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Mass. court leaders to lead talk on budget cuts
Legal Career News |
2010/04/25 18:22
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Suffolk University Law School plans to host a roundtable discussion on the effect of state budget cuts on the Massachusetts court system. Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Margaret Marshall will be among the panelists Monday at the law school in Boston. Other participants include Robert Mulligan, who's chief justice of the administrative office of the trial court; and William Leahy, chief counsel for the Committee for Public Counsel Services. The roundtable discussion is sponsored by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service, the New England Legal Foundation and the Boston Bar Association.
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Supreme Court kills animal cruelty law
Legal Career News |
2010/04/20 15:54
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The Supreme Court by an 8-1 vote Tuesday struck down a federal law that makes it a crime to sell videos and other depictions of animal cruelty, saying the law infringed on free speech rights. "We read (the law) to create a criminal prohibition of alarming breadth," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority, noting that nowhere in the disputed law was there a requirement that the depicted conduct actually be "cruel." The text of the law, used to prosecute a Virginia man who had advertised videos of dogfights in an underground magazine, sweepingly covered "any depiction" in which "a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded, or killed."
Yet as the justices struck down that prohibition, they specifically said they were not deciding the validity of a law that would target only so-called "crush videos," which typically show women's high heels digging into kittens and other small animals and which had inspired Congress to write the 1999 law in the first place. Robert Stevens, who had run a business known as "Dogs of Velvet and Steel," appealed his conviction under the law, saying it violated his First Amendment speech rights. He also contended he was trying to provide educational and historical materials about the pit bull breed, not promoting illegal dogfighting.
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Strict new Neb. abortion law faces long legal road
Legal Career News |
2010/04/19 14:22
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It's been called a groundbreaking law, but a measure approved in Nebraska last week that changes the rationale for abortion bans probably won't go into effect anytime soon — if ever. Instead, abortion opponents are hoping it will become the most important case on abortion to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in recent memory. Even they acknowledge the ban on abortions at and after 20 weeks of pregnancy won't see the light of day unless the high court rules that it is constitutional. Mary Spaulding Balch, legislative director for National Right to Life, said a court injunction will likely prevent the implementation of the law. The measure passed last week by Nebraska's nonpartisan Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Dave Heineman is scheduled to take effect in October. Lower courts have no precedent to support the law, which bases the new restrictions on the assertion that fetuses feel pain.
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Oregon Supreme Court rules against
Legal Career News |
2010/04/16 09:35
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Employers won a big victory Thursday in the ongoing fight over medical marijuana. The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that employers no longer need to accommodate workers who legally use medical marijuana. That means employers can terminate workers with medical marijuana cards who fail drug tests. The ruling settled more than a decade of debate about the legal rights of employers when it comes to legal marijuana use. “If a person shows a medical marijuana card, it’s no longer a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Rich Meneghello, managing partner at the law firm Fisher & Phillips LLP, who represents employers. Oregon voters legalized the use of medical marijuana in 1998. The law has been the subject of numerous legal challenges since then. |
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White Plains Mayor Bradley Back In Court
Legal Career News |
2010/04/12 15:11
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White Plains Mayor Adam Bradley was back in court Monday for domestic abuse charges. Bradley was arrested again on Thursday after allegedly violating an order of protection from his wife. Bradley was booked on three charges: harassment, tampering with a witness, and contempt of court. Prosecutors claims since March 5, Bradley has repeatedly intentionally violated an order of protection not to harass or cause fear. The new charges alleged he yelled at his wife, Fumiko, on five different occasions. The judge on Monday ordered him to stay away from Fumiko and to attend an anti-violence class. A city spokeswoman is denying weekend reports saying that Bradley could resign as early as today. In the first incident, Mrs. Bradley told police her husband confronted her at the house she was staying at and yelled that in order for him to save his career, she needed to enter a mental hospital or tell police she had lied to them.
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Court won't give Saudi citizen new trial
Legal Career News |
2010/04/05 12:51
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The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a Saudi Arabian citizen who blamed anti-Muslim sentiment for his conviction for keeping his housekeeper a virtual slave. The high court on Monday turned away an appeal from Homaidan Al-Turki. He was convicted of false imprisonment, conspiracy, criminal extortion, theft and unlawful sexual contact. Al-Turki was convicted of sexually abusing his Indonesian housekeeper and paying her less than $2 per day. He complained that he wasn't allowed to question a potential juror about potential anti-Muslim sentiment. |
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