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High court upholds anti-terror law
Headline Legal News |
2010/06/21 09:01
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| pThe Supreme Court has upheld a federal law that bars material support to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups./ppThe court ruled 6-3 Monday that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities./ppMaterial support intended even for benign purposes can help a terrorist group in other ways, Chief Justice John Roberts said in his majority opinion./ppSuch support frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends, Roberts said./ppJustice Stephen Breyer took the unusual step of reading his dissent aloud in the courtroom. Breyer said he rejects the majority's conclusion that the Constitution permits the government to prosecute the plaintiffs criminally for providing instruction and advice about the terror groups' lawful political objectives. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor joined the dissent./p |
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High court to review mental health advocacy suit
Headline Legal News |
2010/06/21 09:01
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pThe Supreme Court says it will decide whether Virginia's advocate for the mentally ill can force state officials to provide records relating to deaths and injuries at state mental health facilities./ppThe justices agreed Monday to review a federal appeals court ruling dismissing the state advocate's lawsuit against Virginia's mental health commissioner and two other officials./ppBacking the appeal, the Obama administration said the ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond threatens to undermine the enforcement of federal laws that Congress designed to protect especially vulnerable individuals from the abusive and neglectful practices that can result in injury and death./ppThe Virginia advocate's office, like those in the other 49 states, was created under two federal laws that give states federal money for monitoring the treatment of the mentally ill in state facilities. The first law grew out of public reports in the 1970s of crowded, filthy conditions and abusive treatment of mentally retarded children at the Willowbrook State School in New York./ppThe issue for the court is whether the Eleventh Amendment prohibits a state agency from going to federal court to sue officials of the same state. The state itself could not be sued in the same circumstances.
/p |
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Texas asks court to intervene in fight with EPA
Headline Legal News |
2010/06/16 03:01
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| Texas asked a federal court on Monday to intervene in its fight with the Environmental Protection Agency over how the state regulates emissions from oil refineries and other petrochemicals plants. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to review the EPA's rejection in March of a 1995 state law that allows refineries to be modified without being subject to additional regulation, provided the changes don't increase a facility's overall emissions.pThe issue is part of an ongoing disagreement Texas and the EPA have over how pollution is regulated in the state, said Terry Clawson, a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In recent weeks, debate has focused on the state's use of so-called flexible permits, which sets a general limit on how much pollutants an entire facility can release./ppIn a news release, Abbott's office criticized the EPA for taking more than a decade before deciding to reject the law and said it filed the legal challenge in an effort to defend the state's legal rights and challenge improper overreach by the federal government./p |
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Kagan confirmation would affect major tobacco case
Headline Legal News |
2010/06/14 08:58
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| pIt's a simple matter of math: Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court has complicated the government's effort to force the tobacco industry to cough up nearly $300 billion./ppIf confirmed by the Senate as a justice, Kagan would have to sit out high court review of the government's decade-old racketeering lawsuit against cigarette makers. That's because she already has taken sides as solicitor general, signing the Obama administration's Supreme Court brief in the case — an automatic disqualifier./ppKagan is expected to step aside from 11 of the 24 cases the court has so far agreed to hear beginning in October./ppWithout her, the government and anti-tobacco advocates could find it difficult, if not impossible, to find a fifth vote to allow the government to seek $280 billion of past tobacco profits and $14 billion for a national campaign to curb smoking./p |
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Detroit hit man pleads guilty to 8 murders
Headline Legal News |
2010/06/08 09:24
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| A self-described hit man who once told police I kill people for money pleaded guilty Monday to eight murders, including the contract killing of a Detroit police officer's wife.pVincent Smothers pleaded guilty to eight counts of second-degree murder and a gun charge in exchange for a minimum sentence of 52 years in prison. With credit for time served since his arrest, he could be freed when he's about 80 years old./ppSmothers, 29, shocked police two years ago when he confessed to the eight Detroit slayings during around-the-clock interrogations. He told investigators his hits were all related to the drug trade except for the final one, the killing of Rose Cobb on the day after Christmas in 2007./ppHe's just glad there's closure for everybody, defense attorney Gabi Silver told The Associated Press after the hearing in Wayne County Circuit Court, where jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday for the Cobb slaying./p |
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