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Court in Va. to hear US health care law challenges
Court News |
2011/05/07 09:22
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President Barack Obama's health care overhaul will get its first oral arguments in federal appeals court Tuesday when a three-judge panel hears two Virginia cases — one that upheld the law and another that struck down its key provision.
Nine lawsuits challenging the law are pending on appeal, but the Virginia cases before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are the first to reach the oral argument stage. Thirteen cases have been dismissed with no appeal filed, and nine are pending in district courts, according to federal officials.
In the most prominent of the two Virginia cases, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson struck down the health care law's key provision: a requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014. Thirty-one lawsuits challenging the law have been filed nationally, and Hudson — a 2002 appointee of President George W. Bush — was the first judge to strike down any of its provisions. Hudson left the rest of the law intact.
"An individual's personal decision to purchase — or decline to purchase — health insurance from a private provider is beyond the historical reach of the Commerce Clause," Hudson wrote in the Dec. 13 opinion, which the U.S. Justice Department promptly appealed.
U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon in Lynchburg reached the opposite conclusion in a lawsuit filed by Liberty University, the conservative Christian school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell. Two weeks before Hudson's ruling, the 1997 appointee of President Bill Clinton ruled that the mandate is a proper exercise of congressional authority under the Commerce Clause.
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Jackson doctor due in court to seek trial delay
Court News |
2011/05/01 09:08
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The doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death returns to court Monday to ask for a delay in his upcoming involuntary manslaughter trial.
The move comes two days before jury selection resumes, and one week before opening statements are scheduled to begin.
Dr. Conrad Murray had been seeking a speedy trial, but his attorneys asked for a delay late Friday to give them more time to prepare to rebut the opinions of newly-disclosed prosecution experts.
The Houston-based cardiologist is accused of giving Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol in the bedroom of the singer's rented mansion in June 2009. Murray has pleaded not guilty.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said Friday that he would consider the delay request, but would not necessarily grant it. |
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Media ask court to unseal gay marriage trial tapes
Court News |
2011/04/19 03:42
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Media organizations are joining lawyers for two-same-sex couples in urging a federal appeals court to release videotapes of a lower court trial on California's gay marriage ban.
The 13 organizations, which include The Associated Press, argued in a motion filed Monday with the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals that the videos are court records that the First Amendment requires to be open to the public.
Sponsors of voter-approved Proposition 8 asked the 9th Circuit last week to keep the tapes sealed and to order the trial's presiding judge to return his personal copies.
The move came after now-retired Judge Vaughn Walker, who declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional, used a brief segment of the video in several public talks. |
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US Supreme Court lets Alabama execution proceed
Court News |
2011/01/17 23:02
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The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a stay of execution for a convicted killer in Alabama. Justice Clarence Thomas had issued a temporary stay shortly before the execution of Leroy White was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday. A temporary stay gives the court additional time to consider legal arguments in the case. About two-and-a-half hours later the stay was denied. White was sentenced to die for the 1988 shotgun slaying of his estranged wife, Ruby. White fired while holding their 17-month-old daughter in his arms. Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, the Alabama Supreme Court and a federal judge in Alabama declined to intervene in the execution earlier Thursday. |
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High court ruling prompts new Ohio campaign rules
Court News |
2010/12/29 23:01
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Ohio has unveiled new disclosure requirements in response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year that eased restrictions on campaign spending. Corporations, nonprofits and labor groups will have to show the amounts they spend on independent ads for or against candidates, under rules announced Wednesday by Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner (BROO'-nur). The state's outgoing elections chief says the ad sponsors also will have to provide voters with a website address in their ads. The rules include a ban on independent ad spending by businesses that have been awarded state or federal money through Ohio during the previous year. The rules approved by a Legislative panel give the secretary of state's office the power to pursue violators.
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