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Supreme Court considers juice label dispute
Court News |
2014/04/25 10:09
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The Supreme Court seems likely to rule that juice maker Pom Wonderful can bring false advertising claims against the Coca-Cola Co. over a competing juice product.
Several justices indicated during argument at the high court Monday that allowing Pom's lawsuit to go forward under federal trademark laws would not interfere with government regulation of food labels.
Pom alleges the label on a "Pomegranate Blueberry" beverage offered by Coke's Minute Maid unit is misleading because 99 percent of the drink consists of apple and grape juice. Coke claims the lawsuit should be thrown out because the label complies with Food and Drug Administration regulations.
Lower courts had ruled in favor of Coke. The food and beverage industry is concerned that a ruling for Pom could subject food makers to more litigation. |
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Oklahoma gay-marriage case before US appeals court
Court News |
2014/04/17 13:58
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Court arguments over Oklahoma's ban on same-sex marriage will center on whether voters singled out gay people for unfair treatment when they overwhelmingly defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Judges at a federal appeals court in Denver will hear arguments Thursday from lawyers representing a couple challenging Oklahoma's ban and the Tulsa County clerk who refused to grant them a license. The judges heard a similar case from Utah last week.
Oklahoma voters approved the ban in 2004 by a 3-1 margin. The Tulsa couple tried to obtain a marriage license shortly afterward.
A federal judge overturned the ban in January, saying it violated the equal-protection clause of the U.S. Constitution. Lawyers for the state say voters have a right to set their own laws. |
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Court rejects early appeal of surveillance ruling
Court News |
2014/04/08 10:46
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The Supreme Court has declined an early look at a constitutional challenge to the National Security Agency's bulk collection of millions of Americans' telephone records.
Conservative lawyer Larry Klayman persuaded a federal judge in December to rule that the agency's activities likely violate the Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches. The justices on Monday rejected Klayman's unusual request to bypass the traditional appeals process and hear the case immediately.
Klayman says the case is too important to wait for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reach a decision. The district court judge granted an injunction against the NSA, but put it on hold pending a government appeal.
The Obama administration has defended the NSA program as a crucial tool against terrorism. |
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High court voids overall contribution limits
Court News |
2014/04/03 14:33
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The Supreme Court struck down limits Wednesday in federal law on the overall campaign contributions the biggest individual donors may make to candidates, political parties and political action committees.
The justices said in a 5-4 vote that Americans have a right to give the legal maximum to candidates for Congress and president, as well as to parties and PACs, without worrying that they will violate the law when they bump up against a limit on all contributions, set at $123,200 for 2013 and 2014. That includes a separate $48,600 cap on contributions to candidates.
But their decision does not undermine limits on individual contributions to candidates for president or Congress, now $2,600 an election.
Chief Justice John Roberts announced the decision, which split the court's liberal and conservative justices. Roberts said the aggregate limits do not act to prevent corruption, the rationale the court has upheld as justifying contribution limits.
The overall limits "intrude without justification on a citizen's ability to exercise 'the most fundamental First Amendment activities,'" Roberts said, quoting from the court's seminal 1976 campaign finance ruling in Buckley v. Valeo.
Justice Clarence Thomas agreed with the outcome of the case, but wrote separately to say that he would have gone further and wiped away all contribution limits. |
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Court rejects new cases on birth control coverage
Court News |
2014/03/31 15:14
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The Supreme Court has turned away an early look at a challenge by religiously affiliated not-for-profit groups to the new health care law's provision on birth control coverage.
Lawsuits filed by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington and others are making their way through the courts. The justices on Monday declined to weigh in on them before any federal appeals court has reached a final decision.
The Obama administration has devised a compromise to the law's requirement that contraception be included in health plans' preventive services for women. The compromise attempts to create a buffer for religiously affiliated hospitals, universities and social service groups that oppose birth control. Their insurers or the health plan's outside administrator would pay for birth control coverage and creates a way to reimburse them. |
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Appeals court sides with Alaska on roadless rule
Court News |
2014/03/28 10:01
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A divided federal appeals court panel on Wednesday sided with the state of Alaska in reversing a decision that reinstated prohibitions on road-building and the harvesting of timber in the nation's largest national forest.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, found that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had articulated "a number of legitimate grounds" in a 2003 decision to temporarily exempt the Tongass National Forest in southeast Alaska from the Roadless Rule, which contains the prohibitions.
A lower court judge, in 2011, had found the decision to be arbitrary and capricious.
The appeals court panel sent the matter back to the district court to determine whether additional environmental review is required. Ninth Circuit Court Judge M. Margaret McKeown dissented, saying the justification for the overturning the lower court's decision was missing. |
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