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Odds against Alex Rodriguez in federal court
Top Legal News |
2014/01/13 23:10
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The odds are against Alex Rodriguez in federal court as he tries to overturn his season-long drug suspension.
For the past five decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has set narrow grounds for judges to consider when evaluating lawsuits to overturn arbitration decisions. That position was reaffirmed in 2001 when it ruled against Steve Garvey in his suit against the Major League Baseball Players Association stemming from the collusion cases of the 1980s.
"I don't think he has very much of a chance," said Stanford Law School professor emeritus William B. Gould IV, the former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board. "There are many cases that are appealed from arbitration awards, but the case law at the Supreme Court level makes success very much a long shot."
The Joint Drug Agreement between Major League Baseball and the players' association gives the sport's three-person arbitration panel — the independent arbitrator plus one representative of management and the union — jurisdiction to review discipline resulting from violations. |
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OJ Simpson appeal to Nevada court due in April
Headline News |
2014/01/13 23:09
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O.J. Simpson's lawyers have been given until mid-April to file their written Nevada Supreme Court appeal for a new trial for the former football star in his Las Vegas armed robbery case, Simpson attorney Patricia Palm said this week.
A state high court order on Dec. 20 set a 120-day schedule for Simpson's claim that his fame stemming from his 1995 acquittal in Los Angeles in the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend meant he couldn't get a fair trial in Las Vegas, and that his trial lawyer botched his case.
The order voided a Monday deadline for what would have been expedited high court review.
Palm said she and Simpson attorneys Ozzie Fumo and Tom Pitaro were encouraged that the seven-member Supreme Court agreed to accept a 30-page appeal.
The full seven-member court has not decided whether to hear oral arguments.
Simpson, 66, already lost an initial appeal to the state Supreme Court, the only appeals court in Nevada.
He's in the fifth year of a nine-to-33 years prison sentence after a jury found him guilty of kidnapping, armed robbery and other charges for leading a group of armed men in a September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas casino hotel.
One co-defendant who stood trial and was convicted with Simpson and four former co-defendants who pleaded guilty to felonies before trial and testified against Simpson have served prison time and gone free. Simpson won't be eligible for parole until he is 70.
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Court denies execution stay for Fla. killer.
Firm News/Florida |
2014/01/10 23:44
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The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to block Tuesday's scheduled execution of an inmate convicted of fatally stabbing a prison guard while already on Florida's death row.
Askari Abdullah Muhammad, previously known as Thomas Knight, was set to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening.
The 62-year-old Muhammad was first condemned to die for the 1974 abduction and killings of Sydney and Lillian Gans, a Miami couple. He was sentenced to die again for killing corrections officer Richard Burke in 1980 using a sharpened spoon.
His execution has been delayed for so long because of numerous appeals and rulings, including a 1987 federal appeals court tossing out his death sentence because he hadn't been allowed to put character and background witnesses on the stand during the penalty phase. |
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Ind. Supreme Court to hear foul ball injury case
Headline News |
2014/01/10 23:44
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The Indiana Supreme Court is taking up the case of a woman who wants to sue a minor-league baseball team over injuries she suffered when a foul ball struck her during a game.
The court was scheduled to hear oral arguments Thursday in Juanita DeJesus' effort to sue the Gary SouthShore RailCats over fractured facial bones and blindness in her left eye she says were caused by a ball striking her during a May 2009 game.
The Times of Munster reports DeJesus sued the RailCats' parent company in 2011 alleging it failed to install protective netting for spectators.
A local judge initially allowed her suit to proceed, but the Indiana Court of Appeals threw it out last year, ruling that foul balls' dangers are well-known to baseball fans. |
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California appeals court upholds plastic bag ban
Headline News |
2014/01/06 19:41
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A California appeals court has upheld San Francisco's ban on single-use plastic bags that can serve as a precedent for other cases.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports the 1st District Court of Appeal issued its ruling last month and published it Friday as precedent binding on lower courts. The ordinance was passed in February 2012 and prohibits plastic bags that can be used only once and requires stores to charge 10 cents for recyclable plastic or paper bags.
A lawsuit by Save the Plastic Bag Coalition said plastic bags took more energy to produce than plastic and take up more space in landfills.
Similar measures have been adopted in about 50 cities and counties in California and have survived legal challenges. The state Supreme Court upheld a plastic-bag ban in 2011.
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Ohio courts must report mental health info
Legal News |
2014/01/06 19:41
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Courts in Ohio must now report certain mental health information about people convicted of violent crimes for inclusion in a law enforcement database.
A rule approved by the Ohio Supreme Court requiring that notification took effect Jan. 1. The court devised the form to be submitted to law enforcement after legislation was approved last year.
The law requires judges to report ordering mental-health evaluations or treatment for people convicted of a violent crime or approving conditional release for people found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity.
The legislation was introduced after a Clark County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot in 2011 by a man with a criminal history who was conditionally released from a mental health institution. |
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Sotomayor delays health law's birth control mandate
Press Releases |
2014/01/02 22:48
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Only hours before the law was to take effect, a Supreme Court justice on Tuesday blocked implementation of part of President Obama's health care law that would have forced some religion-affiliated organizations to provide health insurance for employees that includes birth control coverage.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor's decision came after a different effort by Catholic-affiliated groups from around the U.S. Those groups had rushed to the federal courts to stop Wednesday's start of portions of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Sotomayor acted on a request from an organization of Catholic nuns in Denver, the Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged. Its request for an emergency stay had been denied earlier in the day by a federal appeals court.
The government is "temporarily enjoined from enforcing against applicants the contraceptive coverage requirements imposed by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Sotomayor said in the order. She gave government officials until 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) Friday to respond to her order.
The law requires employers to provide insurance that covers a range of preventive care, free of charge, including contraception. The Catholic Church prohibits the use of contraceptives. That was not acceptable, said the nuns' lawyer, Mark L. Rienzi. |
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