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Firm hired by GOP ends work on gay marriage ban
Topics in Legal News |
2011/05/01 09:09
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A prominent law firm hired by Republican lawmakers to defend the federal ban on gay marriage said Monday it was withdrawing from the case amid criticism by advocacy groups, prompting the partner leading the work to quit.
The move by Atlanta-based King & Spalding is the latest flashpoint in the public debate over gay rights. Chairman Robert Hays Jr. said the firm chose to divorce itself from the controversy after determining that the decision to take the case wasn't vetted properly, but gay rights groups had also been pressuring the 800-lawyer company with plans for a protest Tuesday in Atlanta and with calls to its other clients. The groups cheered the move.
The decision, however, was sharply criticized by conservative groups, legal observers and the partner who had been handling the case, a former high-ranking Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. Washington-based attorney Paul Clement said he's moving to another law office so he can continue the work.
Clement had been retained by House Republican leaders after President Barack Obama ordered the Justice Department in February to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. His administration said it believes the 1996 law, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, was unconstitutional.
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More psych evaluation in castration killing case
Topics in Legal News |
2011/05/01 09:09
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A doctor will pay a second visit to a Portuguese model accused of castrating and killing a TV journalist in a Times Square hotel before his lawyer decides whether to pursue a psychiatric defense in the attack.
A psychiatrist visited Renato Seabra this month but needs a second evaluation of the 21-year-old model, defense attorney David Touger said Friday. Seabra was transferred two weeks ago from Bellevue Hospital to jail at Rikers Island, Touger said.
"He is medicated because he has a psychiatric illness. He is doing well under the circumstances that he is under," Touger said after a short pretrial hearing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
Seabra, a former contestant on a Portuguese talent-search show, has pleaded not guilty to murder in Carlos Castro's Jan. 7 death. Castro, a 65-year-old Portuguese TV personality and writer, was found dead, naked and bloodied in a room they were sharing.
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Community Health makes all-cash bid for Tenet
Topics in Legal News |
2011/04/19 08:44
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Hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. on Monday revised its $3 billion offer for rival Tenet Healthcare Corp. to an all-cash bid. Community Health is now offering $6 per share in cash. In December, it had gone public with a bid of $5 per share in cash and $1 per share in stock. At the time, the offer was a premium of about 40 percent to the Dallas company's shares. But Tenet's board rejected that offer, and adopted a "poison pill" measure to fend off the bid. Tenet's shares have recently been trading above $6. But the company said Monday it will review the revised offer and make a recommendation. It said shareholders should take no action for now. Tenet shares fell 26 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $6.40 in afternoon trading while Community Health shares dropped $1.74, or 5.5 percent, to $30.16 after falling as much as 14.3 percent earlier in the session. Community Health Systems runs 130 hospitals in 29 states, and focuses on fast-growing and non-urban markets. Tenet runs 50 hospitals spread across 11 states, and most of its facilities are in urban and suburban communities. |
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International judge rules against lawyers' wigs
Topics in Legal News |
2011/04/18 08:44
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International judge rules against lawyers' wigs (AP) – 1 day ago THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Hair today, gone tomorrow. A judge has asked lawyers to shed their wigs next time they appear before her at the International Criminal Court. A handful of attorneys appeared Monday in traditional black gowns and white horsehair wigs for a preliminary hearing in a case dealing with violence after Kenya's disputed 2007 presidential election. Justice Ekaterina Trendafilova paused briefly at the end of the hearing to pass a hair-raising judgment. "This is not the dress code of this institution," she said. "In this quite warm weather maybe it will be more convenient to be without wigs," she added with a smile. It is unusual for lawyers to appear at the International Criminal Court in wigs, but not unheard of. At least three lawyers wore wigs during the initial appearance of three Kenyan suspects on April 8, without Justice Trendafilova issuing any dress code guidelines. Steven Kay, one of the lawyers wearing a wig Monday, said the court's registry gave him the option of wearing Dutch lawyer's garb or the English version of wig and gown. |
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Victorian Village bar loses smoking-ban appeal
Topics in Legal News |
2010/11/19 22:11
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The Ohio Supreme Court will get a chance to determine the legality of the state's smoking ban after an appeals court ruled that state officials didn't overstep their bounds when they repeatedly cited a Victorian Village bar for violating Ohio's smoking ban. Zeno's Victorian Village is fighting a two-pronged battle against the 2006 anti-smoking law, saying that it shouldn't apply to family-owned bars and that authorities are unfairly punishing bars for violating the ban rather than the smokers themselves. On Tuesday, the Franklin County Court of Appeals handed Zeno's a big setback. In a 3-0 ruling, judges overturned a trial court's decision that dismissed more than $30,000 in fines against Zeno's. The trial court concluded that authorities had singled out bars and restaurants for penalties while refusing to cite smokers who violated the ban. The February ruling by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain never affected how state and local health departments enforce the no-smoking law. As of the end of August, more than 2,500 fines had been imposed totaling nearly $1.2 million, according to the Ohio Department of Health. State and local officials had collected about $400,000 of that amount. |
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