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from Courthouse News
Briefs and rulings from courthouses across the land.
Friday, December 16, 2022
Thursday, December 15, 2022
Tornadoes rip through Louisiana, leaving 3 dead and thousands without power
NEW ORLEANS (CN) — Tornadoes that formed across Louisiana Tuesday and Wednesday left at least three people dead, cut power to thousands of residences statewide and leveled neighborhoods.
The destruction came after the same system wreaked havoc in parts of Oklahoma, east Texas and northwest Louisiana earlier this week.
In Killona, a small neighborhood in St. Charles Parish roughly 33 miles west of New Orleans, a woman was killed, eight others were injured and at least 20 families were displaced after a twister ripped through the neighborhood just after 2:20 p.m. Wednesday. The area is still repairing damage caused by Hurricane Ida in 2021.
During a press conference Wednesday evening, St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne called the tornado “horrific” and said Killona was “probably in the eyewall” for Hurricane Ida.
“They didn’t need this again,” Champagne said.
He said the woman who died during the storm, whose name he declined to release, was found outside her home.
Search and rescue teams went door-to-door in the affected area, working around downed powerlines, blocked roads and gas leaks left in the wake of the violent storm.
Late Tuesday, a mother and her young son were killed after a twister hit their rural north Louisiana community in Caddo Parish near Shreveport.
The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said the body of 8-year-old Nikolus Little was found around 11 p.m. Tuesday in a wooded area a half mile from their home after tornadoes tore through the area.
The body of his mother, 30-year-old Yoshiko A. Smith, was found hours later, around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday, under storm debris near their destroyed house, according to Sheriff Steve Prator, who said the boy’s father reported them missing.
“We couldn’t even find the house that he was describing with the address. Everything was gone,” Prator told Shreveport TV station KSLA.
About 90 miles east in Farmville, Louisiana, multiple tornadoes ripped through a neighborhood with mobile homes and an apartment complex late Tuesday. About 20 people were hospitalized, some with critical injuries, according to a report the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office gave to Monroe TV station KNOE.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards issued a state of emergency declaration Wednesday morning, citing six possible tornado touchdowns across the state.
“I am heartbroken to learn of the mother and child who were killed in Southwest Caddo Parish due to one of numerous reported tornadoes,” the Democratic governor said in a news release.
A tornado watch across the New Orleans area was called at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, projected to last until around 4:30 p.m. Not long after, footage popped up on social media showing funnel clouds and flying debris in various neighborhoods around The Big Easy.
Thousands of residents were without power as the storm, consisting of loud, crashing thunder, torrents of rain, and vivid lightning, moved past. The storm brought down hundreds of power lines as it traveled across the New Orleans area, according to official estimates.
A neighborhood just beyond the Ninth Ward was hit by a twister for the second time in nine months around 4 p.m. Wednesday after funnel clouds cut across the Mississippi River and landed in the Friscoville Avenue neighborhood, which was devastated by tornadoes last March.
Wednesday’s damage in Friscoville was minor compared to the spring storm, according to early reports. The March tornadoes left two people in the neighborhood dead and damaged around 150 homes, half of which were destroyed completely by official estimates. The latest twister appeared to have followed a similar path.
St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis said Wednesday’s damage in Arabi – an historic area roughly 8 miles from downtown New Orleans – appeared to be mostly missing roof shingles, though a few roofs may have blown off, he said. He added that emergency responders had rescued around 10 people, but so far no casualties were reported in Arabi.
Throughout the day Wednesday, an emergency broadcast system in New Orleans sent texts in English and Spanish instructing residents what to do.
“If tornado warning is issued, prepare to shelter in an interior room on lowest level away from windows,” a 2:29 p.m. text from NOLAReady said.
City Hall, courthouses and other government buildings in New Orleans closed at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Area schools remained open. After an official tornado warning was issued at 3:45 p.m., text alerts continued.
“If in a car during tornado, try to drive to the closest sturdy shelter. Lie in an area lower than level of the roadway. Cover your head w/ your arms,” the alert system instructed.
“I guess we’re getting used to this, that’s a sad thing,” McInnis told the New Orleans Advocate. “I guess this is tornado alley now.”
Two schools in Arabi remained closed Thursday due to power outages, and at least two schools in Jefferson Parish were closed because of storm damage.
Thousands of residents were still without power statewide.
from Courthouse News
Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Mississippi executes man for rape, murder of teen girl
PARCHMAN, Miss. (AP) — A man who pleaded guilty to raping and killing a 16-year-old girl was put to death by lethal injection in Mississippi on Wednesday, becoming the second inmate executed in the state in 10 years.
A coroner pronounced Thomas Edwin Loden Jr., 58, dead at 6:12 p.m. at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. The manner of death had been the subject of Loden’s final attempt to stave off the execution.
He has been on death row since 2001, when he pleaded guilty to capital murder, rape and four counts of sexual battery against Leesa Marie Gray. Earlier this month, a federal judge declined to block Mississippi from carrying out the execution amid a pending lawsuit from Loden and four Mississippi death row inmates over the state’s lethal injection protocol. Mississippi’s most recent execution was in November 2021.
Loden wore a red prison jumpsuit and was covered by a white sheet during the execution. Brown leather straps held him down on a gurney.
Before the injection started, Loden said he was “deeply remorseful.”
“For the past 20 years, I’ve tried to do a good deed every single day to make up for the life I took from this world,” Loden said. “If today brings you nothing else, I hope you get peace and closure.”
He concluded his last words by saying “I love you” in Japanese, officials said.
During the summer ahead of what should have been Gray’s senior year of high school, she had worked as a waitress at her uncle’s restaurant in northeast Mississippi. On June 22, 2000, she left work after dark and became stranded with a flat tire on a rural road.
Loden, a Marine Corps recruiter with relatives in the area, encountered Gray on the road around 10:45 p.m. He stopped and began speaking with the teenager about the flat tire. “Don’t worry. I’m a Marine. We do this kind of stuff,” he said.
Loden told investigators he became angry after Gray allegedly said she would never want to be a Marine, and that he ordered her into his van. He spent four hours sexually assaulting her before strangling and suffocating her, according to an interview he gave investigators.
Court records show that on the afternoon of June 23, 2000, “Loden was discovered lying by the side of a road with the words ‘I’m sorry’ carved into his chest and apparent self-inflicted lacerations on his wrists.”
After pleading guilty in September 2001, Loden told Gray’s friends and family during his sentencing: “I hope you may have some sense of justice when you leave here today.”
Wanda Farris, Gray’s mother, described her daughter as a “happy-go-lucky, always smiling” teenager who aspired to become an elementary school teacher.
“She wasn’t perfect, now, mind you,” Farris said. “But she strived to do right.”
Farris had planed on attending the execution Wednesday.
In 2015, attorneys for the Roderick & Solange MacArthur Justice Center sued the Mississippi prison system on behalf of two death row inmates, saying the state’s lethal injection protocol is inhumane. Loden and two other Mississippi death row inmates later joined as plaintiffs.
The Mississippi Department of Corrections revealed in court papers in July 2021 that it had acquired three drugs for its lethal injection protocol: midazolam, which is a sedative; vecuronium bromide, which paralyzes the muscles; and potassium chloride, which stops the heart.
Jim Craig, a MacArthur Center attorney, said at a November court hearing that since 2019, only Alabama, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Tennessee have conducted executions using a three-drug protocol.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 27 states have the death penalty. Craig said a majority of death-penalty states and the federal government used a three-drug protocol in 2008, but the federal government and most of those states have since started using one drug.
In November, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey sought a pause in executions and ordered a “top-to-bottom” review of the state’s capital punishment system after a series of failed lethal injections. Jeworski Mallett, deputy commissioner of institutions for the Department of Corrections, told reporters that Mississippi has done “mock executions and drills” on a monthly basis to avoid a botched execution.
A week before Loden’s scheduled execution, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate handed down a ruling saying the execution could happen even while the lawsuit is pending. He wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld a three-drug lethal injection protocol as recently as seven years ago in a case from Oklahoma.
There are 36 inmates on death row in Mississippi. Death Penalty Action, a group opposed to capital punishment, convened a news conference Tuesday in front of the state capitol in Jackson to voice their opposition to Loden’s execution.
“Clearly, something in him snapped for him to commit such a horrific crime,” said Mitzi Magleby, a spokesperson for the Mississippi chapter of Ignite Justice, an organization that advocates for criminal justice reform. “Mr. Loden was immediately remorseful. Shouldn’t there be room for grace and mercy in such a situation?”
Farris told the AP on Friday that she forgave Loden years ago, but she did not believe his apology.
“I don’t particularly want to see somebody die,” Farris said. “But I do believe in the death penalty. … I do believe in justice.”
__
By MICHAEL GOLDBERG Associated Press/Report for America
Emily Wagster Pettus contributed to this report.
from Courthouse News
Winter US storm brings warnings of more tornadoes, blizzards
DALLAS (AP) — A destructive winter storm marched across the United States on Wednesday, delivering blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains hours after tornadoes touched down in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.
Five tornadoes were confirmed across north Texas as of Tuesday afternoon based on video and eyewitness reports, but potentially a dozen may have occurred, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas, reported.
Dozens of homes and businesses were damaged by the line of thunderstorms, and several people were injured in the suburbs and counties stretching north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. More than 1,000 flights into and out of area airports were delayed, and over 100 were canceled, according to the tracking service FlightAware.
Two people were missing and homes were destroyed Tuesday when a tornado hit Four Forts, Louisiana, about 10 miles from Shreveport, said Sgt. Casey Jones of the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m hoping they’re with family somewhere,” Jones said. There were no immediate reports of deaths.
The severe weather threat continued into Wednesday for Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.
Blizzard warnings stretched from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado, and the National Weather Service said as much as 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Winds of more than 50 mph (80 kph) at times will make it impossible to see outdoors in Nebraska, officials said.
“There’s essentially no one traveling right now,” said Justin McCallum, a manager at the Flying J truck stop at Ogallala, Nebraska.
Forecasters expect the storm system to hobble the upper Midwest with ice, rain and snow for days, as well as move into the Northeast and central Appalachians. Residents from West Virginia to Vermont were told to watch out for a possible significant mix of snow, ice and sleet, and the National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch from Wednesday night through Friday afternoon, depending on the timing of the storm.
In the Dallas suburb of Grapevine, police spokesperson Amanda McNew reported five confirmed injuries Tuesday.
A possible tornado blew the roof off the city’s service center — a municipal facility — and left pieces of the roof hanging from powerlines, said Trent Kelley, deputy director of Grapevine Parks and Recreation.
It was also trash day, so the storm picked up and scattered garbage all over, he said.
Photos sent by the city showed downed power lines on rain-soaked streets, as well as toppled trees, damaged buildings and a semitrailer that appeared to have been tossed around a parking lot.
In Colorado, all roads were closed in the northeast quadrant of the state. The severe weather in the ranching region could also threaten livestock. Extreme winds can push livestock through fences as they follow the gale’s direction, said Jim Santomaso, a northeast representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association.
“If this keeps up,” said Santomaso, “cattle could drift miles.”
A blizzard warning has been issued on Minnesota’s north shore, as some areas are expecting up to 24 inches of snow and wind gusts up to 40 mph. And in the south of the state, winds gusting up to 50 mph (80 kph) had reduced visibility.
National Weather Service meteorologist Melissa Dye in the Twin Cities said this is a “long duration event” with snow, ice and rain through Friday night. Minnesota was expecting a lull Wednesday, followed by a second round of snow.
The same weather system dumped heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada and western U.S. in recent days.
___
By JAMIE STENGLE and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press
from Courthouse News
Thursday, December 8, 2022
Bill protecting same-sex, interracial unions passes House
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House gave final approval Thursday to legislation protecting same-sex marriages, a monumental step in a decadeslong battle for nationwide recognition of such unions that reflects a stunning turnaround in societal attitudes.
President Joe Biden is expected to promptly sign the measure, which requires all states to recognize same-sex marriages, a relief for hundreds of thousands of couples who have married since the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision that legalized those marriages nationwide.
The bipartisan legislation, which passed 258-169, would also protect interracial unions by requiring states to recognize legal marriages regardless of “sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
In debate ahead of the vote, several gay members of Congress talked about what it would mean for them and their families. Rep. Chris Pappas, D-N.H., said he was set to marry “the love of my life” next year and that it is “unthinkable” that his marriage might not be recognized in some states.
Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., said he and his husband should be able to visit each other in the hospital just like any other married couple and receive spousal benefits “regardless of if your spouse’s name is Samuel or Samantha.”
Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., said that the idea of marriage equality used to be a “far-fetched idea, Now it’s the law of the land and supported by the vast majority of Americans.”
While the bill received GOP votes, most Republicans opposed the legislation and some conservative advocacy groups lobbied aggressively against it, arguing that it doesn’t do enough to protect those who want to refuse services for same-sex couples.
“God’s perfect design is indeed marriage between one man and one woman for life,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. “And it doesn’t matter what you think or what I think, that’s what the Bible says.”
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., choked up as she begged colleagues to vote against the bill, which she said undermines “natural marriage” between a man and a woman.
“I’ll tell you my priorities,” Hartzler said. “Protect religious liberty, protect people of faith and protect Americans who believe in the true meaning of marriage.”
Democrats moved the bill quickly through the House and Senate after the Supreme Court’s June decision that overturned the federal right to an abortion. That ruling included a concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas that suggested same-sex marriage should also be reconsidered.
The House passed a bill to protect the same-sex unions in July with the support of 47 Republicans, a robust and unexpected show of support that kick-started serious negotiations in the Senate. After months of talks, the Senate passed the legislation last week with 12 Republican votes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., presided over the vote as one of her last acts in leadership before stepping aside in January. She said the legislation “will ensure that “the federal government will never again stand in the way of marrying the person you love.”
The legislation would not require states to allow same-sex couples to marry, as the Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision now does. But it would require states to recognize all marriages that were legal where they were performed and it would protect current same-sex unions if the Obergefell decision were overturned.
While it’s not everything advocates may have wanted, passage of the legislation represents a watershed moment. Just a decade ago, many Republicans openly campaigned on blocking same-sex marriages; today more than two-thirds of the public support them.
Democrats in the Senate, led by Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema, slowly won over key Republican votes by negotiating an amendment that would clarify that the legislation does not affect the rights of private individuals or businesses that are already enshrined in current law. The amended bill would also make clear that a marriage is between two people, an effort to ward off some far-right criticism that the legislation could endorse polygamy.
In the end, several religious groups, including The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came out in support of the bill. The Mormon church said it would support rights for same-sex couples as long as they didn’t infringe upon religious groups’ right to believe as they choose.
Conservative groups that opposed the bill pushed the almost four dozen Republicans who previously backed the legislation to switch their position. The Republicans who supported the bill in July represented a wide range of the GOP caucus — from more moderate members to Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry, the chair of the conservative hard-right House Freedom Caucus, and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, the No. 3 House Republican. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy voted against the measure.
Thursday’s vote came as the LGBTQ community has faced violent attacks, such as the shooting earlier this month at a gay nightclub in Colorado that killed five people and injured at least 17.
“We have been through a lot,” said Kelley Robinson, the incoming president of the advocacy group Human Rights Campaign. But Robinson says the votes show “in such an important way” that the country values LBGTQ people.
“We are part of the full story of what it means to be an American,” said Robinson, who was inside the Senate chamber for last week’s vote with her wife and young son. “It really speaks to them validating our love.”
The vote was personal for many senators, too. The day the bill passed their chamber, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was wearing the tie he wore at his daughter’s wedding to another woman. He recalled that day as “one of the happiest moments of my life.”
Baldwin, the first openly gay senator who has been working on gay rights issues for almost four decades, tearfully hugged Schumer as the final vote was underway. She tweeted thanks to the same-sex and interracial couples who she said made the moment possible.
“By living as your true selves, you changed the hearts and minds of people around you,” she wrote.
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By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press
from Courthouse News
Wednesday, December 7, 2022
Top 8 today
National
Supreme Court digs into redistricting play that would usurp judicial checks
Giving a major elections case intensely even debate, the Supreme Court appeared split on partisan lines Wednesday as it considered a redistricting theory that advocates say could trample a core tenet of democracy.
Sixth Circuit hears bid to dismantle horse racing authority
Regulatory authority for the horse racing industry should be left to states or the federal government, not a private entity with unfettered power, according to arguments made by Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana before the Sixth Circuit on Wednesday.
Regional
‘Racial balancing’ in top Boston public schools troubles 1st Circuit
The Supreme Court’s pending case on affirmative action at Harvard weighed heavily on the First Circuit Wednesday as it tried to decide the constitutionality of a plan that changed the racial balance of Boston’s prestigious public exam schools.
South Carolina private schools argue for access to Covid relief funds
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston and a private college association asked a Fourth Circuit panel on Wednesday to strike down a provision of the South Carolina Constitution that prohibits public funds from being diverted to private and religious schools, arguing they are being unfairly deprived of Covid-19 pandemic relief aid.
Indiana defends charitable bail law at Seventh Circuit
The ACLU argued before the Seventh Circuit on Wednesday that an Indiana bail law unfairly targets charitable organizations and violates their free speech rights, while an attorney for the state countered that paying bail is not expressive conduct.
International
GDP, employment growth up but slowing in EU
Despite a slower third quarter, the EU’s statistics agency reports Europe’s economy is growing at a faster annual rate than the U.S., driven by investments in fixed assets and the purchase of household goods.
Mexico lawmakers approve López Obrador’s ‘Plan B’ to tanked electoral reform
The Mexico Chamber of Deputies pushed through a batch of reforms to the country’s federal electoral system early Wednesday morning after the president’s controversial original amendment failed to pass.
Science
Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs struck them down in their prime, study says
Dinosaurs were supremely well-adapted to their environment when the asteroid that wiped them out hit, scientists say.
from Courthouse News
Sixth Circuit hears bid to dismantle horse racing authority
CINCINNATI (CN) — Regulatory authority for the horse racing industry should be left to states or the federal government, not a private entity with unfettered power, according to arguments made by Oklahoma, West Virginia and Louisiana before the Sixth Circuit on Wednesday.
The three states, along with several governing bodies for the industry, sued the federal government in 2021, claiming the creation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority Inc., or HISA, violated the U.S. Constitution and deprived them of any rulemaking authority.
HISA was created by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act as a means to address doping and track safety conditions across the United States, but Oklahoma and the governing body of its horse racing industry criticized it as an unlawful delegation of legislative power to a private entity.
Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood, an appointee of George H.W. Bush, sided with the federal government and dismissed the case after he determined the legislation established clear boundaries on HISA’s power, including a requirement that all rules be approved by the Federal Trade Commission, or FTC.
Oklahoma and the other states disagreed with Hood’s assessment in their brief to the Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit and argued the FTC acts merely as a “rubber stamp” when it comes to rules and regulations proposed by HISA.
This arrangement violates the private nondelegation doctrine of the U.S. Constitution, according to the states, which allows Congress to “grant private entities no more than a ‘ministerial’ or ‘advisory’ role in the exercise of governmental power.”
“The delegation here is the ‘most obnoxious form’ of private delegation that has ever been enacted into federal law,” the brief states. “The FTC cannot refuse to publish the Authority’s regulations unless they fall outside the wide range of permissible policy choices that are ‘consistent’ with HISA. If the Authority proposes a rule that is consistent with HISA but that the FTC opposes as a policy matter, the FTC is impotent; it must promulgate that rule as federal law.”
In its brief to the Sixth Circuit, the federal government compared the system created by the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act to that used by the securities industry, “where private self-regulatory organizations are subject to oversight by the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
According to the brief, HISA can write and propose regulations for the horse racing industry, but ultimate rulemaking authority lies with the FTC.
“The FTC can modify a proposed rule by rejecting it and directing HISA to revise it and resubmit it,” the government explained. “And the FTC can promulgate rules itself, without HISA’s participation, whenever doing so is necessary to serve the Act’s purposes of safeguarding the health and safety of horses and the integrity of horse racing.”
Attorney Matthew McGill of Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher argued Wednesday on behalf of the states and emphasized the relative lack of power the FTC has to change or reject rules adopted by HISA.
“Rules [created under the Act] are insulated from oversight,” he said.
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, a George W. Bush appointee, asked the attorney why the legislation didn’t follow the SEC model exactly to ensure proper oversight.
“I can’t figure it out,” Sutton quipped.
McGill said it could have been the result of the FTC’s lack of knowledge of the horse racing industry, but admitted to the court his answer was speculative.
The attorney went on to say the SEC is required to enact rules that further the goals of the legislation used to create it, while “the FTC has no similar mandate here.”
“All the FTC can do,” he continued, “is make recommendations to change rules, and HISA is not required to [make the changes].”
Sutton probed into the heart of the matter near the conclusion of McGill’s arguments, asking why oversight of the industry being placed in the hands of a private entity is harmful.
“[The nondelegation clause] protects liberty,” the attorney said. “It ensures regulations are made by individuals who are accountable to elected officials.”
Justice Department attorney Courtney Dixon argued on behalf of the federal government and told the panel the “FTC has sole authority to make rules.”
“Why don’t they act like it?” Sutton asked.
Dixon assured the three-judge panel the commission reviews every rule proposed by HISA and that none take effect until they have passed its independent review process.
U.S. Circuit Judge R. Guy Cole Jr., a Bill Clinton appointee, asked the government’s attorney if she had any examples of rules being rejected by the commission. Dixon admitted she did not, but emphasized the current setup has only been implemented for a short period of time.
Attorney Pratik Shah of Akin Gump argued on behalf of HISA and urged the panel to adopt the U.S. Supreme Court’s precedent in Sunshine Anthracite Coal Co. v. Adkins.
Adkins, which dealt with the price of coal and was decided in 1940 by the nation’s high court, upheld what Shah described as a “parallel arrangement” to the one found in the current dispute.
HISA’s attorney pointed out that while his client comes up with the rules, they cannot be implemented without the review process established by the legislation and carried out by the FTC.
Sutton remained skeptical.
“If the FTC is subordinate to HISA [in certain situations], that is a serious problem,” he said.
In his rebuttal, McGill emphasized the FTC can only put forth temporary rules under the current scheme and is “utterly powerless” to change rules adopted by HISA.
U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Griffin, another George W. Bush appointee, rounded out the panel.
No timetable has been set for the court’s decision.
from Courthouse News
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