A federal judge ruled Friday that the state of California can move forward with plans to execute a convicted rapist and murderer later this week. Albert Brown was convicted of raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl in 1982 and is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday. Brown petitioned to join a lawsuit filed by death [...]
Thirteen state attorneys general have joined in an amicus curiae brief urging the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn a federal court decision striking down California’s ban on same-sex marriage . The brief argues that the district court exceeded its authority because a federal court cannot “reorder this foundational legal and [...]
US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Friday stayed a Louisiana appeals court ruling awarding $241.5 million to the plaintiffs in a class action suit against several tobacco companies. The ruling, issued by Scalia in his role as Circuit Justice for the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, prevents the tobacco companies from [...]
Saleh Al Amer, Pitt Law ’11, recently interned with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in Washington, DC. Saleh is the President of the Muslim Law Students Association at the University of Pittsburgh and writes on discrimination against Muslims in Europe and the United States… On September 14th, 2010, the French Senate voted 246 to 1 [...]
A federal judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Washington on Friday ordered that a US Air Force officer be reinstated after being previously discharged under the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. District Judge Ronald Leighton relied on testimony regarding Major Margaret Witt’s exemplary record in finding that her [...]
The Obama administration on Friday filed a brief with the District Court for the District of Columbia , asking the court to dismiss a lawsuit questioning the legality of targeted killings of terrorism suspects. The lawsuit, filed by the father of US citizen Anwar al-Awlaki , seeks an injunction to prevent the government from killing [...]
A Kenyan court on Thursday convicted seven Somali pirates and sentenced them to five years in prison. The group was tried and convicted in the coastal town of Mombasa where they had been held since their capture by a Spanish warship in May 2009 after attempting to attack the Maltese-flagged merchant ship Anny Petrakis. The [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed an objection Thursday in the US District Court for the Central District of California asking the court not to issue a proposed injunction prohibiting the military from enforcing its “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy. The court declared the policy unconstitutional earlier this month. The DOJ stated that [...]
The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a state ban on online gambling is constitutional. Washington resident Lee Rousso gambled online in the past and wanted to continue doing so, arguing that a new statewide ban on online gambling violates the Dormant Commerce Clause, an implication in the US Constitution’s Commerce Clause that states cannot [...]
Attorneys for the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday filed an appellate brief in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it enjoined four provisions of Arizona’s controversial immigration law . In the brief, the US argued that, because immigration is [...]
