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Kline lawyer wants probe of research attorneys
Court Feed News |
2012/12/21 07:54
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An attorney representing Phill Kline against ethics charges is alleging that the court record may have been tainted by a research attorney who was later fired for posting disparaging Twitter comments about the former Kansas attorney general.
In a letter to Stan Hazlett, disciplinary administrator for the state's judicial branch, Kline's attorney Tom Condit asks for a review of all research attorneys working for judges and justices to determine whether there was bias.
"It's the only way to resolve these concerns, when there is so much at stake for Mr. Kline, is to conduct a thorough vetting of the process," Condit wrote in the letter sent Tuesday.
Sarah Peterson-Herr was fired Nov. 19, four days after she posted comments about Kline as he appeared before the Kansas Supreme Court over alleged misconduct during his investigation of abortion providers. |
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Appeals court sides with newspaper in labor fight
Lawyer News |
2012/12/20 23:10
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A federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with the publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press in a long-running labor dispute between the newspaper and reporters who were fired after they complained about its editorial practices.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the newspaper's publisher was protected by the First Amendment when it dismissed eight reporters and disciplined others who claimed the owner was interfering with news coverage.
The reporters claimed they were illegally fired for union activity and legitimate complaints about their terms of employment. But the court found the dispute was all about editorial control.
"The First Amendment affords a publisher — not a reporter — absolute authority to shape a newspaper's content," Judge Stephen Williams wrote for a three-judge panel.
The ruling stems from a dispute between Ampersand Publishing LLC and employees that began in 2006. Nearly every top editor at the paper quit in protest over what they said was owner Wendy McCaw's meddling in news coverage.
Newsroom employees later voted to form a union, and they have been fighting with the newspaper since then over bargaining rights. |
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Minn. gay couple in '71 marriage case still united
Headline News |
2012/12/10 23:04
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When Jack Baker proposed to Michael McConnell that they join their lives together as a couple, in March 1967, McConnell accepted with a condition that was utterly radical for its time: that someday they would legally marry.
Just a few years later, the U.S. Supreme Court slammed the door on the men's Minnesota lawsuit to be the first same-sex couple to legally marry in the U.S. It took another 40 years for the nation's highest court to revisit gay marriage rights, and Baker and McConnell — still together, still living in Minneapolis — are alive to see it.
On Friday, the justices decided to take a potentially historic look at gay marriage by agreeing to hear two cases that challenge official discrimination against gay Americans either by forbidding them from marrying or denying those who can marry legally the right to obtain federal benefits that are available to heterosexual married couples.
"The outcome was never in doubt because the conclusion was intuitively obvious to a first-year law student," Baker wrote in an email to The Associated Press. The couple, who have kept a low profile in the years since they made national headlines with their marriage pursuit, declined an interview request but responded to a few questions via email.
While Baker saw the court's action as an obvious step, marriage between two men was nearly unthinkable to most Americans decades earlier when the couple walked into the Hennepin County courthouse in Minneapolis on May 18, 1970, and tried to get a license. |
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Supreme Court says government can be liable for floods
Headline News |
2012/12/04 17:21
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The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the federal government is not automatically exempt from paying for damage caused by temporary flooding from government-owned dams. The court sided with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in its appeal of a lower court ruling that said the federal government did not have to pay for damage to thousands of trees after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released more water than usual from its dam on the Black River. The release of additional water benefitted farmers, but the commission said its hardwood forest suffered significant damage. The commission said the damage amounted to the government taking its property, for which compensation would be owed under the Constitution. The Court of Federal Claims agreed and ordered the government to pay $5.6 million for destroyed and damaged trees. But the U.S Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington said damage resulting from temporary, as opposed to permanent or inevitable, flooding cannot be compensated under the Constitution's Takings Clause. |
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Lawyers: Colo shooting suspect can't go to hearing
Headline News |
2012/11/15 21:22
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A court hearing for the man charged with the Colorado movie theater killings has been postponed after his attorneys said Wednesday that he had been taken to a hospital for unspecified reasons.
Court documents filed Wednesday gave no details of James E. Holmes' condition, other than that it "renders him unable to be present in court for hearing." The hearing had been scheduled to discuss pretrial motions and media requests for information under state open records laws.
At a hearing Wednesday on defense attorneys' request to delay the court date, defense attorney Tamara Brady said Holmes was taken to a hospital Tuesday. She didn't say where or offer details on why, saying attorneys don't want to disclose privileged medical or psychiatric information.
"It's not as simple as a migraine, and it's not something that will resolve by tomorrow morning," she said.
Arapahoe County District Judge William B. Sylvester said that was sufficient information for him and postponed the Thursday hearing until Dec. 10.
Prosecutor Rich Orman had objected, saying the defense should be required to give information on Holmes' condition first. |
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NY court: Lap dances are not art and are taxable
U.S. Legal News |
2012/11/06 19:08
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Lap dances are taxable because they don't promote culture in a community the way ballet or other artistic endeavors do, New York's highest court concluded Tuesday in a sharply divided ruling.
The court split 4-3, with the dissenting judges saying there's no distinction in state law between "highbrow dance and lowbrow dance," so the case raises "significant constitutional problems."
The lawsuit was filed by Nite Moves in suburban Albany, which was arguing fees for admission to the strip club and for private dances are exempt from sales taxes.
The court majority said taxes apply to many entertainment venues, such as amusement parks and sporting events. It ruled the club has failed to prove it qualifies for the exemption for "dramatic or musical arts performances" that was adopted by the Legislature "with the evident purpose of promoting cultural and artistic performances in local communities."
The majority reached similar conclusions about admission fees to watch dances done onstage around a pole, as well as for lap dances or private dances.
W. Anderson McCullough, attorney for the club, said he and his client were bitterly disappointed by the judges' ruling. |
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