Articles Tagged with federal court

Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) recently proposed the Electronic Court Records Reform Act, which, if passed, would eliminate the fee structure of PACER, the federal court filing database. PACER presently charges users up to 10 cents per page and a maximum of $3 per document for these public record documents. The bill would also improve public access to federal court filings by requiring that documents be posted to PACER within five days of being filed in federal court.

A federal district court judge in Illinois has granted preliminary approval to a settlement between State Farm and a class of plaintiffs claiming that the insurance giant created a RICO enterprise to bankroll the election of a judge to the state's high court. Illinois Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Karmeier was elected in 2004, and in 2005 voted to overturn a $1.05 billion verdict against the insurer stemming from breach of contract claims regarding its alleged use of non-original parts in vehicles damaged in accidents. State Farm will not admit liability through the recently-proposed settlement, but will pay $250 million to class members. 

Court papers filed late last week show that according to the government's most recent estimates, close to 500 children, including 22 under the age of 5, remain in US custody after being separated from their parents at the border earlier this year pursuant to the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy. The greatest logistical challenge that government officials and immigrants' rights advocates have faced in reuniting many of these children with their families is that their parents were deported without them, and are now proving difficult if not impossible to locate.

With the November elections looming, North Carolina may be required to reorganize its congressional districts. Three federal judges in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that the legislature had violated the Constitution by gerrymandering districts to favor Republicans over Democrats, as openly acknowledged by Republican state legislators. The judges…

Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who won a decision before the U.S. Supreme Court in June, is suing again following his refusal to bake a cake to celebrate a gender transition. His refusal resulted in a probable cause finding by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission that he had violated Colorado’s public accommodations law.…

A lawsuit has been filed against an Ohio judge for rejecting the requests of transgender teens for changing their names to match their gender identities. The plaintiffs, who are the mothers of three transgender teens, claim that Judge Joseph Kirby’s rulings denying the name-change requests may violate the adolescents' constitutional rights. All of the teens have full support from their doctors and are going through therapy and medical treatment for their gender dysphoria.

A federal judge has struck down the policy of a high school in Ponte Vedra Beach, which had required an 18-year-old student to use a gender-neutral bathroom. The judge found that the policy was unjustified because the student did not threaten the safety or privacy of other students. Thus, the transgender student…

On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled against President Trump’s latest attempt to hinder a lawsuit that discusses Trump’s alleged violation of the U.S. Constitution through his continued business transactions with foreign governments. The ruling was made by U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte and will enable the plaintiffs, the attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia — to move forward with their lawsuit, which argues that Trump has violated anti-corruption clauses, known as emoluments clauses, in the U.S. Constitution.

In a status update filed Monday, the federal government informed the court that has ordered it to reunite over 2,500 separated children with their parents by July 26 in a class action filed by the ACLU seeking reunification of separated immigrant families, that over 460 parents of separated children over the age of 5 may have already been deported without their children. The government has continued to state that any parent who has left the country had the opportunity to bring their child with them, but advocacy groups question whether parents deported under those circumstances understood their options.

The law in Tennessee stated that failure to pay court fines and other fees associated with an arrest or imprisonment that lasted more than a year is grounds for taking away a person's driver’s license. The consequences of the law for such individuals means that they will have a more difficult time to earn income, as many employment opportunities require a valid driver’s license. Additionally, driving to and from work without a valid driver’s license runs the risk of getting fined or arrested if caught.