The Connecticut legislature voted in 2012 to abolish the death penalty, however, that measure only affected future crimes committed in the state. Calling it unconstitutional, Associate Justice Richard Palmer wrote the majority opinion, stating that the death penalty “no longer comports with contemporary standards of decency and no longer serves any legitimate penological purpose.”
In U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Monday, Judge Katherine Polk Failla issued New York’s mayor Bill De Blasio a notable defeat of a law intended to regulate the community-mindedness of the many financial institutions that inhabit the city. New York’s city council passed the Responsible Banking Act (RBA) in 2012, requiring banks in the
Much like A&P supermarkets and that company’s bankruptcy announcement last month, another piece of Americana is close to officially entering its historical enshrinement. Nearly everyone of a certain age has at least once in their life taken advantage/been taken advantage of the Incredible Deal™, 8 cassette tapes or CDs for a penny, by subscribing to
Recently re-elected Republican Florida Governor Rick Scott agreed to terms with Tallahassee attorney Steven Andrews regarding a dispute over public records disclosure involving a property close to the governor’s mansion. Andrews sued Scott in 2012 after the governor stated his intent to use state funds to buy a building near a property known as “The
On Saturday, Michael Brown Sr. led a group of about 100 marchers during a peaceful five-mile journey through the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, accompanied by a state-police escort. The peaceful march was intended to not only commemorate the anniversary of the controversial killing of his son by police officer Darren Wilson a year ago Sunday,
In U.S. Federal Court in Atlanta on Wednesday, Judge Timothy Batten ruled to grant class-action certification to a six-year long collusion lawsuit against Delta and AirTran airlines. The lawsuit was filed in 2009 by over a dozen Delta and AirTran customers, accusing the companies of using a series of earnings conference calls, as well as
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia ruled that the Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant before searching historical location data from a person’s cell phone. The case involved defendants Aaron Graham and Eric Jordan, who were accused of several Baltimore-area robberies. The
Another domino has reportedly fallen in the aftermath of the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) meltdown that was mostly responsible for the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Multiple media outlets are reporting that Goldman Sachs will settle a class-action lawsuit led by the NECA-IBEW’s Health and Welfare Pension Fund of Illinois, among other investors, to
The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) is treading on thin legal ground, according to Manhattan District Judge Richard Berman, due to the agency’s use of an in-house judicial system. On Monday, Berman refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by embattled former Standard and Poor’s (S&P) supervisor, Barbara Duka, who was accused of securities fraud by
The Ray Charles Foundation, which supports vision and hearing-impaired youth, scored a victory on Friday from a three-judge panel in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a legal battle against seven of Charles’s adult children. Royalties from Charles’s catalog of 51 songs, including hits like “I got a woman,” “Mary Ann,”