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Court continues order targeting voter intimidation
Headline Legal News |
2013/01/16 22:35
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The Supreme Court has turned down an effort by the Republican National Committee to end a 30-year-old court order aimed at preventing intimidation of minority voters.
The justices did not comment Monday in rejecting an appeal of lower court decisions that left the order in place at least until 2017.
The order stems from a lawsuit filed by Democrats in New Jersey in 1981 that objected to a "ballot security" program the RNC ran in minority neighborhoods.
Republicans said the order hampers efforts to combat voter fraud, but U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise said voter intimidation remains a threat and preventing it outweighs the potential danger of fraud.
The court action is unrelated to legal challenges to Republican-inspired voter identification laws in the 2012 campaign. |
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Lawyer: Guatemala judge orders McAfee released
Headline Legal News |
2012/12/20 00:05
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A lawyer for John McAfee said Tuesday that a judge has ordered the software company founder released from a Guatemalan detention center where he has been fighting being returned to Belize.
Attorney Telesforo Guerra said the judge notified him verbally of the ruling, but added that it might take a day for formal written notification to win McAfee's release, possibly as soon as Wednesday.
Judge Judith Secaida did not immediately return phone calls seeking to confirm the ruling.
Guerra said Secaida ruled that McAfee's detention was illegal, ordered him released, and gave him 10 days to put his immigration situation in order. It was not immediately clear if McAfee could get some kind of temporary or transit visa to allow him to leave Guatemala.
McAfee has said he wants to return to the United States with his 20-year-old Belizean girlfriend. Guerra said that would be his client's best option.
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UK murder suspect's extradition case set for 2013
Headline Legal News |
2012/12/03 19:03
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A U.K. court will wait until next year to hold the extradition hearing of a Briton accused of hiring a hit man to kill his wife during their honeymoon in South Africa — after his mental state is reviewed.
The lawyer for Shrien Dewani says he has flashbacks and is a "husk" of his former self. Attorney Clare Montgomery said Monday it is unthinkable he would be able to plan any escape.
Dewani's mental condition will be reviewed in April, with a full extradition hearing set for July.
The 32-year-old is accused of arranging the murder of his wife, Anni, 28. She was found shot dead in an abandoned taxi in Cape Town's Gugulethu township in November 2010.
In March, a British court halted Dewani's extradition, citing his mental state. |
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W.Va. court hears 'rescue' funding arguments
Headline Legal News |
2012/09/05 15:33
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Whether West Virginia Supreme Court candidate Allen Loughry receives additional public funds for his campaign hinges on whether the U.S. Supreme Court sees a difference between elections for the judiciary and races for other political posts, the state court was told during a hearing Tuesday.
Adam Skaggs, lawyer for the Republican hopeful, argued that legislative and executive branch officeholders are expected to favor agendas and interest groups that helped them win. But judges are supposed to harbor no bias, and West Virginia created the public financing pilot program amid concerns about campaign cash influencing the judiciary, said Skaggs, an official with the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school.
"The state has compelling interests in the context of judicial elections that are absent from any other type of election," Skaggs told the court.
The point is crucial to Loughry's pursuit of "rescue" funds, normally triggered by spending by a traditionally financed candidate or outside group. With two, 12-year terms up on the court this year, Loughry alone among the four Supreme Court candidates has sought and received funding through the pilot program. Provided $350,000 for the general election, Loughry is seeking another $144,500 or so in matching funds. |
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Appeals court removes key civil service protection
Headline Legal News |
2012/08/22 14:32
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A federal appeals court ruling that has taken key civil service protection away from government employees involved in national security work will have far-reaching implications, advocates for federal workers say.
Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project, a whistle-blower advocacy group, said Tuesday that the appeals court has given agencies "a blank check to cancel all government accountability in civil service law."
In a 2-1 decision Friday involving two Defense Department employees, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the Merit Systems Protection Board is prohibited from reviewing dismissals and demotions of government employees who hold "noncritical sensitive" positions, regardless of whether those jobs require access to classified information.
The dissenting judge in the case said the decision "effectively nullifies" the 1978 civil service law. Advocates for federal workers point out that federal employees in "noncritical sensitive" jobs work at many federal agencies, making the impact of the ruling government-wide. |
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