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French court extends adoption rights to lesbians
Headline News |
2014/09/23 21:11
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France's highest court has ruled that married lesbians are allowed to adopt their partner's child born through in vitro fertilization or other medically assisted reproduction.
The Cour de Cassation's ruling is a consequence of the legalization of gay marriage in France last year.
France allows assisted reproduction only for heterosexual couples who have been together at least two years. The restriction has sent many gay couples abroad — many of them going to neighboring Belgium or Spain to have access to fertility treatment.
Upon return to France, French law recognized only the birth mother as the legal parent.
The court ruled Tuesday that married lesbians may adopt children born by their partners through assisted reproduction performed outside of France. |
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Guilty plea in California meat recall case
Headline News |
2014/08/28 18:48
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A co-owner of a Northern California slaughterhouse accused of processing cows with cancer has pleaded guilty to a criminal charge.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 77-year-old Robert Singleton, co-owner of Petaluma-based Rancho Feeding Corp., entered the plea on Friday to aiding and abetting in the distribution of adulterated, misbranded and uninspected meat. He has agreed to work with prosecutors who have filed charges against the company's other owner, Jesse Amaral Jr., and two employees, Eugene Corda and Felix Cabrera.
They have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say the company slaughtered dozens of cows with skin cancer of the eye, and plant workers swapped the heads of diseased cattle with those of healthy cows.
Operations were halted in February after a series of recalls, including one for 8.7 million pounds of beef. |
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Massachusetts Eviction Attorney – Law Office of Alan Segal
Attorneys News |
2014/08/28 18:47
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Landlord and Tenant relationships have a tendency to be complicated and challenging when it comes to Massachusetts Laws. Failure to properly notify tenants of late rent or other issues will result in the dismissal of an eviction case and the whole process must begin again. A Massachusetts Attorney must represent a Corporate Landlord as they cannot use an employee or agent in Eviction Proceedings.
The Massachusetts Eviction Attorneys at our firm have represented a number of Landlord and Tenants for many years. We’ve covered the entire State of Massachusetts and look forward to assisting you.
Massachusetts Eviction Process
November 8, 2004: Massachusetts Law providing important rights to tenants facing eviction/have been evicted has went into effect. A Massachusetts Eviction lawyer can help with most aspects of the Massachusetts eviction process.
Understand this law to ensure your property is protected and stored where you want it to be stored. The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute has created a booklet answering basic questions about the new eviction storage law. Learn more on how a Massachusetts eviction attorney can help you by visiting our evictions page.
Contact our Massachusetts Eviction Lawyers today for legal assistance with a Massachusetts Eviction Process.
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California high court strikes measure from ballot
Headline News |
2014/08/19 21:58
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The California Supreme Court on Monday blocked an advisory measure backed by Democrats from the November ballot.
By a 5-1 vote, the court ordered the removal of Proposition 49, which would have asked voters if they want a federal constitutional amendment to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's so-called Citizens United ruling allowing unlimited corporate spending in elections.
The majority opinion said no harm will come from removing the nonbinding measure while courts determine its validity. The court said it would consider the issue in more detail in September.
Writing separately, Justice Goodwin Liu agreed with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, an anti-tax group that filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the measure from the ballot. The group argued that advisory measures are not a proper use of the ballot.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said she would have allowed placing the proposition on the ballot, as a divided appeals court had ruled earlier.
The bill to place the measure on the ballot was introduced by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, and it passed over Republicans' opposition. Brown, a Democrat, let the bill become law without his signature. Lieu's Sacramento office didn't return a phone call placed late Monday. |
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Court: Silence can be used against suspects
Top Legal News |
2014/08/19 21:57
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The California Supreme Court has ruled that the silence of suspects can be used against them.
Wading into a legally tangled vehicular manslaughter case, a sharply divided high court on Thursday effectively reinstated the felony conviction of a man accused in a 2007 San Francisco Bay Area crash that left an 8-year-old girl dead and her sister and mother injured.
Richard Tom was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter after authorities said he was speeding and slammed into another vehicle at a Redwood City intersection.
Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors during the trial that Tom's failure to ask about the victims immediately after the crash but before police read him his so-called Miranda rights showed his guilt.
Legal analysts said the ruling could affect future cases, allowing prosecutors to exploit a suspect's refusal to talk before invoking 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination. |
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Court considers if executioners can be named
Attorneys News |
2014/08/13 22:08
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A Tennessee appeals court is considering whether 10 death row inmates have the right to know about the drugs that will be used in their executions and whether their lawyers can get the names of the people who will kill them.
The Tennessean reports that the state Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Monday in the lawsuit brought by the inmates. They sued after the legislature passed a law that keeps details about lethal injection secret.
Lawyers for the state argued that a Nashville judge overstepped her authority when she ordered officials to turn over the names of the execution team to the attorneys for the condemned prisoners. The lower court ruled the names must be released but said neither the public nor the inmates could have them.
"We are here today because for the first time in the history of lethal injection in the state of Tennessee a court has ordered the state to disclose the identities of those people who are involved in the lethal injection process," said Special Assistant Attorney General Kyle Hixson said. "This is an abuse of discretion."
Assistant federal public defender Stephen Kissinger, who represents some of the inmates, argued that there's no "executioner's privilege" that would stop the state from releasing the identities of the execution team in a court case because they would be sealed.
He said a ruling that would allow the state to keep such information secret would have far-reaching implications. |
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Appeals court OKs permits for Upper Peninsula mine
Headline News |
2014/08/13 22:07
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The Michigan Court of Appeals has upheld a decision by state environmental regulators to allow construction of a nickel and copper mine in the Upper Peninsula.
A three-judge panel unanimously sided with the Department of Environmental Quality, which issued mining and groundwater discharge permits to Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. The Marquette County mine is now owned by Lundin Mining Corp.
DEQ officials approved a mining permit for the project in 2007, drawing legal challenges from environmentalists and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. A DEQ administrative law judge and a circuit court judge affirmed the department's decisions, and opponents took the case to the Court of Appeals.
The mine has been constructed and is scheduled to begin producing minerals this fall.
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