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Court to weigh state's duty to English learners
Court Line News |
2009/04/20 09:31
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The Supreme Court on Monday takes up an Arizona case that could limit a federal court's power to tell states to spend more money to educate students who aren't proficient in English.
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Arizona state legislators and the state superintendent of public instruction want to be freed from federal court oversight of the state's programs for English learners. They've been ordered by a lower court judge to spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to comply with rulings in a 17-year-old case./ppParents of students attending southern Arizona's Nogales Unified School District sued the state in 1992, contending programs for English-language learners in Nogales were deficient and received inadequate funding from the state./ppIn 2000, a federal judge found that the state had violated the Equal Educational Opportunities Act's requirements for appropriate instruction for English-language learners. He ordered state legislators to create a plan to provide sufficient funds and placed the state's programs for non-English speaking students under court oversight./ppSince then, the two sides have fought over what constitutes compliance with the order. Arizona has more than doubled the amount that schools receive per non-English speaking student and taken several other steps prescribed by the No Child Left Behind Act, a broader education accountability law passed by Congress in 2002./ppPlaintiffs say that's not enough to comply with federal law and a judge agreed. But the state appealed, and now the high court will answer the question./p |
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Davis Polk Recruits Ex-SEC Aide
Court Line News |
2009/04/13 09:30
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pLaw firm Davis Polk amp; Wardwell recruited the Securities and Exchange Commission's former enforcement chief and another former high-level government lawyer to join its white-collar defense group, part of an effort to expand its Washington practice.
Linda Chatman Thomsen, who left the SEC earlier this year, and Raul Yanes, former staff secretary to President George W. Bush, are joining the law firm as partners./ppBoth had worked at Davis Polk in New York before joining the government./ppThe duo will be the first litigators in the 11-person Washington office in years./ppFormer SEC Commissioner Annette Nazareth and Robert Colby, a former deputy director of the SEC's trading and markets division, also recently joined the firm's Washington office to focus on financial regulatory issues./ppDavis Polk clients, including large financial institutions, are closely entangled with the government as it has pumped billions of dollars into financial rescue plans. Congress is studying new regulation of financial markets./p |
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Judge: 2 adoptive dads belong on birth certificate
Court Line News |
2008/12/28 09:12
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| A same-sex couple in California has won a federal court ruling that their adopted son's Louisiana birth certificate must bear the names of both adoptive fathers.pThe facts are so clear that no trial is needed, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey wrote./ppWhat a great Christmas present for these guys! said Kenneth D. Upton Jr. who represented Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith of San Diego./ppIn his ruling Monday, Zainey said Louisiana's Office of Vital Records must give full faith and credit to the New York State court in which Adar and Smith adopted the boy, he ruled Monday. The office had refused to issue a birth certificate listing both as the boy's legal parents./ppUpton, reached at home Saturday evening, said he hopes to get a birth certificate in the coming week but doesn't know whether the Louisiana Attorney General's Office — which is in charge, although a state health department attorney argued the case — will decide to appeal./ppThe attorney general's office will look into the matter next week, said Tammi Arender Herring, spokeswoman for Attorney General James Buddy Caldwell./ppUpton, of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. of Dallas, said it is the fourth case of its kind that he knows of. Cases in Oklahoma, Virginia and Mississippi also were decided in the parents' favor — the Mississippi case decided at trial about a month ago, he said./p |
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Appeals court rejects DC missing pants case
Court Line News |
2008/12/18 09:17
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| An appeals court on Thursday turned down a request for a new trial from a former District of Columbia judge who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million over a lost pair of pants.pThe D.C. Court of Appeals rejected the request from Roy L. Pearson to overturn a 2007 ruling that denied him damages. Pearson had argued that Custom Cleaners failed to live up to its promise of Satisfaction Guaranteed./ppThree appellate judges agreed Pearson failed to show the store's advertising amounted to fraud and said his argument defied logic./ppPearson can still ask the entire nine-judge appellate court to review the case or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court./ppPearson did not immediately respond to an e-mail or telephone message seeking comment./ppJin Chung, the dry cleaner owner, said through his lawyer that his family is very very happy with the decision. The family said they hope Pearson won't take any further action./ppThe American Tort Reform Association lauded the court's move, saying the city's easily exploited consumer protection law should be reformed./ppThe case has taken its toll on both sides. The Chungs have sold the dry cleaning shop, citing a loss of revenue and the emotional strain of defending the lawsuit. Pearson lost his job when a D.C. commission voted not to reappoint him. /p |
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Oregon bank bombing suspect charged with murder
Court Line News |
2008/12/16 09:05
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| Police arrested a suspect late Sunday in the Oregon bank bombing that killed two officers and critically injured a police chief, authorities said.pSheriff Russ Isham of Marion County declined to release the suspect's name, saying it would jeopardize the integrity of the investigation and the safety of officers still working the case./ppWe do believe the person responsible for the bombing is in custody, Deputy District Attorney Courtland Geyer said late Sunday./ppThe suspect was arrested in Salem, located just south of Woodburn, the small city south of Portland where Friday's bombing occurred./ppOfficers made the arrest shortly after Sheriff Russ Isham of Marion County released surveillance photos of a person of interest. Geyer would not say if a tip led to the arrest./ppHe also wouldn't disclose if the man in the photos, apparently taken with a security camera, is the same person in custody./ppIsham would not release the precise location where the arrest took place, and said the suspect's name likely wouldn't be released until Monday afternoon./ppI'm really proud of those who tirelessly worked to get us to this point and am humbled by the community's support, Isham said. We know there is still a lot of hard work ahead of us, but this development will help bring relief to the local community and the officer's families./p |
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Court sides with NY Times in anthrax libel case
Court Line News |
2008/12/14 09:04
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| The Supreme Court has rejected a plea by former Army scientist Steven J. Hatfill to revive his libel lawsuit against The New York Times over columns falsely implicating him in the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks.pThe justices did not comment Monday in turning down Hatfill's appeal of a unanimous ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. A three-judge panel affirmed a lower court's dismissal of the libel claims on the grounds that Hatfill is a public figure and failed to prove that columns written by Nicholas Kristof were malicious./ppCircumstantial evidence led the FBI to suspect Hatfill was involved in the anthrax attacks that killed five people and sickened 17 just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft publicly identified Hatfill, who worked at the Army's infectious diseases laboratory at Ft. Detrick, Md., from 1997 to 1999, as a person of interest in the investigation./ppIn June, the Justice Department agreed to pay Hatfill $5.8 million to settle a lawsuit claiming officials violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case./ppNo one has been charged in the attacks, although the government now believes another Army scientist, Bruce Ivins, was responsible. Ivins killed himself in July./p |
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