|
|
|
Court-martial wrap up in Iraq contractor's death
Legal Career News |
2011/09/30 17:12
|
A court-martial was expected to wrap up Friday for a U.S. soldier accused of killing a civilian contractor in Iraq, and a military judge will then decide whether Pfc. Carl T. Stovall was mentally competent when prosecutors say he shot the Hungarian laborer to death.
Stovall has pleaded not guilty in the March 2009 shooting of Tibor Bogdan near Camp Taji, just north of Baghdad. The shooting came less than a month into Stovall's third deployment to the Middle East.
Bogdan was shot while digging a hole at the camp. Stovall had allegedly once told investigators he believed Bogdan, who worked for a contractor specializing in trash and waste removal, was a terrorist planting a roadside bomb. Prosecutors, however, say Stovall, now 28, has changed his story multiple times, allegedly denying any involvement in one version. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Appeals court tosses gays in military lawsuit
Court Feed News |
2011/09/30 16:11
|
A federal appeals court refused Thursday to decide the constitutionality of the military's now-repealed "don't ask, don't tell" policy banning openly gay troops, saying the issue has been resolved since Americans can enlist and serve in the armed forces without regard to sexual orientation.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco tossed out a lawsuit that had challenged the military policy as a violation of gay service members' civil rights. In doing so, the appeals court also dismissed a Southern California trial judge's year-old ruling that the policy was unconstitutional.
The gay rights group Log Cabin Republicans filed the lawsuit in 2004 challenging the policy. The group's lawyer, Dan Woods, said he would ask the full 9th Circuit to review the panel's decision. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mexico court upholds state right-to-life amendment
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/09/30 15:11
|
Mexico's supreme court on Wednesday let stand a right-to-life amendment to the Baja California state constitution that says life begins at conception and effectively bans elective abortions in the northern border state.
The ruling appeared to allow Mexican states to decide individually on the abortion question, though the court has also agreed to review a similar amendment from the north-central state of San Luis Potosi.
Sixteen of Mexico's 31 states have adopted right-to-life amendments that severely restrict abortions, though almost all continue to allow it under some circumstances like rape or danger to a mother's life. Only Mexico City has legalized abortion on demand in the first trimester.
Seven justices of the 11-member court voted to overturn the amendment, arguing it was a federal issue, or could violate federally guaranteed rights. But eight votes are needed to overturn a law on grounds of unconstitutionality |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Discover faces FDIC action on protection sales
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/09/30 11:10
|
Discover Financial Services is facing an enforcement action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over the way it sold its payment protection, identity theft protection and other products.
The Riverwoods, Ill.-based credit card company said in a regulatory filing late Wednesday that the agency has notified its banking division that it plans to take action, following an investigation started several months ago. Discover said it is cooperating in the probe. The FDIC would not comment.
The investigation follows the filing of a series of class action lawsuits in various U.S. District Courts challenging the company's marketing.
At issue are its sales policies for several products:
Payment protection: This service allows users to put Discover Card payments on hold for up to two years following a job layoff, disability, leave of absence, hospitalization, death of a spouse or domestic partner or federal or state disaster. It also allows one-month holds on payments following happier events like a marriage, childbirth, adoption, new job, retirement, moving or graduation. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Obama appeals health care setback to high court
Legal Career News |
2011/09/29 17:35
|
Raising prospects for a major election-year ruling, the Obama administration launched its Supreme Court defense of its landmark health care overhaul Wednesday, appealing what it called a "fundamentally flawed" appeals court decision that declared the law's central provision unconstitutional.
Destined from the start for a high court showdown, the health care law affecting virtually every American seems sure to figure prominently in President Barack Obama's campaign for re-election next year. Republican contenders are already assailing it in virtually every debate and speech.
The administration formally appealed a ruling by the federal appeals court in Atlanta that struck down the law's core requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty beginning in 2014.
At the same time, however, the winners in that appellate case, 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business, also asked for high court review Wednesday, saying the entire law, and not just the individual insurance mandate, should be struck down. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
LA sheriff under fire after report slams jails
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/09/29 17:35
|
Los Angeles County's longtime sheriff is facing one of the toughest attacks of his 13-year term, after a civil rights group demanded his resignation and claimed he looked the other way while his sprawling jail network became co-opted by violent and corrupt deputies who routinely abuse inmates.
Sheriff Lee Baca, whose deputies oversee about 15,000 inmates in the nation's busiest jail system, said he welcomed the criticism but disputed the claims made Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. He said he had no intention of stepping down.
The ACLU demanded the four-term sheriff's resignation, saying he and his top commanders are willfully indifferent to claims made by inmates and civilian jail visitors that deputies routinely viciously assault inmates.
In one case, an inmate at the downtown Men's Central Jail said deputies accused him of stealing mail then punched him, breaking an eye socket, and marched him naked to a cell occupied by two gang members.
Deputies repeatedly ignored the man's cries for help as the gang members raped him while another inmate flushed his head down a toilet to muffle his screams, the man, who had been jailed for making criminal threats, said in a sworn declaration. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Recent Lawyer News Updates |
|
|
Lawyer News RSS
