Rutherford County has no immediate plans to revoke the building permit for an embattled Murfreesboro mosque, says county attorney Jim Cope. “The county is going to look at all the possibilities" and "this could take weeks.” Construction at the new Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was set to continue today, despite a judge’s decision that voided the county planning commission’s approval of the project. County officials say they will wait for a court order from the judge to stop the construction. The Tennessean has more
U.S. Supreme Court justices' summer travel schedules are a clue that blockbuster health care and immigration cases will be decided by the end of June. Several of the justices have teaching gigs that begin in July, including Chief Justice John Roberts who will be in the Mediterranean island nation of Malta; Antonin Scalia who will teach in Innsbruck, Austria; Samuel Alito is teaching in Florence; and Ruth Bader Ginsburg will take part in programs in Venice and Vienna. Justices can accept roughly $25,000 in additional income for teaching and speaking, beyond their salary of $213,900 a year. The chief justice earns about $10,000 a year more. TriCities.com has the AP story
Five new cases were granted review by the Tennessee Supreme Court last week. This includes four criminal cases addressing constructive possession of drugs, pretrial diversion, the failure of trial court to inform jury of judgments of acquittal, and suppression of statements. The civil case concerns invalidation of a marriage for want of sufficient mental capacity. The Raybin-Perky Hot List details the cases and offers predictions of how the Supreme Court may act.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that three families cannot sue a mortgage company for allegedly charging them a loan discount fee without giving them a lower interest rate. The high court's decision tosses out lawsuits filed in 2008 against Quicken Loans Inc. in Louisiana. The Times-News has this AP story
The U.S. Supreme Court says interpretation and translation are not the same thing when it comes to paying fees associated with federal civil lawsuits. The high court ruled today that Kan Pacific Saipan Ltd. did not deserve compensation for interpreters for fighting off a lawsuit from a Japanese professional baseball player. The company argued that translating written documents was the same as "compensation of interpreters," which can be charged to losing parties, but the court disagreed. TriCities.com has this AP story
Since President Obama took office, he's had a chance to make nominations for 241 federal judgeships. Fifty-five of them were vacant slots held over from the Bush administration. Obama has nominated 188 judges, and the Senate has approved 147 of them. That leaves a current total of 94 vacancies — 77 vacant slots and 17 held by judges who have said they plan to retire. Some law professors and advocacy groups say Obama could have had more judges confirmed to the bench had he simply made more nominations over his first three-plus years in office. The National Law Journal looks at what some are calling a judicial emergency.
The U.S. Senate confirmed three judges to federal courts late Monday afternoon, including the first Asian-American woman on any federal appellate court. The Senate voted 91-3 to confirm Vietnam-born Los Angeles federal Judge Jacqueline Nguyen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, filling a vacancy that had remained open since 2009. The Senate also confirmed two judges by voice votes: Kristine Gerhard Baker to be district judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and John Lee to be district judge for the Northern District of Illinois. The Blog of Legal Times has details
On the heels of a recent Tennessee Court of Appeals ruling that upheld a state trial court decision in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, St. Andrew's Church has filed a petition for rehearing. The case stems from the Nashville church's efforts to break away from the diocese. NashvillePost.com reports
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has affirmed the convictions of two disbarred Kentucky lawyers for a scheme to bilk clients of settlement money in the "fen-phen" diet drug litigation. The case, which alleged that the drug caused heart valve problems, settled for about $200 million, plus an extra $450,000 to settle new claims. The lawyers' retainer agreements with their individual clients called for each client's lawyer to collect about one-third of what the client recovered. According to the Sixth Circuit ruling, the clients ultimately received a total of about $73.5 million — less than 37 percent of the total settlement. Meanwhile, these lawyers and several others got $106.5 million. The National Law Journal has the story
In January 2011, the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) and Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS) launched the Tennessee Appellate Pro Bono Pilot Program, a pilot initiative that provides pro bono representation to litigants appearing in the Tennessee appellate courts who otherwise could not afford counsel.
The Tennessee Appellate Pro Bono Pilot Program has three primary goals:
Speaking at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s Bowen School of Law, Scott Ellington – the former prosecuting attorney of the West Memphis Three – said that future legal costs of a retrial factored into his decision to agree to a plea deal with Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Miskelley. Ellington also said he was worried what an acquittal could cost the state, including potential damages the men could seek for false imprisonment. Ellington appeared at the school as part of a daylong symposium on the case. Read more in the Memphis Business Journal
A three-judge panel of the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals voted 2-1 on Friday to deny the state Attorney General's Office's application for extraordinary appeal of Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood's decision to grant new trials in the slayings of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom. Blackwood ordered new trials for all four defendants in the case, but the state sought to appeal his rulings in only three, conceding there was proof former Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner was impaired during Vanessa Coleman's trial. Appellate judges Alan E. Glenn and Thomas T. Woodall ruled the state fell short in its argument that Blackwood's decision was "fundamentally illegal" or "without legal authority." Judge Robert W. Wedemeyer disagreed with his colleagues, saying he would have granted the emergency appeal. Read more in the News Sentinel
In a March email obtained recently by the News Sentinel under the Tennessee Open Records Act, John Gill, special counsel to District Attorney General Randy Nichols, complained to the state Attorney General's Office about Blackwood, saying he "hates the News Sentinel, and I fear he is playing fast and loose with off the record emails and communications he states are to avoid the newspaper from knowing." Blackwood denied the allegations when asked by the News Sentinel.
The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is proposing comprehensive amendments to the Sixth Circuit Rules and Internal Operating Procedures. Send your comments to the proposed changes to Clerk Leonard Green by July 12 to ca06-rules_comments@ca6.uscourts.gov
On the third day of oral arguments on legal challenges to the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the justices first tackled the question of what would happen if they ruled that the heart of the law, the individual mandate, is unconstitutional. A second session this afternoon looked at whether states would be "coerced" by the federal government to expand their share of Medicaid costs or risk losing federal funding. Wednesday's session also gave Solicitor General Donald Verrilli a chance to regain the rhetorical offensive many said he lost on Tuesday. The questioning of his performance was so widespread that the White House issued a statement today defending him. Read more from the day at WCYB.com and get access to transcripts and legal analysis on SCOTUSblog
The Hon. Bernice B. Donald is one of five “legends” who will be honored by the Women’s Foundation for a Greater Memphis at its 2012 Annual Tribute Luncheon and Symposium. Donald is the first African American woman to sit on the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. She was the first African American woman in the United States to serve as a bankruptcy judge and was the first African American woman to serve as judge in Tennessee. The Legends Award Reception is April 17 at 6 p.m. at the Columns in Memphis. The Annual Tribute Luncheon is April 26 at the Memphis Cook Convention Center. Other honorees are civil rights activist Velma Lois Jones, Sylvia Goldsmith Marks, Dorothy Gunther Pugh and Dr. Shirley C. Raines, the first woman president of the University of Memphis. Get reservations and learn more.
The TBA has created this appellate practice section devoted to enhancing the skills necessary to navigate what some believe to be the “rarified atmosphere” of the higher courts. Our section executive council consists of a number of appellate practitioners who are developing resources to assist section members in perfecting appeals and achieving a higher level of advocacy.
