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Voting rights law gets Supreme Court challenge
Law Firm News |
2013/02/27 23:15
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The Supreme Court is wrestling with the fate of a section of a landmark civil rights law that has helped millions of Americans exercise their right to vote.
In an argument at the court on Wednesday, liberal and conservative justices engaged in a sometimes tense back and forth over whether there is an ongoing need in 2013 for a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The measure requires states with a history of discrimination, mainly in the Deep South, to get approval before making changes in the way elections are held.
Chief Justice John Roberts asked the government's top Supreme Court lawyer whether the Obama administration thinks Southerners "are more racist than citizens in the North."
The answer from Solicitor General Donald Verrilli was no. |
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Court continues order targeting voter intimidation
Law Firm News |
2013/01/16 22:28
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The Supreme Court has turned down an effort by the Republican National Committee to end a 30-year-old court order aimed at preventing intimidation of minority voters.
The justices did not comment Monday in rejecting an appeal of lower court decisions that left the order in place at least until 2017.
The order stems from a lawsuit filed by Democrats in New Jersey in 1981 that objected to a "ballot security" program the RNC ran in minority neighborhoods.
Republicans said the order hampers efforts to combat voter fraud, but U.S. District Judge Dickinson Debevoise said voter intimidation remains a threat and preventing it outweighs the potential danger of fraud.
The court action is unrelated to legal challenges to Republican-inspired voter identification laws in the 2012 campaign. |
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Court: District court can hear some fed complaints
Law Firm News |
2012/12/10 14:39
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The Supreme Court says some discrimination complaints from federal workers can go to federal district court, instead of being forced into the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The justices on Monday ruled unanimously that some appeals from the Merit Systems Protection Board can go before U.S. district judges if they involve discrimination claims dismissed for procedural reasons.
Carolyn M. Kloeckner was fired from the Labor Department in 2005 after complaining of sex and age discrimination and a hostile work environment, as well as being declared "absent without leave."
The Merit Systems board dismissed her claims as untimely, and she tried to appeal to district court. But the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said her appeal could only be heard by the D.C.-based Federal Circuit. |
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KC law firm owner faces murder, forgery charges
Law Firm News |
2012/09/12 11:19
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The owner of a Kansas City law firm was indicted Friday on first-degree murder and forgery charges, but authorities would not confirm whether it's related to the 2010 shooting death of the attorney's father.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that Susan Elizabeth Van Note, 44, of the Kansas City suburb Lee's Summit, was arrested shortly after the indictment and that the charges are in connection to an investigation into a 2010 homicide in Camden County. The release does not name the homicide victim.
Van Note's father, 67-year-old accountant William Van Note, was shot in October 2010 along with his companion, Sharon Dickson, 59. Dickson died in the shooting at their Sunrise Beach home at the Lake of the Ozarks in Camden County. Van Note died four days later in a hospital in Boone County. |
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