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Court schedules week of health care arguments
Top Legal News |
2011/12/19 19:31
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The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will use an unprecedented week's worth of argument time in late March to decide the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul before the 2012 presidential elections.
The high court scheduled arguments for March 26th, 27th and 28th over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which aims to provide health insurance to more than 30 million previously uninsured Americans. The arguments fill the entire court calendar that week with nothing but debate over Obama's signature domestic health care achievement.
With the March dates set, it means a final decision on the massive health care overhaul will likely come before Independence Day in the middle of Obama's re-election campaign. The new law has been vigorously opposed by all of Obama's prospective GOP opponents. Republicans have branded the law unconstitutional since before Obama signed it in a March 2010 ceremony.
In an extraordinary move, the justices are hearing more than five hours of arguments over the health care overhaul. In the modern era, the last time the court increased that time anywhere near this much was in 2003 for consideration of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance overhaul. That case consumed four hours of argument.
The Supreme Court will start the week of arguments that Monday with one hour on whether court action is premature because no one yet has paid a fine for not participating in the overhaul. |
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Int'l court refuses to halt Rwandan's release
Top Legal News |
2011/12/18 19:31
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International Criminal Court judges refused Monday to block the release of a Rwandan rebel prosecutors accuse of involvement in deadly attacks by a Hutu militia on villages in Congo in 2009.
The pre-trial judges ordered the release of Callixte Mbarushimana on Friday after dismissing all charges against him for lack of evidence. If he is freed, Mbarushimana would be the first suspect released from ICC custody since the court's inception in 2002.
Prosecutors had said they would appeal the ruling and asked the court to delay Mbarushimana's release pending the outcome of the appeal. But in Monday's written decision, judges ruled that Mbarushimana can no longer be detained because the 11 charges against him have been dismissed.
"A warrant of arrest previously issued ceases to have effect with respect to any charges not confirmed by the Pre-Trial Chamber," the judges wrote. |
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Throng of Occupy protesters appear in NY courts
Top Legal News |
2011/12/14 21:05
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Nearly 200 people arrested during Occupy Wall Street-related protests were in New York courtrooms hundreds of miles apart Wednesday, answering charges that stemmed from a march on the Brooklyn Bridge and a demonstration in a Rochester park.
In Manhattan, arraignments were under way for 166 people, most of them among the more than 700 picked up in an Oct. 1 march that marked the biggest mass arrest of the New York protest so far. Hundreds of other protesters arrested on the bridge and during other Occupy demonstrations in the city have already been to court, but this week's numbers are some of the biggest.
Meanwhile, 28 Occupy Wall Street supporters were set to appear in a Rochester court on charges of trespassing by staying in a park past its curfew.
Some wearing their Occupy Wall Street allegiance on buttons — and in one case, a hand-painted oxford shirt — lined hallways and an overflow courtroom in a Manhattan courthouse that handles low-level offenses. Many had been arrested on the bridge after police said protesters ignored warnings not to leave a pedestrian path and go onto the roadway.
The demonstrators were generally charged with disorderly conduct and blocking traffic, both violations. Many took a judge's offer Wednesday to get their cases dismissed if they avoid getting arrested again for six months. |
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Accused White House shooter to appear in DC court
Top Legal News |
2011/11/21 17:32
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A man accused of firing an assault rifle at the White House is expected to appear in court in Washington.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday at 1:45 p.m.
Ortega was arrested last week in Pennsylvania. The Idaho Falls, Idaho, resident is accused of driving by the White House on the evening of Nov. 11 and firing at the White House from his vehicle. Authorities say one of the rounds he fired cracked a window of the first family's living quarters.
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were away, and no one was injured. |
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RI pension overhaul may head to the courts
Top Legal News |
2011/11/18 17:07
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Rhode Island is taking dramatic steps toward fixing one of the nation's most underfunded public pension systems, but the true battle with public-sector unions may be just beginning.
State lawmakers ignored jeers from public workers and the threat of a lawsuit Thursday to pass sweeping changes to the pension system covering 66,000 active and retired public workers.
The legislation is designed to save billions of dollars in future years by backing away from promises to state and municipal workers that lawmakers say the state can no longer afford. Gov. Lincoln Chafee, an independent, said he will sign the bill.
Public-sector union leaders promised a court challenge before the final votes were even cast.
"The attorneys are going to make a lot of money," Philip Keefe, president of Local 580, which represents social service, administrative and technical workers. "If this is overturned, it will be you, me and every other taxpayer that is on the hook for billions."
Supporters acknowledged that a lawsuit was inevitable but said the bill was thoroughly reviewed for any legal problems. Supporters said one of the reasons for the bill was to ensure there's money available when today's workers retire. |
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Company pleads guilty to dumping wastewater in Harvey Canal
Top Legal News |
2011/11/15 19:33
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A Louisiana company has pleaded guilty to a charge it illegally discharged more than 1 million gallons of oily wastewater into the Harvey Canal.
Oakmont Environmental Inc. of Harvey faces a $500,000 fine following its guilty plea Wednesday to violating the Clean Water Act.
Clifton Carr, a 62-year-old Amite resident who was the operator of the company's waste treatment facility, also pleaded guilty Wednesday to a related charge.
Federal prosecutors say Oakmont had a permit to discharge wastewater into a Jefferson Parish sewerage treatment plant after it had been pretreated.
But the company allegedly discharged the wastewater directly into the canal without separating the oil from the water.
Prosecutors said 1.2 million gallons of oily wastewater was discharged into the canal between September 2007 and March 2008. |
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Justices unlikely to have last word on health care
Top Legal News |
2011/11/15 17:00
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President Barack Obama's historic health care overhaul divided the nation from the day he signed it into law, and that seems unlikely to change no matter how the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality.
Some legal disputes, like the 2008 presidential election, the court can settle. Others rage on, such as abortion. It may take another decade to find the balance between private and public responsibility for health care in America, a nation disdainful of big government yet historically unable to guarantee affordable basic coverage to its citizens.
"Either way it rules, the Supreme Court decision will not end the debate on health care," said former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, an influential Democratic adviser. "It is, and will largely remain, a debate on the role of government."
The Supreme Court's announcement on Monday that it will take up the constitutional challenge to what Republicans deride as "Obamacare," sets the stage for a decision next summer in the heat of the presidential election campaign. |
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