Law
4/20/2012 | Governmental Control, Law
Cops Take School Kids' DNA in Murder Case
ABC News
Samples of DNA were collected without parental consent from students at a Sacramento, Calif., middle school in connection with the murder of an 8 th grade student who was found stabbed, strangled and beaten to death near the dugout of a local park.
The Sacramento Sheriff's Department, which has been spearheading the investigation into the murder of Jessica Funk-Haslam, 13, said parental consent was not required in the DNA collection and interview of minors, several of whom were taken out of class during the day last week at Albert Einstein Middle School.
"These are interviews, not interrogations," Sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos told ABCNews.com. "They are all consensual. Once it's done, there is a mechanism in place for school administrators to notify parents."
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4/9/2012 | Israel, Law
Anti-Israel campaign illegal, says group
OneNewsNow
A California attorney asserts that a college professor's use of public resources to criticize Israel is a serious violation of state law.
The Global Frontier Justice Center sent a letter to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, informing her that a California State University, Northridge (CSUN) professor is using a university-hosted website to promote hate against Israel. GFJC noted that mathematics professor David Klein's page has nothing to do with the subject he teaches, nor does it serve any professional interests.
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4/4/2012 | Law
Justice Department under deadline to answer court over Obama's health law comments
Fox News
The Obama Justice Department has roughly 24 hours to explain to a federal appeals court whether the administration believes judges have the power to overturn federal laws -- in the latest escalation between the two branches of government over the federal health care overhaul.
A three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ordered the Justice Department to explain by Thursday at noon whether the administration believes judges have that authority. The challenge came after President Obama cautioned the Supreme Court against overturning the health care law and warned that such an act would be "unprecedented."
4/3/2012 | Healthcare, Law
Obama's Message to Justices: Overturning Health Care Law Would be ‘Unprecedented’
CNS News
President Barack Obama claimed confidence that his landmark health care law would be upheld by the Supreme Court despite the widely held consensus from legal experts that last week’s oral arguments before the court did not go well for the administration. Obama also implied that ruling the law unconstitutional would be "unprecedented" and could be viewed as “judicial activism.”
“We are confident that this will be over – that this will be upheld,” Obama said on Monday from the White House. “I’m confident this will be upheld because it should be upheld. Again, that’s not just my opinion. That’s the opinion of a whole lot of constitutional law professors, academics and judges.”
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3/26/2012 | Healthcare, Law
Justices Hear Health-Law Arguments
Supreme Court justices generally showed little sympathy Monday for the position that the court should wait until 2014 or after to decide on the challenge to President Barack Obama's health-care law, as three days of arguments on the measure opened.
Court-appointed lawyer Robert Long told the court that a decision on the case should be put off, citing a 19th-century law known as the Anti-Injunction Act. He described the principle of the act as "pay first, litigate later," meaning that any challenge to a tax should be litigated only after people start paying the tax.
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2/28/2012 | Law, Radical Islam
Judge: Insulting Islam grounds for beating
OneNewsNow
A legal expert, a former Navy chaplain, and a pro-family leader agree that a Pennsylvania judge should be removed from the bench for throwing out an assault case lodged against a Muslim who attacked an atheist dressed as a zombie Muhammad at a Halloween parade last year.
Judge Mark Martin is an Iraq war veteran and a convert to Islam, according to George Washington University law professor Jonathon Turley. The incident, recorded on video, occurred on October 11, 2011 at the Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania Halloween parade. Ernie Perce, an atheist, was attacked by Talaag Elbayomy, a Muslim, because of the former's costume.
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1/11/2012 | Law
In Oklahoma Case, Another Legal Blow To Sharia Law Bans
The Atlantic
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, not generally known for its progressive bent, on Tuesday affirmed a lower court ruling that had prevented Oklahoma's so-called "sharia ban" from taking effect. The 37-page decision by the three-judge panel was unanimous and useful in providing some early context about the nature of these laws and the trouble they are likely to find when they bump up against the First Amendment's religion clauses.
The case is still in a procedural phase; the 10th Circuit merely affirmed that a federal trial judge in Oklahoma had not abused her discretion in November 2010 when she issued a preliminary injunction banning Oklahoma officials from activating into law State Question 755. That's the ballot initiative from the 2010 election, approved overwhelmingly by Oklahoma voters, that purports to forbid Oklahoma's courts from recognizing international law -- especially sharia law.
10/28/2011 | Law, Politics
Tea Party to Mayor: Make ‘Occupy Richmond’ Pay Up
CBS Washington
The Richmond Tea Party is accusing Mayor Dwight Jones of taking a soft stance against the “Occupy Richmond” protesters and is demanding that the group pay up.
After nearly three weeks of protests and overnight stays in Kanawha Plaza, the Richmond Tea Party is about to send Jones a bill for about $8,000 on the basis that “Occupy Richmond” has been using the area illegally and for free.
Richmond Tea Party spokeswoman Colleen Owens told CBS Washington that the protesters have been given special treatment and free reign of the park and have not had to comply with the strict liability and security provisions that the city required of a Tea Party Tax Day in 2009.
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5/26/2011 | Governmental Control, Law
Senate considers Patriot Act despite concerns
Associated Press
The tortoise-like Senate is under uncommon pressure to pass a four-year extension of the anti-terrorist Patriot Act before key provisions expire Friday. But the deadline is even tighter, because President Barack Obama is in Europe.
Any extension passed by the Senate must be sent to the House and passed there, then flown overseas to be signed into law.
So the Senate's deadline for passage is more like midweek. And that's no accident.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who not long ago vowed to have a full week of debate on the Patriot Act extension, has instead backed up the vote against a tighter deadline to limit debate over legislation some say is less necessary now that al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is dead.
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5/20/2011 | Law, Presidential Issues
Senate Refuses to Confirm Obama's Liberal Appeals Court Nominee
CNS News
The nomination of controversial Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals failed by a vote of 52-43 on Thursday with Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson (Neb.) joining Senate Republicans in blocking the long-stalled nomination.
Fifty-one Democrats were joined by Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in voting to send the Liu nomination to the Senate floor for an up or down vote. The nomination needed to garner 60 votes to be sent to the floor.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said the collapse of Liu’s nomination represented a “huge defeat” for President Obama, and that Senate Republicans had “draw[n] the line” on left-wing judges.
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4/15/2011 | Law, Radical Islam
Shutting down sharia in U.S.
OneNewsNow
A California-based constitutional attorney has joined a group in urging state legislatures across the U.S. to pass a law to prevent sharia law from transcending the nation's criminal law.
Karen Lugo, an attorney based in southern California, serves as The Federalist Society's expert on sharia law and was recently appointed to the California Advisory Committee's Commission on Civil Rights. She reports that 25 of the 50 U.S. states have taken it upon themselves to stand up for constitutional freedoms through legislation and court cases, as many state legislators are concerned about a recent ruling from a judge in New Jersey.
"A judge ruled that a former husband was not guilty of rape or violating his former wife's rights when he had harassed her through the period of a separation because the man acted according to what he perceived as his sharia right," Lugo explains.
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6/16/2010 | Economy, Governmental Control, Law
Bachmann: Obama Exceeding Constitutional Authority in Ordering BP to Surrender Funds--'It's All About Extortion'
CNS News
Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday that President Barack Obama is exceeding his legitimate constitutional authority in telling BP it must set up an independent fund, not controlled by the company, for compensating victims of the Gulf oil spill. She described the administration's policy as an action "that's all about extortion."
"Private companies need to be held accountable but not necessarily to the executive branch," said Bachmann. "It seems to me there’s a misreading of the Constitution and a misunderstanding of jurisdictional limits from this White House on what the extent of executive power is. They don’t seem to understand that and it—now it seems that it’s all about extortion--and that what they want to do is create a pot of money for themselves that they can control and that’s not what the Executive is supposed to do. There is a real misreading of jurisdictional limits, and they continue to stretch those limits beyond all bounds."
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5/18/2010 | Healthcare, Law
If Confirmed to Supreme Court, Kagan May Have To Recuse Herself in Health Care Cases
CNS News
If confirmed to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan may have to recuse herself if the health care reform law comes before the high court. This is the case because as solicitor general of the United States in the Obama administration, Kagan may have helped craft a legal defense of the law or given advice to Congress or the White House on how to draft the statute.
Historically, Supreme Court justices recuse themselves from hearing cases in which they have previously been involved. Kagan, who as solicitor general is responsible for defending the federal government in federal court and before the Supreme Court, may have been involved in responding to lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform.
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5/11/2010 | Law, Governmental Control
Elena Kagan: Government Can Ban Political Pamphlets
CNS News
Solicitor General Elena Kagan, nominated Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Barack Obama, told that court in September that Congress could constitutionally prohibit corporations from engaging in political speech such as publishing pamphlets that advocate the election or defeat of a candidate for federal office.
Kagan’s argument that the government could prohibit political speech by corporations was rejected by a 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in that case, and in a scathing concurrence Chief Justice John Roberts took direct aim at Kagan’s argument that the government could ban political pamphlets.
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5/6/2010 | Illegal Immigration, Law
Arizona Immigration Law Identical to Federal Laws Requiring Alien Documentation, Says Attorney
CNS News
One of the men who helped write Arizona’s new immigration law said he’s confident it will withstand legal challenges, because the law specifically addresses issues such as racial profiling, which are likely to be the basis of state or federal lawsuits.
“I’m confident Arizona will prevail,” Kris Kobach said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. Kobach is a constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and served as chief adviser to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on immigration law and border security.
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3/25/2010 | Healthcare, Law
Republican Lawmaker Expects Supreme Court to Decide Constitutionality of Health Care Law’s Individual Mandate
CNS News
Reps. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) told CNSNews.com that the Constitution does not give Congress the authority to require individuals to buy health insurance, as mandated by the new health care bill that was signed into law on Tuesday.
Both representatives appeared with Actor Jon Voight at a Capitol Hill Tea Party rally over the March 20 weekend.
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