GA: Ballot Access Case May Go to Supreme Court

Nevada Personhood Amendment Loses Case at Supreme Court
The personhood amendment some pro-life advocates in Nevada hoped to get on the ballot has lost in a case decided by the Nevada Supreme Court. The state High Court rejected a Lawsuit filed by amendment backers saying the 2010 election year is over and there is no reason to continue the case. The Thursday decision said the Court Case, originally filed by Planned Parenthood against having the amendment appear on the ballot, is moot because the Elections are over. Planned Parenthood won at the lower...

Court rules in Ohio 'fake deer' case
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The Ohio Supreme Court says a trial court was wrong when it dismissed a civil Lawsuit over a car crash caused by a foam deer that pranksters left in a roadway. Robert Roby, 18, and his passenger, 17-year-old Dustin Zachariah, were seriously injured in 2005 when Roby swerved to avoid the foam deer a group of High School Student-athletes put on a Hardin County, Ohio, road after dark, The Columbus Dispatch reported Friday. Roby and Zachariah sued for damages, but in...

Miller weighs options at year's end
(CNN)- While most Americans prepare to ring in the New Year, Republican U.S. Senate Candidate from Alaska, Joe Miller, is making preparations of a different kind. Miller's campaign website states that "Miller will address his plans moving forward, including whether he will pursue a federal appeal or state election contest," on December 31st. Miller has lost several court battles in the state of Alaska. He challenged Incumbent Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski's write-in victory based on an...

Sen. Murkowski Certified Winner
(NewsCore) - Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was certified the winner of Alaska’s Senate race Thursday, almost two months after the Nov. 2 election. Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell signed the certificate at 11:00am local time in Juneau, Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai confirmed in an email to NewsCore. The certificate is being delivered to Washington, D.C. “It feels great to have finality and for Sen. Murkowski to officially be declared the winner of ...

The Supreme Court as the *Person of the Year*: Bob Burnett on the *Citizens United* Decision
2010 “Person” of the Year: The U.S. Supreme Court by Bob Burnett Huffington Post, December 31, 2010 It’s difficult to look beyond the tumult of current events and ask, “what happened this year that will be remembered ten, twenty, or fifty years from now?” However, there was one 2010 event that, in terms of its long-term impact, loomed above the others, the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court Decision. Writing in the New York Review, law Professor Ronald Dworkin e...

Big Deal | Sale of Duke Mansion Brings a Lawsuit
The Duke Semans mansion on Fifth Avenue was sold for $44 million to Carlos Slim Helú. The sale in a down market was eye-popping: $44 million, in July, for a town house that had sold for $40 million in 2006. It was the city’s biggest residential sale of 2010, and the fourth-highest price on record for a town house, according to city property data. The backstory has a winding plot worthy of an HBO or Showtime series. The stars are the Duke tobacco family’s Fifth Avenue mansion; an immigrant

Amicus briefs filed in Galveston beach case
Good for you, Vince Ryan. Harris County today joined other public agencies and Activists in urging the Texas Supreme Court to reconsider a recent opinion that critics contend blocks public access to most beaches on Galveston island. County Attorney Vince Ryan filed a friend-of-the court brief on behalf of the county and the Texas Conference of Urban Counties. The brief supports a request by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for a rehearing on a Nov. 5 decision he says amounts to the overturni...

Seventh Circuit on Twombly, Pleading Standards
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled earlier this week that a lower Federal Court judge correctly held that a complaint alleging a Conspiracy to fix prices of Text Message services was plausible enough for litigation to proceed. Verizon Wireless and other providers of text messaging services, citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, had urged the Federal Court in Chicago to find that the litigation’s underlying complaints against the w...

Murkowski certified as winner in Alaska's drawn-out Senate race
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was certified as the winner of her Reelection race, ending a Legal Battle over the results that lasted over eight weeks. The act, which the Associated Press reported Thursday, allows Murkowski (R) to be sworn in next week for her third term in the upper chamber.  Murkowski was defeated in the August GOP primary by Tea Party-backed Candidate Joe Miller, but she beat him in the General Election as a write-in candidate. The last time a Candidate won a write-in bid was...

Ohio judge drops newspaper website comments suit
CLEVELAND (AP) - An Ohio judge taken off a high-profile Murder trial has dropped her $50 million Lawsuit against a Cleveland newspaper and reached an undisclosed financial settlement with an affiliated company that runs the publication's website, an attorney said Friday. Cuyahoga County Judge Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold and her adult daughter filed their Lawsuit against The Plain Dealer, its parent company and the website operator in April over anonymous comments on the site t...

Murkowski Certified Winner in Alaska
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell signed the certificate at 11:00am local time in Juneau, Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai confirmed in an email to NewsCore. The certificate is being delivered to Washington, D.C. A Federal Judge paved the way for Murkowski’s certification on Tuesday when he dismissed Tea Party-backed Candidate Joe Miller’s Lawsuit that challenged Murkowski’s victory. US District Judge Ralph Beistline's 14-page order said Miller di...

Murkowski Certified Winner in Alaska
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell signed the certificate at 11:00am local time in Juneau, Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai confirmed in an email to NewsCore. The certificate is being delivered to Washington, D.C. A Federal Judge paved the way for Murkowski’s certification on Tuesday when he dismissed Tea Party-backed Candidate Joe Miller’s Lawsuit that challenged Murkowski’s victory. US District Judge Ralph Beistline's 14-page order said Miller di...

Vermont, Montana Lead Battles Over Assisted Suicide in 2011
Vermont and Montana will form Ground Zero for the debate over Assisted Suicide in 2011 as legislatures in both states are expected to tackle bills related to the subject. Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is closely following the machinations of both legislatures and he provides further insight. “The newly elected Governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, is committed to legalizing Assisted Suicide in that state,” he said. Shumlin told the lobbying arm of the pro-assi...

Top 10 for 2010
A quick look at the top 10 posts (in terms of views) on blog this that were written this year. Military Spouses Residency Relief Act: it’s gonna cost us American Idol results 4/28/10: down to five American Idol results 5/12/10: top 3 Why Nye lost Joint Forces Command to close Report: Hampton City Council Candidates’ forum Who is McKinley Price? BREAKING: Hester running for Mayor in Norfolk A step too far House Dems call on McDonnell to replace Malek I guess I need to keep writing a...

Judge warns of 'Orwellian state' in warrantless GPS tracking case
© na Police in Delaware may soon be unable to use global positioning systems (GPS) to keep tabs on a suspect unless they have a court-signed warrant, thanks to a recent ruling by a Superior Court judge who cited famed author George Orwell in her decision. In striking down evidence obtained through warrantless GPS tracking, Delaware Judge Jan R. Jurden wrote that "an Orwellian state is now technologically feasible," adding that "without adequate judicial preservation of Privacy, there is ...

Murkowski certified winner of Alaska Senate race
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Sen. Lisa Murkowski was officially named the winner of Alaska's U.S. Senate race Thursday, following a period of legal fights and limbo that lasted longer than the write-in campaign she waged to keep her job. Gov. Sean Parnell and Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, who oversees Elections, signed the paperwork certifying her win in the hotly contested race. "It's done," Treadwell said after penning his last signature in front of cameras in Parnell's office. The paper...

64173
Unilateral Palestinian statehood seems like a terrible idea. It could destroy the chances for negotiations and raise the chances of war. The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted in a non-binding resolution to Veto UN recognition, apparently precluding widespread recognition by UN Member States. Unilateral statehood won't change Palestinian life: Israel will continue building settlements, and Palestinian areas will remain pockmarked by checkpoints, blistered by Israeli incursions, and pol...

Obama Approval Steady
A new Gallup Poll finds President Obama's Approval Rating at 46%. "The general stability in Obama's Approval Rating since the Nov. 2 Midterm Elections -- in which his party lost majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives -- can be characterized as positive for Obama. Most presidents whose party suffers major midterm losses see their approval Ratings fall." ...

Constitution to be Focus When House Republicans Take Over
The new rules the Republicans intend to use to operate the House of Representatives when they take over the leadership come January, are designed to send a message: Let's get back to the basics. More Video ...

Uh-Oh: Think Progress Frets "Proposed House GOP Rules Give Rep. Ryan Stunning And Unprecedented Power To Shape Budget"
Obviously what they fear we welcome. I guess this might be "stunning and unprecedented." It's not as much as you or I might want, but it does seem that Ryan is going to have some serious power here. The incoming Republican majority in the House of Representatives has laid out a series of changes it would like to make to the House rules, including replacing the current “pay-go” rules — which require all spending increases to be offset with Spending Cuts or Tax Increases — with a rule cal

Krauthammer: GOP House Must Focus on Containment; Forcing Obama to Implement Spending Cuts Video 12/29/10
Here is video of Charles Krauthammer saying that the new GOP-controlled House of Representatives must realistically focus the next two years on “containment” of President Obama. He also said they must be careful on how the seek to reduce spending. Krauthammer advised that the GOP should cap spending and set limits, but force the Obama Administration to then implement the cuts so that their fingerprints on not on the specific programs that are cut. ...

ODonnell on defense in campaign funds probe
A possible federal Criminal Probe, charges of “thug politic tactics” and a foreboding feeling of more wicked tricks to come. No, it’s not a tease for a new novel filled with political intrigue — it’s the next chapter in the Christine O’Donnell story. The Tea Party politician from Delaware who famously declared: “I’m not a witch” now declares she’s not a crook. “There’s been no impermissible use of campaign funds whatsoever,&...

Michael Steeles Replacement?
From Gateway Pundit Calling a Pig a Pig… RNC Candidate Ann Wagner Slams Dems on Their Creeping Socialism Ambassador, Proven Republican Leader, Visionary, and “West Point Mom” — Ann Wagner is running for RNC Chair. Ann Wagner, a former committee woman and first female chair of the Missouri Republican Party, wants to lead the RNC. Former United States ambassador to Luxembourg, Ann Wagner, is picking up steam in the race to be the next chair of the Republican National Committee. The D

Alaska certifies Murkowski as Senate race winner
(12-31) 04:00 PST JUNEAU, Alaska -- Sen. Lisa Murkowski was officially named the winner of Alaska's U.S. Senate race Thursday, following a period of legal fights and limbo that lasted longer than the write-in campaign she waged to keep her job. Murkowski became the first U.S. Senate Candidate since South Carolina's Strom Thurmond in 1954 to win a write-in campaign. The official vote tally certified showed her margin of victory over her nearest opponent, Republican rival Joe Miller, was 10,252...

Brazil grants asylum to Italian fugitive Battisti
BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil's president granted political asylum to Italian fugitive Cesare Battisti on Friday — but the case must still be heard by the nation's Supreme Court, the top justice said. The statement did not elaborate, and Battisti's lawyers did not immediately respond to telephone calls. The legality of the decision must still be weighed by the Brazilian Supreme Court, according to a court official who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not allowed to discuss...