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Supreme Court considering whether Trump must open tax returns
Court News |
2019/11/10 13:24
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California’s Supreme Court is considering Wednesday whether President Donald Trump must disclose his tax returns if he wants to be a candidate in the state’s primary election next spring.
The high court is hearing arguments even though a federal judge already temporarily blocked the state law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns in order to be included in the state’s primary.
The justices’ consideration comes the same week that a federal appeals court in New York ruled that Trump’s tax returns can be turned over to state criminal investigators there, although that ruling is expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The California Republican Party and chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson filed the state lawsuit challenging Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing in July of the law aimed at the Republican president.
It’s a clear violation of the California Constitution, opponents argued, citing a 1972 voter-approved amendment they said guarantees that all recognized candidates must be on the ballot.
Previously, “California politicians rigged the primary election, putting up ‘favorite son’ nominees for partisan political advantage,” they wrote, suggesting that Democratic lawmakers are doing the same thing now by different means. |
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Nebraska high court rejects Omaha serial rapist’s appeal
Legal Line News |
2019/11/08 13:27
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The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld the convictions and the up to 200-year prison sentence for an Omaha serial rapist.
On Friday, the high court rejected 43-year-old Brandon Weathers’ arguments that his trial lawyer was ineffective and that his constitutional rights had been violated with state authorities collected his DNA against his will after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a child. That DNA collection linked him to the rapes of four other women in Omaha between 2002 and 2004.
Weathers was found guilty last year of four counts of first-degree sexual assault in those rapes and was sentenced to 160 to 200 years in prison. He was already serving a 50- to 80-year sentence years for raping a 13-year-old girl.
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Woman accused of disorderly conduct outside Maricopa court
Law Firm News |
2019/11/04 07:09
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Authorities say a woman has been arrested for disorderly conduct after creating a messy situation in the courthouse parking lot in the town of Maricopa.
Police say Tally Leto allegedly poured alcohol into the vehicle of a court client, let the air out of the man's tires and spat on the windows before wiping them off.
The owner of the vehicle didn't want to prosecute Leto. But the court chose to press charges because Leto was on court property in the parking lot.
As a result of being arrested last Monday, Leto failed to appear for her two criminal cases scheduled for later that day at Western Pinal Justice Court.
The Maricopa Monitor reports that the two charges Leto was attending court for were criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.
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Judges: End jailing people for unpaid fines in Rock County
U.S. Court News |
2019/11/03 10:05
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When a court case is ending, a judge often lists what a defendant needs to do and know.
It can include contacting a probation agent, not possessing a gun or avoiding the use of drugs or alcohol.
One routine item usually on the list is paying court costs, which can total hundreds of dollars or more. Failing to pay could land the defendant in jail.
Orders to jail for nonpayment are called arrest warrant commitments, authorizing "that a defendant be arrested and detained until a fine is paid or discharged by due course of law," according to Rock County's website .
"A lot of this happens outside of anybody's view," said Eric Nelson, a recently retired assistant public defender who worked in Rock County for nearly 40 years.
"Broadly speaking, it's a debtor's prison," he told The Janesville Gazette. It's coming to an end. All seven Rock County circuit judges recently signed an order that should substantially cut the number of people put in jail because they can't pay such fines.
The result should be fewer people incarcerated only because they're poor.
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