The Change Manifesto

Top Court Allows Suit Over 401(k)

2008-02-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

According to The New York Times, "Participants in 401(k) retirement plans can sue to recover losses when their investment instructions are ignored or the account is otherwise mishandled, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday." "With 70 million people holding about $3 trillion in 401(k) investments," the report explains, "the 9-to-0 decision was one of the most important rulings in years on the meaning of the federal pension law known as Erisa."

Supreme Court Shields Medical-Device Makers

2008-02-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post reports, "The Supreme Court yesterday protected the makers of medical devices that have passed the most rigorous federal review standards from lawsuits by consumers who allege that the devices caused them harm." According to the report, "The court ruled 8 to 1 against the estate of a New York man who was seriously injured when a balloon catheter manufactured by Medtronic burst during an angioplasty in 1996."

Muslim Inmate Loses Court Case Over Lost Quran

2008-01-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

According to USA Today, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal prison officials who allegedly lost the belongings of a Muslim inmate, including two copies of the Quran and a prayer rug, are shielded from a lawsuit seeking compensation. "The 5-4 decision," the report explains, "clears up conflicting rulings by lower courts over whether the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) allows prisoners to sue for the negligent handling of property."

Appeals Court: State Must Provide Transport for Inmate Abortions

2008-01-23T10:04:00.000-08:00

"A federal appeals court has upheld the right of female inmates to be transported at state expense for elective abortions," reports CNN. According to the report, "The ruling Tuesday from the St. Louis-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit came on the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide."

Supreme Court Denies Review of Enron Case

2008-01-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

Tony Mauro of Law.com reports, "The Supreme Court on Tuesday dashed the hopes of defrauded Enron investors who sought to recover billions of dollars from investment banks connected to the collapsed energy firm." "Without comment," the report explains, "the justices denied review in Regents of the University of California v. Merrill Lynch, in which stockholders claimed that a range of banks participated in "contrived, deceptive deals" that helped Enron show profits that were not real."

Federal Judge Criticizes C.I.A. Handling of Interrogation Tapes

2008-01-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

The New York Times reports, "A federal judge in New York said Thursday that he was 'disappointed' in how investigators from the Central Intelligence Agency had handled videotapes documenting the harsh interrogation of detainees from Al Qaeda." The article also notes that the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan, went on to add that he was considering questioning agency officials who had watched the tapes about why they had made no record of them in their files.

Death Sentence Commuted In Va. Case

2008-01-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

"More than five years after his case made legal history with a U.S. Supreme Court ban on executions of the mentally retarded, Daryl Atkins was spared his own long-held place on Virginia's death row when a judge commuted his sentence to life in prison Thursday," reports The Washington Post. According to the report, "The reprieve came for reasons that few would have guessed during the ever twisting, nearly 12-year course of the case, which had focused largely on Atkins's mental limitations. Instead, it came because of a Hampton lawyer's allegation of evidence suppression by prosecutors as they prepared for Atkins's murder trial in 1998."

Court Rules Against Investors

2008-01-16T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press reports, "The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against investors who sue businesses that help manipulate stock prices of publicly traded companies." "In a 5-3 decision that split along conservative-liberal lines," explains the report, "the court gave a measure of protection from securities lawsuits to suppliers, banks, accountants and law firms that do business with corporations engaging in securities fraud."

Justices Won't Hear Appeal on Drugs for Terminally Ill

2008-01-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

"A legal battle ended at the Supreme Court on Monday over whether terminally ill patients who have run out of medical options have a constitutional right to try experimental drugs that have not yet received federal approval," reports The New York Times. According to the report, "Advocates for patients lost the battle when, without comment, the justices refused to hear an appeal of a ruling by a divided federal appeals court that there is no such right."

Justices to Decide if Rape of a Child Merits Death

2008-01-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

Linda Greenhouse, the Supreme Court correspondent for The New York Times, reports, "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to decide whether the Constitution allows the death penalty for the rape of a child." According to the report, "The justices acted only three days before a scheduled argument in another important death penalty case, on the standard for judging whether chemicals used to administer lethal injections make that method of execution unconstitutionally cruel."

Texas Schools' Moment of Silence Upheld After Carrollton Couple's Challenge

2008-01-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

A Carrollton, Texas couple's court challenge to Texas' requirement that schoolchildren observe a minute of silence has failed, reports the Dallas Morning News. According to the report, U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn in Dallas ruled that "the law – amended in 2003 to add the word 'pray' to 'reflect' and 'meditate' as options for students' use of the minute – does not promote an 'excessive entanglement between government and religion.'"

Secret Service Logs of White House Visitors Are Public Records, Judge Rules

2007-12-18T06:52:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post reports, "A federal judge ruled yesterday that White House visitor logs created by the Secret Service are public records, and he ordered information involving the visits of nine conservative Christian leaders with Bush administration officials to be released to an advocacy group." According to the report, "The dispute involved an effort by the administration to keep secret the records, which have traditionally allowed the news media and Congress to keep tabs on who has visited the White House or the vice president's residence."

Surveillance Court Declines to Release Secret Opinions

2007-12-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

"In a rare publicly issued opinion," reports The New York Times, "the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said Tuesday that it would not release documents related to the National Security Agency's program of wiretapping without warrants." According to the report, "The American Civil Liberties Union had asked that secret court to release the opinions detailing two rulings it issued this year on the legality of the agency's eavesdropping program, which President Bush authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

Judges Can Reduce Crack Sentences

2007-12-10T10:43:00.000-08:00

According to the Associated Press, "The Supreme Court on Monday said judges may impose shorter prison terms for crack cocaine crimes, enhancing judicial discretion to reduce the disparity between sentences for crack and cocaine powder." The report states, "By a 7-2 vote, the court said that a 15-year sentence given to Derrick Kimbrough, a black veteran of the 1991 war with Iraq, was acceptable, even though federal sentencing guidelines called for Kimbrough to receive 19 to 22 years."

Cases of 2 U.S. Citizens in Iraq to Be Heard

2007-12-10T06:05:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post reports, "The Supreme Court yesterday extended its review of the federal courts' jurisdiction over those captured as terrorism suspects, agreeing to hear the cases of two U.S. citizens who are held in Iraq for crimes allegedly committed there." According to the report, "The two men -- one a Jordanian American suspected of conspiring with al-Qaeda and the other an Iraqi who became a U.S. citizen in 2000 and has been convicted in Iraq of kidnapping -- have asked federal courts in Washington to bar American military forces from turning them over to the Iraqis."

Detainees' Case Heads to Supreme Court

2007-12-05T10:53:00.000-08:00

As the question of what to do with detainees captured on and off an unorthodox battlefield has provoked a raging controversy around the world, ABC News reports that today lawyers for President Bush will once again travel to the highest court in the land to debate the rights of detainees being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. According to the report, "At issue in the pending case before the Supreme Court is the allegation from about 50 detainees that the Military Commissions Act (MCA) of 2006 violates their right to challenge their detentions in federal courts."

Justices Uphold Welfare Home Searches

2007-11-28T14:12:00.000-08:00

"County welfare officers may conduct routine searches of the homes of welfare recipients to combat fraud under a ruling in a California case that the Supreme Court let stand Monday," reports The Los Angeles Times. According to the report, "The justices refused to hear a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union, which contended that San Diego County's policy of requiring home searches without a warrant violated privacy rights."

Firefighters Taking New Role as Anti-Terrorist Eyes of the US Government

2007-11-26T08:12:00.000-08:00

The Associated Press reports, "Firefighters in major cities are being trained to take on a new role as lookouts for terrorism, raising concerns of eroding their standing as trusted American icons and infringing on people's privacy." According to the report, "Unlike police, firefighters and emergency medical personnel need no warrants to enter hundreds of thousands of homes and buildings each year, which puts them in position to spot behavior that could indicate terror activity or planning. There are fears, however, that they could lose the faith of a skeptical public by becoming the eyes of the government, looking for suspicious items like building blueprints or bomb-making manuals or materials."

Justices Will Decide if Handgun Kept at Home Is Individual Right

2007-11-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

The New York Times reports, "The Supreme Court announced Tuesday that it would decide whether the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private use, plunging the justices headlong into a divisive and long-running debate over how to interpret the Second Amendment's guarantee of the 'right of the people to keep and bear arms.'" According to the report, "The court accepted a case on the District of Columbia's 31-year-old prohibition on the ownership of handguns."

Justice Dept. Reopens Surveillance Probe

2007-11-15T07:14:00.000-08:00

The Washington Post reports, "The Justice Department said yesterday that it has reopened an internal investigation of the role played by its lawyers in the administration's warrantless surveillance program, marking a notable policy shift just days into the tenure of new Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey." According to the report, "The investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility was abandoned in July 2006 after President Bush refused to give security clearances to the OPR lawyers conducting the investigation, according to documents and congressional testimony."

Intel Official: Expect Less Privacy

2007-11-15T07:12:00.000-08:00

"As Congress debates new rules for government eavesdropping," the Associated Press reports, "a top intelligence official says it is time that people in the United States changed their definition of privacy." According to the report, Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence recently declared, "Privacy no longer can mean anonymity. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information."

Apartheid Suit Puts Corporations on Notice

2007-11-15T07:10:00.000-08:00

The New York Sun reports that a federal appellate court in New York has recently given the go-ahead to a historic class-action suit against businesses that sold to South Africa's apartheid regime. According to the report, "the decision has put the world's largest companies on notice that they can be held liable for doing business with foreign regimes that commit human-rights abuses."

Is Bad Counsel Something to Die For?

2007-11-08T08:50:00.000-08:00

"Can a murderer escape a death sentence because he rejected a plea deal after receiving bad advice from his lawyer?" According to The Los Angeles Times, "The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide that issue in the case of an Idaho man who slit the throat of a police informant 20 years ago."

Roadblock for Telecom Immunity

2007-11-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

"In a blow to the Bush administration," reports The Washington Post, "the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Democrat and Republican expressed reluctance yesterday to granting blanket immunity to telecommunications carriers sued for assisting the government's warrantless surveillance program." According to the report, "Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), had said that before even considering such a proposal, they would need to see the legal documents underpinning the program, which began after Sept. 11, 2001, and were put under court oversight in January."

Court Overturns Ban on Ind. House Prayer

2007-10-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

"Sectarian prayers, including those to Jesus Christ, could return to the front of the Indiana House chamber after a court ruling Tuesday, but opponents warned of a legal challenge if that happens," reports The Indianapolis Star. According to the report, "In its 2-1 opinion, the court ruled there were no expenditures directly tied to the prayers. Therefore, as taxpayers, the plaintiffs had no standing to sue."