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High court rejects military contractors appeals
Court Updates |
2015/01/21 09:25
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The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away three appeals from military contractor KBR Inc. that seek to shut down lawsuits over a soldier's electrocution in Iraq and open-air burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The justices offered no comment in allowing the lawsuits to proceed.
One lawsuit was filed by the parents of Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, who was electrocuted in his barracks shower at an Army base in Iraq in 2008. The suit claims KBR unit Kellogg Brown & Root Services Inc. was legally responsible for the shoddy electrical work that was common in Iraqi-built structures taken over by the U.S. military. KBR disputes that claim.
Dozens of lawsuits by soldiers and others assert they were harmed by improper waste disposal while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. They seek to hold KBR and Halliburton Co. responsible for exposing soldiers to toxic emissions and contaminated water when they burned waste in open pits without proper safety controls.
The contractors say they cannot be sued because they essentially were operating in war zones as an extension of the military.
The Obama administration agreed with the contractors that lower courts should have dismissed the lawsuits, but said the Supreme Court should not get involved now because lower courts still could dismiss or narrow the claims. |
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Judicial candidates' appeals for campaign cash at high court
Court Updates |
2015/01/21 09:24
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The Supreme Court is weighing whether candidates for elected judgeships have a constitutional right to make personal appeals for campaign cash.
The justices are hearing an appeal from Lanell Williams-Yulee of Tampa, Florida, who received a public reprimand for violating a Florida Bar rule that bans candidates for elected judgeships from personally soliciting donations.
The bar and many good government groups say the ban that is in place in Florida and 29 other states is important to preserve public confidence in an impartial judiciary.
A ruling for Williams-Yulee could free judicial candidates in those states to ask personally for campaign contributions.
In all, voters in 39 states elect local and state judges. In the federal judicial system, including the Supreme Court, judges are appointed to life terms and must be confirmed by the Senate.
The arguments are taking place five years after the Supreme Court freed corporations and labor unions to spend freely in federal elections. The court has generally been skeptical of limits on political campaigns, though slightly less so when it comes to those involving judges.
In 2002, the court struck down rules that were aimed at fostering impartiality among judges and barred candidates for elected judgeships from speaking out on controversial issues. But in 2009, the court held in a case from West Virginia that elected judges could be forced to step aside from ruling on cases when large campaign contributions from interested parties create the appearance of bias. |
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Court won't stop execution in Oklahoma
Court Updates |
2014/12/11 15:11
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The Supreme Court won't overturn a death sentence for a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her infant daughter in Oklahoma.
The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Raymond Eugene Johnson. Johnson was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder by a Tulsa County jury in 2009 in the June 2007 deaths of Brooke Whitaker, 24, and her 7-month-old daughter, Kya Whitaker. Prosecutors said Johnson beat Brooke Whitaker in the head with a hammer, set her on fire and left her and the baby to burn in their gasoline-doused home.
Oklahoma courts have refused to stop his execution, and the high court now also has refused to intervene. |
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US Supreme Court won't stop Missouri execution
Court Updates |
2014/12/11 14:38
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The U.S. Supreme Court turned down two petitions that sought to spare the life of a Missouri inmate Tuesday night, hours before his scheduled execution.
Paul Goodwin, 48, faces lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday for killing 63-year-old Joan Crotts inside her St. Louis County home in 1998.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and a clemency petition both claimed that Goodwin is mentally disabled, making him ineligible for the death penalty. Gov. Jay Nixon was still weighing clemency, but the Supreme Court declined to halt the execution, without comment.
The court also denied a second petition that questioned Missouri's use of an execution drug purchased from an undisclosed compounding pharmacy.
Goodwin's attorney, Jennifer Herndon, said his IQ has been tested at 73. His sister, Mary Mifflin, wrote in a statement that her brother remains child-like, even in prison. She said the death penalty "is not a just punishment for his crime — an act that occurred out of passion, not premeditation, by a man with the mental capabilities of a child, not an adult."
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