Grist: “Remember those lawsuits California and New York filed against major oil producers for knowingly heating up the planet? Two counties in Colorado just teamed up with the city of Boulder to file a similar lawsuit of their own. The complaint alleges that oil companies contributed greenhouse gases to the atmosphere for decades while knowing the… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
Protecting Email Privacy—A Battle We Need to Keep Fighting
EFF: “We filed an amicus brief in a federal appellate case called United States v. Ackerman Friday, arguing something most of us already thought was a given—that the Fourth Amendment protects the contents of your emails from warrantless government searches. Email and other electronic communications can contain highly personal, intimate details of our lives. As… Continue Reading
LA Times – Trump lawyers urge high court to bolster his power to fire executive officials
David Savage – LA Times: “The Supreme Court is set to hear a seemingly minor case later this month on the status of administrative judges at the Securities and Exchange Commission, an issue that normally might only draw the interest of those accused of stock fraud. But the dispute turns on the president’s power to… Continue Reading
CRS – Statutory Interpretation: Theories, Tools, and Trends
Statutory Interpretation: Theories, Tools, and Trends. Valerie C. Brannon, Legislative Attorney, April 5, 2018.”In the tripartite structure of the U.S. federal government, it is the job of courts to say what the law is, as Chief Justice John Marshall announced in 1803. When courts render decisions on the meaning of statutes, the prevailing view is… Continue Reading
CRS – Sexual Harassment and Title VII: Selected Legal Issues
Sexual Harassment and Title VII: Selected Legal Issues. Christine J. Back, Legislative Attorney; Wilson C. Freeman, Legislative Attorney. April 9, 2018.”Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) generally prohibits discrimination in the workplace, but does not contain an express prohibition against harassment. The Supreme Court, however, has interpreted the statute to… Continue Reading
Trio of articles – Court rules women can’t be paid less than men based on past wages; Sexual harassment at work; the Womanly Art of Having an Opinion
This is still an issue for women in 2018 [why]…via ABCNews: “Employers cannot pay women less than men for the same work based on differences in their salaries at previous jobs, a federal appeals court said Monday. Pay differences based on prior salaries are discriminatory under the federal Equal Pay Act, a unanimous 11-judge panel… Continue Reading
Nearly Half of Corporate Giants Escape IRS Audit in 2017
“The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reports that nationally there are now 616 corporate giants. These are companies that reported $20 billion or more in assets. As recently as FY 2010 virtually every (96%) corporate giant received an IRS audit. By FY 2016, this had fallen to only three out of four (76%). And last year,… Continue Reading
Comfort dogs in Courts
Christian Science Monitor: “As dogs and other animals are increasingly used in courts to comfort and calm prosecution witnesses, a few voices are calling for keeping the practice on a short leash, saying they could bias juries. The use of dogs in courts has spread quickly across the United States amid a growing number of… Continue Reading
Whose Line is it Anyway: Could Congress Give the President a Line – Item Veto?
CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress – Whose Line is it Anyway: Could Congress Give the President a Line-Item Veto? March 27, 2018. “In announcing his intention to sign H.R. 1625, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2018,” President Trump, noting his concerns over the fiscal size of the bill, called on Congress… Continue Reading
District Court Judge rules Pacer fees misused by judiciary
Law.com: “The federal judiciary misused millions of dollars in fees derived from an electronic public web portal for court documents to fund certain programs that federal law did not allow, a Washington judge ruled on Saturday. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said the United States is liable for certain improper expenses that violated the… Continue Reading
Decrease in Black Jail Incarceration Rate and Stabilization of White Rate
“A new report by the Vera Institute of Justice finds that while African Americans are still overrepresented in local jails nationally, the black jail incarceration rate has begun to decline while the white rate has only stabilized. In “Divided Justice: Trends in Black and White Jail Incarceration, 1990-2013,” authors Ram Subramanian, Kristine Riley, and Chris… Continue Reading
John Paul Stevens: Repeal the Second Amendment
New York Times Opinion by retired associate justice of the United States Supreme Court – John Paul Steven: “Rarely in my lifetime have I seen the type of civic engagement schoolchildren and their supporters demonstrated in Washington and other major cities throughout the country this past Saturday. These demonstrations demand our respect. They reveal the… Continue Reading
