Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz is due back in court for more motions from defense lawyers.
Cruz's lawyers want Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer on Friday to hold the Broward Sheriff's Office in contempt of court for improperly providing the suspect's medical records to a state commission investigating the shooting.
They say only certain authorized investigators and prosecutors should get access to such records in a criminal case, and the commission is not included.
The 20-year-old Cruz faces the death penalty if convicted in the Valentine's Day shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. His lawyers have offered a guilty plea in exchange for life in prison, but prosecutors reject that.
federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday said the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity means the state can’t commit a legal wrong and cannot be sued unless the legislature makes exceptions in state law, KCUR reported.
American Civil Liberties Union-Missouri filed the class action lawsuit in 2017. The organization argued the governor and state have ignored their constitutional obligation to provide meaningful legal representation to indigent clients by not providing enough funds to address chronic underfunding and understaffing in the public defender system. ACLU-Missouri argues in the lawsuit that Mississippi is the only state to allocate less than the $355 per case that Missouri spends for its indigent defense budget.
The lawsuit will continue against the head of the public defender system, Michael Barrett, and the public defender commission.
The decision, written by Judge Duane Benton, does not address the merits of the lawsuit. But the ruling means the legislature can’t be forced to appropriate more money to the system.
“It would be easier if the state itself were a defendant,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of ACLU-Missouri.
Rothert said if the ACLU prevails against the other defendants, the court could order the state to reduce public defenders’ caseloads, or prosecutors could use their discretion to not bring charges for certain crimes. Or defendants who aren’t considered dangerous could be released on bail and put on a waiting list for public defenders rather than staying in jail while awaiting trial.
A U.S. judge will hear arguments Friday over California's attempt to block new rules by the Trump administration that would allow more employers to opt out of providing no-cost birth control to women.
Judge Haywood Gilliam previously blocked an interim version of those rules — a decision that was upheld in December by an appeals court. But the case is before him again after the administration finalized the measures in November, prompting a renewed legal challenge by California and other states.
Gilliam was not expected to rule immediately. At issue is a requirement under President Barack Obama's health care law that birth control services be covered at no additional cost. Obama officials included exemptions for religious organizations.
The new rules set to go into effect on Monday would allow more categories of employers, including publicly traded companies, to back out of the requirement by claiming religious objections. They would also allow small businesses and other employers to object on moral grounds.
The rules "protect a narrow class of sincere religious and moral objectors from being forced to facilitate practices that conflict with their beliefs," the U.S. Department of Justice said in court documents.
The states argue that millions of women could lose free birth control services, forcing them to seek contraceptive care through state-run programs and leading to unintended pregnancies.
Attorneys for California and the other states said in court documents the new rules were very similar to the interim measures. One difference is a suggestion in the new rules that women can seek contraceptive coverage through federal family planning clinics for low-income people, according to the states.
The states say that would be an inadequate replacement for the contraceptive coverage many women currently have.
A federal appeals court is siding with the Trump administration in a case about the Pentagon's policy of restricting military service by transgender people.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that a lower-court judge was wrong to block the Pentagon from implementing its preferred policy. The unsigned ruling will not allow the Pentagon to put in place its desired policy, however, because three other judges have entered orders blocking the administration in similar cases.
Military policy until a few years ago had barred service by transgender people. That changed under President Barack Obama, but President Donald Trump said he would reverse course, leading to lawsuits by transgender people.
The administration already has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue. The high court has not said whether it will.
A North Carolina appeals court says President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign organization isn't responsible for a state director accused of pointing a loaded pistol against another Trump supporter's knee.
The state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that former campaign worker Vincent Bordini can't revive his lawsuit against the Trump For President organization.
Bordini last year dropped his lawsuit accusing former North Carolina campaign director Earl Phillip of assault with his .45-caliber handgun as the two rode in a vehicle. Phillip said it never happened.
Appeals judges ruled that the Trump campaign couldn't be sued because Phillip was working in 2016 as an independent contractor with minimal direction from higher Trump campaign officials.
Judges said campaign managers hadn't been told of earlier incidents of Phillip erratically waving his gun around people.
Florida's new gun law is keeping courts busy, and the state Supreme Court also says lawsuits over hurricane disputes could be on the rise.
The Florida Supreme Court said Friday 100 petitions a month have been filed statewide to try to keep guns out of the hands of people at risk to themselves and others. The Legislature passed new gun restrictions in March following a school shooting in Parkland that left 17 dead.
The court also said to watch out for a rise in claims related to Hurricanes Irma and Michael, particularly involving indebtedness and contracts. Irma affected nearly the entire state in 2017, and Michael devastated communities from Mexico Beach to the Georgia border in October.
The court said four additional circuit court judges are needed next fiscal year, including one in the circuit that covers counties hit by Michael.
A court in Myanmar has heard an appeal filed by lawyers for two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of illegal possession of official documents, a case that has drawn worldwide criticism and attention to the crisis that drove members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee the country.
The court announced a ruling would be issued next month after submissions were made Monday by both the prosecution and lawyers for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who said they were framed by police but were convicted in September.
The journalists had been reporting last year on the brutal crackdown by security forces on the Rohingya in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Some 700,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape the violence of a government counterinsurgency campaign.
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