Posted on 02/04/2002 11:41:47 AM PST by kattracks
CNSNews.com) - Federal Judge Gladys Kessler ruled Monday in favor of Victoria Wilson and against President Bush's most recent appointment to replace Wilson on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Peter Kirsanow.
The Justice Department said it will appeal the judge's ruling.
At issue is whether federal law allows Wilson to serve a full six-year stint on the panel, or only the unexpired portion of Higginbotham's term to which she was appointed.
The 1983 law reauthorizing the USCCR specifically limited commissioners appointed to fill unexpired terms to the remaining length of the original term. A 1994 reauthorization law did not include that language. However, it also included no contradictory provisions.
Probably an upper-west side red-diaper baby.
I'm not a lawyer, but I would think if they didn't, they would be instantly overturned.
Kinda like the Florida Supreme Court, eh? Vacate!
"The Associated Press
W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 2 A federal judge dismissed Puerto Rico's lawsuit to stop the federal government from resuming Navy bombing exercises on the territory's island of Vieques. The Puerto Rican government said today it would appeal.
U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler said that while the political and policy issues surrounding the case were complex, "the legal issue, in contrast, is simple and straightforward."
Puerto Rico had filed its complaint last year after Gov. Sila Calderon signed a law banning loud noises along the island's shores. That law cited the U.S. Noise Control Act of 1972, which allows states or, as in Puerto Rico's case, U.S. territories to set noise-control laws.
In a ruling issued Monday, Kessler said she must dismiss the Puerto Rico's case "for lack of subject matter jurisdiction." She said the federal Noise Control Act "does not provide plaintiff a cause of action to sue in federal district court for the violations alleged."
Her decision on Berry is aggravating, but it will be appealed and won. Not to worry.
Where do they get these judges that don't know how to read?Democrats appoint them, how else? Ignorant judges suit a party that panders to same.
-Eric
U.S. Dist. Judge Gladys Kessler (D.D.C., Clinton) blocked the Fed. Election Comm'n July 16 from re-releasing public documents from FEC's probe of 1996 campaign efforts of AFL-CIO, the Democratic Nat'l Committee, and other liberal entities. Kessler's preliminary injunction, sought by AFL-CIO/DNC, came a day before FEC planned to re-release the documents, which may contain evidence of union embezzlement crimes whose statutes of limitations are due to run this Fall. Despite this, Kessler's order will remain in effect until at least Oct.; she claims no one will suffer a great injury from the delay. AFL-CIO/DNC claim the documents contain "proprietary information," including campaign strategies and employees' names. [AP 7/16/01; BNA 7/17/01]
The D.C. Circuit isn't much better. This might have to go to the SCOTUS.
Excellent summary. And the other person who referred to Jerry Ford deserving a full four-year term certainly has a point too. This is one bizarre decision. It was an open-and-shut case.
It's not the color of the sky that matters. It's the color of the skin that matters.
The government sold USEC through an initial public offering in 1998, netting $1.9 billion. During the process, USECs board of directors met on three separate occasions to determine whether to hold a public offering or sell the government corporation through a merger and acquisition. The meetings were closed to the public. It was eventually determined that an IPO would net the greatest return for the government.
Kessler, citing various news accounts of the privatization, noted that USECs outside lawyers made about $15 million, a financial advisor would earn up to $7.5 million if the board approved a public stock offering, and USEC Chief Executive William Timbers got a $617,625 bonus. She said the transcripts of the closed board meetings reveal the ways in which bias, self-interest and self-dealing can influence the decision-making process, especially when that process is kept entirely secretive.
From a business standpoint, the meetings had to be closed, said a former Clinton administration official involved in the process. It was the only way to ensure that the government got the highest price. Secrecy, he said, is the most valued commodity on Wall Street.
If the judge had the material or heard the other side of the story, we are convinced she would have had a different opinion, said USEC spokesman Charles Yulish, adding that Kessler relied primarily on documents submitted by the unions attorney, Dan Guttman. Thats because USEC did not submit a brief in the case and the Energy Department mounted a lackluster defense, according to the former Clinton administration official.
USEC was removed from the original suit to gain access to the documents in 1998 and substituted with the Energy Department. In 1999, the union and the Energy Department settled the dispute. The remaining question before Kessler was whether the government had to pay for the unions legal fees.
That's been the plan all along. They knew they'd be getting a liberal judge out of the gate and are prepared to escalate this as high as necessary.
So the obvious intent is for an appointed person to serve for the remaining portion of the term, not a full six years. This will be overturned, obviously, or Berry could just claim there is an indefinite period. How does it revert to a "full six year term" just becasue the specific language was not in the 1994 bill? With no "contradictory" language, I think they will be forced to comply with the last language pertaining to this.
This judge is either dumb or scared of being called racist.
Which ran smack into a closed-minded judge who already had her pathetic mind made up before ever hearing the case.
"I've been to a World's Fair, and three billy-goat copulations, but I gotta say, I ain't never seen nuthin like this!" - Unknown
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