Litigation

KY Judicial Rules Decision to Affect Ohio?

Posted on July 21, 2010
A recent federal appeals court decision, giving judicial candidates in Kentucky  a green light to solicit campaign dollars and seek office with advertised political party affiliations, could affect neighboring Ohio. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling (see Gavel Grab), and states belonging to the circuit include Ohio...

Some Businesses Boost Political Spending After ?Citizens United?

Posted on July 21, 2010
New reports are surfacing across the country of businesses and special interests working to exert more political influence in elections, following the Supreme Court’s landmark Citizens United v. FEC decision. Judicial elections are among the targets...

Justice Thomas Wary of ?Political? Judicial Selection

Posted on July 20, 2010
When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke at the Utah State Bar’s 2010 summer convention, he offered a remark about the best way to choose judges. After labeling it “insulting” to say the high court allows political pressures to sway its opinions, according to a Salt Lake Tribune article, “Thomas also said he thought it [...

Il Judge Backs Political Candidate with Bucks

Posted on July 20, 2010
It’s no surprise when Gavel Grab seizes on controversy over a judge receiving certain campaign contributions. There’s a twist to the following item, however, because it’s about a judge making campaign contributions–to a pawnbroker who is now running for governor of Illinois...

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Senate Panel Endorses Kagan by 13-6 Vote

Posted on July 20, 2010
The Supreme Court came a step closer today to having three female justices, for the first time in its history. A generally polarized Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6, with one Republican joining the Democratic majority, to endorse confirmation of Elena Kagan...

Judge in Drilling Case Won?t Recuse Himself

Posted on July 20, 2010
U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman, who blocked the Obama administration’s initial deepwater drilling ban, has declined to disqualify himself from the case. Environmental groups recently contended that Judge Feldman?s financial holdings raise questions about his impartiality, and they sought his recusal (see Gavel Grab)...

Debate Still Rages over Venue for Terror Detainees

Posted on July 20, 2010
Not so fast, former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey argues in trying to shoot down an idea recently floated to try five defendants from the 9/11 attacks in a federal court that could be securely established at Guantanamo Bay (see Gavel Grab). Mukasey, who served under President George W...

Will Iowa Judges Face Political Votes this Fall?

Posted on July 20, 2010
The Iowa Supreme Court’s decision last year legalizing same-sex marriage has some judges bracing for political attacks in retention elections this year. Judge Robert Hanson, who wrote the initial opinion that the high court upheld, told the Des Moines Register, “I don’t know exactly where they will come from or what they’ll amount to...

Politics Behind Looming Kagan Vote Examined

Posted on July 19, 2010
Senate Republican leaders are pressing to gain more “no” votes on the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan than the 31 cast against nominee Sonia Sotomayor when Sotomayor was confirmed last year, NPR reports. What’s it all about? By way of explanation, NPR quotes Curt Levey, director of the Committee for Justice, as saying Solicitor [...

Essayist Explores Rationale for FL Public Financing

Posted on July 19, 2010
After a week with two major federal court decisions on public campaign financing cases (see Gavel Grab), it’s easy sometimes to let the scorekeeping drown out the issues that are at stake. Robyn E. Blumner has written a column in the St. Petersburg Times that spells out the reasoning behind that state’s “matching” funds provision [...

Many CO Retention Elections Set for November

Posted on July 19, 2010
From the Colorado Supreme Court to its juvenile court, 139 judges and justices will face retention elections in November to determine whether they keep their jobs, the Colorado Statesman weekly newspaper reports. The article resembles a primer on the system for evaluating judges in Colorado, and its pros and cons...

TX Commission Rebukes Judge Keller

Posted on July 19, 2010
Texas’ top criminal court judge will keep her job, although a disciplinary panel reprimanded her handling of a last-minute death row appeal. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct gave Judge Sharon Keller a “public warning,” one of its less severe sanctions, and said she engaged in “willful or persistent conduct that casts public discredit on [...

New Senator Active in Judicial Reform

Posted on July 16, 2010
When West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin selected his former general counsel, Carte Goodwin, to fill temporarily a vacant U.S. Senate seat, Manchin selected a lawyer familiar with judicial reform issues. Goodwin was named earlier by the governor to head the Independent Commission on Judicial Reform, according to a statement by Manchin Friday...

?Expand a Federal Court to Gitmo? for Trials?

Posted on July 16, 2010
Why not try the chief defendants from the 9/11 attacks in a federal court that is securely established at Guantanamo Bay? That approach would both uphold the rule of law and provide a safe and cost-effective answer in the debate that has now roiled for months over prosecuting the accused plotters before military commissions, or [...

Gableman Case a ?Tipping Point? in Wisconsin?

Posted on July 16, 2010
In the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s deadlocking over an ethics complaint against one of its own, another Wisconsin editorial board finds reason to advocate for merit selection of Wisconsin justices. A Wisconsin State Journal editorial says the court’s 3-3 split over the complaint against Justice Michael Gableman was shaped by politics...

?Hurricane? Swirls over Campaign Finance Rules

Posted on July 16, 2010
The nation is witnessing extreme turbulence over campaign finance regulation, especially in the past week, but it could take more time to figure out with any certainty which way the winds will ultimately blow. “What we’re seeing is a battle against all forms of campaign finance legislation,”  Tara Malloy, associate counsel at the Campaign Legal [...

WI Panel to Focus on Judicial Discipline, Recusal

Posted on July 15, 2010
With the Wisconsin Supreme Court (photo, above) wracked by division over an ethics case and policy, a special legislative panel will seek to focus on reform. The Special Committee on Judicial Discipline and Recusal, to be chaired by state Democratic Rep...

More Senators Announce Votes on Kagan

Posted on July 15, 2010
Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter said Elena Kagan “did just enough to win my vote” for confirmation to the Supreme Court. But in a USA Today op-ed outlining his views, the Pennsylvanian also said Kagan continued a practice of Supreme Court nominees hedging their answers to senators...

Judge: FL Candidate Can Get ?Matching? Funds

Posted on July 15, 2010
A federal judge in Florida refused to block distribution of millions of public “matching” dollars to Attorney General Bill McCollum’s cash-strapped gubernatorial campaign, after McCollum’s multimillionaire opponent had sought intervention...

MN Disclosure Lawsuit Draws Heat

Posted on July 15, 2010
A lawsuit challenging Minnesota?s new campaign-spending disclosure law is drawing sharp criticism from some Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party members and watchdog groups. The lawsuit also seeks a ruling to let corporations contribute directly to political candidates...

Challenge to DC Same-Sex Marriage Law Rejected

Posted on July 15, 2010
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled  5-4 Thursday that foes of Washington’s same-sex marriage law cannot get a ballot question inviting voters to reverse the statute. D.C. officials had the authority to keep the issue off the ballot in a referendum, the court ruled, according to articles by the Associated Press and by [...

On Supreme ?Judicial Modesty??or Not

Posted on July 14, 2010
If so many nominees for the Supreme Court pledge an approach of judicial modesty, as Elena Kagan has, why do they typically end up voting to increase their own powers and to impose preferred policies in the name of interpreting the Constitution? That’s a question Stuart Taylor lays out, then wrestles with in an intriguing [...

ABA President Urges Filling of Vacant Judgeships

Posted on July 14, 2010
The president of the American Bar Association has warned that efficiency and fairness of the justice system are strained by a growing number of empty judgeships in the lower federal courts. “Our courts are already terribly strained at the federal level because of the caseload and the workload, and when you’re a hundred justices down… [...

Michigan Chamber Sues Over Spending Rules

Posted on July 14, 2010
The Michigan Chamber of Commerce has filed  litigation challenging Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land’s recent interpretation of state campaign finance law in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. The Chamber has gone to court challenging part of Land’s ruling in May...

Tough Legal Future for Public ?Triggered? Funds?

Posted on July 14, 2010
The legal future isn’t promising for certain provisions in state laws to help publicly financed candidates get a more equal footing with wealthy self-financed candidates who outspend them. That’s one thrust of a New York Times editorial about an appeals court ruling this week that struck down such “trigger provisions” in Connecticut’s public financing law [...

Appeals Court Voids Part of CT Public-Finance Law

Posted on July 13, 2010
An important part of Connecticut’s public financing law for campaigns, which has been seen as a potential national model, was thrown out by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. The 2nd Circuit struck down the so-called “trigger provisions” of the law...

Court Nixes Two KY Rules on Judicial Campaigning

Posted on July 13, 2010
Judicial candidates in Kentucky have gotten a green light to solicit campaign dollars and seek office with advertised political party affiliations, as a result of a decision from the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. According to an Associated Press article, Judge Jeffrey Sutton (photo at right) wrote the decision for a three-judge panel...

WI High Court: ?A Mess??

Posted on July 13, 2010
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s deep division over whether to sanction one of its own, Justice Michael Gableman, continues to draw editorial commentary critical of the court. Last week, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission dropped an ethics complaint accusing Justice Gableman of dishonesty in a 2008 campaign ad, after the high court had deadlocked 3-3 over the [...

Two Detainee Rulings Favor U.S. Government

Posted on July 13, 2010
In two separate cases involving current or former detainees, federal courts have issued significant rulings that represented victories for the U.S. government. In Washington, the District of Columbia Circuit Court asserted that U.S. judges are requiring too high a level of evidence from the government when it seeks to justify keeping prisoners locked up at [...

Senate Committee to Vote on Kagan July 20

Posted on July 13, 2010
The Senate Judiciary Committee has postponed until July 20 a vote on whether to confirm U.S. Solicitor General Elena to the Supreme Court. The panel agreed Tuesday to a request by the committee’s senior Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, for the one-week delay, which is permitted by committee rules and is customary in such [...

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