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High court turns down daughter in pension dispute
Court Watch News |
2009/01/26 14:24
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| The Supreme Court says the daughter of a DuPont Co. worker is out of luck in her effort to collect his retirement benefits.pThe justices, in a unanimous decision Monday, said Kari Kennedy can collect nothing from DuPont because companies are bound by what a worker puts down on forms designating who is to receive retirement and other benefits after his death./ppIn this case, William Kennedy divorced his wife of 22 years and she waived her rights to the retirement money in their divorce decree. Kari Kennedy said her father wanted her to have the money after his death./ppBut Kennedy never changed his beneficiary on the retirement account, and DuPont properly paid $402,000 to Liv Kennedy, his ex-wife, Justice David Souter said./ppThe case is Kennedy v. Plan Administrator, 07-636. /p |
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2 plead guilty in NY Tamil Tiger terrorism case
Topics |
2009/01/26 14:24
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| When customs agents questioned a carload of Sri Lankan immigrants entering the United States at the Canadian border in the summer of 2006, the men claimed they were headed to a bachelor party in Buffalo. There was no party, or even a groom. Two of the men pleaded guilty Monday.pU.S. authorities say the men were part of a secret mission to help militants locked in the bloody civil war in their homeland by buying and smuggling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of surface-to-air missiles. According to court papers, the men also wanted guns — but not just any guns./ppWe need AK-47s, but only if you have Russian-made or American-made, prosecutors allege one defendant said during a meeting with an undercover agent posing as a crooked arms dealer. Not the Chinese./ppThe videotaped sting is central to an unusual case against four alleged agents of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or Tamil Tigers — a Sri Lankan rebel force the State Department calls a terrorist organization./p |
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Man charged in knifings at moonshine victim's wake
Headline Topics |
2009/01/25 14:26
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| A parolee has been ordered to stand trial on charges of stabbing two men at a funeral wake for a man poisoned by moonshine.pDennis Jerome Foust of Montague faces trial in Oceana County Circuit Court on two counts of felonious assault and a misdemeanor count of domestic violence. The 33-year-old also is charged as a habitual offender, which could result in a longer prison sentence if he is convicted./ppPolice say Foust and his wife fought Jan. 9 during the wake for Shawn Davila, who died on New Year's Day from methanol alcohol poisoning./ppTwo men were stabbed after intervening in the fight. They were treated and released. /pp /p |
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Court sides with police officers in search case
Legal Business |
2009/01/22 14:26
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| The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police officers in Utah who searched a suspect's home without a warrant cannot be sued for violating his constitutional rights.pIn ruling unanimously for five officers attached to the Central Utah Narcotics Task Force, the court also abandoned a rigid, two-step test that it adopted in 2001 to guide judges in assessing alleged violations of constitutional rights./ppTrial and appellate judges should be permitted to exercise their sound discretion in evaluating such claims, Justice Samuel Alito said in his opinion for the court./ppUnder the 2001 ruling, courts first had to determine whether an action amounts to a violation of a constitutional right and then decide whether the public official, often a police officer, should be immune from the civil lawsuit./ppOfficials can't be held liable in situations where it is not clearly established that their actions violated someone's constitutional rights./ppThe case grew out of a search of the home of Afton Callahan of Millard County, Utah, in 2002./ppAn informant contacted police to tell them he had arranged to purchase drugs from Callahan at Callahan's trailer home./p |
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Guilty Pleas in U.S. Death Plot
Court Watch News |
2009/01/20 09:20
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Two cousins from Chicago pleaded guilty in Toledo, Ohio Federal Court for their roles in a plot to recruit and train people to kill U.S. soldiers. Zubair Ahmed and Khaleel Ahmed face up to 15 years in prison after admitting they conspired to provide material support to terrorists.
nbsp; nbsp; Federal prosecutors say the two cousins were recruited by three Toledo men who were organizing the plot, and that the Ahmeds were training and planning to go overseas to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. The three organizers have already been convicted and are awaiting sentencing, The Associated Press reported.
nbsp; nbsp; Both Ahmeds pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information. They were arrested in February 2007. |
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Bush's Latest Targets Farmworkers
Political View |
2009/01/13 08:59
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The Labor and Homeland Security Departments will render meaningless many of the basic workplace safety regulations for farm workers by revised regulations to the H-2A visa program scheduled to take effect on Jan. 17, the United Farm Workers claim in Federal Court. The extensive changes published in the Federal Register on Dec. 18 undo worker protections, cripple the Department of Labor's oversight and enforcement powers, and unequivocally conflict with the plain language of the H-2A enabling statues, the complaint states.
nbsp; nbsp; The DOL's extensive changes to the H-2A program do not tinker around the edges; rather, they render meaningless many of the basic health, safety, and wage protections provided to farmworkers under the H-2A statute and current regulations, the complaint states. The new rules accomplish this not only by undoing many of the substantive worker protections found in the current regulations but also by weakening DOL's role in overseeing and enforcing the statutory mandates of the H-2A program. Many of these regulations unequivocally conflict with the plain language of the H-2A enabling statues. Many others are arbitrary and capricious rules that are inconsistent with the purposes of the statute, run contrary to evidence before DOL in the administrative record and elsewhere, and are poorly explained and justified. These new rules go well beyond DOL's discretion to promulgate regulations; rather, they constitute a wholesale attempt to undo decades-old protections of U.S. farmworkers and H-2A agricultural guestworkers, the complaint states. These regulations will cause irreparable harm to U.S. and H-2A workers by reducing wages and labor protections, and by decreasing job opportunities for workers who are already among the most impoverished in the country.
nbsp; nbsp; Plaintiffs claim the changes will essentially let labor contractors and employers certify themselves as complying with a wide range of laws and regulations, and excuse the Department of Labor from bothering to certify or investigate.
nbsp; nbsp; Lead counsel in the 69-page complaint is Wilmer Cutler Pickering. |
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For Sale: Unibomber's Property
Topics |
2009/01/12 09:47
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The 9th Circuit upheld a plan to sell or disposal of the Unabomber's personal items - including notes, books, guns and bomb-making materials and instructions - that were seized during his 1996 arrest.
nbsp; nbsp; Theodore Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber, claimed the plan restricts his freedom of expression and impermissibly allows his victims to vie for any profits from the auction of his goods. He also contested a provision that calls for the destruction of his bomb-making materials instead of returning them to his designee.
nbsp; nbsp; He tried to reclaim his property in 2003, but the district court said the government had a superior ownership interest in the Unabomber's property. It also determined that his belongings were essentially worthless, as they had to be valued before he gained criminal notoriety in order to keep him from profiting from his crimes.
nbsp; nbsp; Kaczynski is serving four consecutive life sentences plus 30 years for a series of mail bombings that killed three people and injured nine others.
nbsp; nbsp; In 2005, the 9th Circuit held that the government has an ownership claim in Kaczynski's stuff, but only if that property is needed to satisfy the terms of the restitution order.
nbsp; nbsp; The items aren't worthless, the court noted on appeal, if their sale helps fulfill the $15 million restitution order.
nbsp; nbsp; The court said the plan does not violate the First Amendment, because Kaczynski would receive a full set of legible copies before anything was sold.
nbsp; nbsp; Kaczynski argued that the originals were more valuable, but offered no explanation as to how his right to free speech or freedom of expression is impinged by their sale, Judge Hawkins wrote. |
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