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High court to rule on FCC indecency policy
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/29 16:30
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The Supreme Court will take up the First Amendment fight over what broadcasters can put on the airwaves when young children may be watching television.
The justices said Monday they will review appeals court rulings that threw out the Federal Communications Commission's rules against the isolated use of expletives as well as fines against broadcasters who showed a woman's nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of ABC's "NYPD Blue."
The Obama administration objected that the appeals court stripped the FCC of its ability to police the airwaves.
The U.S. television networks argue that the policy is outdated, applying only to broadcast television and leaving unregulated the same content if transmitted on cable TV or over the Internet.
In a landmark 1978 decision, the court upheld the FCC's authority to regulate both radio and television content, at least during the hours when children are likely to be watching or listening. That period includes the prime-time hours before 10 p.m.
The "NYPD Blue" episode led to fines only for stations in the Central and Mountain time zones, where the show aired at 9 p.m., a more child-friendly hour than the show's 10 p.m. time slot in the East. |
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State seeks dismissal of Smart kidnapper charges
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/29 16:28
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Prosecutors have asked a judge to dismiss state charges against Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper after the man was convicted in federal court and sentenced to life in prison. Brian David Mitchell was sentenced May 25 to two life sentences without parole for the 2002 kidnapping and rape of Smart. He was convicted in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City in December. Federal prosecutors moved to take over the state case in 2008 after it stalled over questions about Mitchell's mental health. In papers filed this week, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sam Gill seeks the dismissal of all state charges against Mitchell, citing his federal conviction and life sentences. Smart was 14 when she was taken at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City bedroom. |
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Idaho landowners to get high court hearing
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/28 19:10
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The Supreme Court has agreed to consider the rights of landowners when confronted with an order from the Environmental Protection Agency that they are violating the federal Clean Water Act. The justices on Tuesday added the case of Idaho property owners Chantell and Michael Sackett to their lineup for the term that begins in October. The Sacketts contend that EPA left them with no practical way to object to the agency's determination that work on their half-acre parcel violated federal law and tried to coerce their compliance through the threat of costly fines. The Sacketts say they would either have to apply for a federal permit that could cost as much as the property itself, or wait for the EPA to go to court to force them to comply. |
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US top court upholds $270 million award to smokers
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/28 16:10
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The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal request made by American tobacco companies on Monday in a class-action lawsuit that awarded 500,000 smokers a total of $270 million in damages. Without comment, the highest US court dismissed the appeal of a 2009 Louisiana court decision that ruled the tobacco companies must pay hundreds of millions for programs to help the smokers quit. The tobacco companies contested the lawsuit and argued that the class-action lawsuit brought together a number of disparate and individual complaints that spanned more than 50 years. They said that by allowing the class-action suit, the companies were deprived of their right to investigate the individual plaintiffs and they could not all prove that they had suffered harm. |
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High court strikes down Ariz. campaign finance law
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/27 17:17
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The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a provision of a campaign financing system in Arizona that gives extra cash to publicly funded candidates who face privately funded rivals and independent groups.
The 5-4 ruling is the latest in a series of decisions by the court's conservative majority upending campaign finance laws.
The Arizona law was passed in the wake of a public corruption scandal and was intended to reward candidates who forgo raising campaign cash, even in the face of opponents' heavy spending fueled by private money.
The court said the law violates the First Amendment.
"Laws like Arizona's matching funds provision that inhibit robust and wide-open political debate without sufficient justification cannot stand," Chief Justice John Roberts said in the court's majority opinion.
At least four other states, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin, have similar "trigger" provisions that affect some political races, and could be vulnerable.
Justice Elena Kagan read her dissent aloud in court Monday, saying the law was a reasonable response to political scandal. She said that by providing candidates with additional money, the law actually provided for more, not less, political speech.
Arizonans "passed a law designed to sever political candidates' dependence on large contributors," Kagan said. "It put into effect a public financing system that attracted large numbers of candidates at a sustainable cost to the state's taxpayers."
This case follows other recent rulings striking down campaign finance laws. Among those were last year's Citizens United decision that removed most limits on election spending by corporations and organized labor, and a 2008 decision that voided the federal "millionaire's amendment" to increase contribution limits for congressional candidates facing wealthy opponents. |
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Court: Calif. Can't Ban Violent Video Game Sales
Lawyer Blog News |
2011/06/27 15:18
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The high court agreed Monday with a federal court's decision to throw out California's ban on the sale or rental of violent video games to minors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento said the law violated minors' rights under the First and Fourteenth amendments.
The law would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18. Retailers who violated the act would have been fined up to $1,000 for each infraction.
The court on a 7-2 vote said the law was unconstitutional. More than 46 million American households have at least one video-game system, with the industry bringing in at least $18 billion in 2010. |
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