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Oklahoma Supreme Court invalidates law restricting abortion
Legal Topics |
2016/10/04 19:04
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The Oklahoma Supreme Court has thrown out another state law that would put new restrictions on abortion providers.
In a unanimous opinion handed down Tuesday, all nine justices agreed that the statute adopted by the Legislature last year "contains different and unrelated purposes" in violation of the Oklahoma constitution's requirement that legislation cover a single subject.
The law encompasses four abortion-related topics: minors and parental consent; tissue preservation; inspection of clinics; and legal liability for abortion providers.
The New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights challenged the law and the state's highest court subsequently blocked it from going into effect. The center sued on behalf of Dr. Larry Burns of Norman, who performs nearly half of Oklahoma's abortions.
Oklahoma's attorney general didn't immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday. |
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Bosnian Serbs vote in referendum banned by top court
Legal Topics |
2016/09/21 22:22
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Bosnian Serbs on Sunday voted in a referendum banned by the country's constitutional court, risking Western sanctions against their autonomous region and criminal charges against their leaders.
The vote was whether to keep Jan. 9 as a holiday in Republika Srpska, commemorating the day in 1992 that Bosnian Serbs declared the creation of their own state, igniting the ruinous 1992-95 war. It comes despite the top court's ruling that the date, which falls on a Serb Christian Orthodox religious holiday, discriminates against Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats in Bosnia.
Authorities said turnout was between 56 and 60 percent. Preliminary results after 30.76 percent of the ballots were counted say 99.8 percent of the voters were in favor of the holiday.
The vote has raised tensions and fears of renewed fighting as Bosniaks and Croats see the referendum as an attempt to elevate the Serb region above the country's constitutional court. It is also a test for a more serious referendum that Bosnian Serb leaders have announced for 2018 — one on independence from Bosnia.
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Mexico's Supreme Court overturns state anti-corruption laws
Legal Topics |
2016/09/06 05:57
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Mexico's Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional two state anti-corruption laws that outgoing governors passed in apparent attempts to shield themselves from investigation.
Many Mexicans were outraged when the governors of the states of Veracruz and Chihuahua pushed through the laws just months before they are to leave office giving them the power to name anti-corruption prosecutors.
The federal Attorney General's Office appealed the laws, arguing they violated new federal anti-corruption standards. It said the appeals were meant to show "there is no room for tailor-made local laws."
On Monday, the Supreme court agreed, saying neither law could stand.
There have been allegations of corruption in both Veracruz and Chihuahua, and many feared the now struck-down laws would have allowed the governors to control who would investigate them.
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Egypt court releases lawyer who defied president
Legal Topics |
2016/08/27 21:33
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An Egyptian rights lawyer who had been held in solitary confinement for over 100 days after defying President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was released from jail Sunday on a court order.
Malek Adly, who was incarcerated on a rolling series of administrative detention orders, was freed after a court rejected an appeal by prosecutors a day earlier that had attempted to hold him longer over accusations that included attempting to overthrow the government.
"We don't know what will happen next — the case is still open and they could try to detain him again," said Adly's lawyer, Mahmoud Belal. "What's important though is that he is out."
Adly's supporters say authorities targeted him over a televised interview in which he objected to el-Sissi's decision in April to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, implying that such a move was traitorous.
Along with other lawyers, Adly raised a court case against the handover, arguing that the islands were historically Egypt's, as opposed to the government's position that they had always been Saudi territory and were only placed under temporary Egyptian protection.
About two months after Adly was jailed, an Egyptian court backed his legal suit with a June 21 ruling ordering the island transfer canceled. The government has appealed, and the matter now awaits discussion by a new panel of judges.
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Former Virginia first lady asks court to vacate convictions
Legal Topics |
2016/08/02 23:40
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Lawyers for Virginia's former first lady say her corruption convictions should be vacated after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned her husband's convictions.
News outlets report that Maureen McDonnell's attorneys asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate her convictions in a motion filed Monday. Former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife were convicted of doing favors for a wealthy businessman for more than $165,000 in gifts and loans. The high court overturned his conviction and sent it back to the appeals court.
Maureen McDonnell's attorneys say erroneous jury instructions identified in her husband's case apply to her case, too. Lawyers in Bob McDonnell's case have until Aug. 29 to decide how to proceed and her attorneys seek the same deadline. Her attorneys say prosecutors don't oppose the motion.
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Court reinstates rape charges despite delay in indictment
Legal Topics |
2016/07/28 15:34
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The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated rape and kidnapping charges against a Cleveland man who argued that a 20-year delay in indicting him was unconstitutional.
In a unanimous decision, the court also ordered an appeals court to reconsider the arguments of defendant Demetrius Jones using a different legal standard.
In a twist, the ruling in the closely watched case was praised by attorneys on both sides. Jones' lawyer said ordering the 8th Ohio District Court of Appeals to apply the different standard gives his client a new and stronger chance to fight the charges.
The state also applauded the decision after arguing that the dismissal of the charges by the appeals court last year created a legal precedent jeopardizing thousands of unsolved rapes being reinvestigated thanks to improved DNA testing.
"This ruling affirms law enforcement's ability to use new DNA technologies to bring criminals to justice," said Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine.
At issue was the 2013 indictment of Jones on a rape charge based on evidence found when an old rape kit was tested. Jones was accused of raping a woman he knew at his mother's apartment in 1993, according to Ohio Supreme Court documents.
The woman identified Jones to police and at the hospital where a rape kit was obtained, Russell Bensing, Jones' attorney, said in a court filing last fall.
Cleveland police set the investigation aside after two unsuccessful attempts to interview the accuser the following week and never tried to locate Jones or his mother, Bensing said.
Jones was indicted in 2013, one day before the deadline for prosecuting a case that old. His attorneys successfully asked a judge to throw out the case because the state took too long, and last year the appeals court upheld the decision.
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Court blocks prosecutors from seizing emails stored overseas
Legal Topics |
2016/07/15 15:29
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A federal appeals court Thursday said prosecutors cannot force U.S. companies like Microsoft to turn over customer emails and other data stored on servers overseas — a ruling the government suggested could hamper national security investigations.
The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously overturned a lower court's contempt finding against Microsoft for not handing over a customer's emails stored in Ireland. Federal prosecutors wanted the material for use in a drug trafficking investigation.
The ruling in the closely watched case was a victory for high-tech companies in the burgeoning "cloud computing" business, in which data is kept not on personal computers but on giant and sometimes distant servers. Microsoft stores data from over 1 billion customers and over 20 million businesses on servers in over 40 countries, the court noted.
The court said prosecutors went beyond what Congress intended when it passed the Stored Communications Act in 1986.
"Neither explicitly nor implicitly does the statute envision the application of its warrant provisions overseas," the court said in a decision written by Circuit Judge Susan L. Carney. She said allowing prosecutors to enforce a warrant outside the U.S. would "jettison ... centuries of law" and "replace the traditional warrant with a novel instrument of international application."
In a concurring opinion, Circuit Judge Gerard E. Lynch said an attempt to apply U.S. law overseas could cause tensions with other countries, "most easily appreciated if we consider the likely American reaction if France or Ireland or Saudi Arabia or Russia proclaimed its right to regulate conduct by Americans within our borders."
Microsoft called the ruling a "major victory for the protection of people's privacy rights under their own laws rather than the reach of foreign governments."
"We hear from customers around the world that they want the traditional privacy protections they've enjoyed for information stored on paper to remain in place as data moves to the cloud," said Brad Smith, Microsoft president and chief legal officer. "Today's decision helps ensure this result."
The Justice Department said it was disappointed and considering its options.
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