Nota Bene

The Associated Press reports:

The military cannot automatically discharge people because they’re gay, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in the case of a decorated flight nurse who sued the Air Force over her dismissal.

The three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not strike down the military’s “dont ask, dont tell” policy. But they reinstated Maj. Margaret Witts’ lawsuit, saying the Air Force must prove that her dismissal furthered the military’s goals of troop readiness and unit cohesion.

The “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue, dont harass” policy prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being gay or engaging in homosexual activity.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Sacramento Bee reports:

The state’s high court ruled Monday that a Santa Barbara deputy district attorney who helped in the making of the movie “Alpha Dog” can stay on the real-life death penalty case on which the film is based.

In a similar ruling Monday, the court reinstated a Santa Barbara prosecutor who was taken off a case after she published a crime novel with some of the same features as the actual case.

In the “Alpha Dog” case, a lower appeals court had removed Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen after he turned over probation reports, police files and other sensitive materials to director Nick Cassavetes. “Alpha Dog,” a fictionalized account of the case that starred Bruce Willis, Sharon Stone and Justin Timberlake, was released last year.

You can access the Alpha Dog case here and the second, related case here.

Reuters reports:

American victims of bombings and rocket attacks in Israel have sued Swiss bank UBS AG for more than $500 million, accusing the bank of helping fund the militants behind the attacks through dealings with Iran.

The lawsuit seeks damages from Switzerland’s largest bank for more than 50 U.S. citizens hurt or relatives of those killed in bombings in Israel between 1997 and 2006 that it said were carried out by militant groups Hezbollah, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

UBS AG broke several 1996 U.S. laws that prohibit persons and companies from engaging with state sponsors of terrorism and were designed to impede Iran’s access to foreign capital, the suit said.

The lawsuit, filed on Friday in federal court in New York, cited U.S. government reports that conclude Iran has been the main sponsor of Hezbollah and Hamas since 1996, including providing tens of millions of cash annually. The U.S. government considers Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations.

“UBS knew full well that the cash dollars it was providing to a state-sponsor of terrorism such as Iran would be used to cause and facilitate terrorist attacks by Iranian-sponsored terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah and PIJ,” the lawsuit said.

The Law Firm Strategy Blog opines:

Have you heard of Twitter yet? Perhaps not. And hopefully not, as this post is intended to explain one of the latest web-tools on our collective horizon.

What you should know is this: Politicians in the current US election are levering it, news outlets like CNN & Canada’s CBC are offering headlines that can be mixed into your reading stream, and companies like Southwest airlines are using it to interact with customers & take feedback.

It’s widely considered the fastest growing tool of web influence, and will at some point have a trickle down effect for the legal industry.

(Via Home Office Lawyer)

The Associated Press reports:

A former USA Today reporter facing fines for failing to reveal her sources for stories about the 2001 anthrax attacks said Saturday that news organizations need to go on the offensive in the fight to protect the First Amendment.

“As we all know, the news business is on a collective nervous breakdown,” Toni Locy told a coalition of open-government and press groups. “It’s time to stop running. It’s time to turn and fight. If we don’t fight for the First Amendment, who will?”

Locy, who now teaches journalism at West Virginia University, spoke at the annual convention of the National Freedom of Information Coalition.

She said the country needs a shield law that would protect reporters from having to reveal their sources.

“The First Amendment needs some help,” she said. “In this environment that we’re in now, it needs some help.”

Locy is appealing an order from U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton that requires her to pay as much as $5,000 a day until she gives up her sources for stories about the government’s investigation of the anthrax attacks.

Fox Business News reports:

New torture claims have been leveled at two U.S. military contractors by a former Abu Ghraib “ghost” detainee who was wrongly imprisoned and later released without charge, according to a lawsuit filed today in Los Angeles federal court by his U.S. legal team.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Emad Al-Janabi, a 43-year-old Iraqi blacksmith, who alleges that he was beaten and forced from his home by people in U.S. military uniforms and civilian clothing in September 2003. He was released from Abu Ghraib without charge in July 2004.

Red Orbit reports

A consortium of health care advocacy groups filed a class-action lawsuit Monday against the state of California, hoping to block a historic

10 percent across-the-board cut in Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal payments scheduled to take effect July 1.

The groups - including the California Medical Association, the California Hospital Association and the California Dental Association - contend that lawmakers overstepped their constitutional authority, and that the cuts would violate the state’s obligation to ensure that Medi-Cal patients have the same access to health care as the general public.

“Medi-Cal already doesn’t cover the cost of providing care,” said Richard Frankenstein, president of the California Medical Association. “If these cuts take effect, Medi-Cal patients will be forced to seek care in already overcrowded hospital emergency rooms, which undermines access to care for all Californians.”

The U.S. Daily reports:

Dan Rather fired off a new lawsuit against his former network Tuesday, charging that CBS News labeled the anchor “too hot to handle” and prevented him from being hired by other networks after his acrimonious departure.

Rather was rebuffed in an earlier suit, when many of his claims were knocked down by a New York state judge. But the judge also allowed Rather to resubmit his claims.

In the latest filing, Rather claims that CNN, ABC, NBC and other networks met to talk about possible employment but that all eventually declined for reasons that included, according to the lawsuit, Rather’s having had “too much baggage.” The claim says he lost other business opportunities as well. He later signed with HDNet.

CNN reports:

The Supreme Court, in a 7-2 ruling, upheld Kentucky’s use of lethal injection as a means of executing prisoners, ruling that the method — used in 35 states — is properly and humanely applied.The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that Kentucky’s use of lethal injection is not “cruel and unusual.”

At issue was whether the most common method of capital punishment can cause excruciating pain for death row inmates, violating the Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” and thereby giving inmates a proper challenge in court.

The justices had never directly addressed the fundamental question over the constitutionality of the chemical “cocktail” of drugs used to execute convicted killers. All but one of the states that perform executions use the three-drug mixture.

You can read the opinion in Baze v. Rees here.

AP News reports:

A Los Angeles-based company known for its light deserts is shelling out some heavy cash to settle a class action filed by disgruntled customers.Pinkberry chief executive Ron Graves said Thursday that the frozen yogurt chain had settled the suit over whether its product was, technically, frozen yogurt.

Pinkberry acknowledged that it didn’t follow state guidelines requiring frozen yogurt to be made off-site, not in stores. Graves said the product is now mixed in a dairy.

As part of the settlement, Pinkberry will give $750,000 to two Southern California charities.