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Appeals court rules Mississippi can resume Google inquiry
Law Firm Business |
2016/04/14 08:43
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Mississippi's attorney general can resume an investigation into whether Google facilitates illegal behavior, an appeals court ruled.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a district judge who had sided with Google. U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate ruled last year that the unit of Alphabet Inc. didn't have to answer a subpoena by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood.
Hood began complaining in 2012 that Google wasn't doing enough to prevent people from breaking the law. In October 2014, he sent a 79-page subpoena demanding Google produce information about a wide range of subjects, including whether Google helps criminals by allowing its search engine to lead to pirated music, having its autocomplete function suggest illegal activities and sharing YouTube ad revenue with the makers of videos promoting illegal drug sales. Instead of complying, Google sued.
The appeals court also dissolved the lower judge's injunction that had barred Hood from bringing any civil or criminal lawsuits against the Mountain View, California-based company, saying that a mere subpoena wasn't enough to rule that Hood was acting in bad faith.
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Court sends part of Wisconsin voter ID case back to judge
Top Legal News |
2016/04/13 08:42
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A judge must consider whether Wisconsin's voter photo identification law applies to people who face daunting obstacles in obtaining identification, a three-judge federal appellate panel ruled Tuesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Law Center for Homelessness and Poverty filed a federal lawsuit in 2011 challenging the law. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman struck the law down in April 2014, saying it unfairly burdens poor and minority voters who may lack such identification.
But a three-judge panel from the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ultimately reversed him and upheld the law that October, ruling Wisconsin's law is substantially similar to one in Indiana that the U.S. Supreme Court declared constitutional. The law was in effect for last week's presidential primary.
The ACLU and the national homeless center have continued to argue, however, that voters who face stiff hurdles in getting a photo ID should be allowed to vote by affidavit. They say those voters include people who can't obtain IDs because of name mismatches or other errors in birth certificates or other necessary documents; those who need a credential from another agency such as the Social Security Administration that they can't get without a state photo ID; or those who need a document that no longer exists.
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US House staffers subpoenaed by federal court
Legal Watch |
2016/04/13 08:42
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Four congressional staffers have told the U.S. House that they've been subpoenaed by the federal court in Springfield, Illinois, where a grand jury is conducting a probe into the spending of former U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock.
The financial chief for the House, Traci Beaubian, and three other staff members wrote letters notifying the chamber about the subpoenas that were read on the House floor Monday, the Chicago Tribune reported based on House records noting the letters were received and video of the letters being read. The letters did not mention the subject of the subpoenas.
Schock, the one-time rising GOP star from Peoria, came under intense scrutiny in early 2015 for his spending, including redecorating his office in the style of TV's "Downton Abbey." He left office in March 2015 amid questions about congressional and campaign spending.
He has since been issued at least two grand jury subpoenas seeking campaign and congressional records. FBI agents also have removed boxes and other items from his central Illinois campaign office.
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Supreme Court to swear in large group of deaf lawyers
Legal Interview |
2016/04/12 08:43
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Mobile phones ordinarily are strictly forbidden in the marble courtroom of the nation's highest court, but the justices are making an exception next week when roughly a dozen deaf and hard-of-hearing lawyers will be admitted to the Supreme Court bar.
The lawyers will use their phones to see a real-time transcript as they take part in an April 19 swearing-in ceremony featuring the largest group of hearing-impaired attorneys ever admitted at one time to practice before the high court.
Advocates for deaf lawyers say they hope the event will encourage others with disabilities to pursue legal careers.
"We wanted to do an event that would help break down stereotypes and demonstrate clearly that deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals can achieve anything they set their minds to," said Anat Maytal, a New York lawyer and president of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association.
Nearly 4,000 lawyers join the Supreme Court bar each year, though the vast majority will never actually represent a client there. Membership requires a $200 fee, membership in a state bar for three years and sponsorship by two current Supreme Court bar members.
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Oklahoma prosecutors allege abuse before boy's disappearance
Court Center |
2016/04/12 08:42
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An Oklahoma couple arrested in the 2006 disappearance of their 9-year-old nephew had beaten the boy until he lay motionless on a couch and then threatened the boy's brother into repeating a rehearsed story to authorities, prosecutors allege in an affidavit filed Tuesday.
Rex and Rebecca Clark were serving as foster parents to the brothers when Colton Clark disappeared in April 2006. In the affidavit filed by prosecutors, Colton Clark's older brother detailed abuse he said the couple inflicted on the siblings, saying they used broomsticks and extension cords to beat the boys and at times used a red-and-white cattle prod to deliver an electric shock to the boys' genitals. The brother told investigators that around the time Colton disappeared, his aunt and uncle had beaten Colton so badly that the older brother wasn't sure whether his younger brother was breathing.
Rex and Rebecca Clark have not been formally charged in Colton's disappearance, but arrest warrants for the couple filed last week allege first-degree murder, child abuse, child neglect and conspiracy to commit a felony. The prosecutor's office has said Colton is presumed dead, and investigators have been searching the Clarks' property hoping to find his remains. Sheriff's Investigator David Hanson wouldn't say Tuesday whether anything pertinent to the case had been discovered.
The couple appeared in court Tuesday before the affidavit was filed, and Judge George Butner ordered them to return to court next week. Defense lawyer Robert Butler said after the hearing he didn't object to the state holding the pair at this stage.
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Federal court hears appeal of Minnesota sex offender ruling
Headline News |
2016/04/11 08:42
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The lengthy legal debate over a Minnesota program that keeps sex offenders confined indefinitely after they complete their prison sentences shifted south Tuesday as state officials urged a federal appeals court nearly 500 miles away to overturn a judge's ruling that the program is unconstitutional.
Solicitor General Alan Gilbert told a three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis that District Judge Donovan Frank "lost his neutrality" when he made critical comments before ruling last summer. Even before his ruling, the judge called the program "draconian" and said it is "clearly broken" and needs to be reformed.
"He has prejudged the program," said Gilbert, who asked the jurists to reverse the lower court ruling and appoint a new judge to consider the suit by 14 plaintiffs on behalf of the more than 700 civilly committed offenders. The panel did not immediately issue a decision after hearing 20-minute presentations by both sides.
Only a handful of offenders have been provisionally released to community-based settings in the Minnesota Sex Offender Program's 20-plus-year history, which is why the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit say it's tantamount to a life sentence.
While civilly committed offenders in California, Wisconsin, New Jersey and other states are allowed to re-enter society after completing treatment, no one has been fully discharged from Minnesota's program.
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Kansas Supreme Court to consider right to abortion
Legal Watch |
2016/04/06 08:41
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The Kansas Supreme Court has agreed to consider a groundbreaking ruling that determined the conservative state's constitution protects abortion rights independently from the U.S. Constitution.
The appeal came after the Kansas Court of Appeals refused to implement the state's first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method. Critics fear that if the ruling is upheld, it could be used by abortion rights supporters to challenge other state laws restricting abortion.
Attorneys on both sides asked the high court to consider the case. The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss granted the request on Monday. No hearing has been set.
The case centers on the constitutionality of a measure Kansas lawmakers passed last year that bars the use of certain techniques used in dilation and evacuation abortions. The case involves two abortion clinic owners from Overland Park who sued last year to stop the law from taking effect, arguing it put an unfair burden on their right to perform abortions.
In a ruling last summer, a Shawnee County District Court judge sided with the clinics but also said a section of the Kansas Constitution ensures the right to terminate a pregnancy. The Kansas Court of Appeals upheld the decision 7-7, because tie vote means the lower court ruling stands. The ruling was released in January, on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.
Kansans for Life said the state Supreme Court ruling could impact other states with similar restrictions. |
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