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Denver appeals court weighs military impostor law
Headline Legal News | 2011/05/12 08:41

A federal appeals court in Denver was hearing arguments Thursday on whether Congress can make it illegal to falsely claim to be a military hero.

At issue is the Stolen Valor Act, which makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have been awarded a military medal.

The case before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals centers on Rick Strandlof, a Colorado man who was arrested after claiming he was wounded in Iraq as a Marine and had received military medals. His lawyers have acknowledged the claims were false.

A federal judge ruled the law violated the First Amendment. Prosecutors asked the 10th Circuit to uphold the law, which has also been challenged in California.

The law makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military.

Some legal scholars have said they expect the law to eventually land before the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the Colorado case, Strandlof, who founded a veterans group in Colorado Springs, was charged in 2009 with violating the law by claiming to be an ex-Marine who was wounded in Iraq and received the Purple Heart and Silver Star. The military said it had no record that he ever served.

A federal judge threw out the case in July, ruling the U.S. government had not shown any compelling reason to restrict that particular type of speech.

The judge also ruled that lying about getting a military medal doesn't fall into any of the limited exceptions to free speech that the Supreme Court has recognized, including fraud.

The law doesn't require a showing that an alleged impostor got financial benefits or caused financial harm for a conviction.

In the California case, Xavier Alvarez, a water board official from Pomona, was indicted in 2007 after saying at a public forum that he was a retired Marine who received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration.

He pleaded guilty on condition that he would be allowed to appeal on First Amendment grounds. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit ruled 2-1 in his favor in August.



Speaker Boehner: Tax hikes are 'off the table'
Headline Legal News | 2011/05/10 08:17

House Speaker John Boehner is insisting tax increases are "off the table" in negotiations with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats on extending the federal debt limit.

The Ohio Republican tells NBC's "Today" show "everything else is on the table." Boehner  appeared a day after telling the Economic Club of New York he wants trillions of dollars in spending cuts as part of legislation allowing the government to continue borrowing beyond the current $14.3 trillion cap.

Boehner says he doesn't think Congress can take money from "some who would invest in our economy" and hand it over to the government. He said, "You can't raise taxes."

Boehner said mandatory spending programs like Medicare and Social Security must be addressed because now "they're unaffordable for our kids and our grandkids."




California teachers call for week of budget protests
Headline Legal News | 2011/05/09 09:01
Facing the threat of mass layoffs, larger class sizes and the elimination of myriad programs, thousands of California teachers are expected to take part in a weeklong series of rallies and sit-ins at the Capitol and throughout the state to protest possible spending cuts in the state budget.

The California Teachers Association, which is organizing the actions, is pressing Gov. Jerry Brown to back off his call for a special election and instead push Republican lawmakers to directly approve an extension of higher sales, income and vehicle taxes, which are due to expire at the end of June. Brown promised during his campaign last year that he would not raise taxes without going to the voters.

The rallies starting Monday are an escalation of efforts by the teachers association, which waited while Brown tried to negotiate a deal with Republicans to put his proposal before voters in June. Since that effort failed, the teachers are now delivering their message directly.


Court for Fla. woman charged in husband's NY death
Headline Legal News | 2011/05/06 05:32
Federal prosecutors have been turning up the heat on a Florida woman accused of arranging the 2009 killings of her millionaire husband and mother-in-law.

Narcy Novack of Fort Lauderdale and her brother, Cristobal Veliz of Brooklyn, N.Y., are due in court Friday morning for a status conference.

Novack and Veliz are accused of hiring others to kill Ben Novack in his New York hotel room and Bernice Novack in her Florida home.

Last month, the government added the mother-in-law's killing to the charges against Novack and Veliz. And a prosecutor said another charge — which carries the possibility of the death penalty — may be in store.

Defense attorneys suggested the prosecution was trying to force a guilty plea.

Ben Novack's father built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, Fla.


LA lawsuit claims Deutsche Bank is 'slumlord'
Headline Legal News | 2011/05/05 09:19
The city attorney sued Deutsche Bank on Wednesday, claiming the giant international lender illegally evicted tenants from foreclosed properties and left dozens of homes and apartments to rot, many in low-income neighborhoods.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses the bank of violating federal, state and city laws and seeks potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements to the city and to evicted tenants.

The bank's subsidiaries, Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, are the city's largest slumlords, according to the lawsuit.

The city attorney's office contends the bank failed to act properly as trustee to more than 160 homes and other residences with owners who couldn't meet their loan obligations during and after the 2008 international financial meltdown.

"It's time to recognize that the fraud committed on Wall Street turns into blight on Main Street," City Attorney Carmen A. Trutanich said at a news conference.

He said the bank's subsidiaries acted as trustees for trusts composed of mortgage-backed securities involving at least 2,000 properties across the country.

The complaint focuses mainly on properties in low-income areas of the city, specifically South Los Angeles and the northeastern San Fernando Valley, but Trutanich said it could be amended to include more homes if further problems are found.


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