By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The first was Vermont's campaign finance law setting the lowest contribution limits in the country — shot down by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The same fate befell the state's attempt to restrict drug company efforts to collect data on doctors' prescribing habits. On a 6-3 vote, the justices said Vermont's law was an unconstitutional infringement on free speech by drug and data collecting companies.

Now, in yet another case that has garnered national attention, the office of Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell has suffered a stinging defeat, this time in a federal trial over the state's bid to close the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Some observers are starting to see a pattern — one in which Sorrell and his team have gone to the legal big leagues three times and fallen flat on each attempt.

"The state now has sort of a reputation in the 2nd Circuit and the Supreme Court of not having their act together," said Patrick Parenteau, a former state commissioner of environmental conservation who is now a professor at Vermont Law School.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

President Barack Obama heads to California and Washington state this week to drum up support for endangered incumbents Barbara Boxer and Patty Murray in the last days of a campaign that finds his Democrats playing defense around the country.

Wins in those two Democratic-leaning states -- most polls show Boxer and Murray with slight leads -- likely would be enough to ensure Democrats retain narrow control of the Senate even if Republicans sweep the other competitive races.

"Right now, Democrats have their best chances on the West Coast. They are in relatively good shape out there compared with the rest of the country," said Steven Schier, a political scientist at Carleton College in Minnesota.

Public discontent with Obama and the economy has sparked widespread predictions of a Democratic election defeat, with Republicans favored to gain more than the 39 seats they need to seize control of the House of Representatives and perhaps even the 10 seats needed for a Senate majority.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

It’s yet another of case of discrimination within the United States Capitol Police (USCP).  This time, the victim is a female Special Agent assigned to protect one the nation’s most powerful politicians. Special Agent Luanne Moran, who was assigned to the USCP’s Dignitary Protection Division (DPD) for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has filed a sex discrimination and retaliation complaint that is now pending in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Moran v. U.S. Capitol Police.  Special Agent Moran’s complaint is based on discrimination and retaliation that she has suffered since 2008 for opposing sexual harassment by a male Capitol Police supervisor, specifically sexist and degrading comments he made toward other female agents.  

Special Agent Moran has worked for USCP for 15 years without a single blemish on her record.  It wasn’t until she opposed the alleged sexual harassment that the USCP began to make retaliatory and inaccurate misconduct allegations against her, which were aimed at tarnishing her reputation and removing her from the Capitol Police force. Since she filed her complaint, she has been on paid administrative leave pending USCP’s decision whether to fire her. 

This isn’t the first time the USCP has been embroiled in this type of claim.  The agency has a long and infamous history of employment discrimination complaints that that date back decades.  The most notable case involved more than 200 African American members of Capitol Police who filed a class action suit in 2001 that accused the agency of widespread harassment, retaliation and even vandalism.

In fact, Special Agent Moran had to file a previous discrimination complaint in 2007, which sought her assignment to the Speaker’s Protection Detail, in an effort to break through the glass ceiling for female agents at USCP.  That complaint was settled in a satisfactory manner, but has contributed to the discrimination and retaliation she has faced at the USCP since then.  “This time, maybe Speaker Pelosi will step in and do the right thing to protect Luanne Moran, a dedicated female Agent who puts her life on the line to protect the Speaker every day she comes to work,” says Agent Moran’s attorney, John P. Mahoney, Esq., a Partner and the Head of the Labor & Employment Law Practice Area at the Law Firm of Tully Rinckey, PLLC in Washington, D.C.  

The United States District Court Complaint in Agent Moran’s current case is captioned as Moran v. Capitol Police Bd., Civil Action No. 09-1819 (RMC) (DDC 2010).

For more information about the case, or to speak with Special Agent Moran and/or her attorney, John P. Mahoney, please contact Ali Skinner at (202) 787-1900 or at askinner@1888law4life.com.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Obama administration has decided to launch an investigation into various Chinese practices that a major U.S. union says are robbing American workers of jobs in the burgeoning field of clean energy such as solar and wind power.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in announcing the decision that the administration considered the whole area of green technology as vitally important to America's future economic prospects.

The United Steelworkers union filed a 5,800-page petition last month contending that the Chinese government was giving Chinese companies unfair advantages over U.S. firms through the use of government subsidies that are prohibited under global trade rules.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Republican Meg Whitman's former maid said Tuesday she's not a Democratic pawn in California's race for governor, but her attorney refused again to provide key details about her claims that Whitman employed her for nearly a decade despite knowing she was in the U.S. illegally.

Nicky Diaz Santillan, a Mexican who Whitman says used a fraudulently obtained Social Security card and California driver's license, dismissed claims by the GOP nominee that she was part of a Democratic smear intended to damage Whitman's standing with voters, particularly Latinos.

"I make my own decisions and I am not anyone's puppet," Diaz Santillan said in a prepared statement she read at the Los Angeles office of her attorney, Gloria Allred. "Nobody made me do it."

Allred, who has longtime Democratic ties and donated money to Brown when he ran for attorney general , has yet to disclose details about how she became involved in the case or disclose who, if anyone, is picking up the bill for her legal work.

Allred says Diaz Santillan was referred to her by another lawyer, whom she will not name. Allred didn't answer directly when asked if that lawyer had ties to Whitman's opponent, Democrat Jerry Brown, or his Democratic allies.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Supreme Court says it won't stop a special election for President Barack Obama's old Senate seat that leaves out current Illinois Sen. Roland Burris.

Burris earlier this month asked the high court to block plans for a special Senate election that would exclude him.

The election will decide who serves out the final two months of the term that began when Obama entered the Senate in 2005.

Burris argued that the federal courts overstepped their authority by declaring that the candidates would be the same people running for the new Senate term. It meant that Burris, who's not seeking another term, couldn't run. He'd leave office soon after November 2nd instead of serving until January.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

California's highest court on Wednesday refused to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state's attorney general to appeal a federal ruling that overturned the state's gay marriage ban.

The state Supreme Court denied a conservative legal group's request to force the state officials to defend the voter-approved ban.

The court did not explain why it rejected the emergency petition filed by the Pacific Justice Institute. The institute had argued that the attorney general and governor were required to uphold all laws, including initiatives passed by voters.

Earlier Wednesday, lawyers for Attorney General Jerry Brown and Schwarzenegger filed letters with the court maintaining state officers have authority to choose which laws they challenge or defend in court.

"The governor, like any litigant, has complete discretion over his own litigation strategy, including whether or not to appeal an order," counsel Andrew Stroud wrote for Schwarzenegger. "Here, the governor exercised his discretion and decided not to file an appeal."

Both men have declined to appeal Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's Aug. 4 ruling that found the ban, known as Proposition 8, violated gay Californians' civil rights.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

The Obama administration is asking a federal appeals court to lift an order blocking federal funding for some stem cell research, a day after being turned down by the judge who issued the order.

The administration told a federal appeals court in Washington on Wednesday that the order by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth stops "funding for embryonic stem cell research in its tracks."

Lamberth rejected the administration's request to let funding continue while it pursues an appeal of his order.

Medical researchers value stem cells because they are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body. Research eventually could lead to cures for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Georgia's top court is considering the legality of the state's oft-challenged law that requires voters to show photo identification before they cast their ballots.

The Georgia Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday on a new type of legal challenge brought by the law's opponents.

Earlier efforts to block the law were filed in federal court and contended it violated voters' rights under the U.S. Constitution. But the latest case brought by the Democratic Party of Georgia claims the requirement violates the Georgia Constitution.

Critics have long tried to block the law, claiming it places an undue burden on poor, disabled people and minorities. But supporters say it's needed to combat voter fraud.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.

By Breaking Legal News, Breaking Legal News.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says television has profoundly changed confirmation hearings but declined to say whether she'd oppose televising arguments.

Ginsburg told a Colorado judicial conference Friday that TV has made Supreme Court confirmation hearings much longer because senators posture for cameras.

"The people on the Senate Judiciary Committee have all that free time" to stump for the audience, Ginsburg said.

Ginsburg demurred, however, on the question of televising arguments before the high court. She talked about former justices who opposed cameras.

Without naming anyone currently on the court, Ginsburg said, "When you're sitting on a collegial bench, if there is any of you who would be extremely discomforted ... you would defer to that colleague."

Ginsburg talked to several hundred judges gathered for a judicial conference of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court. The justice delivered a speech written by her recently deceased husband, Martin Ginsburg. Martin Ginsburg, a prominent lawyer in his own right, was originally scheduled to address the gathering and prepared the remarks before his death from cancer in June.

After reading the speech, she Ginsburg joined the chief jurist of Canada's Supreme Court, Beverly McLachlin, in a question-and-answer session.

Originally posted at Breaking Legal News. Please visit http://www.breakinglegalnews.com/.