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US court reconsiders ruling on Arizona voter law
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/21 15:18
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The latest court battle between Arizona and the federal government is being fought in a Pasadena, Calif., courtroom where an appeals court will hear arguments Tuesday on whether the state can require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
An 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is reconsidering a three-judge panel's ruling that the state's proof of citizenship requirement conflicts with federal voter registration law that law allows people registering to vote to swear under penalty of perjury that they are citizens.
Arizona's law goes further, requiring that people registering show proof of citizenship. It was part of a ballot measure approved by voters in 2004.
The three-judge panel's ruling in October didn't disturb a separate provision requiring voters to provide proof of identity when they cast ballots.
Civil rights groups that challenged Arizona's law argued that thousands of people have had their federal registration forms rejected because they failed to provide documents required by the state.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the 9th Circuit to overturn the state law, which the brief said is invalid because it conflicts with the National Voter Registration Act.
The act, which requires states to "accept and use" the federal form, was intended to simplify and standardize voter registration procedures nationwide, the federal government's lawyers said. |
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Supreme Court limits Wal-Mart sex bias case
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/20 15:06
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The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a massive sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of women who work there.
The court ruled unanimously that the lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cannot proceed as a class action, reversing a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The lawsuit could have involved up to 1.6 million women, with Wal-Mart facing potentially billions of dollars in damages.
Now, the handful of women who brought the lawsuit may pursue their claims on their own, with much less money at stake and less pressure on Wal-Mart to settle.
The justices divided 5-4 on another aspect of the ruling that could make it much harder to mount similar class-action discrimination lawsuits against large employers.
Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion for the court's conservative majority said there needs to be common elements tying together "literally millions of employment decisions at once."
But Scalia said that in the lawsuit against the nation's largest private employer, "That is entirely absent here."
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court's four liberal justices, said there was more than enough uniting the claims. "Wal-Mart's delegation of discretion over pay and promotions is a policy uniform throughout all stores," Ginsburg said. |
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Chandler steps down as head of Del. Chancery Court
Attorneys News |
2011/06/20 14:06
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William Chandler III never realized his young man's dream of becoming a university professor, yet he has managed to pass on plenty of lessons to students of American law and business.
Chandler, 60, is retiring this week as head of Delaware's Court of Chancery, which rules over corporate law in a state that is the legal home to more than half of all publicly traded U.S. companies, including about two-thirds of the Fortune 500.
Chandler's decision to join a Silicon Valley-based law firm, where he will focus on advising corporate clients and working behind the scenes on litigation strategy, comes after 26 years on the bench, including eight years as a vice chancellor on the five-member court and 14 as chancellor.
But Chandler, who also served as a Superior Court judge before being appointed a vice chancellor, never envisioned himself wearing a black robe.
After obtaining his law degree from the University of South Carolina and clerking for a federal judge in Wilmington, Chandler went to Yale University law school with his eye on a master's degree and a dream of becoming a professor. |
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Navy subcontractor pleads guilty in bribe case
Criminal Law Updates |
2011/06/20 10:57
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A Navy subcontractor pleaded guilty Friday in Rhode Island for his part in what federal prosecutors say was a kickback scheme that cost the Navy millions of dollars. Russell Spencer's plea was part of an agreement with prosecutors in which he promised to cooperate with authorities as he has been since investigators approached him in June 2010. Spencer, 56, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery in helping funnel money, through his businesses, from a Navy contractor to a civilian Navy employee who prosecutors say then bumped up funding to the contractor. Prosecutors say the scheme cost the Navy between $7 million and $20 million. The case prompted an internal Navy investigation that resulted in military officials in Washington suspending the contracting authority of Newport's Naval Undersea Warfare Center. The Navy said a host of contracting problems at the facility enabled the scheme. According to the government, Ralph M. Mariano of Arlington, Va., who worked at the warfare center, initiated the scheme by threatening to use his position to reduce funding for contracts held by Advanced Solutions for Tomorrow if company owner Anjan Dutta-Gupta didn't kick back money to Mariano. Dutta-Gupta, of Roswell, Ga., has pleaded guilty to paying $8 million in bribes over more than a decade. Mariano has been charged, but not indicted. He has declined to comment on the allegations, and remains free on bond. |
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Strauss-Kahn said he had diplomatic immunity
Court Feed News |
2011/06/20 08:52
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Dominique Strauss-Kahn declared he had diplomatic immunity and complained that his handcuffs were too tight after he was taken into custody on allegations he tried to rape a Manhattan hotel maid, court documents show. The documents filed Thursday by prosecutors provide a chronology of statements leading to the arrest of the former leader of the International Monetary Fund, who was taken into custody by Port Authority police at John F. Kennedy International Airport on May 14 as he tried to leave on a Paris-bound flight. One of his attorneys, Benjamin Brafman, said Thursday he had no comment. Strauss-Kahn, who is free on $1 million bail under house arrest at a luxury townhouse, maintains he did not attack the maid at Sofitel hotel. The new court documents describe Strauss-Kahn seemingly confused as he is taken into custody. "I have diplomatic immunity," Strauss-Kahn told officers, according to the documents. "... Can I speak with someone from the French consulate? What is this about?" He asked detectives whether he needs an attorney, responded to questions about whether he is hungry (at one point saying he would "like some eggs") and complained about his handcuffs, the documents say. "Manhattan detectives need to speak with you about an incident in a hotel room," responded one detective as they go from the airport to the Manhattan Special Victims Squad on May 14 at about 5:15 p.m., the documents say. |
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Court says age must be considered in interrogation
Court Feed News |
2011/06/19 20:53
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A divided Supreme Court said Thursday that police and courts must consider a child's age when examining whether a boy or girl is in custody, a move the court's liberals called "common sense" but the conservatives called an "extreme makeover" of Miranda rights. The 5-4 decision came in a case in which police obtained a confession from a seventh-grade special education student while questioning him at school about a rash of break-ins in Chapel Hill, N.C., without reading him his Miranda rights, telling him he could leave or call his relatives. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a former prosecutor who wrote the opinion, said police have to consider the child's age before talking to him or her about a crime. Courts also have to take the child's age into consideration when deciding whether that confession can be used in court, she said. "It is beyond dispute that children will often feel bound to submit to police questioning when an adult in the same circumstances would feel free to leave," Sotomayor said, adding there was no reason for "police officers or courts to blind themselves to that commonsense reality." But Justice Samuel Alito, also a former prosecutor, said the point of Miranda was that police would have clear, objective guidelines to follow. Opening the door to considering age likely will mean that other characteristics could soon be added to the list, such as educational level, I.Q. and cultural background, he said. "Safeguarding the constitutional rights of minors does not require the extreme makeover of Miranda that today's decision may portend," Alito said in the dissent. The special education student, known as JDB in court papers, was 13 in 2005 when he confessed while interviewed by police and school officials in a closed room at his school. |
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