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US appeals court revisits Texas voter ID law
Law School News |
2016/05/26 23:19
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A federal appeals court is set to take a second look at a strict Texas voter ID law that was found to be unconstitutional last year.
Texas' law requires residents to show one of seven forms of approved identification. The state and other supporters say it prevents fraud. Opponents, including the U.S. Justice Department, say it discriminates by requiring forms of ID that are more difficult to obtain for low-income, African-American and Latino voters.
Arguments before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are set for Tuesday morning. The full court agreed to rehear the issue after a three-judge panel ruled last year that the law violates the Voting Rights Act.
Lawyers for Texas argue that the state makes free IDs easy to obtain, that any inconveniences or costs involved in getting one do not substantially burden the right to vote, and that the Justice Department and other plaintiffs have failed to prove that the law has resulted in denying anyone the right to vote.
Opponents counter in briefs that trial testimony indicated various bureaucratic and economic burdens associated with the law — for instance, the difficulty in finding and purchasing a proper birth certificate to obtain an ID. A brief filed by the American Civil Liberties Union cites testimony in other voter ID states indicating numerous difficulties faced by people, including burdensome travel and expenses to get required documentation to obtain IDs.
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Court records: Ohio man on electronic monitor raped teen
Law School News |
2015/10/17 00:31
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While an Ohio man was on electronic monitoring in an abduction case, he had a 14-year-old girl dropped off at his home by taxi, held her captive for months and raped her, according to criminal charges and court records.
Cody Lee Jackson, 20, fled the state without the girl after pleading guilty this summer in the abduction case to a charge of interference with custody; charges of abduction and kidnapping were dismissed, state court records show.
He was arrested last week in Utah when he tried to run away after giving a fake name to drug task force officers conducting a routine stop at a bus station, according to Salt Lake City jail documents. He is to be brought back to Ohio for sentencing on the interference conviction and to face numerous federal and state charges stemming from his alleged crimes while on electronic monitoring.
Court records don't list an attorney for Jackson.
State court officials didn't provide further details Thursday on monitoring Jackson earlier this year. Triffon Callos, a spokesman for the Hamilton County prosecutor's office, confirmed the state charges against Jackson and his guilty plea but referred calls about the monitoring system to the county sheriff's electronic monitoring division.
Sheriff's spokesman Michael Robison Thursday confirmed that Jackson wore the monitoring device from January 22 until July 31 this year.
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Class-action lawsuit filed against Mountain State
Law School News |
2012/07/20 15:48
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Three students are suing Mountain State University, former President Charles Polk and the Board of Trustees over the school's revoked accreditation, saying it renders their degrees worthless.
Dale Burger and his two children, Amanda and Jeff Burger, are seeking class-action status for their case, filed late Wednesday in Kanawha County Circuit Court.
Some 3,000 students were enrolled as of April, the lawsuit says. But the plaintiffs contend that the class should cover anyone who enrolled since July 10, 2008. That's when the school first learned it might be in trouble.
The lawsuit says Mountain State told students it was in sound shape when it knew otherwise.
A spokesman declined comment on the lawsuit Thursday.
The private Beckley-based school has campuses in West Virginia, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Mountain State is appealing the Higher Learning Commission's decision to withdraw general accreditation.
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A Well-Traveled Path From Ivy League to Supreme Court
Law School News |
2010/09/05 23:23
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pJustice Clarence Thomas recalled the reaction from “self-proclaimed smart bloggers” when he looked beyond the Ivy League to hire law clerks from Creighton, George Mason, George Washington and Rutgers for the Supreme Court term that started in 2008. /pp“They referred to my clerks last year as TTT — third-tier trash,” he told students at the University of Florida in February. “That’s the attitude that you’re up against.” /ppJustice Thomas’s hiring was certainly out of step with that of his colleagues. About half of the law clerks who have served the justices since Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the court in 2005 attended two law schools — Harvard and Yale. Another quarter attended just four others — Virginia, Stanford, Chicago and Columbia. /ppIn remarks to law students at American University Washington College of Law last year, Justice Antonin Scalia was unapologetic about this trend. /pp“By and large,” he said, “I’m going to be picking from the law schools that basically are the hardest to get into. They admit the best and the brightest, and they may not teach very well, but you can’t make a sow’s ear out of a silk purse. If they come in the best and the brightest, they’re probably going to leave the best and the brightest, O.K.?” /ppJustice Thomas said he took a different approach. “I have a preference, actually, for non-Ivy League law clerks, simply because I think clerks should come from a wide range of backgrounds,” he said. “I don’t have that pedigree. I’m not part of this sort of new or faux nobility.” /ppJustice Thomas, who grew up poor in rural Georgia, attended Yale Law School, as did Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Sonia Sotomayor. The other justices all attended Harvard Law School, though Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg transferred to Columbia and graduated from there. Justice Ginsburg has said that she has chosen clerks based in part on recommendations from David Schizer, a former clerk of hers who is now dean of Columbia Law School, and from Justice Elena Kagan when she was dean of Harvard Law School.
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