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High court declines to revisit immigrant issue during virus
Attorney News |
2020/04/26 14:36
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The Supreme Court on Friday declined a request by states who cited the coronavirus pandemic in asking the justices to reverse course and temporarily halt a Trump administration policy that makes it harder for legal immigrants to become permanent residents if they use public benefits.
The justices in January voted 5-4 along ideological lines to allow the Trump administration to implement its policy while lawsuits against it continued.
But earlier this month lawyers for Connecticut, New York, Vermont and New York City asked the justices to reconsider. They said the Trump administration’s so-called public charge rule is hindering the states' ability to stop the spread of the coronavirus by “deterring immigrants from accessing healthcare and public benefits.”
The order from the Supreme Court on Friday was brief, with no justice noting disagreement. In January, the court’s five conservative justices allowed the Trump administration policy to go into effect over the objections of its four liberals. The court said its order Friday didn't prevent lawyers from going to a lower court.
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Dutch court approves euthanasia in advanced dementia cases
Attorney News |
2020/04/21 14:36
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The Netherlands' highest court ruled Tuesday that doctors can carry out euthanasia in patients with advanced dementia if the patient has earlier made a written directive.
The Supreme Court ruling solidifies in law a practice that already was being carried out on rare occasions in the Netherlands.
Dutch euthanasia advocacy group NVVE welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that the decision should help doctors “to feel strengthened and supported if they want to carry out euthanasia on a patient with dementia.”
The case before the Supreme Court revolved around a district court's acquittal last year of a doctor who in 2016 carried out euthanasia on a 74-year-old woman. Prosecutors argued at the doctor's trial in The Hague there were indications the woman might have changed her mind since she declared her wish to be euthanized in a written statement. |
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Texas clinics ask Supreme Court to abortions during pandemic
Attorney News |
2020/04/12 13:02
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Abortion clinics in Texas on Saturday asked the Supreme Court to step in to allow certain abortions to continue during the coronavirus pandemic.
The clinics filed an emergency motion asking the justices to overturn a lower-court order and allow abortions when they can be performed using medication.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order last month that bars non-essential medical procedures so that medical resources can go to treating coronavirus patients. Texas' attorney general has said that providing abortions other than for an immediate medical emergency would violate the order.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday allowed abortions to proceed in cases where a woman would be beyond 22 weeks pregnant, the legal limit for abortions in Texas, on April 22, the day after the governor's order barring non-essential medical procedures is set to expire. |
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High court upholds murder conviction for Albuquerque man
Attorney News |
2019/12/21 09:10
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An Albuquerque man’s convictions in the beating and fatal stabbing of his ex-wife’s husband will stand.
Terry White is serving life in prison plus 12 years for the December 2016 death of Don Fluitt. Fluitt’s body was found in the garage of his northwest Albuquerque home amid a custody battle with his ex-wife over his then-11-year-old daughter.
White’s attorneys had argued the evidence wasn’t sufficient to convict White of first-degree murder, aggravated burglary and tampering with evidence.
The state Supreme Court disagreed in a ruling Monday, saying the evidence was overwhelming.
The justices also said the trial court properly allowed testimony from a Navajo County, Arizona, sheriff’s deputy who said he believed White was attempting to commit suicide at a truck stop in Holbrook, Arizona.
The deputy approached White after seeing a blue hose leading from the exhaust inside White’s vehicle and towels stuffed in the windows. The deputy took White into custody when he discovered White had a warrant for his arrest.
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Court to hear resentencing bid in Arizona death penalty case
Attorney News |
2019/12/09 13:15
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The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal Wednesday by an Arizona death row inmate who is seeking a new sentencing trial, arguing the horrific physical abuse that he suffered as a child wasn't fully considered when he was first sentenced.
The appeal of James Erin McKinney could affect as many as 15 of Arizona's 104 death row inmates. Attorneys say the Arizona courts used an unconstitutional test in examining the mitigating factors considered during the sentencing trials of the inmates.
The Supreme Court has ruled both that juries, not judges, must impose death sentences, and that mitigating factors, including childhood deprivations, must be factored into sentencing decisions.
McKinney's attorneys say the Arizona Supreme Court erred last year in upholding his sentences after a federal appellate decision concluded that the state court used an unconstitutional test in examining the mitigating factors considered during his sentencing.
Prosecutors said McKinney shouldn't get a sentencing retrial, arguing his case was considered officially closed years before the 2002 Supreme Court decision that required death penalty decisions to be made by jurors, not judges.
Attorneys say the decision in McKinney's case could affect other Arizona death row inmates who could challenge the test used in evaluating the mitigating factors considered during sentencing. But it's unclear whether the ruling would affect death penalty cases from other states.
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