Government

City Code Cases Over Front-Yard Food

Corn. Tomatoes. Sunflowers. All are mainstays in many backyard gardens throughout the country. But now that so-called edible estates are replacing front lawns in urban areas, some neighboring residents are up in arms over the otherwise innocuous veggies. An increasing movement toward replacing the lawns in front of houses with…

Jul 31, 2007 10:19 PM CDT

Pot Misinformation Suit Tossed

A federal judge has tossed out a lawsuit claiming the federal government is lying about marijuana. Americans for Safe Access had claimed the federal Information Quality Act requires the Drug Enforcement Administration to refute claims that the drug has no accepted medical use. (See this ABAJournal.com post for more details.)…

Jul 30, 2007 1:49 PM CDT

Law Enforcement Gap on Tribal Lands

Native American women living on reservations are more than twice as likely to be raped as other women in the United States. One reason why is a quirk in the law governing Indian reservations that makes it impossible for tribal authorities to prosecute whites who commit crimes on their own…

Jul 26, 2007 11:23 PM CDT

Judge Voids Hazleton Immigration Law

In a ruling with national implications, a federal judge in Pennsylvania today struck down a controversial Hazleton municipal ordinance that would have imposed hefty fines on businesses for hiring illegal immigrants and landlords for renting to them. The ordinance was unconstitutional, ruled U.S. District Judge James M. Munley, because it…

Jul 26, 2007 9:38 PM CDT

Family Blames VA Secretary for Suicide

The family of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide filed a federal lawsuit today claiming the Department of Veterans Affairs was negligent in his death. The suit claims 23-year-old Jeffrey Lucey didn’t get the mental-health care he needed, according to the Associated Press. A VA medical center had treated…

Jul 26, 2007 8:56 PM CDT

Record $100 Million for Unjust Conviction

A federal judge in Boston has awarded $100 million to four men unjustly convicted of murder in Massachusetts state court in 1968, reportedly the largest such judgment ever made. Ruling today, U.S. Dist. Judge Nancy Gertner found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had suppressed evidence that four men convicted…

Jul 26, 2007 8:06 PM CDT

N.Y. AG: Governor’s Office, Police in Plot

Updated: Top aides to New York’s Democratic governor have been suspended or reassigned, and Gov. Eliot Spitzer has apologized, in the wake of a scathing report by the state’s attorney general finding that Spitzer aides and state police conspired against the state senate’s Republican majority leader. “No one was accused…

Jul 24, 2007 9:22 PM CDT

$21 M for Wrongful Birth Needs Fla. OK

A Florida couple has won a $21 million jury award over a misdiagnosis of their first child’s rare genetic defect that led them, they say, to have another child two years ago with the same debilitating disease. But Daniel and Amara Estrada won’t be able to collect the award unless…

Jul 24, 2007 8:30 PM CDT

New Death Sentence for UK Holy Cow

Spared from slaughter by a court ruling last week, a holy bull revered by a Hindu community in Wales received a new death sentence today from an appellate panel. The case has pitted religious rights recognized by the European Union against concerns that Shambo, as the sacred bull is known,…

Jul 23, 2007 9:02 PM CDT

Veterans Sue for Stress Disorder Benefits

Lawyers representing veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are filing a class action lawsuit claiming the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to provide care for post-traumatic stress disorder. Morrison & Foerster and partner Gordon Erspamer are handling the case on a pro bono basis. Erspamer waged…

Jul 23, 2007 7:17 PM CDT

New Haven First: Illegal Immigrant IDs

Taking an alternative approach to a deluge of illegal immigrants that has prompted some municipalities to crack down, a large college town in Connecticut is instituting a controversial first-in-the-nation program to offer them identification cards. Starting tomorrow, illegal immigrants in New Haven can get city-issued ID cards that will let…

Jul 23, 2007 7:03 PM CDT

FEMA Lawyers Criticized

Lawyers for the Federal Emergency Management Agency are facing scrutiny for opposing testing for dangerous levels of formaldehyde in trailers housing hurricane victims. Legal ethics experts told the San Francisco Chronicle that, if reports are true, lawyers may have violated ethics rules and could face civil liability. Formaldehyde is a…

Jul 23, 2007 4:19 AM CDT

Valerie Plame Suit Dismissed

A federal judge has dismissed on jurisdictional grounds the privacy and constitutional claims for damages brought by former CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson and her husband against senior Bush administration officials. Because they have not exhausted their administrative remedies under the Federal Tort Claims Act, there is no subject-matter jurisdiction…

Jul 19, 2007 10:39 PM CDT

Police: WiFi Enables Child Porn Users

In miracles of modern technology, cell phone transmission records can locate lost users and provide evidence to suggest alleged criminals were—or were not—at the scenes of their crimes. Cameras record practically everything that happens in public in London. And radio speakers reportedly installed by the government in every home in…

Jul 17, 2007 7:20 PM CDT

Holy Cow! Sacred Bull Spared in UK Case

At least for the moment, Shambo is safe from the butcher’s knife. Revered by the Hindu Skanda Vale Community in West Wales, the 6-year-old Friesian bull had tested positive for bovine tuberculosis and been ordered slaughtered by the Welsh Assembly. But a High Court judge in Cardiff ruled today in…

Jul 17, 2007 12:09 AM CDT