An interesting little article has revealed that the Vatican has been using its sovereign status to conduct actual trials, including one of a fake priest trying to hear confessions in the Vatican and a drug case. Who knows a television executives might soon discover “Vatican Court” and the new reality based program.
Category: Courts
Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips has declared that Islamic legal principles can be applied by courts to resolve certain family, marital, or contractual cases. In a speech at an East London mosque, Lord Phillips said that Sharia can be applied so long as it does not conflict with English law.
Continue reading “Lord Chief Justice Endorses Use of Sharia Law in Some Cases”
In Weaterford, Texas, James Kevin Pope has reason to be pessimistic about his release date. The child molester received 40 life terms for each sexual assault conviction plus another 20 years for three other crimes with children. The grand totalfrom tate District Judge Graham Quisenberry: 4.060 years.
Continue reading “Pope Given Over 4000 Years in Prison in Texas”
Below is today’s column on the end of the Supreme Court term. It looks at the implications of the current Court for either a President Obama or a President McCain. An interesting analogy can be drawn to the Four Horsemen and Three Musketeers of the Hughes Court during the first term of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Continue reading “The Roberts Court and The Return of the Four Horsemen”
For years, many have cited international and domestic law to show that President Bush has committed grave crimes in office. Now, the Court of Appeals has enlisted Lewis Carroll and his poem “The Hunting of the Snark” to bring home the point in it ruling against the Administration in the case of a Huzaifa Parhat, a Chinese Muslim held at Guantanamo Bay.
Continue reading “The Poetry of Presidential Abuse: The D.C. Circuit Rules Against the President With “Snarky” Poem”
Late last night, I filed our challenge to the ironically names “The Fairness for Experienced Pilots Act,” legislation that wipes out the seniority, benefits, and status of pilots who turned 60 before December 13, 2008 — the date of the Act’s enactment. This new Age 60 rule violates a host of constitutional and statutory laws, as the brief below explains.
Continue reading “Senior Pilots Challenge “The Fairness for Experienced Pilots Act””
The Supreme Court knows how to build suspense. While many expected the Court to release its long-awaiting decision on the Second Amendment in the Heller and Parker cases, the Court did not release the decision today. The array of opinions today has fueled speculation that Scalia will author the historic decision.
The Supreme Court continued the downward spiral of our insanity rules this week. The majority held that a defendant can be held to be competent to stand trial but held incompetent to represent himself — a green light for judges to continue to find clearly crazed individuals sane while denying them the right to act in their own defense. Justices Scalia and Thomas wrote a stinging and well-founded dissent.
The democratic leadership is preparing to move a final bill giving immunity to the telecommunication industry after months of waiting for public interest to wane. The new bill would give President Bush and the powerful lobby would it has long sought: immunity from violating federal law and the privacy of customers.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Suzanne Tessier appears to believe that family disputes are best handled by professionals. When a 12-year-old girl filed a complaint about her father’s punishment of grounding her for accessing blocked website, Tessier decided that in her judicial opinion, the punishment was too severe. It appears not to have occurred to Tessier that this a parental rather than a judicial matter.
D. William Garrett (72), a retired Fulton County Magistrate Judge; his son (a Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department Deputy) Russell Garrett (43); and the son’s wife Malika Garrett (42), have all been charged with human trafficking in a federal prosecution in Atlanta, Georgia. The case involves an Indian woman who was convinced to come to the United States to work as a nanny for Russell and Malika Garrett, only to be forced to work without pay.
Continue reading “Judge and Police Deputy Charged with Human Trafficking”
Leona Helmsley’s dog Trouble must be aghast. He is now only marginally a multimillionaire after Manhattan Surrogate Judge Renee Roth reduced his inheritance from the “Queen of Mean” to $2 million. The other $10 million will go to charity and, most notably, the two grandchildren that she wanted to disinherit.
Continue reading “He Should Have Been a Retriever: Leona Helmsley’s Dog Trouble Loses $10 Million of its $12 Million Inheritance”
On the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision affirming basic constitutional protections for detainees, a report has emerged that shows precisely why habeas corpus is so important. The Administration is accused of knowing that certain detainees were in fact innocent but still held them for years.
Continue reading “Administration Accused of Holding Detainees That It Knew Were Innocent”
Things continued to get worst for Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski. This week, the ABA Journal has revealed that the inclusion of copyrighted music mp3 videos and copyrighted material on his site could raise ethics issues. Much more alarming is a lengthy letter from Ralph Mecham, who retired as director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in 2006 that accused Kozinski of a federal crime in disabling a court computer system — exposing the entire court system to hackers. The disclosure came after learning that the music and pornography had previously bogged down the court system.
In a wise move, Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski has asked for an investigation into his controversial site containing sexual and allegedly obscene material. The request was made to the
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ Judicial Council.
Continue reading “Chief Judge Kozinski Calls for an Investigation of Himself”