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Court reinstates whistleblower case at nuke site
Court Watch |
2014/11/11 15:18
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An appeals court reinstated a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation who claims he was fired by a subcontractor after raising safety issues at the nation's most polluted nuclear weapons production site.
In its ruling Friday, the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals also said plaintiff Walt Tamosaitis is entitled to a jury trial.
The appeals court ruled that a lower court wrongly dismissed the case against the primary subcontractor on construction of a Hanford vitrification plant intended to deal with the most dangerous wastes, the Tri-City Herald reported.
"We are anxious to get into court as soon as we can," Tamosaitis' attorney, Jack Sheridan said.
Hanford, located near Richland, Washington, for decades made plutonium for nuclear weapons and now contains the nation's largest collection of radioactive wastes.
The lawsuit will continue with only URS Energy and Construction as a defendant. The 9th Circuit ruled that it had been appropriate to dismiss the U.S. Department of Energy from the lawsuit.
It's the first time a court of appeals has confirmed that whistleblowers are entitled to a jury trial, Sheridan said.
"It puts them on equal footing with other victims of discrimination," he said.
Tamosaitis contends the subcontractor removed him as the research and technology manager of the unfinished $12.2 billion vitrification plant project after he said more time was needed to resolve complex technical issues. Construction on the plant has since stopped because of technical and safety issues. |
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Spanish court clears way for trial of princess
Court Watch |
2014/11/07 13:04
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A court cleared the way for Princess Cristina, the sister of Spain's king, to be tried on tax fraud charges Friday in a landmark investigation affecting the royal family.
The case's investigative judge, Jose Castro, must now decide over the coming weeks whether to formally indict the princess, but this might not occur given that the state prosecutor and tax authorities say there is no basis for tax fraud charges against her.
Cristina*s lawyers maintained Friday that Spain's Supreme Court has ruled that people can't be tried on tax charges if neither the prosecutor nor tax authorities present charges.
The Palma de Mallorca court paved the way for Cristina's indictment after rejecting appeals against her being listed as a suspect in a corruption and embezzlement investigation centering on her husband, Inaki Urdangarin.
Castro said Cristina, 49, is suspected of two counts of cooperation in tax fraud. The court dropped a possible charge for embezzlement against her.
Urdangarin is suspected of embezzlement and fraud. He too has yet to be formally charged. |
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Courts reject another Arizona immigration law
Court Watch |
2014/10/20 13:05
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Arizona's authority to confront its illegal immigration woes was again reined in Wednesday when a federal appeals court threw out a 2006 voter-approved law denying bail to people in the country illegally who are charged with certain crimes.
The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals follows other battles over the state's immigration policies, including rulings that struck down much of Arizona's landmark 2010 immigration enforcement law.
A small number of the state's immigration laws have been upheld, including a key section of its 2010 law that requires police to check people's immigration status under certain circumstances.
But the courts have slowly dismantled other laws that sought to draw local police into immigration enforcement as frustrations in the state grew over what critics said was inadequate border protection by the federal government. |
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Court: Silence can be used against suspects
Court Watch |
2014/08/19 15:05
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The California Supreme Court has ruled that the silence of suspects can be used against them.
Wading into a legally tangled vehicular manslaughter case, a sharply divided high court on Thursday effectively reinstated the felony conviction of a man accused in a 2007 San Francisco Bay Area crash that left an 8-year-old girl dead and her sister and mother injured.
Richard Tom was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter after authorities said he was speeding and slammed into another vehicle at a Redwood City intersection.
Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors during the trial that Tom's failure to ask about the victims immediately after the crash but before police read him his so-called Miranda rights showed his guilt.
Legal analysts said the ruling could affect future cases, allowing prosecutors to exploit a suspect's refusal to talk before invoking 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination. |
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Court considers if executioners can be named
Court Watch |
2014/08/13 15:22
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A Tennessee appeals court is considering whether 10 death row inmates have the right to know about the drugs that will be used in their executions and whether their lawyers can get the names of the people who will kill them.
The Tennessean reports that the state Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Monday in the lawsuit brought by the inmates. They sued after the legislature passed a law that keeps details about lethal injection secret.
Lawyers for the state argued that a Nashville judge overstepped her authority when she ordered officials to turn over the names of the execution team to the attorneys for the condemned prisoners. The lower court ruled the names must be released but said neither the public nor the inmates could have them.
"We are here today because for the first time in the history of lethal injection in the state of Tennessee a court has ordered the state to disclose the identities of those people who are involved in the lethal injection process," said Special Assistant Attorney General Kyle Hixson said. "This is an abuse of discretion."
Assistant federal public defender Stephen Kissinger, who represents some of the inmates, argued that there's no "executioner's privilege" that would stop the state from releasing the identities of the execution team in a court case because they would be sealed.
He said a ruling that would allow the state to keep such information secret would have far-reaching implications. |
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