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Civil Rights

4676 ABA Journal Civil Rights articles.

EU Top Court OKs Mandatory Retirement

Highlighting the difference between U.S. and European employment law, the the European Union’s top court ruled today that it is legal for employers to set a mandatory retirement age. Although the EU has laws against discrimination, including age discrimination, it is legal for an employer to have a mandatory retirement…

Oct 16, 2007 10:43 PM CDT

CA v. Court in Sex Offender Residency Sweep

In a showdown between California’s governor and the state supreme court, parole officers yesterday began arresting hundreds of convicted sex offenders for violating a new state law. It prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park, as well as a number of other areas where…

Oct 12, 2007 10:31 PM CDT

Jena Six Teen Back in Jail

Mychal Bell, one of the six teens at the center of the Jena Six civil rights controversy, is back in jail. Yesterday Judge J.P. Mauffrey Jr. ordered Bell to serve 18 months in jail, saying his participation in the beating of a white classmate violated probation for a previous juvenile…

Oct 12, 2007 10:44 AM CDT

Families of Dead Iraqis Sue Blackwater

In an unusual effort to hold a private military contractor in Iraq civilly liable for alleged wrongdoing, the families of three dead Iraq civilians and one survivor of a recent Baghdad shooting sued Blackwater USA and its affiliates in federal court in Washington, D.C., this morning. Filed by the Center…

Oct 11, 2007 7:13 PM CDT

Law Firm to Clients: Feds Tapped Our Phones

Lawyers at a Vermont firm that represents clients being held in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan believe the federal government may be wiretapping their law office phones. So Gensburg, Atwell & Broderick sent a letter to other clients of the firm on Oct. 2, warning…

Oct 11, 2007 6:48 PM CDT

Judge Stops Planned SS# Match Program

In a blow to the Bush administration, a federal judge has granted a temporary injunction halting a planned program to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants. It would have required employers to confirm with the government that workers’ social security numbers are valid, but is fraught with problems,…

Oct 10, 2007 10:00 PM CDT

Jury: Feeding Homeless No Crime

A Florida man did not violate an unusual municipal ordinance against feeding the homeless when he served up food at a public park in Orlando, a jury decided yesterday. Although the prosecution had video footage of Eric Montanez, 22, participating in the organized meal at Lake Eola Park, it didn’t…

Oct 10, 2007 8:21 PM CDT

US: Immigrant Goes, $49 K in Savings Stays

After nearly a decade of washing dishes in a Florida restaurant, Pedro Zapeta had saved $62,000. He reportedly lived a frugal life, bicycling everywhere and denying himself all luxuries once he paid for his rent and electricity. No one questions that his savings come from his own hard-earned wages. However,…

Oct 10, 2007 6:32 PM CDT

Internet Contracts Restrict Speech

After several recent attempts by major companies to restrict speech they don’t like, some folks are reading the fine print on their consumer contracts. And a number do contain clauses that say companies can do so, reports the Los Angeles Times. Although apparently legal, since they don’t involve government restriction…

Oct 10, 2007 5:03 PM CDT

ACLU: Feds’ Drugging of Immigrants Torture?

In a motion filed yesterday in an asylum case, the American Civil Liberties Union calls for a halt to an admitted federal policy of forcibly injecting some immigrants with psychotropic medication and putting them aboard commercial airlines for deportation. It says the practice violates federal law and the Bill of…

Oct 10, 2007 4:10 PM CDT

LGBT Case: Woman in Women’s Room

In a cutting-edge transgendered rights case, a woman is suing over allegedly being forced out of a women’s room at a New York City restaurant. Yes, you read that right—a biological, from-birth female is suing because she was ejected from a women’s room, and this is something of a cause…

Oct 9, 2007 10:22 PM CDT

Counsel: PI Lawyer’s Aide Was FBI Mole

A former legal assistant to one of three jailed personal injury lawyers accused of bilking $65 million from clients in diet drug litigation allegedly spied on her boss for the FBI and wore a wire to confidential attorney-client meetings. In a federal-court filing in Kentucky last week, counsel representing Melbourne…

Oct 9, 2007 8:01 PM CDT

Once-Quarantined TB Patient Flies to Russia

A tuberculosis patient who was confined to a jail hospital ward in Arizona for failing to take his medications has left the country. Robert Daniels lived in the ward for almost a year but was recently released because he was no longer contagious, the Associated Press reports. He is a…

Oct 9, 2007 3:00 PM CDT

Pro Bono Team Attacks Exec’s Prosecution

A team of pro bono attorneys from four different firms has taken up the cause of a convicted Dynegy Inc. executive and filed a habeas corpus petition seeking his release from prison. By pressuring Dynegy, under threat of prosecution, to renege on its promise of paying defense costs, the federal…

Oct 8, 2007 9:16 PM CDT

Man on Trial for Feeding Homeless

In what may be a first-in-the-nation case, a Florida man reportedly is to go on trial today for violating an unusual Orlando ordinance that bans feeding a group of homeless persons in a public place. The prosecution says it has videotape of Eric Montanez, 22, at an organized feeding of…

Oct 8, 2007 6:11 PM CDT

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