How Appealing



Wednesday, March 12, 2008

“Retired High Court Justice O’Connor Says Judges Need Higher Pay; At Georgia State University’s College of Law, O’Connor says judges shouldn’t make less than first-year associates”: law.com provides this report.

Posted at 10:57 PM by Howard Bashman



“Massey case returns to Supreme Court today”: The Associated Press provides a report from West Virginia that begins, “Arguments over a $76 million judgment against Massey Energy Co. await a slightly different West Virginia Supreme Court than the one that ruled in the coal contract dispute last year. A 3-2 decision in November had overturned that judgment. But the court agreed to rehear the case pitting Massey against Harman Mining Co., after photos surfaced showing Chief Justice Elliott ‘Spike’ Maynard in Monaco with Massey chief executive Don Blankenship.”

You can access via this link the briefs filed in the case.

Posted at 3:14 PM by Howard Bashman



An appeal about intervention into a lawsuit over whether employees at a Tyson Foods plant are entitled under federal law to receive compensation for time spent donning and doffing the safety and sanitary gear they must wear on the chicken processing line: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issued this ruling today.

As coincidence would have it, law.com posted online today an essay by attorneys Carla J. Rozycki and Darren M. Mungerson entitled “Will the Supreme Court Make a Decision About Compensable Work? Tyson Foods has petitioned the Court to resolve the fundamental question of whether compensable work must entail exertion.”

Posted at 3:05 PM by Howard Bashman



“Court stops Barzee’s forced meds”: Today’s edition of The Deseret Morning News contains an article that begins, “Elizabeth Smart was found and returned to her family five years ago today. But the legal battles involving those accused of kidnapping her are far from over. A day after Wanda Barzee was ordered to start involuntary medication, the Utah Supreme Court ordered the treatment stopped, pending an appeal filed Tuesday by Barzee’s attorneys.”

And The Salt Lake Tribune reports today that “Utah high court halts forced meds for Barzee.”

Posted at 2:40 PM by Howard Bashman



“Neways founders’ tax evasion, fraud convictions upheld”: Pamela Manson of The Salt Lake Tribune has a news update that begins, “The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today upheld the tax evasion and tax fraud convictions of the founders of Neways Inc., a Springville multilevel marketing company, and its former corporate counsel.”

You can access today’s 75-page ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit at this link.

Posted at 2:23 PM by Howard Bashman



“States reconsider life behind bars for youth; With nearly 2,400 inmates sentenced to life as juveniles, the U.S. is the only nation imposing the mandate on children”: This article appears today in The Christian Science Monitor.

Posted at 11:40 AM by Howard Bashman



“Binding National Rules Adopted for Handling Judicial Misconduct Complaints”: law.com’s Tony Mauro provides this report.

Today’s installment of my “On Appeal” column for law.com is headlined “A Look at Federal Judicial Disciplinary Developments: 2008 brings rule amendments and a ruling of note.”

And yesterday, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts issued a news release headlined “National Rules Adopted for Judicial Conduct and Disability Proceedings.”

Posted at 9:37 AM by Howard Bashman



“Nigerians pull half of claims in Chevron suit”: Today in The San Francisco Chronicle, Bob Egelko has an article that begins, “Nigerian villagers who are suing Chevron Corp. in a San Francisco federal court have quietly moved to withdraw half of their claims that the oil company was responsible for military attacks on protesters in the late 1990s.”

Posted at 9:20 AM by Howard Bashman



“Judge’s case up for review; Impeachment of Porteous urged”: Today’s edition of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans contains an article that begins, “The U.S. Judicial Conference on Tuesday declined to consider an impeachment recommendation against U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous but referred the matter to a five-member disciplinary committee.”

Posted at 9:12 AM by Howard Bashman



“Allegations against Spitzer don’t affect Nacchio case, experts say”: The Rocky Mountain News today contains an article that begins, “It’s been a wild week in the continuing saga of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio. And that’s without any new development in his criminal or civil cases. First, 9News reported last week that Chief Federal Judge Edward Nottingham, who presided over Nacchio’s insider-trading criminal trial, may have been a customer of an escort service. Now, New York Governor and former prosecutor Eliot Spitzer, who once sued Nacchio in connection with stock sales, allegedly was a client of a pricey escort service.”

Posted at 9:10 AM by Howard Bashman



“Stripper says judge shielded her from creditors; It was a way to keep creditors at bay, she says; He says she was a friend, but denies her allegations”: The St. Petersburg Times today contains an article that begins, “An appeals judge denied Tuesday that he helped shield a stripper from creditors seeking nearly $315,000.”

And The Tampa Tribune reports today that “Judge, Stripper At Odds Over Shared Accounts.”

Posted at 9:03 AM by Howard Bashman



“Combatants may get phone link to home”: Today in The Miami Herald, Carol Rosenberg has an article that begins, “ET, the extra terrestrial, tried to do it. Now the Pentagon has decided to let ECs, or enemy combatants, do it too — phone home.”

Posted at 8:57 AM by Howard Bashman



“House unable to override Bush’s veto of waterboarding ban; The bill would have funded intelligence agencies and limited the CIA’s use of interrogation techniques”: This article appears today in The Los Angeles Times.

Posted at 8:55 AM by Howard Bashman



“Attorney General To Argue a Case Before High Court”: Today in The Washington Post, Dan Eggen has an article that begins, “Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey, who spent most of his adult life as a federal prosecutor and a judge, will return to the courtroom later this month to argue a case before the Supreme Court, officials said yesterday. Mukasey will urge the justices to reinstate a sentence overturned by an appeals court in the case of Ahmed Ressam, an al-Qaeda operative convicted of a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport in 1999.”

This blog’s earlier coverage of the Ninth Circuit‘s ruling and denial of rehearing en banc appears in posts that you can access here, here, here, and here.

Posted at 8:34 AM by Howard Bashman



“Need to Know: The Senate Judiciary Committee last week approved a potentially life-saving bill that would require federal judges to consider public health and safety before sealing court records.” This editorial appears today in The New York Times.

Posted at 8:14 AM by Howard Bashman