. Oral arguments are set for Jan. 7. The case involves the former owners of a company in Lancaster, Wis., about 80 miles west of Madison, that manufactures components for stereo speakers. The company, then known as Communications Products Corp., defaulted on loans in...

Man charged despite girlfriend telling police she framed him BY SCOTT F. DAVIS Northwest Arkansas Times Posted on Friday, January 2, 2009 A University of Arkansas employee faces charges for recording a teenage girl in the shower even though his girlfriend told police she did it to get him in trouble. Kevin Dale Robinson, 35, was charged Tuesday with possessing or viewing matter depicting explicit conduct involving a child and video voyeurism. Robinson is accused on Oct. 6 of possessing nude images of a 16-year-old girl and using a digital camera to secretly record her while she was taking a...

Federal judges lose bid for pay raisesA quirk in federal law prevents them from getting automatic cost-of-living increases. A bill before Congress to boost their salaries showed promise -- but that was before the Wall Street meltdown. By David G. Savage January 1, 2009 Reporting from Washington -- Joining the many who felt shortchanged by 2008 are the nation's federal judges. They were the only federal employees who did not receive a cost-of-living pay increase. **SNIP** In his fourth year-end report on the federal judiciary, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said he has been repeating himself. "I suspect many...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Making his annual year-end report, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday renewed his call for an increase in judicial pay. "Our country wisely preserves and maintains its national symbols. As citizens, we should strive with no less determination and vigor to preserve and maintain what our flag signifies and our anthem celebrates," Roberts wrote. "The Judiciary depends on such people, who have made American courts the envy of the world and the model for new democracies. As I have previously pointed out, however, widespread esteem is no reason for complacency." "I suspect many...

Cheers To You bar owner Robert Brown wants his customers to smoke if they want to. And Brown said he found a way to keep his private club in Salt Lake City smoker-friendly despite, or maybe because of, the Jan. 1 smoking ban. But Utah Department of Health officials, in a formal declaration issued Tuesday, said that loophole doesn't exist, and the smoking ban stays.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Two Indiana men filed a lawsuit claiming that President-elect Barack Obama is not eligible to serve as president. The suit questions whether Obama meets the constitutional requirement that the president must be a "natural born citizen." Obama's birth certificate says he was born in Hawaii, but his father was not a U.S. citizen and some have claimed the document is a fake. The U.S. Supreme Court this month refused without comment to hear a challenge to Obama's citizenship. The Indianapolis Star reports the Indiana suit was filed in Marion Superior Court in Indianapolis by Steve Ankeny, New Castle,...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) The Minnesota Supreme Court is getting involved in the state's unsettled U.S. Senate race. The court said Monday it will weigh whether to stop the sorting and counting of wrongly rejected absentee ballots until clear instructions are handed down. Republican Sen. Norm Coleman petitioned the court to step in after the state board overseeing the recount recommended those ballots be considered last week. Coleman maintains there aren't clear guidelines for the recommendation and could lead to disarray among the 87 counties.

The Iowa Supreme Court has heard arguments from homosexuals in a challenge to the state's marriage laws. Douglas Lapier, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, argued against homosexual marriage." "For over 170 years in Iowa, marriage has been defined as a union between one man and one woman," he explains. "It's [a] well-settled law in the state of Iowa." Lapier notes that a member of the court asked the pro-homosexual attorney what would happen in terms of polygamy and incestuous marriage if the court ruled in favor of homosexual marriage. "The plaintiffs simply could not satisfactorily answer that question,...

America was a different country in 1995, when the most-watched murder trial of the 20th century saw an overwhelmingly black jury find O J Simpson innocent of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. It seemed like delayed justice when the former footballer was sentenced to a minimum of nine years' jail yesterday for his role in an armed raid on a Las Vegas hotel room in 2007, during which two dealers were robbed of sports memorabilia. There was none of the rancour that accompanied the murder acquittal or the civil trial, when a predominantly white jury...

Unlikely decision could deny him presidency The Supreme Court plans to meet Friday to decide whether to hear a case that could determine whether President-elect Barack Obama ever becomes the nation's president. Justice Clarence Thomas picked up the petition to hear New Jersey attorney Leo Donofrio's lawsuit after it was denied by Justice David H. Souter. Justice Thomas referred it to the full court, which decided to distribute the case for the judges' conference. The decision to put the case on Friday's docket resulted from more than a dozen lawsuits challenging Mr. Obama's right to be president based on his...

Disability regulations are likely to get “tougher” in Gettysburg, according to town administrators, to help the borough government avoid court time as it battles American with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaints. The municipality is currently mired in 26 disabled rights suits filed with the state’s Human Relations Commission in Harrisburg.(snip) Property owners in Gettysburg, according to town officials, are responsible for sidewalks. Some driveway and sidewalk ADA upgrades, Lawver has predicted, could cost as little as $2,500 and as much as $10,000. (snip) President George H.W. Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act in 1990, making accessibility for disabled persons a...

Minnesota Senate candidate Al Franken's campaign says it may appeal to the U.S. Senate or the courts because it believes that up to 1,000 absentee ballots were improperly disqualified in the state's recount of votes, The Hill reports. "Wherever the numbers stand todayÂ…that number simply cannot be relevant if it does not include all the votes that were legally cast," Franken attorney Marc Elias said, according to the newspaper. "No recount can be considered accurate or complete until all the ballots cast by lawful voters are counted." Franken trails Republican rival Norm Coleman by 282 votes with most of the...

MSNBC had a poll a while back: "Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?" The "Yes" answer affirmed, "It's a violation of the principle of separation of church and state." The "No" answer stated, "The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion." As of my last visit (from August 22, 2008), there were 6594785 responses, and "No" had a commanding lead. Based on a Free Republic comment on November 14 after the poll closed, the ultimate tally was: 81% wanted to keep "In God We Trust," and 19%...

Barack Obama might have as much power to shape a new court as Reagan. Like Reagan, Obama could appoint as many as three justices before Inauguration Day 2013. John Paul Stevens, 88, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75, are of retirement age, and Ginsburg is a colon cancer survivor. David Souter, 69, has reportedly expressed an interest in returning to his home in New Hampshire. (Kennedy, who has twice had minor heart procedures, is 72, as is Scalia.)

A federal judge this week gave the go-ahead to kill sea lions feasting on salmon at Bonneville Dam, but a Washington state fishery manager said Wednesday that managers will continue to try to trap and relocate the animals first. U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman on Tuesday ruled against the Humane Society of the United States, which sued to block the lethal-take permit issued to state fishery managers earlier this year by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The states want to kill nuisance sea lions that have in recent years taken advantage of a man-made bottleneck to devour imperiled salmon. “We’re...

" A jurisprudence of “originalism” can help to restore the vision of the Founding Fathers and give proper weight to the political branches of government where policy differences can be properly vetted, said Scalia. Eugene Meyer, the Federalist Society president, told CNSNews.com that the organization has worked since its founding to “redirect attention back to the constitutional text” to help bring balance into what had been a “one-sided discussion” in law schools. In reference to that issue, Scalia told audience members that he sees some encouraging signs. In the academy, for instance, there are now three “originalists” on the Harvard...

The co-chairman of the state legislature's judiciary committee wants a full review of allegations that a judge charged with drunken driving last month angrily hurled epithets at police officers during her arrest, called a black state police sergeant n***** and told officers she was a state judge.

US court rules Vatican can be sued for sex abuse by American priests From correspondents in Chicago Agence France-Presse November 26, 2008 11:47am A US appeals court has ruled that the Vatican can be sued for the sex abuse committed by American priests. The Vatican had tried to block a class action lawsuit alleging that it orchestrated a cover-up of sexual abuse by clergy with the argument that it was protected by laws granting sovereign states immunity from most US civil proceedings. Central to the case is a 1962 Vatican mandate, unearthed in 2003, which outlined a policy of "strictest"...

"A lawyer representing a man arrested in Fairfield for drunken driving says the state's breathalyzers discriminate against black people. "They are KKK in a box," said lawyer James O. Ruane of Shelton. "We really have some racist machines here."" " A breath analysis administered at state police Troop G in Bridgeport found Brown had a blood-alcohol content of 0.188. The legal limit is 0.08. In a motion filed Tuesday in Superior Court, Ruane asked a judge to suppress his client's breathalyzer test results, contending the device used by the state police, and most other local police departments, the Intoxilyzer 5000,...

A special panel of the Washington Supreme Court made up of nine substitute judges reprimanded one of the court’s justices yesterday for visiting a facility that holds sexually violent predators. The panel ruled that the justice, Richard B. Sanders, had “created an appearance of partiality” by questioning inmates and accepting documents from them at the McNeil Island Special Commitment Center on a visit there in January 2003. The center holds sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences but who the courts have found are likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence. A case concerning the constitutionality of...

The State of California is investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints because they helped to defend true marriage as between one man and one woman. The Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) was created by the Political Reform Act of 1974, itself a ballot initiative passed by California voters as Proposition 9. It is now being used as a tool to persecute those who defend marriage, wielded by a savvy ex political consultant who does not like the position taken by the Church or the results of the latest Proposition 8 initiative...“Californians Against Hate was established in...

{Snip} The shootings, in a city where sporadic but horrific incidents of violent street crime rattle its culture of progressive cool, sent Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels on a mission: banning guns on city property, including at parks, sporting events and street fairs. Next month, he will hold a public hearing on his executive order. {Snip} After a Supreme Court ruling in June that the 2nd Amendment explicitly protects Americans' right to own guns for self-defense, gun rights advocates are gearing up for a new round of court cases in California, Chicago and elsewhere. The cases will determine how far the...

(11-24) 16:23 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Police who stop a car without a legal reason may be allowed to use evidence they find in the vehicle against the driver or a passenger, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. The court unanimously reinstated the drug conviction and four-year prison sentence of a Northern California man whose previous appeal in the case led to a U.S. Supreme Court decision on passengers' rights. The case dates from Nov. 27, 2001, when a Sutter County sheriff's deputy stopped a car in Yuba City just after midnight. The car's registration had expired, but the owner...

Utah's chief federal judge will not be disciplined for donating money to Barack Obama's campaign. Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Henry cleared U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell in a decision posted last week. He did say the donation was unethical but noted that Campbell had promised no similar donations in the future.

Washington Dispatch: Addressing the Federalist Society, the top Senate Republican went light on the red meat—except when it came to judges. Having narrowly survived his reelection campaign, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was in an expansive mood Thursday morning. Back to work in Washington, he spoke at the annual convention of the Federalist Society, the powerful conservative legal organization. Acknowledging his recent close shave, McConnell elicited some laughs from the friendly crowd by noting that in campaign ads, Democrats had called him the biggest impediment to progress since Antonin Scalia, who also happens to be one of the group's...

The so-called "free-speech code" of Yuba Community College District is under federal court scrutiny. California student, Ryan Dozier, decided to spend some time on campus sharing his faith and handing out tracts to fellow students, generating conversations about Christianity. Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) attorney Heather Hacker comments on the situation. "A campus police officer came over and told him that if he continued to do so without a permit that he would be possibly expelled or arrested, and so Ryan stopped immediately," she explains. Hacker says Dozier thought the case was closed, but he was apparently mistaken. "Three weeks later...

The US Constitution is the oldest working constitution in the world. But it has been under siege recently and the legal stakes in the Obama-McCain election could not have been greater. McCain, for example, had publicly stated that he would (attempt to) reverse Supreme Court decisions regarding Guantanamo Bay if he was elected. Four of the nine current Supreme Court judges are regarded as conservatives: Chief Justice Roberts together with ­Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito. There are four liberal judges: Justices Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter and Breyer. The ninth judge, Justice Kennedy, was a Ronald Reagan appointee and is no liberal,...

Let’s face it. It’s always about “the economy,” stupid or not. And for the foreseeable future it will be so in spades, a fact, by the way, that demands Republican leaders follow main street conservative principles as they devise economic policies that put the American people first. However, like the executives of our auto companies, Republicans must understand they can’t survive by fixing one thing at a time; for especially in politics, issues have a way of coming up when least expected — taking a stance on a judicial nominee, for example. I mention the judiciary because with regard to...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- A U.S. military judge has blocked Pentagon prosecutors from using a Guantanamo prisoner's statements to U.S. authorities as trial evidence, saying they were tainted by an earlier confession tortured out of the suspect by Afghan officials. Mohammed Jawad's confession to U.S. authorities in Afghanistan following his capture in 2002 was the last incriminating statement available to prosecutors for the Afghan's war-crimes trial at Guantanamo Bay, his military defense attorney, Air Force Maj. David Frakt, said Thursday. Wednesday's dismissal of Jawad's confession in U.S. custody decimates the government's case against the Afghan prisoner at Guantanamo...

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered the release of five Algerian terror suspects who have been held without charges almost seven years at Guantanamo Bay. In the first civilian court ruling for terror suspects challenging their detention, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said Thursday that the five men could not be held indefinitely as enemy combatants.

Judges who use foreign laws to interpret the U.S. Constitution are rewriting it rather than respecting its founders, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a roomful of judges and top lawyers in Houston on Monday night. "I fear the courts' use of foreign law in interpreting the Constitution will continue at an accelerated pace," the 72-year-old conservative jurist said. Scalia spoke at a $150-a-head steak and potatoes dinner sponsored by the local chapter of the Federal Bar Association and held at the Hyatt Regency Houston downtown. Before talking for about 30 minutes, the jurist autographed copies of a book...

The Nevada Commission on Judicial Discipline issued an order today that permanently removes Judge Elizabeth Halverson from the bench. Judge Halverson was suspended from the bench in July 2007. She lost a recent bid for re-election in the August primary election. She faced a disciplinary hearing in August on charges of misconduct. After two weeks of hearings in August, the commission heard a dozen complaints, including that the judge was accused of sleeping on the bench and treating her staff like servants. “Some judges are in office for an entire career and do not accumulate the type of dismal professional...

The central issue in the legal battle over Proposition 8 is whether the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage is a state constitutional amendment, which can be passed by initiative, or a constitutional revision, which can't. From another perspective, the question is whether the scope of a minority group's rights in California should be decided by the voters or the courts. The state Supreme Court may decide Wednesday whether to dismiss or grant review of six lawsuits challenging Prop. 8, approved with a 52 percent majority on Nov. 4. It's the same court that ruled 4-3 on May 15 that the...

Because in California Supreme Court Justices are not appointed as they are under the federal constitution, but elected, they are subject to recall by the electorate, and rightly so. The constitutional framers made the manner of recall very simple. The recall process has two parts. Both of these parts are stated plainly in Article 2 Section 14a. The first is: "Recall of a state officer is initiated by delivering to the Secretary of State a petition alleging reason for recall. Sufficiency of reason is not reviewable." The petition to remove these elected officials is not "reviewable." That means that the...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- The sponsors of California's new same-sex marriage ban are urging the state's highest court to hear a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn the measure. Lawyer Andrew Pugno says the backers of Proposition 8 are so confident the California Supreme Court would uphold the voter-approved initiative they would prefer the court take the cases and resolve the question quickly. Supporters of gay marriage have filed four legal challenges to Proposition 8 arguing . . .

A former New York college instructor may proceed with a claim that he was denied tenure because school administrators disapproved of his conservative politics and support for President George W. Bush, not for deficiencies as an educator, a federal judge has ruled. Michael Filozof has presented sufficient evidence of a possible First Amendment violation ... on his free speech claim, Western District Court Judge David G. Larimer has determined. Filozof contends the tenure track he was on as a political science instructor at the Rochester, N.Y., community college was suddenly derailed in 2003, during a period of hot debate among...

Ejected at ’04 Convention, a Protester Gets $55,000 By COLIN MOYNIHAN Published: November 15, 2008 During President Bush’s acceptance speech in Madison Square Garden at the 2004 Republican National Convention, a San Francisco woman briefly interrupted the proceedings by standing on a chair and unfurling a banner that accused the president of lying. That protest set into motion a chain of events that has ended in one of the more unusual legal resolutions connected to the four days of the convention, during which more than 1,800 demonstrators and bystanders were arrested, most of them in street protests. Hundreds of them...

The California Supreme Court is soliciting the state's take on lawsuits filed directly with the high court seeking to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage ratified by voters Nov. 4. The court has requested the Attorney General's office respond by Monday to the suits, filed by gay and lesbian couples and some municipalities. The ballot initiative - Proposition 8 - is an amendment to the state Constitution. The suits' individual plaintiffs argue it denies them a right to protection from widespread discrimination they have suffered in the past. They maintain the measure changes the Constitution in a way that requires...

The Supreme Court stepped into a sensitive dispute Friday over a state judge's decision to participate in a case that involved a key campaign supporter. The justices typically avoid cases about judicial ethics, but they agreed to review the actions of a West Virginia Supreme Court justice whose vote overturned a $50 million verdict against a company that is run by the most generous backer of his election. The high court's decision comes amid growing concern over the role of money in electing state judges. Don Blankenship, the chief executive of Massey Energy Co., spent more than $3 million to...

President-elect Barack Obama will have a chance to appoint dozens of sympathetic judges to U.S. federal courts over the next four years, reversing the judiciary's shift to the right under President George W. Bush. Aided by a Democrat-controlled Senate, the former constitutional law professor will appoint judges who could rule on issues raised by Bush's prosecution of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as divisive social issues like gay marriage, the death penalty and abortion. Obama's appointments to the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts also will be in a position to hear challenges to policies he intends...