China activist arrives in New York, thanks US for aid
May 20, 2012
[JURIST] Blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] arrived in New York on Saturday, resolving a US-China struggle that began when Chen escaped house arrest [JURIST report] last month and fled to the US embassy in Beijing, seeking protection from Chinese authorities. In a press conference Saturday evening Chen thanked the US for its help and the Chinese government for its cooperation and its promise to respect his citizenship rights in the future. Chen left…
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China activist arrives in New York, thanks US for aid
Federal judge overturns Utah law restricting material harmful to minors
May 20, 2012
[JURIST] The US District Court for the District of Utah [official website] on Tuesday overturned [order, PDF] Utah Code ?? 76-10-1206 and 76-10-1233 [text], major parts of a Utah law that regulate electronic materials potentially harmful to minors. Originally passed in 2005, the law was challenged [JURIST report] by the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah [advocacy website] as overbroad and in violation of the First Amendment [Cornell LII backgrounder]. Judge Dee Benson held that the First Amendment precludes prosecution…
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Federal judge overturns Utah law restricting material harmful to minors
US trade commission finds Motorola phones infringe on Microsoft patent
May 20, 2012
[JURIST] The US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] on Friday concluded its investigation [notice, PDF] into a complaint that a number of Motorola mobile phones infringed on several Microsoft [corporate websites] patents. The decision affirmed the ruling of an administrative law judge in December that Microsoft had proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Motorola had in fact violated one of the several patents allegedly infringed. The ITC order requires Motorola to stop importing and selling certain models…
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US trade commission finds Motorola phones infringe on Microsoft patent
US trade commission finds Motorola phones infringe on Microsoft patent
May 20, 2012
[JURIST] The US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] on Friday concluded its investigation [notice, PDF] into a complaint that a number of Motorola mobile phones infringed on several Microsoft [corporate websites] patents. The decision affirmed the ruling of an administrative law judge in December that Microsoft had proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Motorola had in fact violated one of the several patents allegedly infringed. The ITC order requires Motorola to stop importing and selling certain models…
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US trade commission finds Motorola phones infringe on Microsoft patent
Federal court upholds key provision of the Voting Rights Act
May 19, 2012
[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] decided [text, PDF] to uphold Section 5 [DOJ backgrounder] of the Voting Rights Act [text] Friday, affirming the ruling of the district court below [JURIST report]. Section 5 requires covered jurisdictions to clear changes in voting districts, polling places and other electoral processes with the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] or federal courts. It relies heavily on patterns of past discrimination to determine which state, county…
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Federal court upholds key provision of the Voting Rights Act
Criminalizing Wrongdoing: When Judges Disagree
May 19, 2012
Examining a recent Ninth Circuit ruling in a case involving a former executive search firm employee prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, attorney Joel Cohen weighs in on the perils of broad-brush criminal statutes and the challenges for judges tasked with interpreting the statutes.
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Criminalizing Wrongdoing: When Judges Disagree
D.C. Circuit Upholds Key Section of Voting Rights Act
May 19, 2012
A divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday upheld the constitutionality of the heart of the Voting Rights Act in a decision that sets the stage for an eventual U.S. Supreme Court battle.
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D.C. Circuit Upholds Key Section of Voting Rights Act
Odd Bedfellows Get Together Behind Prison Phone Rate Reform
May 19, 2012
Civil rights and conservative groups have banded together to form an unlikely coalition to ask the FCC to end “exorbitant” fees that many prisons charge inmates to make phone calls. A 15-minute collect call from prison typically costs $10 to $17 — rates that garnered $152 million in revenue for prisons in 2011.
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Odd Bedfellows Get Together Behind Prison Phone Rate Reform
Federal Circuit Will Hear Judges’ Back-Pay Challenge
May 19, 2012
A group of federal judges who charge that Congress violated the Constitution by withholding pay increases will get a hearing before the full Federal Circuit. The six judges seek to overturn a 2001 decision that future judicial salary adjustments by the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 are not “compensation” protected from diminishment.
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Federal Circuit Will Hear Judges’ Back-Pay Challenge
Jurors banned from blogging about criminal cases
May 19, 2012
The Florida Supreme Court has issued an opinion that states that trial judges must tell jurors not to use electronic devices or computers to talk about cases, “including tweeting, texting, blogging, emailing, posting information on a website or chat room, or any other means at all.”
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Jurors banned from blogging about criminal cases