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Court candidate Granholm to be at White House
Headline News |
2009/05/16 16:24
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Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, one of President Barack Obama's candidates for the Supreme Court, will be at the White House on Tuesday.
An administration official says the Democratic governor is coming to the White House for an event unrelated to the Supreme Court. It is not clear whether Granholm will be meeting with Obama about the upcoming vacancy on the court.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because details of Tuesday's event have not been announced. Granholm is among more than six people Obama is considering for the seat on the court now held by Justice David Souter, who is retiring this summer. The 50-year-old Granholm is a former federal prosecutor and Michigan attorney general. |
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Yahoo wins round in Oregon nude photo court battle
Headline News |
2009/05/12 08:23
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Yahoo has won a legal battle over removing nude photos that an Oregon woman claimed her boyfriend posted on its Web site without her knowledge or permission.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirms that Internet service providers such as Yahoo Inc. are generally protected from liability for materials published or posted on their sites by outside parties.
Cecilia Barnes had filed a lawsuit in 2005 in Portland, Ore., claiming her boyfriend not only posted nude photos, but also created a fraudulent profile and posed as her in an online chat room to solicit sex. Although the court says Yahoo isn't liable for those actions, it left open the possibility that Barnes could sue Yahoo over whether it had promised to remove the photos and the profile. |
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Justice Thomas recounts a bad fall
Headline News |
2009/04/24 16:40
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Justice Clarence Thomas' vote was not seriously in doubt when the Supreme Court took up the constitutionality of a ban on an abortion procedure in 2006. But Thomas did not attend the arguments on the issue and, other than a brief announcement that he was sick, his absence has not been explained until now.
Thomas said Thursday that his chair was empty that day in November 2006 because he took a spill the night before.
"I had the wonderful opportunity to fall on my face one night and was not able to make oral argument the following day as a result of it," he said at a hearing of a House appropriations subcommittee on the court's budget for the next year. Thomas didn't identify the arguments he missed, but court officials said later he was referring to the abortion case. Thomas voted to uphold the federal ban. The accident came up Thursday as part of an account about how well the court's Web site works and a plea for an extra $800,000 for the site. Since October 2006, the court has been making argument transcripts available the same day a case is argued. "In order to stay up to speed on the case and what occurred at oral argument, I simply went to our Web site later that day and it was there," Thomas said. |
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SC won't fight Supreme Court stimulus challenge
Headline News |
2009/04/20 10:31
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South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster says a lawsuit brought against the state over federal stimulus money is flawed and premature.
But McMaster said in a filing with the Supreme Court on Monday that he won't oppose the state Supreme Court taking up the challenge filed last week by a Chapin High School student.
McMaster says the timing may not be right to shift the issues raised in the case from a public policy debate to the courtroom. McMaster recapped arguments made earlier this month that question the Legislature's authority to request federal money that Sanford has said he won't request unless it can be used to offset or reduce debt. McMaster says if the court takes the case he hopes the justices will apply principles that protect the state's rights. |
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SG Kagan Won't Argue Before High Court Until Next Term
Headline News |
2009/04/15 12:34
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Elena Kagan, the Obama administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, is passing up the chance to make her first high-court argument in a big case over minority voting rights.
Instead, Kagan, confirmed by the Senate last month as solicitor general, will wait until the fall to make her debut, Justice Department spokeswoman Beverley Lumpkin said Tuesday.
By the time Kagan took up her post, Lumpkin said, most of the cases the court will hear in April already had been assigned. "I suppose she could have spent the last several weeks doing nothing but preparing, but that's not something she wanted to do. There's a lot to do getting up to speed in the office," Lumpkin said. The solicitor general typically handles the top cases before the court. The challenge to a provision of the Voting Rights Act, which will be argued April 29, is perhaps this term's highest-profile case. Kagan has a most impressive resume — former Harvard Law School dean, Clinton White House official and Supreme Court clerk — but she has little courtroom experience. |
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Court rules for suspect in dispute over confession
Headline News |
2009/04/06 16:55
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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that confessions obtained by federal authorities before a suspect's first court appearance may be inadmissible if more than six hours elapse between an arrest and a court date.
The court said in a 5-4 decision that long delays before a suspect sees a judge can give the government too much leverage over someone who has been arrested.
"Federal agents would be free to question suspects for extended periods before bringing them out in the open, and we have always known what custodial secrecy leads to," Justice David Souter wrote in the majority opinion. The prisoner in the case, Johnnie Corley, was arrested on suspicion of robbing a credit union in Norristown, Pa. The FBI agents who arrested him did not take him to court for his initial appearance for 29 1/2 hours, during which time they elicited a confession from Corley. Under federal law and previous court decisions, confessions obtained within six hours of an arrest are presumed to be valid and may be used at trial. The question in Corley's case was what courts should do with confessions when there is a delay before the first court appearance. The federal appeals court in Philadelphia said Corley's admission that he robbed the bank could be used against him, ruling that the confession was voluntary despite the delay. |
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