Litigation

Monday Media Summary

Posted on March 15, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Justice At Stake: Justice at Stake Hails Public – Financing Vote in West Virginia Press Release – 3/12/2010 NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS Wall Street Journal/Washington Wire: White House Yet to Settle on Venue for 9/11 Trials Gary Fields – 3/14/2010 New York Law Journal: Evolution of Military Commissions Clouds Debate Over 9/11 Trials Mark Hamblett – 3/12/2010 Jurist/Forum: Court-martial: A Third Option [...

Massey Win Stays Intact in WV

Posted on March 12, 2010
West Virginia’s state Supreme Court on Thursday declined to reconsider its decision last November overturning a $50 million jury verdict against Massey Energy, the Charleston Gazette reported. The November decision was rendered after Justice Brent Benjamin removed himself from the case, complying with a U...

Citizens United: A Debate-Changer About our Courts?

Posted on March 12, 2010
(Supreme Court photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.) Has Citizens United altered the debate over the future of our courts? That question is posed by Doug Kendall, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, in Huffington Post. Kendall argues that the case has already led to changes, saying that: President Obama has accelerated from a slow pace for picking judicial nominees to a [...

JAS Hails WV Public-Finance Vote

Posted on March 12, 2010
Justice at Stake is happy to report that West Virginia’s state Senate has approved a pilot public-financing program for the 2012 state Supreme Court election. Once the bill is signed by Gov. Joe Manchin, West Virginia will be the fourth state nationally to enact public financing for high court elections, and the second in just [...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Judge Sidelines Groups in WI Finance Case

Posted on March 12, 2010
Three groups that back campaign finance reform won’t be allowed to intervene in a lawsuit that seeks to overturn  a new Wisconsin law for public financing of state Supreme Court candidates. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a partner of Justice at Stake, and the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin Education Fund and Common Cause in Wisconsin [...

Report Cites Politics in Citizens United Criticism

Posted on March 11, 2010
A political playbook reportedly lies behind Democrats’ sustained and intensifying criticism of the Supreme Court for its Citizens United decision. Chief Justice John Roberts’ criticism of the scene at President Obama’s State of the Union address (see Gavel Grab), and a forceful retort by the White House assailing the landmark campaign finance ruling, drew widespread reaction–and [...

Revised WV Finance Bill goes to Senate

Posted on March 11, 2010
BULLETIN: The Senate Finance Committee stripped fees on court filings and lawyers as a major funding source for   the proposed public financing  of state Supreme Court elections, then sent the measure to the full Senate, according to the Associated Press...

Second Turner Jury Is Hung

Posted on March 11, 2010
Hal Turner’s case, marked with theatrical elements,  has  once again led to a hung jury.  This case is now a mistrial for the shock jockey accused of threatening the lives of three federal appellate judges. After three days of deliberation, the jury in Turner’s case decided they could not reach a verdict...

House Votes for Judge?s Impeachment

Posted on March 11, 2010
BULLETIN: House lawmakers voted today for four articles of impeachment against Judge G. Thomas Porteous, paving the way for an impeachment trial in the Senate, according to an article in the Blog of Legal Times. The House of Representative could add Louisiana Federal District Judge G...

Holder in New Twist on Detainee-Lawyer Controversy

Posted on March 11, 2010
There’s a new chapter in the fracas over Justice Department lawyers who once worked on behalf of terror suspects detained by the United States, and it involves Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. Holder didn’t disclose during his confirmation hearings that he signed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the Supreme Court not to uphold the indefinite detention of [...

Broad Support Shown for Televising Supreme Court

Posted on March 11, 2010
More than 60 percent of voters recently polled by PublicMind, a research project of Fairleigh Dickinson University, favored televising the proceedings of the U.S. Supreme Court. The respondents supported televising the high court proceedings as “good for democracy,” according to a National Law Journal article...

Thursday Media Summary

Posted on March 11, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Charleston Gazette: Finance court elections Julie Archer and Carol Warren – 3/10/2010 NATIONAL SECURITY/COURTS Time: Why the Jihad Jane Case is a Win for the Patriot Act Massimo Calabresi – 3/11/2010 NY Times: Attacks on Detainee Lawyers Split Conservatives JOHN SCHWARTZ – 3/10/2010 Wall Street Journal: Trial Move Could Hurt Holder (subscription required) Evan Perez – 3/10/2010 McClatchy: Commentary: Justice for 9-11 [...

Roberts Criticizes State-of-Union Scene

Posted on March 10, 2010
There’s another round of engagement between the Supreme Court and White House. Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. voiced supreme discomfort Tuesday with the scene at the president’s State of the Union speech to Congress, where he and five other justices were present...

Fees an Issue for WV Finance Bill

Posted on March 10, 2010
Legislation for public financing of state Supreme Court elections in West Virginia could get hung up on a side issue–involving court fees proposed to help foot the election bill. The House-passed bill must be cleared by the Senate Finance Committee before it goes to the full Senate, and Finance Committee chairman Walt Helmick has criticized the [...

US Chamber Benefits from ?Citizens United?

Posted on March 10, 2010
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision is one of two major factors behind the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s increasing success at fundraising, according to an intriguing Los Angeles Times article. The headline reports, “U.S. Chamber of Commerce grows into a political force...

Scholarly Symposium on Caperton is Published

Posted on March 10, 2010
A Symposium on Caperton v. Massey, the landmark Supreme Court decision about campaign spending and judicial recusal, is in print from Syracuse Law Review. Among Gavel Grab’s missions is to circulate resources on protecting fair and impartial courts...

O?Connor Takes Reform Message to NC

Posted on March 10, 2010
  Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, continuing a drive to end competitive elections for state judges, carried her message to North Carolina this week. Justice O’Connor told students at Elon University School of Law that although North Carolina offers public financing for some judicial elections, that doesn’t go far enough, the Greensboro News and Record reported in an [...

Wednesday Media Summary

Posted on March 10, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Justice At Stake: Justice at Stake Cites 'Big Money' Threat in Md. Court Elections Press Release – 3/9/2010 West Virginia Record: W.Va. voters want candidates to use taxpayer money, poll shows John O’Brien – 3/9/2010 WEST VIRGINIA PUBLIC FINANCING Watchdog...

JAS: ?Big Money? Threat Stalks MD Elections

Posted on March 09, 2010
As Maryland legislators considered whether to end contested elections for trial court judges, the Justice at Stake Campaign cautioned on Tuesday that special-interest spending undermines public trust in our elected courts. “The new politics of judicial elections has convinced many Americans that justice is for sale,” Bert Brandenburg, JAS executive director, testified to the state Senate [...

PA Study: In Many Cases, Donors Appeared in Court

Posted on March 09, 2010
A new study sheds light on the great frequency with which campaign donors appear before Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices whose campaigns they backed, according to our friends at Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts. The American Judicature Society did research in support of PMC’s efforts for judicial selection reform and reported that in 2008-2009, more than two-thirds of [...

No Broadcast Expected for Prop 8 Trial Conclusion

Posted on March 09, 2010
It appears  there no longer is a possibility of broadcast coverage for closing arguments in the California same-sex marriage trial. A San Francisco newspaper had brought up that possibility last month, but a recent court-issued press release stated there will be no broadcast, according to On Top magazine...

WV Finance Bill Gets Media Attention

Posted on March 09, 2010
As West Virginia’s legislature weighs a plan for public financing of state Supreme Court elections, the state has become a battleground in a national debate about preserving fair and impartial courts. A poll unveiled Monday by the Justice at Stake Campaign and the Committee for Economic Development, already mentioned in Gavel Grab, showed most West Virginia voters favoring [...

Do Attacks on Gitmo Lawyers Weaken Our Rights?

Posted on March 09, 2010
A rare headline can capture a firestorm in fewer than 10 words. That has happened at the New York Times, with this powerful headline about an offensive that threatens constitutional rights: “Are You or Have You Ever Been a Lawyer?” Some conservative critics including Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, are attacking lawyers [...

Tuesday Media Summary

Posted on March 09, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE BusinessWeek/AP: W.Va. getting attention for election funding bill LAWRENCE MESSINA – 3/8/2010 Register-Herald: Public financing of court races gains strength Mannix Porterfield – 3/8/2010 Legal Newsline: Voters want candidates to use taxpayer money in W...

Judicial Election Reform Advancing in MN

Posted on March 09, 2010
Reformers in Minnesota want to protect existing respect for the courts. To do so, they’re pressing for a constitutional amendment to shield judges from the potentially damaging influence of high-spending, partisan elections. These are the arguments advanced in an editorial and a separate commentary in one recent day’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune...

Monday Media Summary

Posted on March 08, 2010
JUSTICE AT STAKE Media Advisory: Kessler, Reform Groups to Unveil Poll on Public Financing 3/5/2010 PhillyBurbs.com/AP: W.Va. getting attention for election funding bill LAWRENCE MESSINA – 3/8/2010 CITIZENS UNITED/CAMPAIGN FINANCE LA Times: Campaign finance legislation faces tricky issue of foreign corporations Clement Tan – 3/7/2010 Washington Post: A bipartisan push to clean up the Supreme Court’s mess E...

Editorial Defends Merit System in Missouri

Posted on March 08, 2010
Regarding a challenge to Missouri’s nationally recognized merit system for selecting judges, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial urges a resounding ‘no.’ And to help make its case, the editorial relies on a video of nasty attack ads compiled by Justice at Stake...

WV Poll: Majority Backs Public Financing

Posted on March 08, 2010
BULLETIN: West Virginia’s Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday approved a plan for public financing of elections for two state Supreme Court seats in 2012. If the state adopts a public financing plan, it would become the fourth state to do so, according to a press release by the Justice at Stake Campaign and the Committee [...

Gingrich Calls for Abolishing Ninth Circuit Court

Posted on March 08, 2010
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich recently called for abolition of the entire Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Speaking to the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, he got laughs and applause when he said Thomas Jefferson’s “judicial reform act of 1802 abolished 18 out of 35 federal judges, over half…I am more cautious than Jefferson...

Ohio Editorial, on Renewing Confidence in the Courts

Posted on March 05, 2010
In an editorial, the Akron Beacon Journal appeared to side with state Supreme Court Justice Thomas Moyer after three colleagues on the high bench disagreed with his proposal for merit selection of state justices (see Gavel Grab.) The editorial was entitled “Merit of the argument...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.