Supreme Court hears arguments on False Claims Act statute of limitations
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Cochise Consultancy v. United States, ex rel. Hunt on whether the discovery rule in the False Claims Act (FCA) statute of limitations should apply to lawsuits where the government has not intervened. The FCA allows private citizens to file a qui tam action against a person they [...]
Supreme Court hears arguments in Virginia racial gerrymandering case
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in two cases: the Virginia racial gerrymandering case, Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill; and a reviewability of agency decision case, Smith v. Berryhill. The Virginia lawsuit was filed in 2014 by residents in 12 different districts in the state. The challengers contended that the legislature, by adopting the 2011 map [...]
Supreme Court expands scope of constitutional question in challenge to census citizenship question
The Supreme Court issued an order on Friday to expand the scope of the lawsuit challenging the addition of a citizenship question on the 2020 census. The order pertains to legal challenge brought on by a coalition made up of the State of New York as well as 16 other states and cities to enjoin [...]
Federal judge expands class action definition in lawsuit against ICE over border separations
A federal judge granted a motion on Friday to expand the class definition in a class action lawsuit against the Immigration and Custom Enforcement agency. In the original complaint, the plaintiff, Ms. L, sought to reunite with her seven-year-old daughter after they both fled violence from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Upon seeking asylum in [...]
Attorney's Conflict of Interest Sent His Client to Death Row
Nicholas Acklin is on death row in Alabama, our home state where we both have practiced law for almost 50 years. As past presidents of the Alabama State Bar, and together with former members of Alabama’s appellate courts, we have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review Mr. Acklin’s case and ensure that he receives [...]
The US Supreme Court held Wednesday that the Sixth Amendment‘s presumption of prejudice of ineffective counsel applies to situations in which an attorney declines to file an appeal because an appeal waiver was signed as part of a plea agreement. The case, Garza v. Idaho, centered on Petitioner Gilberto Garza’s claim that his lawyer offered ineffective [...]
Cap-and-Trade Could Fill Gaps in Governor Wolf's Climate Change Executive Order
The news on the climate crisis has been bad lately and getting worse. In the face of President Trump’s continued denial and his administration’s diligent efforts to roll back every shred of progress made by the Obama administration and to prop up an ailing coal industry, the warnings from the scientific community have only become [...]
The New York State Assembly passed comprehensive gun legislation on Tuesday to diminish gun violence in the state. Among the legislation passed is the “Red Flag Bill” that blocks a person deemed to be a threat to the safety of themselves or others from buying a gun for up to a year. A petitioner, which [...]
India’s Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code was held to be constitutionally valid in its “entirety” on Friday. A Supreme Court bench comprising judges Rohinton Nariman and Navin Sinha ruled that the code, which seeks to consolidate and amend the laws relating to insolvency and bankruptcy, is in consonance with the fundamental rights guaranteed under the country’s [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to take up an appeal in Hassell v. Bird, in which the California Supreme Court ruled that the Communication Decency Act provided that interactive websites were immune from liability for defamatory comments posted on the website. Hassell, a San Francisco based attorney, sued Yelp for injunctive relief after a user posted a [...]
