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Wis. court won't rehear union case without justice
Court Press News |
2012/07/06 15:43
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The state Supreme Court won't reconsider a lawsuit challenging Gov. Scott Walker's collective bargaining law without Justice Michael Gableman.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne had argued Republicans violated the state's open meetings law during debate on the measure. The Supreme Court ruled in June 2011 the law stands.
Ozanne in December asked the court to reconsider the case. He argued the Michael, Best & Friedrich law firm both defended the law and gave Justice Michael Gableman free legal help in the past, raising questions of impropriety.
The prosecutor demanded Gableman recuse himself from further proceedings. Gableman refused, saying he could be impartial.
The Supreme Court tied 3-3 Friday on Ozanne's request to rehear the case without Gableman. It would have taken four votes to proceed.
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Court to hear appeal of Marine in Iraqi killing
Court Press News |
2012/07/03 08:56
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The military's highest court agreed Monday to hear the appeal of a U.S. Marine convicted of murder in one of the most significant criminal cases against U.S. troops from the Iraq war.
The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces ordered a review requested by Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III, who claimed in a petition that his constitutional rights were violated when he was held in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer for seven days during his interrogation, and that Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unlawfully influenced his case after his conviction.
Hutchins, 26, of Plymouth, Mass., led an eight-man squad accused of kidnapping retired Iraqi policeman Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home in April 2006, marching him to a ditch and shooting him to death. The killing took place in Hamdania, a small village in Al Anbar province.
The six other Marines and a Navy corpsman in his squad served less than 18 months.
Hutchins has sought clemency and early release, saying he was deeply sorry for what happened and has suffered nightmares and anxiety because of the killing.
Those requests have been denied, Hutchins claimed in the appeal, because Mabus illegally interfered in the case and influenced officers under him to rule against release.
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Court: Union must give fee increase notice
Court Press News |
2012/06/21 12:13
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The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that unions must give nonmembers an immediate chance to object to unexpected fee increases or special assessments that all workers are required to pay in closed-shop situations.
The court ruled for Dianne Knox and other nonmembers of the Service Employees International Union's Local 1000, who wanted to object and opt out of a $12 million special assessment the union required from its California public sector members for political campaigning. Knox and others said the union did not give them a legally required notice that the increase was coming.
The union, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the annual notice that the union gives was sufficient. The high court disagreed in a 7-2 judgment written by Justice Samuel Alito.
"When a public-sector union imposes a special assessment or dues increase, the union must provide a fresh ... notice and may not exact any funds from nonmembers without their affirmative consent," Alito said.
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg agreed with the judgment but wrote their own opinion. "When a public-sector union imposes a special assessment intended to fund solely political lobbying efforts, the First Amendment requires that the union provide non-members an opportunity to opt out of the contribution of funds," Sotomayor wrote. |
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Arizona court approves fifth execution this year
Court Press News |
2012/06/13 09:10
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The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday approved the execution of a death-row inmate who was spared from the death penalty last year after winning a last-minute delay from the nation's highest court.
Daniel Wayne Cook, 50, is now scheduled for execution on Aug. 8 at the state prison in Florence.
Cook was sentenced to death for killing a 26-year-old Guatemalan immigrant, Carlos Cruz-Ramos, and a 16-year-old boy, Kevin Swaney, in 1987, after police say he tortured and raped them for hours in his apartment in Lake Havasu City in far western Arizona.
Cook had been scheduled for execution on April 5 of last year, but the U.S. Supreme Court granted him a last-minute stay to consider whether he had ineffective counsel during his post-conviction proceedings. They since have turned him down.
Another death-row inmate, Samuel Villegas Lopez, is set to be executed in two weeks.
Lopez would become the fourth inmate executed in Arizona this year, while Cook would become the fifth. Two other inmates who are nearing the end of their appeals could bring the number of executions in the state this year to seven.
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Court denies Loughner's request for rehearing
Court Press News |
2012/06/09 00:14
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An appeals court rejected a request by lawyers for the man accused of shooting former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to rehear their arguments over their mentally ill client's forced medication with psychotropic drugs.
Attorneys for Jared Lee Loughner had asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing after the court in March denied their request to halt their client's forced medication.
The court on Tuesday denied the request to hear the appeal again.
Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the January 2011 shooting in Tucson that killed six people and wounded former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 12 others.
The trial court judge on the case has set a June 27 hearing in Tucson to consider whether Loughner is mentally fit to stand trial.
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