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State Farm Won't Back Mean Mom
Legal Topics |
2008/10/06 16:45
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State Farm says a policyholder, a mother, suggested her daughter taunta girl the daughter doesn't like by writing insults, including "bitch,""whore," "slut" and "you have no friends," on disposable diapers andstrewing them about the girl's yard. The girl attempted suicide and washospitalized after the mom bought the diapers, helped write theinsults, drove her daughter to the victim's house and helped her strewthem in the yard, State Farm says. It claims it has no obligation todefend the woman.
State Farm claims that the defendant, JulieHefner-Phipps, admitted to police that she directed and participated inthe diaper insults.
The girl's family sued Hefner-Philips.
StateFarm says the victim tried suicide the day she saw the insultingdiapers, one of which stated, "move-bitch." She was placed in intensivecare and then sent to a psychiatric hospital.
State Farm saysit's not obligated to defend Hefner-Phillips because the policyexcludes "bodily injury or property damage ... which is the result ofwillful and malicious acts of the insured." |
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Judge Rejects Challenge to College Religious Displays
Legal Topics |
2008/09/30 15:57
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Religious displays in the bursar's office at Hunter College do not constitute a government endorsement of religion, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell dismissed a challenge brought by Herman Menes, a college accountant who said the collection of angel figurines, religious posters and holiday decorations on display at the city college violated his First Amendment rights.
Menes claimed the college transferred him from the bursar's department to the accounting department in retaliation for his complaints about the religious displays.
Holwell granted the college's motion for summary judgment, concluding that Menes "failed to offer evidence that any action or policy of any defendant, whether considered individually or in the aggregate, was undertaken with a non-secular purpose."
Menes also failed to establish a causal connection between his opposition to the office displays and his transfer, the judge ruled. |
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New class action filed over US warrantless surveillance program
Legal Topics |
2008/09/22 15:44
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Thursday filed a class action lawsuit seeking injunctive, declaratory and equitable relief from the National Security Agency warrantless surveillance program, which gave government agencies access to over 300 terabytes of data concerning communication sent and received by AT&T customers. Filed on behalf of those customers, the suit names as defendants the US government, the NSA, President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and several other officials. EFF alleges violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and federal electronic surveillance law. The complaint also argues that the surveillance program violated the Federal Administrative Procedure Act because it exceeded Congressionally-mandated limitations established by FISA, and alleges that it violates the Constitutional separation of powers principle
because it was authorized by the Executive in excess of the Executive’s authority under Article II of the United States Constitution ... and exceeds the statutory limits imposed on the Executive by Congress.
The lawsuit filed Thursday follows an earlier class-action lawsuit filed by EFF against AT&T in January 2006 over the company's participation in the warrantless surveillance program. The most recent lawsuit is aimed at the US government, reflecting the July amendment to FISA which granted retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies participating in the surveillance program. The amendment was signed into law by President Bush on July 10, after the US Senate voted 69-28 to approve the amendment. Earlier that day, the Senate rejected three proposed amendments to the bill that would have limited the immunity. In June, the US House of Representatives passed HR 6304, amending FISA and including the granting of retroactive immunity. The bill also grants the FISA court authority to review a wider range of wiretapping orders, would prohibit the executive branch from overriding the court's authority, and orders the Department of Justice and other agencies to issue a report on the country's use of wiretapping orders. |
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Bush to sign disabilities bill passed by US House
Legal Topics |
2008/09/19 15:54
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A bill overwriting judicial interpretations which have narrowed protections under the Americans With Disabilities Act awaits President Bush's signature following passage by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. The ADA Amendments Act of 2008, which was approved by a voice vote, purports to "restore the intent and protections" of the landmark civil rights legislation. The bill expressly overrules holdings by the US Supreme Court in two major ADA cases: Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc., which directs courts to consider "mitigating measures" such as medication when determining whether an individual is disabled, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams, which requires strict interpretation of the ADA's definition of a disability. US Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr, a prime sponsor of the bill, said in remarks on the House floor:
The bill we pass today will restore the full meaning of equal protection under the law and all the promises that our Nation has to offer. As Members are well-aware by now, the Supreme Court has slowly chipped away at the broad protections of the ADA and has created a new set of barriers for disabled Americans. The Court's rulings currently exclude millions of disabled Americans from the ADA's protections—the very citizens that Congress expressly sought to include within the scope of the Act in 1990.
The US Chamber of Commerce also praised the bill, calling it a "a sound compromise between the Senate, the House, the business community, and the disability community." In a statement, White House press secretary Dana Perino said the president "looks forward" to signing the bill and "is encouraged by the improvements made to the bill during the legislative process."
The US is one of only 45 countries in the world with disability legislation, having enacted the ADA in 1990. The UN General Assembly in 2006 adopted an international treaty on the rights of persons with disabilities, which took effect in May of this year after it was ratified by 20 nations. The US said that it would not sign the international accord, insisting that US domestic measures on the federal, state and local levels are already adequate for the purpose. |
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TSA Wins Ruling over Air Marshal's Text Leak
Legal Topics |
2008/09/18 16:43
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The Transportation Safety Agency did not violate an air marshal's due process rights when it disciplined him for leaking a text message to the media, the 9th Circuit ruled.
Robert McLean received a text message in late July 2003 stating that there would be no air marshals on overnight flights through Aug. 9.
McLean's concern over safety issues led him to spread the news to the media. The Federal Air Marshal Service later determined that the text message did not reflect a final decision, and no overnight missions were cancelled.
McLean was fired for the incident more than two years later. The TSA issued an order ruling that McLean had divulged "sensitive security information."
In a per curiam decision, the circuit judges ruled that the TSA had every right to make such an order. McLean's rights under the Whistleblower Protection Act were not violated because the TSA's order was not a personnel decision.
"The fact that the order has some impact on McLean's proceedings does not convert it to a 'personnel action,'" the judges wrote. |
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Pole Dance Teacher Sues City To Combat 'Pall Of Orthodoxy'
Legal Topics |
2008/08/29 16:53
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Adams Township unconstitutionally refused a permit to a woman who wants to open a "dance and fitness studio ... to teach women how to pole dance, power lap dance, and strip tease - all while fully clothed," Stephanie Babines claims in Federal Court. She says her class contains "absolutely no nudity, spectators, or sexual activity," but is part of a "growing national exercise movement" which has spread even to China, but is unreasonably feared, and illegally proscribed, by "small-town municipal officials."
Represented by the ACLU, Babines says she is being deprived of her livelihood because "the small-town municipal officials do not approve of the type of dance she teaches. They believe it is 'provocative,' full of sexual 'innuendo,' and too dangerous for their township."
Au contraire, Babine says. "The instruction contains absolutely no nudity, spectators, or sexual activity. The studio is not a men's entertainment club or strip joint, nor is it a mere front for such activity. Rather, the dance Ms. Babines hopes to teach is part of a growing national exercise movement. Chronicled in U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, Pittsburgh Magazine, and Oprah Winfrey's talk show, pole dancing provides 'a workout that combines aerobics, dance, yoga, (and) strength training.' Ms. Babines has seen her dance classes help women get in shape, build self-confidence, and express their sexuality. A recent report documented how the craze has even spread to China. But while a repressive country like China allows dance studios to teach pole dancing, the defendants in this small Butler County town have misapplied their zoning code to deny Ms. Babines her right to teach this new combination of art and sport to interested adult women.
"Ms. Babines brings this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief to challenge the pall of orthodoxy imposed by defendants on the people in their town who wish to communicate unconventional ideas and to vindicate her free-expression rights under the United States and Pennsylvania Constitutions to teach others about lawful and constitutionally protected activity." |
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San Francisco Mayor's Wife Says She Was Swindled
Legal Topics |
2008/08/26 16:53
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Moviemakers swindled the mayor of San Francisco's wife out of $75,000 by promising she would act in and produce a film in China, then making another movie, without hiring her for anything and without repaying her "one cent," Jennifer Siebel claims in Superior Court. Siebel demands punitive damages from Jay Rothstein and China Venture Films.
"This is a simple case of dishonesty," the complaint states. "Plaintiff Jennifer Siebel was swindled out of $75,000 by defendants Jay Rothstein and his company, China Venture Films, LLC based on false promises that they were producing and financing an independent film in China in which plaintiff would act and produce. Based on those false promises, plaintiff entered into an agreement with the defendants in which she invested $75,000. When soliciting her investment, defendants never had any intention of fulfilling the agreement, including repaying plaintiff the $75,000 that she invested and that defendant Rothstein, pursuant to the contract, agreed to be personally liable for."
Siebel claims Rothstein's flick, "Milk and Fashion," shot in China, "is essentially the same film as the film in which plaintiff invested. Plaintiff was not invited to appear in this film, was not offered the chance to take part in the production of the film, and has not been offered any rights to this film."
And, she says, Rothstein has blown off her requests to be repaid the $75,000. Siebel says he also owes her 6.5 percent of U.S. net income from the film.
Siebel, a Stanford graduate and actress, married Mayor Gavin Newsom on July 26.
She demands damages and punitive damages for fraud, conversion, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and negligent misrepresentation. She is represented by Steven Williams with Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy. |
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