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Madison - The state Supreme Court refused Monday to immediately take up a pair of cases that struck down the state's new voter ID law, a decision that will likely mean citizens won't have to show ID when they cast ballots in recall elections this spring. The court's terse orders send the cases back to two different courts of appeals. The appeals courts had said the Supreme Court should take the cases right away because of their significance. Now, the appeals courts will have to render their own decisions on the cases. The cases could then go to the Supreme...

Appeals court rules in legal fight over dead dogThe Associated Press Tuesday, February 21, 2012 RALEIGH – The N.C. Court of Appeals has waded into a legal tussle over the wrongful death of a Jack Russell terrier. Nancy and Herb Shera of Wilmington sued North Carolina State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in 2009, seeking more than $28,000 in damages after their dog, Laci, died following a botched tube feeding. In a 20-page ruling issued Tuesday, the appeals court unanimously upheld an earlier ruling by the N.C. Industrial Commission, which decides compensation claims involving state agencies. The state commissioner had...

The Obama administration has decided not to ask a federal appeals court review of a ruling striking down the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul. The administration's decision makes it more likely that the U.S. Supreme Court would hear a case on the health care overhaul in the court's term starting next month, and render its verdict on the law in the midst of the 2012 presidential election campaign. A divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta concluded Congress overstepped its authority when lawmakers passed the individual mandate provision that requires people...

So far the U.S. government has bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the tune of at least $130 billion, and perhaps as much as $1 trillion. And yet, the Obama administration continues to stonewall the release of documents that could shed light on why Fannie and Freddie failed, thereby sending the economy into a tailspin from which we have yet to recover. (Those records are housed at the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) now that Fannie and Freddie are owned and operated by the federal government.)

Granted, granted, a tough oral argument is no guarantee of defeat, but the mere possibility of O-Care crashing and burning in the 11th Circuit is tasty enough to be blogworthy. Time magazine makes a good point: Lower-court rulings on the mandate’s constitutionality have tracked with each judge’s partisan leanings, but the 11th Circuit panel is truly bipartisan. Two of the three judges who heard arguments today were appointed to the district court by Reagan, but two of the three were elevated to the appellate court by Clinton. Given that melange of blue and red, you think famous fencesitter Anthony Kennedy...

A state appeals court says it found two cases that seem to back the Dane County DA’s position in the collective bargaining bill complaint and two that support the secretary of state’s argument. The 4th District Court of Appeals wrote in its certification to the Supreme Court on the complaint that it would be appropriate for the justices to take the case because there are issues they would ultimately consider on petition for review anyway. Taking it up directly would “reduce the burden and expense of the appellate process on both the parties and the judicial system.” Assembly Minority Leader...

(CNSNews.com) - A federal appeals court has cleared the way for a legal challenge to Obamacare to be put on a fast-track through the appeals courts -- on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. This decision will expedite the legal process that is necessary for federal courts to rule on the legislation’s constitutionality. Last Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted a motion by The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) to fast-track an appeal of a decision by a federal district court in February that dismissed its lawsuit against Obamacare. In...

The Wisconsin Department of Justice has filed a motion with the 4th District Court of Appeals, seeking an order staying Judge Maryann Sumi’s temporary restraining order blocking the publication of 2011 Wis. Act 10. “The publication of this Act will allow the State to save significant money–evidence of which the trial court did not allow presented and did not appear to consider are the cost savings identified by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau which require, of course, publication.” the motion reads. “Thus it is vitally important that this Court act before March 25, 2011–the last possible publication date

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously upheld California's handling of inmate appeals; at least, so far as deadlines go. In a case arising out of a 1986 murder in Sacramento, the Court ruled that California need not set a specific deadline for when inmates file their habeas corpus petitions. . . .

Appeals court hints at tossing part of Ariz. immigration lawBy Paul Elias Associated Press 2:29 p.m., Monday, November 1, 2010 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Arizona's immigration law faced tough scrutiny from a federal appeals panel Monday as the state's governor appeared in person to support the controversial provision on the day before the election in which she's seeking her first full term. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals signaled it was ready to toss out the provision of Arizona's law that criminalizes the failure to carry immigration papers showing lawful residency in the United States. But the three-judge panel...

(Reuters) - The Obama administration on Tuesday decided to appeal a judge's ruling that prevented the U.S. government from banning same-sex marriages. The Obama administration filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in support of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that barred gay marriages, even though President Barack Obama had previously opposed the law. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro in Boston ruled in July for several gay couples who had argued that the Defense of Marriage Act interfered with the rights of states to define marriage. Massachusetts was the first state...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday reinstated a lawsuit that challenges an Obama administration policy for federal funding of some human embryonic stem cell research. The unusual suit against the National Institutes of Health, backed by some Christian groups opposed to embryo research, argued that the NIH policy takes funds from researchers seeking to work with adult stem cells. It also argues that new Obama administration guidelines on stem cell research are illegal. The three-judge federal appeals panel did not rule on the merits of the lawsuit itself, but said two of the doctors involved had legal...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Justice Department on Friday urged a federal appeals court to delay a judge's ruling overturning a drilling moratorium in the Gulf. In court papers, the Obama administration said the suspensions in deepwater drilling are crucially important to protect human health and the environment from another disaster. At the same time, the federal government's lawyers argued that the moratorium targets only a small number of deepwater operations that present safety concerns, affecting less than 1 percent of the existing structures in the Gulf dedicated to oil exploration and production.

The court ruled last month the cartoon published by the Arab European League (AEL) showed "bad taste" and was "exceptionally offensive," but it acquitted the group on charges it insulted Jews because of the context in which the cartoon was published. In announcing its appeal, the public prosecutor said on Tuesday it was essential to determine whether the cartoon was "unnecessarily offensive," adding it was not certain whether the cartoon was designed as a contribution to the social debate.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judge's ruling that it was unconstitutional for Congress to cut funding to the activist group ACORN. The ruling by the three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will remain in place until full arguments on the issue can be heard during the summer.

Some weeks ago the U.S. Department of Justice filed an appeal of U.S. District Judge Nina Gershon’s (absurd) ruling on ACORN funding. Gershon issued a permanent injunction against the U.S. government forbidding it from defunding ACORN. She held that the cutoff of funding to ACORN constituted an unconstitutional bill of attainder.

The federal appeals court in Philadelphia has upheld a New Jersey school district's ban on religious songs during the Christman holiday season. In their ruling, three judges of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals noted that such songs were once common in public schools, but that times have changed. Michael Stratechuk sued the Maplewood-South Orange School District in 2004, saying the ban violated his two children's First Amendment's freedom of worship rights.

MINNEAPOLIS – A federal appeals court on Friday cleared the way for Minnesota Vikings Pat Williams and Kevin Williams to play all season, despite the NFL's attempts to suspend them for violating the league's anti-doping policy. The NFL had already said the two defensive tackles could play in Sunday's season-opener at Cleveland because their court fight over the suspensions would not be decided in time. "It's a big sigh of relief to know we're going to get to play the whole season," Kevin Williams said. "We were looking forward to Cleveland not knowing what the future may hold. But it's...

Arguments that had been expected to be taking place before a federal appeals court right about now on whether U.S. citizens have a right to know that their president is eligible for the office he holds have been delayed. Philip Berg, the first lawyer to take the issue of Barack Obama's compliance with the U.S. Constitution's requirements for president to court, says he's been told by officials with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the oral arguments in his Berg vs. Obama case, No. 088-4340, have been put off. "About two months ago I received notice that the...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Peter Demos runs four restaurants and has a lot of help to make it happen. Related:     Watch This Story "I'm fortunate I have a lot of good people working for me," said Demos.But he doesn't get to spend as much time doing what he loves because he spends a lot of time in front of an appeals judge trying to fight unemployment claims. Lately, he hasn't been very successful when he thinks the case is open and shut. "We've had somebody who we've actually caught stealing on tape," said Demos. "The initial determination of that was they...

NEW YORK (AFP) – Civil rights lawyers appealed in court Tuesday against what they said was the US government's ideologically based decision to deny a visa to a leading Muslim scholar, Tariq Ramadan. Attorney Jameel Jaffer, from the American Civil Liberties Union, told a three judge panel that the "government had "failed to identify ... legitimate and bona fide reasons for the exclusion." Jaffer, ACLU national security project director, argued before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that excluding Ramadan, a research fellow at Oxford University, also threatened free speech in the United States. The appeal followed...

PEARL HARBOR (NNS) -- Navy officials said they are optimistic that a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Nov. 13 ordered a lower court to rewrite restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar in certain Southern California exercises. That ruling was part of a lawsuit challenging the Navy's ability to train Sailors before they deploy to potential hotspots. The Navy had asked the appeals court to overturn a preliminary injunction that was granted by a U.S. district judge on Aug. 6, 2007, that bars the Navy from using active sonar in certain multi-ship exercises off Southern...

WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the District of Columbia's longstanding handgun ban, issuing a decision that will allow the city's citizens to have working firearms in their homes. In the ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected city officials' arguments that the Second Amendment right to bear arms only applied to state militias. District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty told reporters Friday afternoon that the District will appeal the ruling.

SELMA, Ala. - Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) reached out to the civil rights generation Sunday on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march, saying the protesters helped pave the way for his campaign to become the first black president. He also urged blacks to take more personal responsibility. "I stand on the shoulders of giants," the Democratic senator from Illinois told hundreds at a breakfast to commemorate the 42nd anniversary of the clash between voting rights demonstrators and police. He was just 3 when police with billy clubs bloodied blacks who tried to cross the bridge out of...

(AP) WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration on Tuesday asked an appeals court to overturn a ruling that could require a redesign of the nation's currency to help the blind. Justice Department lawyers filed the appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on behalf of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The appeal seeks to overturn a ruling last month by U.S. District Judge James Robertson, who ordered Treasury to come up with ways for the blind to recognize the different denominations of paper currency. Robertson had ruled in a lawsuit brought by the American Council...

LOS ANGELES In celebrity-studded events this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger conspicuously advertised his moderate Republican credentials, signing Democratic bills to combat global warming and withdraw state investments from companies in war-torn Sudan. "Democrats and Republicans can work together," the governor told an audience in Malibu, trumpeting a central plank of his re-election drive. But a less-visible promotion was taking place, almost simultaneously. In a Republican-sponsored advertisement being distributed by telephone, Schwarzenegger is portrayed as tough and resolute on illegal immigration an issue with potent appeal among Republican conservatives. His Democratic opponent, Phil Angelides, is depicted as a softy. "It is...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, seeking to shore up support among conservatives, told the state GOP convention Saturday that he would be tougher on illegal immigration than Democratic opponent Phil Angelides. "My opponent wants to pull the National Guard off the border. He wants to give undocumented workers California drivers licenses," Schwarzenegger said, as a few in the lunchtime crowd at the Century Plaza Hotel hissed. "His policies are disastrous." Angelides, in a conference call with reporters, accused Schwarzenegger of using the issue to divide Californians and said the governor was "stirring up his anti-immigrant right wing base." But the state treasurer...

George Soros failed in a bid to overturn an insider-trading conviction at France's highest appeals tribunal, but vowed to pursue an appeal....... The Court of Cassation, the tribunal of last resort in France, yesterday upheld a March 2005 judgment that Soros violated the law when he bought Societe Generale SA shares in 1988 with knowledge that the bank might be a takeover target. The Hungary-born financier....has been fighting the case for 17 years, will appeal......The verdict came as the 75-year-old former financier turned his attention from his investing career to political and charitable activities.

HANOI, Vietnam - Disgraced British glam rocker Gary Glitter will have his appeal heard next month against a 3-year sentence for child molestation, a court official said. "His appeals trial is set for June 15," said Bui Ngoc Hoa, head of the People's Supreme Court of Appeals in Ho Chi Minh City. The trial would last one day, he added. Glitter, 62, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison by a Vietnamese court on March 3 for committing obscene acts with girls aged 10 and 11 at his rented seaside villa...

A U.S. appeals panel sharply challenged the Bush administration Friday over new rules making it easier for police and the FBI to wiretap Internet phone calls. A judge said the government's courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook." The skepticism expressed so openly toward the administration's case encouraged civil liberties and education groups that argued that the U.S. is improperly applying telephone-era rules to a new generation of Internet services. "Your argument makes no sense," U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. "When you go back to the office, have a big chuckle. I'm...

Court Denies Felons Voting Rights ArgumentBy LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer Last update: May 05, 2006 – 2:23 AM NEW YORK (AP) - A landmark civil rights law cannot be used to argue that barring felons from voting discriminates against minorities because they are imprisoned at a higher rate, a federal court ruled Thursday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which removed barriers to black voters, was not an avenue of relief for 21 plaintiffs, which include six current prisoners. The plaintiffs sued the state in November 2000. Judge Jose A. Cabranes, who...

SAN JOSE, California (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appealed on Friday to fellow Republicans to rally to his re-election campaign despite concerns they have with his moving to the political center and his expensive public works initiative. "While we may not agree on every single issue, I hope you all know that I have your families' best interests at heart," Schwarzenegger said during a keynote speech at the Republican state convention. "We have a record we can be proud of, a record we can run on and a record we can win on," he said. The governor said he...

N.Y. appeals court overturns pro-'gay marriage' ruling Dec 8, 2005 By Michael Foust Baptist Press NEW YORK (BP)--A New York state appeals court Dec. 8 overturned a lower court ruling that would have legalized "gay marriage," and in the process delivered an opinion that is certain to please conservatives. In a 4-1 decision the appeals court ruled that a lower court judge "usurped the legislature's mandated role" when she ruled in February that the state must legalize "gay marriage." In that opinion earlier this year New York trial court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan argued that the "institution of marriage has evolved...

Chief Justice John Roberts bowed out of a major war powers case on Monday because he had handled it as an appeals court judge. Without Roberts, the Supreme Court could deadlock 4-4. Roberts has had other recusals as well in his first weeks on the court. Justices do not usually explain why they are withdrawing from a case, although Roberts' conflicts seem to stem from his participation in cases at the appeals court in Washington, from ties to his former law firm and from his financial holdings. _He did not participate on Monday when the court refused to take up...

Convicted killer Johnny Paul Penry, whose case helped spark national debate over whether mentally impaired inmates could be executed, had his death sentence overturned for the third time Wednesday. A divided Texas Court of Criminal Appeals sent the case back to trial for a new punishment phase in the 1979 slaying of an East Texas woman. The court ruling said jurors during his most recent retrial may not have properly considered his claims of mental impairment. Over more than a decade, the uneducated laborer became the face of mentally impaired killers across the country, winning two reversals from the U.S....

A three-judge federal appeals court panel ruled unanimously on Friday that President Bush had the authority to detain as an enemy combatant an American citizen who fought United States forces on foreign soil. The panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit... threw out a ruling... that Mr. Bush had overstepped his bounds by detaining Jose Padilla, a Chicago native, for three years.... In an opinion written by Judge J. Michael Luttig, who has been considered by President Bush for a nomination to the Supreme Court, the panel said Mr. Bush had the right to detain...

On September 14, 1998, the FBI uncovered a Castro spy ring in Miami and arrested ten of them. Four others managed to scoot back to Cuba. These became known as the "Wasp network." According to the FBI's affidavit these Castro agents were engaged in, among other acts: Intelligence gathering against the Boca Chica Air Naval Station in Key West, the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command in Homestead Florida. Compiling the names, home addresses and medical files of the U.S. Southern Command's top officers along with those of hundreds of officers stationed...

BREAKING NEWS [Shannen Coffin] In Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, decided today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling that invalidated a military tribunal against a detainee at GTMO, who just happened to have been Osama's personal driver. In short, court held that commissions were authorized by Congress's post-9/11 authorization of the use of force, that the Geneva Convention was not enforceable in federal court, and even if it was, it didn't provide "prisoner of war" protection to an unlawful combatant like Hamdan.

More than a score of appeals to Pebble Beach Co.'s proposed massive makeover of Del Monte Forest have been filed with the California Coastal Commission. The plan calls for new projects at 13 locations in the forest, including an 18-hole golf course, a golf driving range, 160 new visitor suites, a new equestrian center in the Sawmill Gulch area next to Holman Highway, 33 residential lots in five subdivisions and 60 employee housing units. The company will set aside 492 acres of permanent forest and open space, relocate existing trails and construct new ones, and make improvements in roads and...

Home > China > Printer version | E-Mail article | Give feedback Mass Appeals in Beijing, Thousands Arrested The Epoch Times Jun 27, 2005 Beijing (AFP) During the period June 18-23, a large number of peasants and workers converged on the state-run institutes, U.S. and French Embassies in Beijing, to give voice to their extreme anger at the Chinese Communist Party and its bureaucracy and corruption. About a thousand of them were arrested by the police. As reported by The Sankei Shimbun, the gathering peasants came to Beijing to appeal against the corruption of local governments especially on the issue...

SPOKANE, Wash. - Lawyers for Mayor James E. West, accused of offering city jobs to men he met in a gay online chat room, are appealing a judge's ruling allowing a recall petition drive to proceed. West, former state Senate leader and opponent of gay rights, has denied any criminal or unethical conduct and has rejected calls to resign. "The citizens of Spokane deserve to know why I have decided to appeal," West wrote in a letter submitted to The Spokesman-Review newspaper. "Simply put, it is because the charges are false, and the ballot statement they would vote on was...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices heard arguments Monday over whether a Michigan law barring the state from paying for appeals for indigent defendants who plead guilty discriminates against the poor. Michigan is the only state with such a law. However, 17 states are backing its case, and advocates for the poor are worried those states will pass similar laws if Michigan prevails. Before the court was the case of Antonio Dwayne Halbert, who pleaded no contest in 2001 to two child molestation charges and received up to 30 years in prison. Halbert, who has learning disabilities, has unsuccessfully sought a...

04-06) 19:55 PDT Springfield, Mass. (AP) Thomas P. Budnick says his lawyer's incompetence was to blame for his assault conviction. The funny thing is he was representing himself. He took his case before the state Appeals Court on Wednesday, arguing that the trial judge never should have allowed Budnick to defend himself against charges of trying to poison a friend by lacing a bottle of beer with nitric acid. Budnick once filed mining claims on Mars and threatened to sue NASA for trespassing. Such antics should have been enough to make the judge question his competence to waive counsel, his...

ENDING THE MADNESS by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher March 25, 2005 Now that the Supreme Court of the United States has once again justifiably rejected the pathetic puppy-dog pleas of Bob and Mary Schindler (right) to have the feeding tube of their daughter Terri Schiavo reinserted, they need to just let go and let their daughter slip away from this life into the next. As it stands, Terri is faced with two kinds of unspeakable agony; one, being wilting away from lack of food and water, and the other being indefinitely trapped in a body that has in fact...

The Terry Shiavo circus is just plain sad, there is no way around it. On one hand you have a husband who wants to get on with his life with a new girlfriend and family, and then there are the parents and siblings of Terri who want to keep her alive. All the legal wrangling aside, isn't it our core belief in this country that people are granted life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Clearly, Terri is not going to start playing the flute, or read Steinbeck any time soon, but she is able to respond to stimulus. Death...

I have been trying to track this information down for Months with no real success. The Democracts like to throw out numbers like 215 Bush nominees apointed to courts, and only 10 blocked, but I know that number encompasses multiple courts, and is not complete. Does anyone have the real accurate count of the Number of peple Bush has nominated for the Federal Appeals Court, versus the number which the Senate has allowed a Vote on. I remember I tried to look for this around the election, and it was something like 39 nomees, and 21 voted on. But even...

PARIS - Billionaire investor George Soros, challenging a conviction for insider trading, denied the charges in a French appeals hearing Thursday and insisted he knows the difference between inside and public information. The Hungarian-born financier was fined 2.2 million euros ($2.8 million at today's rates) in December 2002, matching the amount he was accused of having made from buying and selling shares of French bank Societe Generale with insider knowledge 17 years ago. Questioned by the three-judge panel, Soros confirmed having received some information from French financier Georges Pebereau about his investment fund's plans to buy a large stake in...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The federal appeals court that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion is being sued for allegedly displaying the Ten Commandments on its seal and courthouses. The case was brought by Pleasanton attorney Ryan Donlon, who was admitted to practice before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June. In his lawsuit against the San Francisco-based court, he said the certificate admitting him contains the court's seal which unlawfully contains what he believes is a tablet object that "represents the Judeo-Christian Decalogue commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments." Cathy Catterson,...

Judge weighs risks of ‘horrific accident’ Updated: 6:04 p.m. ET Dec. 21, 2004LINCOLN, Neb. - A Nebraska appeals court upheld with “great trepidation” Tuesday a probation sentence given to a man with 11 drunken driving convictions. .....

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court Monday reinstated indictments against seven defendants accused of raising money for a terror organization with links to ousted Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein. In a victory for the Bush administration's war on terror, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Los Angeles federal judge who declared the 1996 terror financing law unconstitutional. The law makes it illegal to funnel money - "material support" - to organizations the State Department says are linked to terrorism, about 30 groups in all. Before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the government rarely used the terror...