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US courts rule for border walls both public and private
Legal World News |
2020/01/10 10:44
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Crews could start building a private border wall in South Texas within the coming days following a federal judge’s ruling Thursday that lifted a restraining order against the project.
U.S. District Judge Randy Crane’s order was the second federal ruling in two days in favor of border barriers. On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a lower court’s stay that had prevented President Donald Trump’s administration from diverting $3.6 billion from military construction projects to fund 175 miles (280 kilometers) of border wall.
While the White House on Thursday celebrated the appeals court’s ruling, saying it rightfully lifted an “illegitimate nationwide injunction,” Crane’s ruling actually went against the U.S. government’s position.
Fisher Industries, a North Dakota-based construction firm, wants to install 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) of steel posts about 35 feet (10 meters) from the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande, the river that forms the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. The company’s president, Tommy Fisher, wants to spend $40 million on the private border wall ? originally promoted by a pro-Trump online fundraising group ? to prove that his company can build barriers more effectively.
The U.S. government sued to stop Fisher on the grounds that building so close to the Rio Grande risked changing the flow of the river and potentially pushing floodwaters into Mexico, in violation of treaty obligations. The U.S. attorney’s office argued the project could shift the river and the international boundary, which violated the president’s authority “to conduct the foreign relations of the United States.”
Existing segments of fencing and the small sections that the government is currently building typically run along the Rio Grande levee or through property a significant distance away from the river. The U.S. is currently working to seize private land to build more sections of wall in Texas.
Crane issued a restraining order in December, but lifted that order Thursday. He also declined to grant a restraining order at the request of the National Butterfly Center, a nonprofit located next to the South Texas construction site. The butterfly center and environmentalists warn building a border barrier so close to the river could worsen erosion and potentially damage other land.
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New Orleans budget issues prompt short-lived furlough threat
Legal Information |
2020/01/08 10:45
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New Orleans’ clerk of criminal district court announced a furlough Friday that would’ve crippled the city’s criminal justice system, only to rescind the threat the next day.
The moves by Orleans Parish Clerk of Criminal District Court Arthur Morrell are part of an ongoing budget dispute with the city, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. Morrell said he plans to to discuss the furlough and dispute with the chief judge of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court on Monday, the same day the furlough would’ve gone into effect.
Morrell said the city has failed to pay for his office’s full contingent of needed staffers. He requested about $4.6 million in funding for the 2020 budget and was granted about $4 million. Though the awarded funding was an increase from the previous year, Morrell said the difference left “no choice” but to close up shop.
As the clerk’s office is the only city agency legally authorized to perform some functions, the threatened furlough of about 80 workers would’ve made it so jailed inmates couldn’t post bail.
Mayoral spokesman Beau Tidwell blasted the furlough threat. “The clerk of court received a budgetary increase for 2020, and those funds are available for his staffing and operational needs,” the statement said. “It is the expectation of this administration and of the people of New Orleans that all public servants, including the clerk of Criminal Court, honor their commitment and do their jobs.”
A longtime observer of the city’s criminal justice system said Morrell can “run that office for most of the year on what the city’s given him.”
“He’s got plenty of time to pursue the difference in the court system,” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission. “You don’t go to DEFCON 5; you don’t push the launch button if you don’t have to. And I think this is overkill. This is more about trying to create some publicity and less about what the real issue is.”
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Former IAAF president’s corruption trial opens in Paris
Attorney Interview |
2020/01/08 10:41
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The corruption trial involving the former president of track and field’s governing body was suspended Monday shortly after it began.
Lamine Diack, the former head of the IAAF, has been charged with far-reaching corruption and doping cover-ups.
At the opening of the hearing, the prosecution asked that the two-week trial be delayed to weigh new evidence received from Senegal, where Diack was born. His son, Papa Massata Diack, also charged in the case, lives in Senegal, shielded from an international arrest warrant issued by France.
The prosecution also asked for the delay to clear up a procedural technicality regarding one of the charges against Papa Massata Diack. There will next be a hearing in April to see whether a new trial date in June is feasible.
Addressing the court, the 86-year-old Diack asked that in the wake of the delay he be allowed to travel to Senegal to visit his elder brother, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Diack has not been allowed to leave France since his arrest in 2015. But he promised the court that he would come back to France if allowed to travel, saying he wants to clear his name.
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Mother of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts dies at age 90
Law Firm Press Release |
2020/01/03 11:38
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Rosemary Roberts, the mother of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, has died. She was 90. A spokeswoman for the court said Rosemary Roberts died Saturday. Roberts was born Rosemary Podrasky in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and married John G. Roberts Sr. in 1952, according to an obituary published in The Tribune-Democrat.
She worked in Pennsylvania and New York as a customer service representative for A&P supermarkets and the Bell Telephone Company, according to the obituary.
The family moved around over the years for Roberts Sr.’s job at Bethlehem Steel Corp. and lived in New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Maryland. They later moved to Ohio and South Carolina for other business opportunities and for retirement.
Rosemary Roberts participated in local religious and charitable organizations and served as a hospital and library volunteer, the obituary said. She and her husband moved to Maryland in 2001 to be closer to their family.
Their son, John Roberts, was nominated in 2005 by President George W. Bush to be chief justice of the Supreme Court. He replaced the late William Rehnquist.
Rosemary Roberts is survived by four children, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Her husband died in 2008 after a long illness.
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