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Supreme Court Hears Case on Role of Money in Justice

Dispute inspired a John Grisham novel

(Newser) - This week, the Supreme Court will hear a case so twisty it inspired a John Grisham novel, the Washington Post reports. At stake: the standards for judicial impartiality. The owner of a small coal company sued a huge one, alleging it illegally drove him out of business. He won, but...

Polanski Judge Wise to Resist Whitewashing

Director's bias skews media narrative

(Newser) - The judge who refused to throw out Roman Polanski's rape conviction Tuesday—unless he agreed to come back to the country to challenge it in person—was right to resist the whitewashing of Polanski's crime, writes Bill Wyman in Salon. The movement to rehabilitate the acclaimed director was based on...

Juror Booted for 'Sitting in Hell' Facebook Post

Ohio man's Facebook message prompts calls for mistrial

(Newser) - An Ohio man inadvertently discovered a new, high-tech way to get out of jury duty: write about it on Facebook. A judge in a high-profile civil lawsuit booted Barry Price from service after the plaintiff’s attorney discovered his Facebook status: “Barry Price is sitting in hell… aka jury...

Court Sticks It to Sarko Over Voodoo Dolls

Stab-able president a cult success in France

(Newser) - An appeals court in France essentially told the nation's president to lighten up today. The court rejected a bid by Nicolas Sarkozy to ban voodoo dolls made in his likeness, the International Herald Tribune reports. It ruled that the dolls can continue to be sold, only now they must have...

Judge Nixes Fla. Ban on Gay Adoption

State plans to appeal ruling against 30-year-old measure

(Newser) - A Miami circuit judge sparked a constitutional showdown by ruling today against Florida’s 30-year-old ban on gay adoption, rebutting claims that homosexuals suffer more from mental illness and substance abuse. The attorney general’s office plans to appeal the decision, which allows a Miami man to adopt two foster...

Burnt-Out Defenders Refuse New Cases

(Newser) - Public defenders are as overworked as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore, the New York Times reports. Arguing that their hectic schedules result in scant attention for clients, government-appointed lawyers around the country are refusing new cases and suing to limit their workload. “The quality...

In 8 Years, Bush Revolutionized Appeals Courts

Below the high court, conservative judges for decades to come

(Newser) - George W. Bush's two appointments tilted the Supreme Court to the right—but it's at the appellate level where his judicial legacy is greatest. The president has appointed fully a third of all appeals court judges, and Republican appointees now control 10 of the 13 circuits. The result, writes the...

Stevens Jury Wants Difficult Member Out

Woman's 'violent outbursts' sending deliberations off course

(Newser) - The jury in the Ted Stevens trial today asked that one of its number be removed, the Anchorage Daily News reports. A note from the foreman indicated juror No. 9 “is being rude, disrespectful and unreasonable. She has had violent outbursts with other jurors and that's not helping anyone....

Drunk Driver Opts for 'I'm Stupid' Sign

Man chooses to wear the sign, not do the time

(Newser) - A Wisconsin drunk driver who crashed into a water treatment plant has chosen humiliation over jail time, WEAU reports. Instead of serving a sentence for property damage, Shane McQuillan, 22, who admitted he was “just being stupid,” was sentenced to wear a sign reading “I was stupid....

Italian Judge Will Set Course for Knox Case

Will decide whether to take 21-year-old murder suspect to trial

(Newser) - An Italian judge will review evidence today to decide if Amanda Knox, jailed in Italy for 10 months as a suspect in the killing of 20-year-old British roommate Meredith Kercher, should go free or face a trial, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. Attorneys will argue both sides of the case in...

Con Wins Death Stay in Judge Affair Appeal

Relationship between judge and prosecutor not reason for decision

(Newser) - A Texas death-row inmate who filed an appeal alleging that an affair between the judge and prosecutor compromised his trial has been granted a stay of execution. But, ABC News reports, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals approved Charles Dean Hood's request based not on the affair but because of...

Death Row Con Wins Hearing Over Courtroom Hanky Panky

Alleges affair between judge, prosecutor

(Newser) - A condemned Texas inmate has won a hearing to decide whether his lawyers can question the judge and prosecutor at his capital case trial about an alleged affair the two were having while the proceedings were unfolding, ABC News reports. A former county DA filed a sworn statement last year...

McGreevey to Pay No Alimony in Angry Split

Ex-governor and 'gay American' to give lump sum, child support

(Newser) - Former New Jersey governor and “gay American” Jim McGreevey will pay no alimony to ex-wife Dina Matos, the Newark Star-Ledger reports. The Episcopal preacher-in-training was ordered to pay about $1,000 per month in child support, and more than $100,000 to Matos. Matos sought $1 million from McGreevey,...

Judge Tosses Out 9/11 Remains Case

Families wanted cemetery created for mass of rubble

(Newser) - A lawsuit to have rubble from the Sept. 11 attacks given a proper burial was dismissed in a US court today, Reuters reports. Victims' families contend that the estimated 1.5 to 1.8 million tons of debris contain human remains, and must be removed from the Fresh Kills landfill...

High Court's Gitmo Ruling Raises Election Issue
High Court's Gitmo Ruling Raises Election Issue
ANALYSIS
Jun 14, 2008 10:45 AM CDT

High Court's Gitmo Ruling Raises Election Issue

Landmark ruling could be lightning rod for focus on the court's direction

(Newser) - The Supreme Court's ruling on Guantanamo detainees may put the court in the election spotlight for the first time in decades, Linda Greenhouse writes in the New York Times. The dramatic language of Antonin Scalia's dissent could be a signpost for conservatives worried about the court's course; because of the...

Porn Trial Halted After Judge's Risque Site Found

Offers to step down from obscenity trial after cow porn pics discovered

(Newser) - A federal obscenity trial has been suspended after the Los Angeles Times revealed that the presiding judge—a high-ranking conservative who has been mentioned for the Supreme Court—had his own website featuring explicit photos and videos. The publicly accessible material on Alex Kozinski's site included photos of naked women...

Retired Justice Turns Video Game Designer

Day O'Connor's Our Courts aims to boost civics knowledge

(Newser) - Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor isn't taking it easy now that she's no longer writing decisions, Wired reports. The first woman to be appointed to the top court is leading a project to help young people learn more about their government through a video game. Our Courts, an...

British Judges Not Happy to Ditch Their Wigs

Lawyers, also hirsute by tradition, could be next, though change has foes aplenty

(Newser) - The sun may never set on the British Empire, the saying goes—so bald judges might want to watch out, as some are being forced to give up their customary wigs in October, the Los Angeles Times reports. They're also getting new robes by a designer associated with “funky...

Scandal-Plagued Ex-DA to Become TV Judge

Pirro joins the CW's new afternoon lineup this fall

(Newser) - An ex-DA from the New York suburbs will be behind the bench starting this fall—on TV. Judge Jeanine Pirro stars a onetime Hillary Clinton Senate challenger who landed the CW gig even though Pirro and her husband have a history of controversies ranging from tax fraud to wiretapping probes,...

Forget It, Baldy, You're Not Disabled: Judge

Teacher complained of 'discriminatory' teasing by students

(Newser) - A Scottish schoolteacher constantly mocked by students because of his baldness has been told having a chrome dome does not count as a disability, the Scotsman reports. The judge at an employment tribunal said that had he found in the man's favor, then anyone with a "big nose or...

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