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NY top court OKs tax on online sellers like Amazon
Headline News |
2013/04/02 20:05
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New York's highest court ruled Thursday the state can collect sales tax from out-of-state retailers, rejecting claims by Amazon.com and Overstock.com that the tax law violates the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.
The Court of Appeals said in a 4-1 ruling that the 2008 amendment meets the U.S. Supreme Court test that the sellers have "a substantial nexus" with the taxing state. Taxes apply when the online retailers generate at least $10,000 in annual sales to New Yorkers from in-state websites that earn commissions by bringing in potential customers through links to the big retailers.
Amazon.com, with corporate offices in Washington state, has an "Associates Program" where others put such links on their websites. Overstock.com, based in Utah, suspended its similar "Affiliates" program in New York after the state statute was enacted.
New York's sales tax is 4 percent and all its counties and New York City add an additional tax ranging from 3 percent to near 5 percent. Both apply to applicable Internet sales, according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance. |
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Court won't allow challenge to surveillance law
Top Legal News |
2013/03/04 23:35
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A sharply-divided Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out an attempt by U.S. citizens to challenge the expansion of a surveillance law used to monitor conversations of foreign spies and terrorist suspects.
With a 5-4 vote, the high court ruled that a group of American lawyers, journalists and organizations can't sue to challenge the 2008 expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) because they can't prove that the government will monitor their conversations along with those of potential foreign terrorist and intelligence targets.
Justices "have been reluctant to endorse standing theories that require guesswork," said Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote for the court's majority.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, was enacted in 1978. It allows the government to monitor conversations of foreign spies and terrorist suspects abroad for intelligence purposes. The 2008 FISA amendments allow the government to obtain from a secret court broad, yearlong intercept orders, raising the prospect that phone calls and emails between those foreign targets and innocent Americans in this country would be swept under the umbrella of surveillance.
Without proof that the law would directly affect them, Americans can't sue, Alito said in the ruling.
Despite their documented fears and the expense of activities that some Americans have taken to be sure they don't get caught up in government monitoring, they "have set forth no specific facts demonstrating that the communications of their foreign contacts will be targeted," he added. |
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NY dismemberment defendant dons trash bag in court
Top Legal News |
2013/03/01 07:45
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A New York City man accused of killing and dismembering his mother has appeared at his arraignment on a murder charge wearing a large garbage bag.
Bahsid McLean was held without bail following his Bronx court appearance Thursday.
His attorney says his client had been urinating on himself and had no other clean clothing. He says he is off medication, and will undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
The criminal complaint says McLean stabbed Tanya Byrd and then cut up her body with help from another man.
A resident walking his dog came across the remains early Tuesday. Police say they were stuffed in four bags and scattered along four blocks.
The second suspect, William Harris, was arraigned on charges that include hindering prosecution. There was no immediate information on his attorney. |
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SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK: Sitting out the speech
Top Legal News |
2013/02/15 22:53
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While his colleagues got ready to go to the Capitol, Justice Antonin Scalia sat on a stage across town and held forth about why, for the 16th consecutive year, he would not be joining them for the State of the Union.
He doesn't go when a Democrat is president. He stays away when the president is Republican.
"It has turned into a childish spectacle. I don't want to be there to lend dignity to it," Scalia said, with a certain amount of mischief.
The 76-year-old justice has previously made clear his disdain for the event, but Tuesday may have been the first time he did so at nearly the same time as the speech.
The occasion was a talk sponsored by the Smithsonian Associates and moderated by National Public Radio's Nina Totenberg, one of many public appearances by the justices during their winter recess. They will meet in private on Friday and return to the bench on Tuesday.
Lest anyone think the timing of his talk was anything other than a coincidence, Scalia tried to put those thoughts to rest. |
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Court denies reporter's bid for AIG reports
Legal Watch |
2013/02/01 23:14
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An appeals court has turned down a reporter's effort to see an independent consultant's reports for American International Group, Inc.
A district court had granted the request from Sue Reisinger, a reporter for Corporate Counsel and American Lawyer magazines. The district court concluded the reports were judicial records, to which Reisinger had a common law right of access.
But a three-judge appeals court panel reversed the ruling Friday.
AIG hired the consultant as part of a court-approved consent decree with the Securities and Exchange Commission to settle 2004 allegations of securities violations by the giant insurer.
The appellate judges, all appointed by Republican presidents, concluded the reports were not judicial records subject to release because the lower court in handling the settlement made no decisions about or based on them. |
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Lawyers from LGBT group to join Supreme Court bar
Headline News |
2013/01/17 06:05
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An organization of gay and lesbian lawyers says 30 of its members will be sworn into the Supreme Court bar in a courtroom ceremony next week.
The National LGBT Bar Association says it's the first time it will take part in the mass swearing-in that occurs on most days the court is in session.
Association executive director D'Arcy Kemnitz said many members already will be in Washington for President Barack Obama's inauguration on Monday. They'll be sworn in Tuesday.
By custom, a Supreme Court lawyer vouches for prospective members, and Chief Justice John Roberts welcomes them before they swear to support the Constitution.
Openly gay lawyers already practice before the Supreme Court, but Tuesday will mark the first time lawyers will be identified at the ceremony as LGBT Bar members. |
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Lohan lawyer in NYC courthouse in nightclub case
Legal Watch |
2013/01/10 03:56
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Lindsay Lohan's attorney has gone to a New York City courthouse in connection with the actress's alleged fight at a Manhattan nightclub.
Lohan was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor assault in the Nov. 29 incident at the club Avenue.
Office of Court Administration spokesman David Bookstaver said Monday that a criminal complaint has not been drawn up at this time. He says paperwork will be signed but no hearing will be held.
The "Mean Girls" and "Liz and Dick" star allegedly struck a woman in the face during an argument.
At the time of her arrest, her attorney, Mark Heller, said Lohan was "a victim of someone trying to capture their 15 minutes of fame." |
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