Free Republic

In a split decision, a U.S. appeals court upheld the convictions of animal-rights activists charged under a terrorism statute with using their Web site to incite threats and vandalism against a company that tests products on animals. The 2-1 decision was the first federal appellate court ruling on a constitutional challenge to the law. Defense lawyers call the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty case only the latest example of the government infringing on activists' free speech. One compared it to the pursuit of communists and civil-rights activists a half-century ago. "The government is always doing the same thing, prosecuting the loud...

WASHINGTON – Independent advocacy groups will be able to spend more money to try to influence federal elections under a decision Friday from a federal appeals court that overturned rules limiting nonprofits' campaign spending. Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington agreed with Emily's List, a nonprofit that backs women Democratic candidates who support abortion rights, that the regulations limited free speech rights. The Federal Election Commission enacted the rules in 2005, after concerns were raised about the amount of unlimited "soft money" contributions used to fund attacks in the 2004 election. The FEC said nonprofits would...

BOISE, Idaho – A federal appeals court delivered a stinging rebuke Friday to the Bush administration's post-Sept. 11 detention policies, ruling that former Attorney General John Ashcroft can be held liable for people who were wrongfully detained as material witnesses after 9/11. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the government's improper use of material witnesses after Sept. 11 was "repugnant to the Constitution and a painful reminder of some of the most ignominious chapters of our national history." The court found that a man who was detained as a witness in a federal terrorism...

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.

A state appeals court Friday ensured further delays in California's already inert death penalty system, finding that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration did not follow proper procedures when it attempted to revise the state's lethal injection method to get executions back on track. In a 14-page ruling, the San Francisco-based 1st District Court of Appeal upheld last year's decision by a Marin County judge who found state officials failed to provide public scrutiny of plans to overhaul California's execution method. The appeals court ruling, if it stands, would force the state to go back to the drawing board in its efforts...

A federal appeals court has barred logging in the Sierra Nevada forest. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says the federal government failed to explore other ways to raise money to fight forest fires when it approved a plan to award timber contracts to cut down trees on three sites. The Forest Service says the logging of commercially valuable trees is needed to help pay for thinning of less desirable smaller trees and brush. Environmental groups say the logging plan fails to protect scarce species such as the California spotted owl, martin and Pacific fisher. Attorney General Jerry Brown...

An appeals court has overturned a $1.5 million verdict awarded to a woman who was spanked in front of co-workers in what her employer called a camaraderie-building exercise. A jury in 2006 had ruled that Janet Orlando had suffered sexual harassment and sexual battery when she was paddled on the rear end at home security company Alarm One Inc. The jury punished the company with a $1 million punitive damage award. But on Monday, a unanimous three-judge panel of the state Court of Appeal overturned that verdict, ruling that the jury had been given improper instructions. In particular, the jury...

CA APPEALS COURT RULES UNANIMOUSLY IN FAVOR OF SAF LAWSUIT For Immediate Release: 1/9/2008 In a unanimous decision today, the California Court of Appeals ruled that the City of San Francisco’s handgun ban is illegal under state law, upholding a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and several other groups. “This is a great day for gun owners and civil rights in California,” said SAF Founder Alan M. Gottlieb. “This is the second time we successfully fought a gun ban in San Francisco, and what this demonstrates is that the city’s leadership is as horribly out of touch with...

A federal appeals court has ruled the U.S. Forest Service violated federal law when it allowed logging projects without analyzing their effects on the environment. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with environmentalists who challenged a Bush administration rule that exempted certain timber sales and prescribed forest burns from environmental analysis. The Wednesday decision by the San Francisco-based court overturns a lower court ruling that favored the administration. The Sierra Club and Sierra Forest Legacy sued in 2004 challenging the Forest Service rule, which has been a key component of the Bush administration's "Healthy Forests Initiative."

BEFORE BEING nominated by President Bush to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, Leslie H. Southwick served for almost 12 years on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, where he participated in thousands of cases spanning the gamut of civil and criminal law. A panel of the American Bar Association unanimously found Judge Southwick to be "well qualified" for the promotion, its highest ranking. Yet congressional opponents have latched on to two opinions that Mr. Southwick joined, but did not write, to argue that he is unfit for the federal appeals post. ... Adding to the discomfort of...

A state appeals court upheld California's $3 billion stem cell agency Monday against attacks by anti-abortion and tax advocates who claimed the agency's managers had conflicts of interest. The 1st District Court of Appeal upheld a decision by a lower court judge who last year ruled in favor of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was created when Proposition 71 was passed by 59 percent of the electorate in 2004. The California Family Bioethics Council argued that the stem cell agency is rife with conflicts of interest, saying officials from three university systems who sit on the board overseeing...

Indian tribes are subject to federal labor law, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a case that could set precedent for labor protections at the nation's booming tribal casinos. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected arguments from Southern California's San Manuel Band of Mission Indians

SAN DIEGO – The First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco announced Thursday that it would hear oral arguments Feb. 14 in the case challenging the constitutionality of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, known as Proposition 71. Under the California Constitution, the Appeals Court must render a decision in the case within 90 days of the hearing, absent additional briefings required by the court. The plaintiffs in the case – People's Advocate and the National Tax Limitation Foundation (represented by the Life Legal Defense Foundation), and the California Family Bioethics Council – are appealing an April...

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court on Friday struck down the Bush administration's strategy for reducing smog, which impacts the health of more than half the nation's population, mostly those prone to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The Environmental Protection Agency rules for forcing state cleanups of smog don't meet Clean Air Act requirements, a three-judge panel rule in a suit brought by a Southern California clean-air agency, environmental groups and some mid-Atlantic and Eastern states downwind of others states' smog. Circuit Judge Judith Rogers, writing for the panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia,...

A state Court of Appeal panel has upheld a court order to ban Los Angeles from using a key aqueduct if it doesn't restore a 62-mile stretch of the Owens River. Wednesday's decision by 4th Appellate District panel in Riverside upheld a ruling last year that imposed sanctions against Los Angeles. Owens Valley residents, environmental groups and state officials claimed victory. "This may be the final salvo in the longest-running fight over an environmental impact report in California history," said Gordon Burns, deputy solicitor general for Attorney General Bill Lockyer. "Now, everybody is holding tight and hoping the city will...

A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear the case of a man on death row for the murder of one woman and the kidnapping, rape and robbery of three others. Stevie Lamar Fields, 49, argued in his appeal that one of the jurors in his trial hid the fact that his wife had been raped, and the man was unfairly biased against him. Fields also claims that his attorney should have objected to having the man on the jury. The decision voids a 3-0 ruling in December by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. An 11-judge panel of...

Government libraries can block religious groups from worshipping in public meeting rooms, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The decision overturns a lower court order allowing a Christian group to pray in a Contra Costa County library. The Faith Center Church Evangelistic Ministries, which initially was rejected from holding prayer services at the county's Antioch branch, had won a court order allowing them to pray in meeting rooms open to other groups. A federal judge said it had a First Amendment right of religion to use the public's facilities. But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of...

LOS ANGELES Circulating recall petitions in languages other than English is not necessary, a federal appeals court ruled in a local school board case Tuesday. The 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an earlier decision by a three-judge panel that found the petitions must be translated into other languages. "The expense and trouble of fulfilling the translation requirements are likely to deter proponents who otherwise would launch petitions," the opinion stated. A lawsuit challenging the legality of a 2003 election that resulted in the recall of Santa Ana Unified School District trustee Native Lopez was...

A federal appeals court ordered energy regulators Wednesday to consider ordering stiffer penalties for power companies that manipulated the market and caused blackouts during the 2000-2001 energy crisis. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's 2003 handling of some of the fallout from California's energy crisis was "arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion." The state has sought reimbursement for an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion paid by consumers and businesses for overpriced power. FERC ordered energy companies, including several subsidiaries of bankrupt Enron Corp., to pay about $3 billion for market manipulation....

A federal appeals court has reversed a ruling that struck down Nebraska's same-sex marriage ban. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned an earlier ruling by U.S. District Judge Joseph Bataillon, who ruled last year that the measure was too broad and deprived gays and lesbians of participation in the political process, among other things. Seventy percent of Nebraska voters approved the amendment in 2000. The court said the amendment "and other laws limiting the state-recognized institution of marriage to heterosexual couples are rationally related to legitimate state interests and therefore do not violate the Constitution of...

In nearly two years since John Lewis and Stuart Gaffney took part in this city's same-sex marriage rebellion, the couple has filed three rounds of tax returns, buried a mother, vacationed in Europe and attended five weddings - four involving a bride and a groom. These are the typical joys, sorrows and rituals of couples who have been together for nearly two decades. Yet for Lewis and Gaffney, one of 4,037 pairs whose San Francisco-issued marriage licenses were invalidated by the California Supreme Court, daily domesticity also brings reminders of the legal rights they do not have and are suing...

A lesbian suing for parental rights over a daughter she had with a former partner is entitled to those rights if she meets several criteria for determining legal motherhood, a state appeals court ruled. The woman must have been integral in planning the conception, raising the child, treating the child as her own and accepting the responsibilities of parenthood, the Court of Appeal panel in San Francisco decided Friday in a 3-0 ruling. State law prefers for a child to be raised by two parents, and the child and parent are entitled to a relationship even if the parents are...

Los Angeles' policy of arresting homeless people for sitting, lying or sleeping on public sidewalks as "an unavoidable consequence of being human and homeless without shelter" violates the constitutional prohibition against cruel and punishment, a federal appeals court ruled today. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, decided in favor of six homeless persons, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. The suit challenged the city's practice of arresting persons for violating a municipal ordinance, which states that "no person shall sit, lie or sleep in or upon any street, sidewalk or public...

A state appeals court says a campaign committee controlled by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke state law by not promptly reporting millions of dollars in expenditures promoting four measures on last November's special election ballot. The 3rd District Court of Appeal, in a decision issued Wednesday, said Schwarzenegger's California Recovery Team should have reported the expenditures within 24 hours after they were made during the 90 days leading up to the Nov. 8 election but failed to do so. "CRT ignores that the (Political Reform Act) requires reporting of independent expenditures on a 24-hour basis during an election cycle," a three...

A federal appeals court on Friday ordered a temporary halt to logging in two sections of the Eldorado National Forest east of Sacramento that were damaged by wildfires in 2004. A lower court in August denied a request by two environmental organizations to immediately end the logging, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Earth Island Institute and the Center for Biological Diversity are likely to eventually win their lawsuit. Allowing logging to continue could cause too much damage to the forests while the lawsuit proceeds, the San Francisco-based appeals court ruled. Many of the trees killed...

NEW YORK, Mar. 8 /Christian Wire Service/ -- In a stunning decision released on March 7th, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s second attempt to ban the phrase "Choose Life" from a pro-adoption specialty plate in New York State. The Attorney General’s first defeat occurred in January, 2005, when a federal judge ruled that The Children First Foundation (CFF) had sufficiently alleged constitutional violations involving freedom of speech and equal protection under the law. The August 2005 trial date was postponed when the state appealed the federal court ruling to the Second Circuit Court of...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A state appeals court on Friday determined a California law used by billionaire investor Ron Burkle to seal records in his divorce case is unconstitutional, ruling the First Amendment allows public access to divorce proceedings. The 2nd District Court of Appeal unanimously affirmed a lower court's decision of last year. The three-judge panel noted that the state law, which was intended to improve privacy and confidentiality, places an "undue burden" on the public's ability to review court records in divorce cases. "While the interest in protecting divorcing parties from identity theft and other financial crimes may...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- An appeals court on Thursday rejected a challenge by Roman Catholic groups to a state law that requires employers to offer prescription contraceptives.The law exempts churches and other religious institutions that primarily serve followers of that religion. However, groups such as Catholic Charities of Albany - which sought to overturn the three-year-old law - were not exempted because their missions were not deemed to be religious."We are very disappointed with the decision," said Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference."The state is arbitrarily deciding which ministries are religious and which are secular," he...

NEW YORK - A federal appeals court Friday upheld the conviction of celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart for lying to investigators about selling stock that plunged in price soon after her trade. Stewart completed her sentence in the case last summer but pursued the appeal anyway. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a written ruling upholding the 2004 convictions of Stewart and former stockbroker Peter Bacanovic for lying about why Stewart sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems Inc. stock in 2001. The sale came just before the stock took a dive on a negative government report...

Less than one day after hearing that her conviction had been thrown out, a Harris County woman serving a prison sentence in connection with her baby's death learned this morning that the appeals court has changed its mind.

PHILADELPHIA - A federal appeals court has agreed to hear an appeal from death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther convicted in the 1981 murder of a white Philadelphia police officer. In the most significant ruling in the case in four years, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it would consider three of Abu-Jamal's claims. Abu-Jamal, 51, a one-time radio reporter, was convicted in 1982 of shooting Daniel Faulkner, 25, after the officer pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in 1981. Abu-Jamal's attorney, Robert Bryan, did not immediately return a call for comment. Prosecutor Hugh Burns called the...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Republican lawmakers have tried for decades to split the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, sometimes called the "nutty Ninth" by its detractors. Each time, the nation's largest and most controversial court had done something to tweak a conservative nerve, with rulings on fishing rights in Alaska, timber harvesting in the Northwest or death sentences in California. And, of course, there was the decision three years ago to find the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional because it contains the phrase "under God." But after failing over and over to break up the...

RICHMOND, Va. - A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed a former Army scientist to proceed with a libel lawsuit against The New York Times that claims one of the paper's columnists unfairly linked him to the 2001 anthrax killings. Steven Hatfill sued the Times for a series of columns written in 2002 by Nicholas Kristof that faulted the FBI for failing to thoroughly investigate Hatfill for anthrax mailings that left five people dead. The initial columns identified Hatfill only as "Mr. Z," but subsequent columns named him after Hatfill stepped forward to deny any role in the killings. Federal...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A state appeals court issued a favorable ruling Tuesday for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in a lawsuit over a lavish 2000 Hollywood fundraising gala. A three-judge panel of the 2nd Appellate District ordered a Superior Court judge to reconsider the senator's motion to remove her from the lawsuit filed by businessman Peter F. Paul, who bankrolled the event. Paul alleged in a February 2004 lawsuit that Clinton; her husband, former President Bill Clinton; her former national finance director, David Rosen, and others fraudulently induced him to underwrite and executive produce the star-studded gala that attracted celebrities...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday set the stage for an atheist and three Sacramento-area school districts to take their dispute over the Pledge of Allegiance to an appeals court. U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Karlton said he will stay a ruling made last month, meaning the schools can continue having children recite the pledge. In his previous finding, Karlton said he was bound by a 2002 ruling of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the pledge is unconstitutional when recited in public schools because it contains the words "under God." That lawsuit was...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A state appellate court upheld the murder conviction Friday of a man who said he was sleepwalking when he stabbed and beat his girlfriend to death in a hotel room on Catalina Island. Stephen Otto Reitz is serving a sentence of 26 years to life in state prison for the Oct. 1, 2001, killing of Eva Marie Weinfurter. A three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal found that physical evidence and the nature of Weinfurter's injuries suggested that Reitz attacked her while awake. The decision said she was hit with a flower pot and...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An appeals court that failed to knock an energy regulation measure off California's Nov. 8 ballot considered Friday whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's redistricting initiative should go to voters. "This is not an easy case," Presiding Justice Arthur Scotland said as the court heard arguments on an attempt to overturn a Sacramento judge's order that removed the redistricting proposal from the ballot. "I have spent a lot of time on this," Scotland added. "It's not an easy call. If it's not an easy call why should the courts do a rush to judgment and risk making the wrong...

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals courts on Friday rejected claims by thirteen states that the Bush administration's decision to let older power plants spew more pollution into the air undermines public health in violation of the Clean Air Act. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the Environmental Protection Agency, saying New York and a dozen other states failed to show how the administration's new regulations violate the 1970 environmental law. The Bush administration argued its decision to let power and other industrial plants modernize without making them install expensive new...

A New Beginning? By David Ignatius Wednesday, May 25, 2005; Page A27 This week's Great Compromise over judicial nominations emerged thanks in part to a meeting that sounds a bit as if it took place in a wax museum. It was an atavistic scene that evoked the musty traditions of the Senate, but it also embodied the spirit of sweet reason the country needs now to solve its problems. Gathered in an office just below the Senate floor last Thursday were two venerable, white-haired politicians clinging to the vanishing center: Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, 87, and Republican...

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson nails it. "With the exception of arbitrary or vague statements like 'not being in the mainstream,' they haven't made any specific arguments against the qualifications of these seven judicial nominees," he says of Democratic efforts to prevent confirmation of President Bush's appellate court nominees. In fact, says Isakson (R-Ga.), Senate Democrats have "gone so far in their offers to say 'you pick any five you want to approve, and pick two we won't approve.' They want not to approve some just for general principles. This speaks volumes about the whole debate." The end of this road...

On May 5, the U.S. Judicial Conference in Washington received a request from a Mike Rice of Oakland, Calif., for the financial disclosure records of U.S. Appeals Court Judge Edith Jones (5th Circuit) of Houston. A 20-year veteran on the bench, Jones is a perennial possibility for the U.S. Supreme Court. The demand for her personal records is part of a major intelligence raid preceding momentous confirmation fights in the Senate. Jones was not alone as a target, and Rice is not just a nosy citizen. He and Craig Varoga, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, are...

RICHMOND, Va. – The inscription "In God We Trust" on the facade of a government building in North Carolina does not violate the U.S. Constitution's guidelines on the separation of church and state, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower judge's dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the slogan written on the Davidson County Government Center in Lexington, N.C. The inscription, in 18-inch block letters, was paid for with donations from individuals and churches in 2002. Lawyers Charles F. Lambeth Jr. and Michael D. Lea, who regularly...

9th Circuit panel rejects minority-contract awards By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP The Associated Press Washington state cannot favor minority-owned firms in awarding road-building contracts because it hasn't proved minority contractors have faced discrimination, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday. Western States Paving of Vancouver, Wash., sued the state Department of Transportation, Clark County and the city of Vancouver after losing several road-paving contracts to minority-owned firms with higher bids. The company argued that federal law allowing states to give preference to minority firms was unconstitutional, and that the state did not properly follow federal...

SACRAMENTO – California's domestic partner law, which gives registered partners many of the same rights and protections of marriage, does not conflict with a voter-approved initiative that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, a state appeals court held Monday. The law, which was signed in 2003 by former Gov. Gray Davis and went into effect Jan. 1, represents the nation's most sweeping recognition of domestic partner rights after Vermont's recognition of civil unions for gay couples. It grants registered couples virtually every spousal right available under state law except the ability to file joint income taxes. The...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A state appeals court late Thursday upheld a lower court's decision dismissing a lawsuit brought by several California cities and counties against dozens of gun manufacturers. San Francisco, Berkeley, Sacramento, Los Angeles and the counties of San Mateo, Alameda and others alleged the makers marketed, distributed, promoted and designed handguns in a manner "that facilitates the weapon to be used in violent crimes." A San Diego judge tossed the case in 2003, saying the government agencies could not establish a connection between the makers' business practices and the acquisition of firearms by criminals. The judge kept...

Until Wednesday afternoon, the significance of Judge William H. Pryor Jr.'s recess appointment to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was largely symbolic. His appointment by President Bush outraged senators who objected to Pryor's record on issues such as gay rights, abortion and federalism. As Alabama attorney general, Pryor defended statutes criminalizing homosexual sodomy, spoke out against decisions legalizing abortion and won cases trimming congressional power over the states. Democrats blocked a vote on his nomination, but the president's recess appointment will allow him to be on the court through 2005. Since Pryor joined the bench in February, his...

CINCINNATI (AP) - A four-state appeals court ruled Wednesday that federal sentencing guidelines are only recommendations, adding to the judicial confusion created by a Supreme Court ruling last month. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a Tennessee case that federal judges do not need to adhere to guidelines that were designed to equalize sentences for similar crimes. The 6th Circuit hears federal appeals from Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. Wednesday's ruling ordered resentencing in a bank fraud case. Some lawyers said Wednesday's ruling could affect thousands of cases that were tried in the past 20 years under...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A federal appeals court on Tuesday dismissed more than a dozen lawsuits that accused power companies of double-billing the state of California millions of dollars during the energy crisis. In tossing out Attorney General Bill Lockyer's lawsuits against Reliant Resources, Inc., Dynegy Inc. and other energy concerns, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California courts don't have jurisdiction over the issues at the heart of the complaint. The suits alleged the generators reaped millions by being paid to hold power in emergency reserve that they then sold on the open market. Lockyer argued...

District Judge Joseph Tauro today declined to issue an emergency stay of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's decision to allow same-sex marriages, prompting the parties who filed suit to stop the ruling from going into effect May 17 to ask the First Circuit Court of Appeals to take up the case. As WorldNetDaily reported, several constitutional-law organizations, along with 11 legislators, filed a lawsuit Monday, arguing the court overstepped its bounds by establishing same-sex marriage in its landmark decision. The suit asks the court to issue a temporary restraining order to stop the enforcement of the ruling and to stop...

BOSTON -- A federal judge Thursday rejected a last-minute bid by conservative groups to block the nation's first state-sanctioned gay marriages from taking place in Massachusetts on Monday. U.S. District Judge Joseph Tauro said the state's high court acted within its authority in interpreting the Massachusetts Constitution. The plaintiffs immediately announced they would take their case to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals -- and to the Supreme Court if necessary. The 1st Circuit agreed to review the case on an expedited basis.