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Firm hired by GOP ends work on gay marriage ban
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2011/05/02 09:00
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A prominent law firm hired by Republican lawmakers to defend the federal ban on gay marriage said Monday it was withdrawing from the case amid criticism by advocacy groups, prompting the partner leading the work to quit.
The move by Atlanta-based King amp; Spalding is the latest flashpoint in the public debate over gay rights. Chairman Robert Hays Jr. said the firm chose to divorce itself from the controversy after determining that the decision to take the case wasn't vetted properly, but gay rights groups had also been pressuring the 800-lawyer company with plans for a protest Tuesday in Atlanta and with calls to its other clients. The groups cheered the move.
The decision, however, was sharply criticized by conservative groups, legal observers and the partner who had been handling the case, a former high-ranking Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. Washington-based attorney Paul Clement said he's moving to another law office so he can continue the work.
Clement had been retained by House Republican leaders after President Barack Obama ordered the Justice Department in February to stop defending the Defense of Marriage Act. His administration said it believes the 1996 law, which defines marriage as only between a man and a woman, was unconstitutional. |
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Bachmann uses Holocaust to illustrate tax point
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2011/05/02 09:00
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Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann on Saturday described the loss of economic liberty that young Americans face today as a flash point of history in which the younger generation will ask what their elders did to stop it.
In a speech to New Hampshire Republicans, Bachmann recounted learning about a horrific time in history as a child — the Holocaust — and wondering if her mother did anything to stop it. She said she was shocked to hear that many Americans weren't aware that millions of Jews had died until after World War II ended.
Bachmann said the next generation will ask similar questions about what their elders did to prevent them from facing a huge tax burden.
I tell you this story because I think in our day and time, there is no analogy to that horrific action, she said, referring to the Holocaust. But only to say, we are seeing eclipsed in front of our eyes a similar death and a similar taking away. It is this disenfranchisement that I think we have to answer to. |
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Court sides with Wyoming in dispute with Montana
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2011/05/02 09:00
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The Supreme Court says Wyoming is not taking too much water from a river system it shares with Montana.
The high court on Monday turned away Montana's complaint that Wyoming is taking too much water from the Tongue and Powder rivers in violation of a 1950 agreement between the states.
Montana claimed that more efficient irrigation in Wyoming is preventing runoff from rejoining the river and flowing downstream.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the 7-1 decision, which says more efficient irrigation is permissible to the detriment of downstream users. Justice Antonin Scalia was the only dissenting vote.
Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the case because she worked on it while in the solicitor general's office. |
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Kan. House debates forcing lawsuit over casino
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2011/04/28 09:06
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The Kansas House is debating whether it should force the attorney general to file a lawsuit over a proposed state-owned casino south of Wichita.
A resolution being discussed Thursday would require Attorney General Derek Schmidt to sue the state Racing and Gaming Commission's over its decision to allow a casino near Mulvane.
Iowa-based Peninsula Gaming plans to build a $260 million casino complex 18 miles south of Wichita.
Critics question whether the commission's decision in January was premature.
They cite misdemeanor campaign finance charges pending against the company and two top executives in Iowa. Company officials have said they're confident the case will be resolved in their favor, and they've started work on the casino.
Kansas law allows one legislative chamber to direct the attorney general to file a lawsuit. |
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US envoy says rights talks with China yield little
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2011/04/28 02:05
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| pAn American human rights envoy said Thursday that China provided no useful information when probed about specific cases of individuals who have been detained or who disappeared in a major crackdown on dissent in recent months./ppHundreds of lawyers, activists, and other intellectuals have been questioned, detained, confined to their homes or have simply disappeared, apparently to squelch any chances of the kind of popular uprisings roiling the Middle East and North Africa. The clampdown on dissent is the broadest and harshest in years by China's Communist government./ppMichael Posner, U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said that his delegation received no satisfactory answers to its questions about Teng Biao, a law professor who disappeared in February, and the artist Ai Weiwei, who was apparently detained by authorities April 3 but has yet to be formally charged./ppWe need to and will continue to raise these issues in a range of forums, Posner said. The most senior government officials in the United States are deeply concerned about the deterioration of human rights in China over the last several months./p |
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2 charged with insider trading involving law firms
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2011/04/06 09:13
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pFederal authorities have charged two men with running an insider trading scheme that netted more than $30 million with information stolen from law firms.
Garrett Bauer is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., on Wednesday afternoon. Matthew Kluger will make his first appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Va. /ppThey're accused of trading on inside information stolen from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich amp; Rosati, a law firm with offices in Washington, D.C., New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong. /ppAuthorities also allege the decades-long scheme used information stolen from prominent New York law firms Cravath Swaine amp; Moore and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher amp; Flom./p |
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