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CA same-sex marriage ban gets another day in court
Legal Focuses |
2011/12/09 21:17
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The sponsors of California's gay marriage ban renewed their effort Thursday to disqualify a federal judge because of his same-sex relationship, but they met a skeptical audience in an appeals court panel.
It's the first time an American jurist's sexual orientation has been cited as grounds for overturning a court decision.
Lawyers for a coalition of religious conservative groups told a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker should have revealed he had a long-term male partner before he presided over a trial on the measure's constitutionality. He also should have stated whether he had any interest in getting married, the lawyers said.
Because he did not, Walker's impartiality stands in doubt and the decision he ultimately made to strike down Proposition 8 as a violation of Californians' civil rights must be reversed, said Charles Cooper, an attorney for the ban's backers.
"In May 2009, when Judge Walker read the allegations of the complaint, he knew something the litigants and the public did not know: He knew that he, too, like the plaintiffs, was a gay resident of California who was involved in a long-term, serious relationship with an individual of the same sex," Cooper said. "The litigants did not have any knowledge of these facts, and it appears that Judge Walker made the deliberate decision not to disclose these facts." |
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Appeals court blocks cement plant pollution rule
Court Line |
2011/12/08 21:17
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A federal appeals court is blocking an Environmental Protection Agency rule designed to reduce pollution at cement plants.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington agreed with cement makers that the EPA did not properly draft the rule governing storage of material used in the manufacturing process. The judges ordered the agency to rewrite the 2010 regulation and urged them to do so quickly.
Other rules affecting pollutants in the cement making process were left in place by the judges.
Congress also had been considering a challenge to the rule. More than 100 lawmakers with plants in their districts pushed the House to pass a bill Oct. 6 that would have forced the EPA to rewrite the measure and give manufacturers years to comply. |
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NYC lawyer: Boy a menace before shopping cart case
Legal Focuses |
2011/12/07 17:21
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Officials say a 13-year-old had a history of troubling behavior before he helped push a shopping cart that fell on a woman from a fourth-floor walkway at a New York City mall.
A city lawyer told a judge Tuesday the boy tried to run schoolmates over on his bike, threw things in the lunchroom and hit his mother's cat.
The attorney says the boy joked around at a police precinct after his Oct. 30 arrest and expressed more concern about his sneakers than about the woman who was seriously hurt.
The boy's lawyer says the teen needs and wants counseling for his behavioral problems.
The boy was charged as a juvenile and pleaded guilty in Family Court last month to assault. His sentencing was postponed Tuesday until later this month. |
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Blagojevich team says he's guilty, asks for mercy
Court Watch |
2011/12/06 17:21
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After all his claims of innocence and facing years in prison, Rod Blagojevich let his lawyers make an admission that he has so far avoided - that he is, in fact, guilty of public corruption.
The former Illinois governor will get a chance to do the same Wednesday, when he is scheduled to address the judge who will decide his sentence.
Judge James Zagel signaled Tuesday he may be prepared to impose a stiff prison sentence, saying he thinks Blagojevich lied when he told jurors he never tried to sell or trade an appointment to President Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat for campaign cash or a top job.
Throughout the first day of his two-day sentencing hearing, the impeached executive-turned-reality TV star known for his jocular personality was somber and ill-at-ease, staring down at the floor. His wife sobbed as a letter from their daughter was read begging Zagel not to send Blagojevich to prison.
The hearing was a stark contrast to the circus atmosphere around Blagojevich's trials on multiple counts of corruption.
The conciliatory tone came as something of a surprise — just days after defense filings that, as many times before, stridently declared Blagojevich's innocence and said he had been duped by aides but never intended to cross any lines into illegality. |
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Political aide to former Md. governor found guilty
Court Line |
2011/12/06 17:21
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A political aide to former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich was convicted Tuesday of conspiring to use election-day robocalls in an effort to suppress black voter turnout during the 2010 gubernatorial election.
Paul Schurick was found guilty of all four counts he faced, including conspiracy to influence or attempt to influence a voter's decision whether to go to the polls through the use of fraud and conspiracy to publish campaign material without an authority line. A stoic Schurick comforted his wife in the courtroom after the Baltimore jury's verdict was read, but declined to comment.
His attorney, A. Dwight Pettit, said they will appeal.
Prosecutors argued the calls that went out on the evening of Election Day to about 110,000 voters in Baltimore city and Prince George's County — two jurisdictions with high percentages of black voters — were an effort by the Republican campaign to reduce the number of black Democrats voting in heavily Democratic Maryland. |
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