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High court action on voting aims to avoid chaos
Lawyer News |
2014/10/13 16:46
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In seemingly contradictory voting-rights actions just a month before November's elections, the Supreme Court has allowed new Republican-inspired restrictions to remain in force in North Carolina and Ohio while blocking Wisconsin's voter identification law.
But there's a thread of consistency: In each case, the court appears to be seeking a short-term outcome that is the least disruptive for the voting process.
Another test of the court's outlook on voter ID laws could come from Texas, where the state is promising to appeal a ruling that struck down its strict law as unconstitutional racial discrimination.
None of the orders issued by the high court in recent days is a final ruling on the constitutionality of the laws. The orders are all about timing — whether the laws can be used in this year's elections — while the justices defer consideration of their validity.
In some ways, these disputes over the mechanics of voting are like others that crop up frequently just before elections as part of last-minute struggles by partisans to influence who can vote.
Republican lawmakers say the measures are needed to reduce voter fraud. Democrats contend they are thinly veiled attempts to keep eligible voters, many of them minorities supportive of Democrats, away from the polls.
Court rulings at various levels have also revealed partisan divisions. Most judges who voted to uphold the restrictive laws or allow them to take effect while the legal fights play out are Republican appointees. Most of those voting to strike down the laws or prevent them from being enforced were appointed by Democratic presidents. That is true even at the Supreme Court.
The high court has laid out one area of agreement: a general rule discouraging courts in general from letting potentially disruptive changes take effect at the last minute.
"The idea that courts should not impose a new set of voting rules just before an election is not a new one," said Richard Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California at Irvine law school.
This year, that idea appears to have led the Supreme Court to outcomes that on the surface appear to be inconsistent, Hasen said. One problem in reading too much into the orders is that they were issued with little explanation.
But in each case, the court took issue with lower court rulings that would have changed the rules too close to an election, Hasen said.
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Egypt court sentences 3 Islamists to 15 years each
Court News |
2014/10/13 16:45
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A Cairo court has convicted a leading Muslim Brotherhood figure and two other Islamists and sentenced them to 15 years in prison each on charges of torturing a man during the 2011 protests against then-President Hosni Mubarak.
State MENA news agency says the court on Saturday found Mohammed el-Beltagy along with a preacher and a junior member of the group guilty of holding and beating a man in an office overlooking Tahrir square they suspected was an undercover policeman spying on the 18-day sit-in against Mubarak.
El-Beltagy was a regular speaker at the sit-in, which eventually led to the ouster of the longtime autocrat.
El-Beltagy has already been sentenced to 20 years for allegedly torturing two police officers during last summer's protest against the ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
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San Francisco Intellectual Property Lawyer
Lawyer News |
2014/09/29 14:08
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The Firm’s intellectual property practice includes the management, securement, and protection of our client’s intellectual property along with the development, structure and implementation of agreements in order to maximize our client’s intellectual property value.
The Firm understands Intellectual Property and everything related to it. From disputes and transactions to copyright regulations and trade secrets, the Firm is well versed for all matters pertaining to intellectual property. For all our clients, the Firm develops and strategizes new intellectual properties and also litigates intellectual property disputes whenever necessary.
We represent national, regional, and local clients in the following intellectual property matters:
Patent Litigation
Copyright Registration, Protection and Enforcement
Filing and Registration with the California Secretary of State
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False Advertising & Defamation Disputes
Licensing, Development and Distribution Agreements
Privacy Issues
Joint development and Web development agreements
IP Asset Selection and Clearance Advice
Right of Publicity Agreements
Technology Transfer and Licensing
Intellectual Property Rights Litigation
DMCA Claims
Trade Secret & Confidentiality Agreements
Canada, Madrid Protocol & Foreign Filings
Filing and Registration with the US Patent and Trademark Office (Including intent to use and use in commerce applications)
Domain Name Infringement and Cybersquatting dispute resolutions
Trademark & Copyright Infringement
If you’re in need of assistance in any of the services listed above, contact our San Francisco Intellectual Property lawyers today.
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Jury finds 2 men guilty in federal terror trial
Court News |
2014/09/29 14:06
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Two Southern California men were convicted Thursday of conspiring to support terrorists and murder Americans overseas.
Sohiel Omar Kabir and Ralph Deleon face life sentences for the convictions announced in U.S. District Court after jurors deliberated for a week.
Kabir, 36, of Pomona and Ralph Deleon, 25, of Ontario were each charged with five counts of conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a plan to train overseas as terrorists so they could target U.S. military and allies.
Kabir was acquitted on one of five conspiracy counts and jurors were deadlocked on two of the five identical counts against Deleon.
Defense lawyers portrayed the two as hapless pot smokers who talked a big game but didn't intend any harm.
Deleon and two other men were arrested two years ago before embarking on a journey to meet Kabir in Afghanistan. Kabir was later caught by U.S. troops in Kabul.
Federal agents began tracking the group after one of the men, Miguel Santana Vidriales, returned from visiting his mother in Mexico in January 2012 with a copy of a jihadist magazine in his possession. |
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Case of American jailed in Cuba back in US court
Court Watch |
2014/09/22 15:29
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A government subcontractor who has spent over four years imprisoned in Cuba should be allowed to sue the U.S. government over lost wages and legal fees, his attorney told an appeals court Friday.
Alan Gross was working in Cuba as a government subcontractor when he was arrested in 2009. He has since lost income and racked up legal fees, his attorney Barry Buchman told the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A lawyer for the government argued the claims are based on his detention in Cuba, making him ineligible to sue.
The panel is expected to issue a written ruling on the case at a later date.
A lower-court judge previously threw out Gross' lawsuit against the government in 2013, saying federal law bars lawsuits against the government based on injuries suffered in foreign countries. Gross' lawyers appealed.
Gross was detained in December 2009 while working to set up Internet access as a subcontractor for the U.S. government's U.S. Agency for International Development, which does work promoting democracy in the communist country. It was his fifth trip to Cuba to work with Jewish communities on setting up Internet access that bypassed local censorship. Cuba considers USAID's programs illegal attempts by the U.S. to undermine its government, and Gross was tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison. |
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Accused White House intruder to appear in court
Court News |
2014/09/22 15:29
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Following an embarrassing security breach at the White House, one of the most closely protected buildings in the world, the Secret Service is said to be considering establishing new checkpoints to screen tourists in public areas near the presidential mansion.
Meanwhile, the man accused of scaling a security fence and getting into the president's home carrying a knife is scheduled to have his initial appearance Monday in federal court.Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, is facing charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon.
The Army says Gonzalez served from 1997 until his discharge in 2003, and again from 2005 to December 2012, when he retired due to disability.The Secret Service tightened its guard outside the White House after Friday's security breach. Gonzalez is accused of scaling the White House perimeter fence, sprinting across the lawn and entering the building before agents could stop him.
President Barack Obama and his family were away at the time. Obama says he still has confidence in the troubled agency's ability to protect him and his family.Secret Service Director Julia Pierson has ordered increased surveillance and more officer patrols, and has begun an investigation into what went wrong. |
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