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Prop. 8 Challenge Wrapping Up in Court Today
Law News |
2010/06/16 10:04
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pA federal judge will hear closing arguments Wednesday in a groundbreaking trial on a lawsuit that seeks to establish marriage as a fundamental constitutional right for gays and lesbians. /ppThe latest effort to overturn California's Prop. 8 gay-marriage ban is wrapping up in federal court today, with Ted Olson and David Boies--the attorneys for George W. Bush and Al Gore in the Florida 2000 court case--presenting final arguments. (For a liveblog of what's going on, check in with Firedoglake.) Gay-marriage proponents have voiced optimism about this case since it mirrors the case that successfully ended California's gay-marriage ban in 2008, ultimately leading to the Prop. 8 campaign to ban it again./ppThe case is being heard by District Judge Vaughn Walker (who heard the al Hamarain case and ruled the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program illegal); it seems likely that, regardless of the result, it will be appealed ad infinitum.
/p |
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Texas asks court to intervene in fight with EPA
Headline Legal News |
2010/06/16 03:01
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| Texas asked a federal court on Monday to intervene in its fight with the Environmental Protection Agency over how the state regulates emissions from oil refineries and other petrochemicals plants. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to review the EPA's rejection in March of a 1995 state law that allows refineries to be modified without being subject to additional regulation, provided the changes don't increase a facility's overall emissions.pThe issue is part of an ongoing disagreement Texas and the EPA have over how pollution is regulated in the state, said Terry Clawson, a spokesman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. In recent weeks, debate has focused on the state's use of so-called flexible permits, which sets a general limit on how much pollutants an entire facility can release./ppIn a news release, Abbott's office criticized the EPA for taking more than a decade before deciding to reject the law and said it filed the legal challenge in an effort to defend the state's legal rights and challenge improper overreach by the federal government./p |
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Pa. police sued for hearing aid rule
Law News |
2010/06/15 10:02
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| A Pennsylvania man is suing the state police over guidelines that forbid the use of hearing aids in the certification process for becoming a municipal police officer.pLawyers for 39-year-old Bill Furman have asked in the federal discrimination lawsuit filed Wednesday that the rule be changed so he has the chance to become eligible for certification. The state police oversees certification./ppFurman is a parking officer and constable. He lives in Boalsburg./ppHe was set to attend a police training academy last year when he said he was told he couldn't continue because of his hearing aids./p |
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High court rejects appeal in rendition case
Legal Business |
2010/06/14 08:58
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pThe Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a Canadian engineer who was caught up in the U.S. government's secret transfer of terror suspects to other countries./ppThe court did not comment Monday in ending Syrian-born Maher Arar's quest to sue top U.S. officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Arar says he was mistaken for a terrorist when he was changing planes in New York on his way home to Canada, a year after the 2001 terrorist attacks. He was instead sent to Syria, where he claims he was tortured./ppLower courts dismissed Arar's lawsuit, which asserts the U.S. purposely sent him to Syria to be tortured. Syria has denied he was tortured./ppThe Canadian government agreed to pay Arar $10 million and apologized to him for its role in the case./ppA Canadian investigation found that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police wrongly labeled Arar an Islamic fundamentalist and passed misleading and inaccurate information to U.S. authorities./ppThe inquiry determined that Arar was tortured, and it cleared him of any terrorist links or suspicions.
/p |
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Kagan confirmation would affect major tobacco case
Headline Legal News |
2010/06/14 08:58
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| pIt's a simple matter of math: Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court has complicated the government's effort to force the tobacco industry to cough up nearly $300 billion./ppIf confirmed by the Senate as a justice, Kagan would have to sit out high court review of the government's decade-old racketeering lawsuit against cigarette makers. That's because she already has taken sides as solicitor general, signing the Obama administration's Supreme Court brief in the case — an automatic disqualifier./ppKagan is expected to step aside from 11 of the 24 cases the court has so far agreed to hear beginning in October./ppWithout her, the government and anti-tobacco advocates could find it difficult, if not impossible, to find a fifth vote to allow the government to seek $280 billion of past tobacco profits and $14 billion for a national campaign to curb smoking./p |
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