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Court: Utility, not gov't responsible for Fukushima disaster
Attorney News |
2017/10/07 01:36
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A Japanese court has ruled that a utility, not the government, should pay compensation to dozens of former residents of Fukushima for losses to their livelihood caused by meltdowns at a nuclear plant after a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
Chiba District Court ordered Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Friday to pay a total of 376 million yen ($3.4 million) to most of the 45 plaintiffs who sought compensation over the loss of their livelihoods and communities because of radiation contamination.
The court dismissed the plaintiffs' claim the government should also be held responsible for its failure to enforce tsunami safety measures.
About 30 other compensation suits filed by tens of thousands of former Fukushima residents are still pending.
The wrecked Fukushima plant's decommissioning is expected to take decades.
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Court Rules 2 Texas Congressional Districts Unconstitutional
Court Line |
2017/10/07 01:33
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A federal court nullified two of Texas’ 36 congressional districts Tuesday, unanimously ruling that they were drawn with the intent to weaken minority voting power in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.
Hispanic voters in one county in the state's 27th Congressional District, which includes Corpus Christi, “were intentionally deprived of their opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice,” the three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas wrote in a 107-page ruling.
The court also called the 35th Congressional District, which includes parts of San Antonio and Austin, an “impermissible racial gerrymander.”
However, the court sided with the state with regard to other districts, ruling there was no evidence of “intentional discrimination/dilution” in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston or the 23rd Congressional District.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling “puzzling” because “the legislature adopted the congressional map the same court itself adopted in 2012, and the Obama-era Department of Justice did not bring any claims against the map.”
“We appreciate that the panel ruled in favor of Texas on many issues in the case,” Paxton said in a statement Tuesday. “We look forward to asking the Supreme Court to decide whether Texas had discriminatory intent when relying on the district court.”
The suit was brought in 2011 by several Texas voters, Democratic and minority lawmakers along with several advocacy groups, including the NAACP, the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and the League of United Latin American Citizens.
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Court to rule when lawyer says 'guilty,' but client objects
Court Line |
2017/10/05 01:37
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The Supreme Court will consider a case about whether it violates the Constitution when a lawyer ignores his client's instructions and concedes his guilt.
A Louisiana man was facing murder charges. His lawyer was hoping to avoid the death penalty for his client when he told jurors in his opening statement that the defendant "committed these crimes."
But here's the problem: Defendant Robert McCoy repeatedly proclaimed his innocence and objected to his lawyer's approach.
The legal strategy failed. A jury sentenced McCoy to death for killing the son, mother and step-father of his estranged wife in 2008.
McCoy's parents hired lawyer Larry English to represent their son. English failed to persuade McCoy that the evidence against him was so strong that he should accept a plea deal.
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Maryland removes Dred Scott ruling author's statue
Legal Focuses |
2017/10/04 01:34
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A statue of the U.S. Supreme Court justice who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that upheld slavery and denied citizenship to African Americans was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House early Friday.
The statue of Roger B. Taney was lifted away by a crane at about 2 a.m. It was lowered into a truck and driven away to storage.
The bronze statue was erected in 1872, just outside the original front door of the State House.
Three of the four voting members of the State House Trust voted by email Wednesday to move the statue. House Speaker Michael Busch, a Democrat who was one of the three who voted to remove it, wrote this week that the statue "doesn't belong" on the grounds.
His comments came after the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend, with clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters. A woman was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of people who were there to condemn the white nationalists, who had rallied against Charlottesville officials' decision to remove a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
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Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor to speak in Tuscaloosa
Attorney News |
2017/10/03 01:35
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U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor will speak at the University of Alabama law school next month.
Sotomayor will participate in a discussion with dean Mark Brandon and U.S. District Judge Harold Albritton III on Sept. 12. Brandon says in a statement the school is honored to have her.
Former President Barack Obama appointed Sotomayor to the court in 2009. The New York native served on federal district and circuit courts before that.
Alabama isn’t an Ivy League university, but it has had a lot of success in luring Supreme Court justices to speak at its law school. Eleven justices have spoken in Tuscaloosa since a lecture series began in 1996.
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