|
|
|
High court looks at race in college admissions
Law Center |
2012/10/10 10:39
|
Nine years after the Supreme Court said colleges and universities can use race in their quest for diverse student bodies, the justices have put this divisive social issue back on their agenda in the middle of a presidential election campaign.
Nine years is a blink of the eye on a court where justices can look back two centuries for legal precedents. But with an ascendant conservative majority, the high court in arguments Wednesday will weigh whether to limit or even rule out taking race into account in college admissions.
The justices will be looking at the University of Texas program that is used to help fill the last quarter or so of its incoming freshman classes. Race is one of many factors considered by admissions officers. The rest of the roughly 7,100 freshman spots automatically go to Texans who graduated in the top 8 percent of their high school classes.
A white Texan, Abigail Fisher, sued the university after she was denied a spot in 2008.
The simplest explanation for why affirmative action is back on the court's calendar so soon after its 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger is that the author of that opinion, Sandra Day O'Connor, has retired. Her successor, Justice Samuel Alito, has been highly skeptical of any use of racial preference.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, a dissenter in the 2003 decision, probably holds the deciding vote, and he, too, has never voted in favor of racial preference.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MacDonald goes to court in 'Fatal Vision' case
Law Center |
2012/09/20 15:49
|
Jeffrey MacDonald, a clean-cut Green Beret and doctor convicted of killing of his pregnant wife and their two daughters, is getting another chance to try proving his innocence — more than four decades after the nation was gripped by his tales of Charles Manson-like hippies doped up on acid slaughtering his family.
The case now hinges on something that wasn't available when he was first put on trial: DNA evidence. A federal judge planned to hold a hearing Monday to consider new DNA evidence and witness testimony that MacDonald and his supporters say will finally clear him of a crime that became the basis of Joe McGinniss' best-selling book "Fatal Vision" and a made-for-TV drama.
It's the latest twist in a case that has been the subject of military and civilian courts, intense legal wrangling and shifting alliances. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Outgoing NC Sen. Stevens resigns, joins law firm
Law Center |
2012/09/12 10:42
|
A state senator has resigned from the North Carolina General Assembly and is joining a Raleigh law firm to help clients on economic development, regulatory and other government policy issues.
Five-term Republican Sen. Richard Stevens of Cary resigned effective last Friday, and the Smith Anderson law firm announced his hiring Monday.
Stevens already had announced in February he wasn't seeking re-election this fall. He served in the budget-adjusting session that ended in early July. Stevens is a former Wake County manager who once served as the trustee board chairman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
It's unclear whether Wake County Republican leaders will choose someone to serve out the remaining four months of Stevens' term, since there are no plans for the Legislature to reconvene this year. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Superior court rejects appeal in Pa. double-murder
Law Center |
2012/08/31 10:32
|
An appeals court has rejected a petition that could have delayed next months' scheduled trial of a man accused of having killed two people and buried them on his northeastern Pennsylvania property a decade ago.
The state Superior Court on Tuesday sided with a Luzerne County judge who said prosecutors were justified in splitting four murder cases linked to 38-year-old Hugo Selenski into two separate trials.
Defense attorneys could appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Selenski is charged in the deaths of Michael Kerkowski and his girlfriend, Tammy Fassett, whose bodies were unearthed in 2003 behind Selenski's Kingston Township home.
Selenski was acquitted in the slayings of two other men whose remains were found there but is serving 32 1/2 to 65 years in a Monroe County home invasion case.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Man who killed wife, baby loses appeal in Mass.
Law Center |
2012/08/17 10:48
|
The highest court in Massachusetts rejected the appeal of a British man convicted of killing his wife and baby daughter in their rented home, saying in its decision released Tuesday that warrantless searches of the home were justified because those inside might have been in danger.
In arguing for a new trial, lawyers for Neil Entwistle said evidence obtained during the warrantless searches of the Hopkinton home while police were looking for the missing family should have been dismissed at trial.
They also argued he was denied a fair trial, claiming that "saturating and inflammatory" media coverage tainted the jury pool and the judge refused to question prospective jurors more deeply about how publicity may have biased them.
The court rejected the arguments, concluding that Entwistle "received a fair trial that was ably tried and judged."
Entwistle was convicted of the 2006 shootings of his wife, Rachel, and their daughter, 9-month-old Lillian. He is serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for their murders.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ga. court ruling could tighten foreclosure rules
Law Center |
2012/08/08 12:10
|
A court ruling in Georgia could force those foreclosing on homes to disclose who actually owns the loan.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the July 12 ruling by the Georgia Court of Appeals applies mostly to foreclosures that happened from 2008 to 2011. It could leave banks vulnerable to lawsuits filed by those who lost their homes. It could also have consequences for ongoing foreclosures.
The ruling last month said that the name of the owner of a mortgage must appear in foreclosure filings and notices sent to delinquent borrowers. The notice must also reflect whether it was sent by the secured creditor or someone acting on the creditor's behalf.
Many lenders sell their loans to mortgage services that handle paperwork but don't own the loans. |
|
|
|
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
