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Federal Appeals Court Rejects Medical Marijuana
Breaking Legal News |
2007/03/14 20:29
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Supporters of medical marijuana suffered another major setback today when an appeals court ruled that the federal government can still arrest and prosecute medical-marijuana patients even if they are protected by state law and even if their usage is deemed a “medical necessity.” The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco decided unanimously against Oakland resident Angel Raich, who suffers from a variety of ailments including scoliosis, a brain tumor, and chronic nausea, even though her doctor testified that it was the only effective treatment to ease her pain and help her appetite. The judges indicated that Raich would possibly be able to avoid conviction under the medical necessity argument, but that she was not immune to arrest and prosecution nor was any other medical-marijuana patient who claimed medical necessity.
Raich’s case reached the Supreme Court in 2005, but the high court ruled that state laws providing for medical marijuana did not protect their citizens from federal prosecution. Currently, there are 11 states (including California) that have legalized medical marijuana. The Supreme Court then bumped the case back down to the appeals court, who ruled on a much narrower aspect of the case namely, whether or not absolute medical necessity precluded the government’s ability to prosecute these cases. According to the three-judge panel, it does not. In a related story out of Oregon today, where medical pot has been legal since 1998, the state Senate passed a measure allowing employers to fire medical-marijuana patients who fail drug tests. The measure still has to be approved in the House and be signed by the governor. Oregon has 13,000 registered medical-marijuana users, and their supporters had been pushing for a bill that protected them from being fired. Instead, the opposite measure was passed. Supporters contend that a simple urine test, which would yield a positive result for as long as 30 days after ingestion of pot, does not accurately reflect whether or not an employee was impaired or intoxicated during work hours. Despite the controversial nature of the medical-marijuana issue and the fact that voters in several states have overwhelmingly shown support for the measure the U.S. Justice Department has only intensified its prosecution of medical pot. An Associated Press report this past weekend noted that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was “embarking on a stepped-up effort targeting [medical-marijuana] clinics” they suspected of generating an inordinate amount of profit. On one day in January, the DEA raided 11 clinics in the Los Angeles area. Since state laws are being ruled virtually meaningless by the court system and since the federal government seems intent on prosecuting these cases, it appears that amending the federal Controlled Substances Act may be the only true recourse for medical-marijuana supporters. However, the influence of the pharmaceutical and tobacco lobbies alone make this approach rather unlikely to succeed. |
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Chavez Says Attacks on Bush Not Personal
International |
2007/03/14 20:28
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Hugo Chavez has called President Bush a devil, a donkey and a drunkard. But on Wednesday the Venezuelan leader said his comments were "nothing personal." Chavez, who had stepped up his verbal assault during Bush's Latin American tour this week, suggested that the two adversaries might eventually overcome their differences and even play a game of dominos or baseball together. "One day, if maybe George Bush and I survive all of this, we will reach old age, and it would be good to play a game of dominos, street baseball," Chavez said on his weekday radio program. But he said his comments about the American leader were "nothing personal" and that his opposition to Bush was due to "deep ethical, political, historic and geopolitical" reasons. Chavez has fiercely opposed U.S.-backed free trade policies and criticized the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and other foreign policy decisions. Chavez said Bush was part of a long line of elitist U.S. administrations that have become accustomed to abusing the rest of the world, acting unilaterally and violating human rights. He also taunted the U.S. leader for skirting questions about Chavez during his Latin American tour in the past week, comparing him to a matador avoiding the bull with his cape. "The president of the United States takes out his cape as always, Ole!, because he doesn't want to respond" to pointed issues raised by the Venezuelan leader, Chavez said. Bush on Wednesday completed a tour of Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala. Chavez went on something of a shadow tour of Bush's trip over the same period, visiting several regional nations including Argentina, where he led thousands in an anti-bush rally. |
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Nicholas J. Spaeth Joins K&L Gates Washington
Law Firm News |
2007/03/14 19:17
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Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis LLP (K&L Gates) welcomes Nicholas J. Spaeth as partner in the firm’s Washington, DC office. Spaeth comes to K&L Gates from H&R Block, where he served as the company’s senior vice president and general counsel. Spaeth also served eight years as the elected Attorney General of North Dakota, and as law clerk to late Associate Justice Byron R. White of the United States Supreme Court.
At K&L Gates, Spaeth focuses his practice on independent investigations, financial services regulatory issues and enforcement actions. He also counsels clients in connection with state attorney general enforcement activities on behalf of consumers. Spaeth's background—which includes service as general counsel of major corporations subjected to state attorney general activity—and his tenure as a state attorney general give him unique perspective on these issues.
Chuck Miller, Administrative Partner of K&L Gates’ Washington, DC office said: “With Nick’s arrival, we add strength to an area whose importance continues to grow for our firm and for our clients in K&L Gates Washington and around the country.”
K&L Gates Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter J. Kalis said: “Nick’s background is well-suited for our growing practice in independent investigations and enforcement actions, particularly as state attorney general enforcement activities are on the rise. We are pleased to welcome Nick to K&L Gates.”
K&L Gates comprises approximately 1,400 lawyers in 22 offices located in North America, Europe and Asia, and represents capital markets participants, entrepreneurs, growth and middle market companies, leading FORTUNE 100 and FTSE 100 global corporations and public sector entities.
www.klgates.com. |
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Bush in strife over role in lawyer firings
Law Center |
2007/03/14 09:43
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Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Wednesday it's up to President Bush whether he remains in the administration and said he wants to stay and explain to Congress the circumstances surrounding the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Amid an escalating political row and calls from some Democrats for his resignation, Gonzales said, "I work for the American people and serve at the pleasure of the president." "I think you can look at the record of the department in terms of what we've done ... going after child predators, public corruption cases," he said on NBC's "Today" show. "I think our record is outstanding." Critics charge that the prosecutors were ousted because of political considerations. Gonzales acknowledged, as he had on Tuesday, that mistakes were made in the handling of the U.S. attorney firings and said he wanted to remain in the job to make things right with Congress. "I think we've done a good job in managing the department. .. Things are going to happen," he said. "We are going to work with Congress to make sure they know what happened. ... We want to ensure that they have a complete and accurate picture of what happened here." "I didn't become attorney general by quitting," Gonzales said on CBS's "The Early Show." Several Democrats have called for Gonzales' resignation, among them presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards. "The buck should stop somewhere," Clinton said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" which was broadcast Wednesday morning. She added that Bush "needs to be very forthcoming -- what did he say, what did he know, what did he do?" and that high-level White House adviser Karl Rove also "owes the Congress and the country an explanation" for his role in the affair. The firestorm of criticism has erupted in the wake of the disclosure of e-mails within the administration which showed that Gonzales' chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, had discussed the possible firings of U.S. attorneys in early 2005 with then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers. Gonzales accepted Sampson's resignation this week; Miers had left the administration earlier this year. It was the second time in as many weeks that Gonzales came under withering criticism on Capitol Hill. Last week, the attorney general and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller admitted that the FBI had improperly, and at times illegally, used the USA Patriot Act to secretly pry out personal information about Americans in terrorism investigations. Gonzales, himself a former White House counsel, has been friends with Bush for years, going back to when he served as Bush's secretary of state in Texas. Bush retains full confidence in the attorney general, spokesman Dan Bartlett, traveling with Bush in Mexico, said Wednesday. "He's a standup guy," Bartlett said of Gonzales. As for the firings, Bartlett said White House officials had heard complaints from members of Congress regarding prosecutors and Bush had raised the subject during an October 2006 meeting with Gonzales. He described the exchange as "offhand" and said Bush did not name any specific prosecutors but did identify their states. "This briefly came up and the president said, 'I've been hearing about this election fraud issue from members of Congress and want to be sure you're on top of it as well,' " Bartlett said. Bartlett said that Gonzales had responded, "I know, and we're looking at those issues." In the NBC appearance Wednesday, Gonzales said he had a "general knowledge" of Sampson's conversations with Miers about the prosecutors, but said "I was obviously not aware of all communications." "I think we have an obligation to ensure where we can improve upon performance around the country," he said. One of the ousted U.S. attorneys, David Iglesias, who was the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, told Congress had had received a call from Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., that he considered intimidating. Democrats in Congress have charged that some prosecutors were sacked because there was a belief within the administration that they were not moving quickly enough on political corruption cases involving Democrats. Domenici acknowledged calling Iglesias but denied trying to put any pressure on the prosecutor to speed up his investigation. Asked Wednesday if politics played a role in the firings, Gonzales said, "These firings were not politically motivated. They were not done in retaliation. They were not done to interfere with a public corruption case."
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Texas lawmakers vote on cancer vaccine
Breaking Legal News |
2007/03/14 09:42
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Texas lawmakers are fighting to block the governor‘s order requiring that sixth-grade girls be vaccinated against the virus that causes cervical cancer, with the House giving key approval to a bill to make the shots strictly voluntary. The House voted 119-21 on Tuesday to approve a bill that would keep the vaccine off the list of required shots for school attendance. The measure was likely to get a final House vote Wednesday to send it on to the state Senate. The vaccine protects girls against some strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer. A February report by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that one in four U.S. women ages 14 to 59 is infected with the virus. Lawmakers said the governor circumvented the legislative process. The governor‘s office has estimated that only 25 percent of young women in Texas would get the vaccine if it is not mandatory. Critics also have argued that the vaccine, called Gardasil, was too new and its effects needed to be further studied before mandating it for Texas schoolgirls. The Food and Drug Administration approved Gardasil last year. Although the Wyoming Legislature recently rejected a request for $4 million specifically to fund HPV vaccination, the state‘s Department of Health intends to continue offering the vaccine to eligible girls with existing funding until the money run out.
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Japan court rejects gas lawsuit from China
International |
2007/03/14 09:41
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Five Chinese citizens seeking compensation from Japan for injuries from poison gas left behind in China by Japanese forces during World War Two lost a court battle on Tuesday.
The five Chinese had sought a total of 80 million yen (US$680,000) from the Japanese government for injuries and health problems they suffered between 1950 and 1987. But on Tuesday, the Tokyo High Court upheld a lower court ruling in May 2003 that had dismissed their damages suit, one of a range of war-related issues that have at times strained relations between the two Asian giants. It was not immediately clear whether the Chinese plaintiffs would appeal to the Supreme Court. Beijing and Tokyo have been grappling with a number of disputes over everything from energy resources and territorial boundaries to historical issues stemming from Japan's invasion and occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945. But ties have warmed since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office last September and made his first trip abroad an ice-breaking visit to China. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to make a reciprocal visit to Tokyo in April. In a separate but similar court battle, the Tokyo District Court ordered the government in September 2003 to pay a total of about 190 million yen in compensation to 13 Chinese, including bereaved relatives of victims. The Japanese government filed an appeal several days later. The case arose from poison gas incidents in 1974 and 1982 and a shell explosion in 1995, all involving discarded Japanese munitions in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China. China says Japanese forces left behind about 2 million chemical weapon shells in China, and more than 2,000 people have been harmed by them. Japanese studies have placed the number of such shells at about 700,000. Japan had pledged to clean up the weapons by this year, but it later sought an extension, saying the deadline was impossible to meet. China has complained about the slow pace of disposals. On Aug. 4, 2003, one man died and more than 40 people were injured after five World War Two-era metal barrels containing mustard gas were unearthed at a construction site in the city of Qiqihaer, Heilongjiang. Japan apologized and paid a total of 300 million yen in compensation to the Chinese government for the Qiqihaer incident. |
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Alberto Gonzales rejects calls for resignation
Breaking Legal News |
2007/03/13 23:27
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US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday he will not resign from his position in response to growing controversy over the firings last year of eight US Attorneys that may have been politically motivated. Gonzales nonetheless accepted responsibility and admitted "mistakes were made" when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) publicly dismissed the US Attorneys and subsequently misled Congress about the firings. According to e-mails revealed Tuesday, Gonzales' Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson and former White House counsel Harriet Miers suggested firing all 93 US Attorneys at the beginning of President Bush's second term. Sampson resigned from his position Monday. In response to Gonzales' comments, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), among others, renewed his calls for Gonzales to resign in a statement on the Senate floor. Several high-ranking Democratic senators also called for Gonzales' resignation Monday in the wake of revelations in an official audit that the FBI broke and misused laws in obtaining personal information from telephone companies, Internet service providers, banks, and credit bureaus under the Patriot Act. |
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Class action or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued. This form of collective lawsuit originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, at least the U.S. variant of it. In the United States federal courts, class actions are governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule. Since 1938, many states have adopted rules similar to the FRCP. However, some states like California have civil procedure systems which deviate significantly from the federal rules; the California Codes provide for four separate types of class actions. As a result, there are two separate treatises devoted solely to the complex topic of California class actions. Some states, such as Virginia, do not provide for any class actions, while others, such as New York, limit the types of claims that may be brought as class actions. They can construct your law firm a brand new website, lawyer website templates and help you redesign your existing law firm site to secure your place in the internet. |
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