Category Archives: Law (US)

Biden’s supreme court short list narrows to three names

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Ketanji Brown Jackson and Leondra Kruger were evaluated last year, but J Michelle Childs has become a third candidate

Joe Biden had zeroed in on a pair of finalists for his first supreme court pick when there were rumors last year that Justice Stephen Breyer would retire. But since the upcoming retirement was announced late last month, it has come with the rise of a third candidate, one with ready-made bipartisan support that has complicated the decision.

For Biden, it’s a tantalizing prospect. The president believes he was elected to try to bring the country together following the yawning and rancorous political divide that grew during the Trump administration and especially following the Capitol insurrection in January 2021.

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Russia is the ‘aggressor’, says White House, but Biden open to more talks with Putin – live

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Today’s call between the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, lasted about 30 minutes, per the Washington Post.

In the call, Lavrov said the Kremlin is working on a full written response to the US proposal regarding Russia demands on Ukraine, which the White House delivered last week.

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Stephen Breyer to retire from supreme court, giving Biden chance to pick liberal judge

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Breyer, 83, had been under pressure from progressives eager to fill a seat on the supreme court while the Democrats hold power

Justice Stephen Breyer will retire from the supreme court, according to widespread media reporting on Wednesday, which, if confirmed by the court, will provide Joe Biden with the opportunity to fulfill a campaign pledge by nominating the first Black woman judge to the bench.

Such a choice would be a milestone and bolster the liberal wing of the bench, even as it weathers a dominant conservative super-majority achieved under the Trump administration.

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Battered Biden gets opportunity to change political narrative as Breyer retires

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Analysis: president faces high expectations as he prepares make one of his most consequential decisions

In his spare time, Justice Stephen Breyer enjoyed taking the bench at humorous “mock trials” of characters such as Macbeth and Richard III for Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre Company. The case usually turned on epic battles over succession.

Now Washington is about to be consumed by the question of who will inherit Breyer’s crown following his reported decision to retire from the US supreme court. At 83, he is its oldest member, one of three liberals outnumbered by six conservatives.

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‘Free Nichelle’: protesters want to liberate Star Trek actor Nichelle Nichols from conservatorship

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The actor has been diagnosed with dementia but campaigners believe the legal arrangement is not in her best interest

In the wake of Britney Spears’ emancipation from her long-term conservatorship, some of Britney’s fans have turned their attention to the Star Trek actor Nichelle Nichols. Last week a dozen protesters, a mixture of Free Britney activists and fans of Nichols, demonstrated outside the Stanley Mosk courthouse in Los Angeles, chanting “Free Nichelle!”

Nichols has been living under a conservatorship since 2018. Her son Kyle Johnson successfully petitioned to be his mother’s conservator after her former manager, Gilbert Bell, was accused of abusing Nichols financially. Protesters believe that Nichols is of sound mind and wants to be released from the arrangement.

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Supreme court rejects Trump bid to shield documents from January 6 panel

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Court’s move leaves no legal impediment to turning National Archives documents over to congressional committee

The US supreme court has rejected a request by Donald Trump to block the release of White House records to the congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 attack on the Capitol, dealing a blow to the former president.

The order, which casts aside Trump’s request to stop the House select committee from obtaining the records while the case makes its way through the courts, means more than 700 documents that could shed light on the attack can be transferred to Congress.

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Ghislaine Maxwell to be sentenced in New York in late June

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Maxwell was convicted last month of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse

Ghislaine Maxwell is due to be sentenced in late June after her conviction last month on charges including sex trafficking and conspiracy relating to the recruitment of teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.

US district judge Alison J Nathan announced the 28 June date on Friday even as she waits to resolve defence claims that a new trial should be ordered after a juror’s public admissions after the verdict about his childhood sexual abuse.

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Lawsuit claims Facebook and Google CEOs were aware of deal to control advertising sales

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Newly revealed documents from the complaint against Google shed light on potential advertising sales manipulation

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were allegedly aware of and approved a deal to collaborate on the potential manipulation of advertising sales, according to newly revealed documents.

The documents, which came to light on Friday, were filed as part of a lawsuit against Google brought by the attorneys general of multiple US states. The lawsuit was first filed in December 2020 and claimed Google misled publishers and advertisers about the price and process of advertising auctions. At that time, many documents and parts of the lawsuit were redacted, but court rulings have since made them public.

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Virginia Giuffre seeks testimony from Prince Andrew’s former assistant

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Attorneys say they have ‘reason to believe’ that Robert Olney has ‘relevant information’ about duke’s relationship with Epstein

Prince Andrew’s longtime accuser Virginia Giuffre is seeking testimony from his former equerry, according to court papers in her sexual abuse lawsuit against the royal.

Giuffre’s attorneys said on Friday that they had “reason to believe” that Robert Olney, the Duke of York’s past assistant, has “relevant information about Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”.

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Robert Durst: how a murderer’s death keeps his victims from finding closure

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California law mandates that his conviction will be vacated and the charges over the murder of his missing first wife will be dismissed

In the final months of Robert Durst’s life, it seemed as if the walls were at last closing in on the disgraced multimillionaire and real estate heir. He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a longtime friend in September, and shortly after, New York officials charged him with the murder of his missing first wife.

But his death in a California hospital on Monday has upended the cases against the 78-year-old. The murder case over the death of his ex-wife Kathleen McCormack Durst will come to a halt and, thanks to a legal technicality, the murder conviction for the killing of his friend Susan Berman will soon be voided.

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Prosecutors willing to drop Ghislaine Maxwell perjury charge if no retrial

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Prosecutors make offer ahead of sentencing in effort to bring swift closure for the victims as Maxwell’s team push for new trial

If Ghislaine Maxwell is not granted a retrial in her Manhattan federal court sex trafficking case, prosecutors are prepared to drop pending perjury counts when she is sentenced, they said in a 10 January letter.

Prosecutors said they were prepared to dismiss the perjury counts in an effort to bring swift closure for the victims and prevent them from being re-traumatized at a possible second trial.

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers call for a retrial following juror’s interview

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Maxwell’s legal team says they believe a new trial is warranted following revelations about juror

Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell have called for a retrial after a juror said in recent post-trial media interviews that he was a victim of sexual abuse.

Maxwell was found guilty on 29 December of five counts for facilitating the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls, some as young as 14.

With additional reporting from Edward Helmore

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Elizabeth Holmes: from ‘next Steve Jobs’ to convicted fraudster

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Founder of blood-testing company Theranos spun ‘alluring narrative that everyone wanted to believe’

Just six years ago Forbes magazine declared her the “the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire” and the “next Steve Jobs”. Now, Elizabeth Holmes, 37, founder of the collapsed blood testing company Theranos, is facing decades in prison after being found guilty of conspiring to defraud her investors out of billions.

Holmes, a university dropout with no medical training, had fooled regulators and some of the world’s richest people, including Rupert Murdoch, Henry Kissinger and Larry Ellison, into believing she had figured out a way to test for a range of health conditions with just a pinprick of blood.

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Elizabeth Holmes trial: jury finds Theranos founder guilty on four fraud counts

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The jury delivered the verdict after announcing they were deadlocked on three of the 11 charges Holmes faced

Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, has been found guilty on four of 11 charges of fraud, concluding a high profile trial that captivated Silicon Valley and chronicled the missteps of the now-defunct blood testing startup.

The jury found Holmes guilty of several charges – including conspiracy to defraud investors – following a dramatic day in which jurors said they remained deadlocked on three of the criminal counts she faced.

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Speculation grows that Maxwell may try to cut a deal for reduced sentence

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Experts say any deal depends on whether US government believes it is worth investigating network that may have been involved

Now that the British former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted in her sex-trafficking trial, speculation is growing that she may try to cut a deal and become a government witness in any broader investigation into the elite social circle of her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell would be aiming for a reduced sentence by naming powerful names when it comes to others who may be involved in Epstein’s crimes.

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Sarah Weddington, attorney who won Roe v Wade abortion case, dies aged 76

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Texan lawyer and Linda Coffee won landmark 1973 case, safeguarding right now under threat from US supreme court

Sarah Weddington, an attorney who argued and won the Roe v Wade supreme court case which established the right to abortion in the US, has died aged 76.

Susan Hays, a Democratic candidate for Texas agriculture commissioner, announced the news on Twitter on Sunday and the Dallas Morning News confirmed it.

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Trump asks supreme court to block release of 6 January records

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An appeals court ruled against the former US president two weeks ago but prohibited documents from being turned over

Donald Trump turned to the supreme court Thursday in a last-ditch effort to keep documents away from the House committee investigating the 6 January insurrection at the Capitol.

A federal appeals court ruled against the former US president two weeks ago, but prohibited documents held by the National Archives from being turned over before the supreme court had a chance to weigh in. Trump appointed three of the nine justices.

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US investigates claim Tesla drivers can play video games while driving

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‘Passenger play’ feature has been available since December 2020 – before that, games could only be played in ‘park’ mode

The US has opened a formal investigation into a report that Tesla vehicles allow people to play video games on a center touch screen while they are driving.

The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers about 580,000 electric cars and SUVs from model years 2017 through 2022.

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Ghislaine Maxwell trial: jury asks to review transcripts from three accusers

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Jurors requested transcripts of testimony on Tuesday morning after deliberations began late on Monday

  • This article contains depictions of sexual abuse

The jury in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial asked on Tuesday to review transcripts of testimony from three accusers.

Jurors in Manhattan federal court sent the judge a note around 10.10am, saying: “We would like the transcripts, testimony of Jane, Annie and Carolyn.”

Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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Rod Stewart and his son plead guilty to battery in 2019 Florida altercation case

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The singer entered the plea to ‘avoid the inconvenience’ of a high profile court trial. Neither will do jail time or pay any fines

British rock icon Rod Stewart and his son have pleaded guilty to battery in an assault case stemming from a New Year’s Eve 2019 altercation with a security guard at an exclusive Florida hotel.

Court records released on Friday show that the singer and his son, Sean Stewart, 41, entered guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of simple battery.

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