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US appeals court upholds roadless rule in forests
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/10/22 16:55
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A federal appeals court on Friday upheld a rule prohibiting roads on nearly 50 million acres of land in national forests across the United States, a ruling hailed by environmentalists as one of the most significant in decades.
Mining and energy companies, however, say it could limit development of natural resources such as coal, oil and natural gas.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule after lawyers for the state of Wyoming and the Colorado Mining Association contended it was a violation of the law.
Supporters of the roadless rule say the court's decision preserves areas where outdoor enthusiasts like to hunt, fish, hike and camp. It also protects water quality and wildlife habitat for grizzly bears, lynx and Pacific salmon, supporters say.
"Without the roadless rule, protection of these national forests would be left to a patchwork management system that in the past resulted in millions of acres lost to logging, drilling and other industrial development," said Jane Danowitz, director of the Pew Environment Group's U.S. public lands program. |
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Senate rejects GOP effort on terrorist trials
U.S. Legal News |
2011/10/21 16:09
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The Senate voted early Friday to reject a Republican effort to prohibit the United States from prosecuting foreign terrorist suspects in civilian courts, handing a victory to President Barack Obama.
By 52-47, senators turned aside a proposal by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (AY-aht), R-N.H., that would have forced such trials to occur before military tribunals or commissions. The Obama administration has fought to continue bringing such cases in federal courts, with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Attorney General Eric Holder writing Senate leaders on Thursday that the measure would deprive them of a potent weapon against terrorism and increase the risk of terrorists escaping justice.
Obama has had numerous clashes with Congress over the handling of war on terror detainees. Congress has voted to prevent the transfer of detainees from the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the U.S. Obama has sought to close that detention facility but has been opposed by Republicans and some Democratic lawmakers.
Ayotte said it would be dangerous to let terrorists exercise the protections against self-incrimination and other rights of civilian courts that they might use to avoid surrendering critical information to investigators. Republicans cited last November's acquittal by a federal jury in New York of all but one of hundreds of charges brought against Ahmed Ghailani for his role in destroying two U.S. embassies in Africa, in which 224 people were killed. |
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Indiana, Planned Parenthood in court over funding
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/10/21 16:08
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Planned Parenthood of Indiana can end a dispute over a law that would cut some of its public funding if it became two separate entities, with one offering abortion services and the other offering general health services, an attorney for the state told a federal appeals court Thursday.
Solicitor General Thomas Fisher said during oral arguments before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that Indiana's new law is aimed at keeping taxpayer dollars "from indirectly subsidizing abortions."
He told the appeals court that Planned Parenthood of Indiana could ensure that wouldn't happen by separating its operations into two entities.
"Only by separating the two can we be sure that there's no cross-subsidy," Fisher said.
Planned Parenthood's attorney, Ken Falk of the American Civil Liberties Union, told the appeals court during the 45-minute hearing that Indiana's own Medicaid agency warned state lawmakers while they were weighing the legislation that it would violate Medicaid recipients' "freedom of choice" by targeting the abortion provider. |
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Artists sue auction houses over royalties law
Headline News |
2011/10/21 13:08
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Famed New York painter Chuck Close and other artists are suing Sotheby's, Christie's and eBay, contending the auctioneers willfully violated a California law requiring royalty payments on sales of their works.
The three federal suits filed Tuesday seek class-action status to represent many other artists and demand unspecified royalties and damages — which could total hundreds of thousands of dollars given current art prices.
The suits were filed on behalf of Close — best known for his enormous photorealistic paintings — along with Los Angeles artist Laddie John Dill, and the estate of late sculptor Robert Graham. Graham's works include the ceremonial gate for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum that was commissioned for the 1984 Olympics and features nude statues modeled on some of the athletes.
A foundation of late California painter Sam Francis also is named as a plaintiff in the suits against Christie's and eBay Inc. |
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Mom pleads guilty to forcing beer on children
Court Feed News |
2011/10/21 10:08
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A Connecticut mother has pleaded guilty to charges that she forced her 4-year-old son to drink beer and gave her 10-month-old daughter beer and cocaine.
The Connecticut Post reports Juliette Dunn, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty Wednesday to risk of injury to a child under the Alford Doctrine, where the defendant doesn't agree to the facts but agrees the state has enough evidence to win a conviction.
A companion, 33-year-old Lisa Jefferson, pleaded guilty to the same charges.
Police say officers were waved down in June by a neighbor who complained that a woman was feeding children beer at a playground.
The children were turned over to the Department of Children and Families after 29-year-old Dunn's arrest. Custody hasn't been decided. |
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Lawyer: Student wrote rap lyrics not terror threat
Court Feed News |
2011/10/20 16:20
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An aspiring rapper on trial over what authorities say was a note threatening a Virginia Tech-like killing spree set off "alarm bells" days before the writings surfaced on his college campus by pressing to get firepower he ordered from a gun dealer, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday. But an attorney for Olutosin Oduwole countered during a trial's opening statements in the 4-year-old case that his gun-loving client stood wrongly accused, saying the words at issue were innocent lyrics and other musings by a performer prone to compulsively log all of his thoughts on paper. "This case is a very selective case," Justin Kuehn said on behalf of Oduwole, accused of attempting to make a terroristic threat and a weapons count linked to the loaded handgun police found a short time later in July 2007 in Oduwole's on-campus apartment at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. "That 'note' is nothing more than a piece of scrap paper with private thoughts, the beginning of a song," Kuehn insisted. "Their key piece of evidence, the center point of their case, is a song." Wednesday's differing scenarios by the prosecutors and defense previewed testimony that could leave jurors with a key decision: Whether Oduwole's questioned writings — found in his out-of-gas car just months after the Virginia Tech rampage that left 32 people dead along with the gunman — represented something potentially sinister or were lyrical stylings that were constitutionally protected free speech. Kuehn told the all-white jury that witnesses on Oduwole's behalf may include what the defense describes as an expert in the study of rap and hip-hop music, along with that genre's culture. The trial's stakes are high: Oduwole, 26 and free on bond, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the threat-related count. |
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