|
|
|
Casino law hinges on Massachusetts high court case
Headline Legal News |
2014/05/05 16:21
|
The fate of casino gambling in Massachusetts may hinge on a case before the state's highest court Monday.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is set to hear arguments in a case centered on whether a question should be allowed on the November ballot asking voters if they want the state's 2011 casino law repealed. The court is expected to issue a decision by July.
If allowed on the ballot, the referendum could upend the state's ongoing casino licensing process.
Gambling giants MGM, Wynn, Mohegan Sun and others have expressed concern they could lose millions of dollars they've invested in the planning, development and promotion of their proposals if the referendum prevails. They also argue the state risks losing much more.
"Jobs certainty and billions of dollars in economic development hang in the balance," said Carole Brennan, a spokeswoman for MGM, which has proposed an $800 million casino project in downtown Springfield. "The Gaming Act allows for the creation of more than 10,000 jobs and the recapture of billions of dollars in tax revenues that are currently leaving the state. It doesn't make sense to forgo those opportunities."
State Attorney General Martha Coakley, a Democrat running for governor this year, has ruled that the question violates the state constitution and shouldn't be allowed on the ballot. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
High court rejects appeal on sex-offender rules
Headline Legal News |
2014/04/25 11:18
|
The California Supreme Court declined to review a lower court's ruling striking down sex-offender restrictions in Orange County that were among the strictest in the state.
Wednesday's move means that local bans in dozens of California communities are trumped by state law and invalidated, as the 4th District Court of Appeal found in January.
"We're obviously disappointed," Susan Kang Schroeder, chief of staff for Orange County's district attorney, told City News Service. "We put our heart and soul in every brief and every argument to protect the children of Orange County from dangerous sex offenders. ... We still believe it was the right thing to do."
Some 30 cities statewide, half of them in Orange County, have passed sex-offender ordinances that the Supreme Court's action effectively invalidates. To revive them, state law would have to be changed to allow for different local restrictions.
Orange County's restrictions passed in 2011 barred offenders from parks and beaches unless they had written permission from the sheriff.
But in 2012, a county court overturned the misdemeanor conviction of a sex offender, Hugo Godinez, for going to a company picnic at a Fountain Valley park and asked the appeals court to rule on the case and the legality of the regulations.
The appeals judges found that the rule conflicts with laws passed by the state that already provide a "comprehensive statutory scheme regulating the daily life of sex offenders." It struck down a similar ordinance in the city of Irvine. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court Rejects Holocaust-Denying Bishop's Appeal
Headline Legal News |
2014/04/15 15:13
|
A German court has rejected an ultraconservative British bishop's appeal against his conviction and fine for denying the Holocaust in a television interview.
The state court in Nuremberg said Friday it found no legal errors in a January 2013 decision by judges in nearby Regensburg to convict Richard Williamson of incitement and fine him 1,800 euros ($2,500).
It was Williamson's second appeal against the ruling and follows a lengthy legal saga — an earlier conviction was overturned on procedural grounds.
Williamson told a Swedish TV station in during a 2008 interview conducted near Regensburg that he didn't believe Jews were killed in gas chambers during World War II. Holocaust denial is a crime in Germany.
A traditionalist breakaway Catholic group, the Society of St. Pius X, expelled Williamson in 2012. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Court: Private email exempt from open records law
Headline Legal News |
2014/04/03 16:34
|
A California appeals court has ruled that private text messages, emails and other electronic communications sent and received by public officials on their own devices are not public records regardless of the topic.
The 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose ruled last week that the state's Public Records Act doesn't extend to officials' private devices.
The California Supreme Court is expected to be asked to step in and settle this long-simmering debate.
State laws do require the communications of elected officials and other officials involving public issues to be retained and turned over upon request.
Since the coming of email, activists and others in the state have been battling at all levels of government over whether public issues discussed on private devices with personal accounts are covered by the Public Records Act. Similar legal battles and political debates have sprung up across the country as well.
The March 27 ruling reverses a lower court decision in favor of environmental activist Ted Smith, who sought access to messages sent on private devices through private accounts of the San Jose mayor and City Council members
Smith's attorney James McManis said he will ask the state Supreme Court to review the case. If the high court refuses to take it, the appeals court ruling will stand. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Supreme Court Refuses To Overturn Arizona Marijuana Ruling
Headline Legal News |
2014/04/01 09:53
|
The Supreme Court has refused to overturn Arizona court rulings ordering the Yuma County sheriff to return marijuana that was seized from a woman with a California medical marijuana authorization honored by Arizona.
The justices' order was issued without comment Monday in the case of Valerie Okun, who had marijuana in her car when a Border Patrol agent stopped her and her husband in Yuma County, Ariz., in 2011. She was charged with marijuana possession crimes, but the charges were dropped when she provided proof she was authorized to possess marijuana under California's medical marijuana program. Arizona's medical marijuana law allows people with authorizations from other states to have marijuana in Arizona.
But the Yuma County sheriff refused to return Okun's marijuana, even after Arizona courts ruled in her favor.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Law Firm Web Design Information |
| Law Promo has worked with attorneys, lawyers and law firms all over the world in designing beautiful law firm websites that look great on all devices, from desktop computers to mobile phones. Law Promo can construct your law firm a brand new responsive law firm website, or help you redesign your existing site to secure your place in the mobile world. Solo Practice Law Firm Website Design |
|
|
Legal News RSS Feed
