Litigation

Friday Media Summary

Posted on April 02, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Charleston Daily Mail: This campaign law stifles free speech Sean Parnell – 4/2/2010 GOVERNMENT SURVEILLANCE NY Times: Court Ruling on Wiretap Is a Challenge for Obama JAMES RISEN and CHARLIE SAVAGE – 4/2/2010 Salon: The criminal NSA eavesdropping program Glenn Greenwald – 4/1/2010 Christian Science Monitor: Bush wiretap program gets rebuke from federal judge Michael B...

USA Today: Budget Crisis Snags More Courts

Posted on April 01, 2010
USA Today, which on Wednesday published a front-page article on special-interest money and court elections, today took on another critical issue: the national funding crisis squeezing America’s courts. According to today’s article, “Court budget cuts swift hand of justice“: Unprecedented layoffs and courtroom closings across the country have resulted in recession-driven court delays, legal experts say...

Thursday Media Summary

Posted on April 01, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE American Courthouse: USA Today Reports on Judicial Elections Dan Pero – 3/31/2010 Politics Daily: States Move Away from Elections in Choosing Judges Christopher Weber – 3/31/2010 NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS Huffington Post: Obama: Bush Lite on Guantanamo Lt...

USA Today Cites JAS, Says Reform Efforts ?Growing?

Posted on March 31, 2010
The lead front-page story in today’s USA Today,  “States act to revise judicial selection,” focuses on efforts to protect elected courts from special-interest money, and includes quotes and data from Justice at Stake and the Brennan Center for Justice...

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Wednesday Media Summary

Posted on March 31, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE USA Today: Fundraising for states’ high-court races Fredreka Schouten – 3/30/2010 Legal Newsline: Group may challenge publicly financed elections in West Virginia John O’Brien – 3/30/2010 NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS Chicago Sun Times: Government must reveal more evidence against taxi driver accused of supporting al-Qaida NATASHA KORECKI – 3/30/2010 Washington Post/AP: Judge seeks more answers on alleged CIA misconduct DEVLIN BARRETT – 3/30/2010 CNN: [...

Tuesday Media Summary

Posted on March 30, 2010
NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS NY Times: Militia Charged With Plotting to Murder Officers NICK BUNKLEY and CHARLIE SAVAGE – 3/30/2010 Detroit News: Hutaree militia planned to kill law officer, attack the funeral procession Paul Egan and Mike Wilkinson – 3/29/2010 Main Justice: Waiting on the Trial of the Century Joe Palazzolo – 3/29/2010 FOX News: More Guantanamo Detainees Are Returning to Terror Upon Release Diane [...

W. Va. Law May Face Suit; AP Cites Justice at Stake

Posted on March 29, 2010
Opponents of campaign finance laws are rattling their legal sabers in West Virginia, suggesting in an Associated Press article  that they may sue to overturn the state’s new public-financing law for state Supreme Court candidates. A similar challenge is being mounted against a Wisconsin’s law enacted last year...

Monday Media Summary

Posted on March 29, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Charleston Gazette/AP: Election legislation could attract lawsuits Lawrence Messina – 3/28/2010 CAMPAIGN FINANCE/COURTS Washington Post: Court strikes down campaign contribution limits James Vicini – 3/26/2010 NY Times: Courts Take On Campaign Finance Decision ADAM LIPTAK – 3/27/2010 Washington Post: Ruling allows contributions to activist groups for campaigns Dan Eggen – 3/27/2010 Wall Street Journal: Free Speech, the Sequel 3/27/2010 SCOTUSBlog: Widening impact of Citizens [...

Is a Supreme Confrontation Near?

Posted on March 26, 2010
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens hasn’t announced whether he will retire this year. But that doesn’t matter in Washington, where an expected announcement has the White House, activists and the Senate “bracing for an election-year confrontation over the future of the Supreme Court,” according to a New York Times article...

Campaign Contribution Limits Shot Down

Posted on March 26, 2010
A federal appeals court ruled Friday that an independent political group can collect unlimited individual donations to spend on advertising for or against political candidates. The ruling, following the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, went further to loosen campaign finance restrictions...

KY Judge, Father Agree to Fines

Posted on March 26, 2010
In Kentucky, a father’s financial aid helped his daughter win election as a judge. Now each has agreed to pay a $15,000 fine to settle a campaign-finance case against them. Louisville Metro Council member Jim King gave Katie King $135,000 during her successful campaign for a judgeship in 2008, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported...

Senate Panel Backs MN Reform Proposal

Posted on March 26, 2010
A committee in the Minnesota Senate has approved a bill asking voters if they want to change how state judges are selected. A bipartisan group of reformers is supporting a proposed  constitutional amendment to replace partisan elections with up-or-down retention elections and to set up a non-partisan commission to evaluate judges near the ends of their [...

Bopp Expands Legal Team in Far-Reaching Effort

Posted on March 26, 2010
Indiana-based lawyer James Bopp Jr.,  working nationwide to dismantle campaign finance regulation, is familiar to Gavel Grab readers (see earlier posts here.) Now an update on Bopp from the Washington Post provides details about his reach. The lawyer who played a central role in framing the case that led to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision [...

Friday Media Summary

Posted on March 26, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Justice At Stake: New West Va. Law Shows 'National Momentum' for Court-Election Reforms 3/25/2010 NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS Washington Post: Bin Laden threatens to kill Americans if Khalid Sheik Mohammed is executed Greg Miller – 3/26/2010 Forbes/AP: Bin Laden threatens US over alleged 9/11 plotter SARAH EL DEEB – 3/25/2010 Miami Herald: New war-court chief may mean more tribunals at Guantánamo CAROL ROSENBERG – 3/25/2010 Jurist/Paper Chase: [...

Release Ordered for Gitmo Detainee

Posted on March 25, 2010
A federal judge in Washington ordered the release this week of Mohamedou Ould Slahi of Mauritania, once described as “the highest value detainee” imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, according to a Wall Street Journal article. Judge James Robertson’s decision, ruling in effect that there were no legal grounds for the government to hold the suspected al Qaeda [...

JAS Hails ?National Momentum? for Court-Election Reforms

Posted on March 25, 2010
The Justice at Stake Campaign saluted as a “big victory for West Virginia citizens” the signing into law of a public financing plan for state Supreme Court elections in the Mountain State. “It also shows there is real national momentum for reform in how we elect judges,” JAS Executive Director Bert Brandenburg said in a press [...

Thursday Media Summary

Posted on March 25, 2010
NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS LA Times: Obama backtracking on detainee rights, critics say Julian E. Barnes and David S. Cloud – 3/25/2010 Raw Story: Rights groups fear Graham bill will sanction indefinite detention Daniel Tencer – 3/24/2010 National Review: So, You Still Want to Close Gitmo? Andrew C...

JAS Honors Female Pioneers in the Law

Posted on March 24, 2010
Celebrating Women’s History Month, the Justice at Stake Campaign has profiled 11 female pioneers in the law on its Web site. These women overcame enormous obstacles and paved the way for others to achieve careers in the legal world. They are Judge Florence Allen, Myra Bradwell, Margaret Brent, Judge Jane Brolin, Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U...

Senate Panel Suspends Hearing on Appeals Nominee

Posted on March 24, 2010
His nomination to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could be President Obama’s most polarizing circuit court pick, according to the Blog of Legal Times. But the Senate Judiciary Committee suspended a scheduled hearing Wednesday on the nomination of Goodwin Liu for another reason...

Judicial Independence Question Lingers in SC

Posted on March 24, 2010
For some, a  question of judicial independence remains unresolved after the South Carolina Supreme Court dismissed a family court judge’s  bid to overturn a decision by a screening commission that she was unqualified to continue serving on the bench...

Citizens United: Back to Planet Reality

Posted on March 24, 2010
Has the Citizens United whirlwind begun with a small dust devil down in Texas? When the Supreme Court issued its controversial ruling, it seemed to have a sanguine view of what it means to let corporations and unions spend freely on political elections...

Wednesday Media Summary

Posted on March 24, 2010
NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS Jurist/Paper Chase: Federal judge orders release of Guantanamo detainee accused in 9/11 attacks Andrea Bottorff – 3/23/2010 Main Justice: Graham Proposal on Terrorist Detention Circulating on Hill Leah Nylen – 3/23/2010 Huffington Post: Guantanamo Bay and History: Will the Future Belong to Dick Cheney? Eric M...

Disclosure Rules Advance in Wisconsin

Posted on March 23, 2010
The agency that polices elections in Wisconsin has approved new rules closing an “issue ad” loophole, according to a statement by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a partner group of the Justice at Stake Campaign. ?Issue ads? typically attack or support candidates without explicitly advocating a vote...

Corporate-Funded Political Ads Run in TX Newspapers

Posted on March 23, 2010
A  real estate company is behind what appear to be the first political ads purchased in Texas by a corporation since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. The ads challenged the Republican credentials of state Rep. Chuck Hopson, a former Democrat, and were funded by a company whose president was defeated by Hopson in a 2006 [...

SC Court Tosses Lawsuit on Screening Panel

Posted on March 23, 2010
South Carolina’s Supreme Court dismissed on Tuesday a family court judge’s request  to overturn a decision by the  Judicial Merit Selection Commission that she was unqualified to continue serving on the bench, according to an Associated Press article...

Justice Seeks Colleague?s Recusal in WI Ethics Case

Posted on March 23, 2010
This long-running judicial ethics case has featured numerous twists and turns. In the latest, Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman is seeking the removal of a fellow justice from deliberating on an ethics accusation against Justice Gableman...

Tuesday Media Summary

Posted on March 23, 2010
NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS Wall Street Journal: Key Gitmo Detainee Ordered Released (subscription required) Jess Bravin – 3/22/2010 Jurist/Paper Chase: Supreme Court declines to rule on Guantanamo detainee transfer process Jaclyn Belczyk – 3/22/2010 BusinessWeek/Bloomberg: Guantanamo Inmates Lose U...

Local NC Editor Likes Merit Selection

Posted on March 22, 2010
A newspaper editor in North Carolina doesn’t mince words in his opinions about certain judges, but he nonetheless sides with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in favoring merit selection. “Most voters don’t know much about judicial candidates, and we’ve elected some doozies,” Matthew Eisley writes in a column published by the News & Observer...

OH Judges Duel with Election Complaints

Posted on March 22, 2010
There is a case of dueling judges in Ohio: Two judges squaring off in a political campaign also are sparring with complaints to the Ohio Elections Commission, according to the Columbus News-Herald. Lake County Common Pleas Court Judge Eugene A. Lucci is try to oust 11th District Court of Appeals Judge Colleen Mary O?Toole in a [...

Fireworks at Hearing on Appellate Nominee?

Posted on March 22, 2010
Look out for fireworks when the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing Wednesday on the nomination of Goodwin Liu–who teaches constitutional law at the University of California at Berkeley–for the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Liu advocates for liberal causes, opposed the nomination of Chief Justice John Roberts Jr...

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