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Court won't stop embryonic stem cell research
Legal News Digest |
2013/01/09 19:50
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The Supreme Court won't stop the government's funding of embryonic stem cell research, despite some researchers' complaints that the work relies on destroyed human embryos.
The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from two scientists who have been challenging the funding for the work.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia earlier this year threw out their lawsuit challenging federal funding for the research, which is used in pursuit of cures to deadly diseases. Opponents claimed the National Institutes of Health was violating the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo.
Researchers hope one day to use stem cells in ways that cure spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments.
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Lawyer in Ohio corruption probe to plead guilty
Law Firm News |
2012/12/27 01:26
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A lawyer charged with racketeering and bribery in a lengthy investigation of county government corruption in Cleveland is preparing to plead guilty.
An indictment filed in June against Anthony Calabrese III alleges he paid a county worker to influence commissioners' choice of a new administration building.
The indictment also accused Calabrese of trying to hinder the corruption investigation.
Calabrese previously was accused of paying public officials in exchange for business for his law firm and legal clients and had pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
A federal court filing Wednesday says Akron federal judge Sara Lioi has scheduled a Jan. 15 hearing where Calabrese plans to plead guilty. |
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Canada rules on wearing religious veil in court
Law Firm News |
2012/12/20 13:38
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The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in a split decision that a witness can wear a religious veil that covers the face while testifying in court in certain circumstances. The landmark case pitted religious freedom against an accused person's right to a fair trial.
Thursday's decision involved a Muslim woman who sought to wear a veil known as a niqab while testifying against two men she claims sexually assaulted her when she was a child.
The woman said her religious beliefs dictate that she wears the veil in public or in the presence of men who aren't "direct" members of her family.
The two accused claimed that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms allowed them to confront their accuser and observe her facial expressions as she testifies.
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Lawyer questions handling of terror suspect
Law News |
2012/12/10 14:44
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The attorney of a Southern California terror suspect is questioning authorities' handling of his client, who had injuries to his face and head when he was turned over to the FBI by U.S. military officials in Afghanistan.
When Sohiel Omar Kabir arrived in California last week he had a broken facial bone, lacerations and was suffering from memory loss, according to Deputy Federal Public Defender Jeffrey Aaron.
"We think a lot of the injuries occurred during his arrest," Aaron told the Long Beach Press Telegram. "We're investigating what happened and why he wasn't hospitalized."
Kabir, 34, was captured Nov. 17 by U.S. special forces in Kabul, where he was staying with family members, and held for two weeks by the military before being turned over to the FBI.
FBI spokesman Laura Eimiller said Kabir suffered "combat-related injuries" during his capture. The injuries were treated by American medical personnel and he was cleared to be taken back to the U.S.
Kabir, a naturalized U.S. citizen, is the suspected ringleader of a plot to kill Americans and bomb military bases overseas.
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High Court to decide how logging roads regulated
Law News |
2012/12/03 19:05
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The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether to switch gears on more than 30 years of regulating the muddy water running off logging roads into rivers.
At issue: Should the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency keep considering it the same as water running off a farm field, or start looking at it like a pipe coming out of a factory?
The case being heard Monday in Washington, D.C., was originated by a small environmental group in Portland, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center.
It sued the Oregon Department of Forestry over roads on the Tillamook State Forest that drain into salmon streams. The lawsuit argued that the Clean Water Act specifically says water running through the kinds of ditches and culverts built to handle storm water runoff from logging roads is a point source of pollution when it flows directly into a river, and requires the same sort of permit that a factory needs.
"We brought this out of a perceived sense of unfairness," said Mark Riskedahl, director of the center. "Every other industrial sector across the country had to get this sort of permit for stormwater discharge," and the process has been very effective at reducing pollution.
The pollution running off logging roads, most of them gravel or dirt, is primarily muddy water stirred up by trucks. Experts have long identified sediment dumped in streams as harmful to salmon and other fish.
The center lost in U.S. District Court in Portland, but won in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The Oregon Department of Forestry and Georgia Pacific-West appealed to the Supreme Court, and 31 states threw in with them. |
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