Environmental Law

Afternoon Briefs: Parking lot shooter’s self-defense bid fails; lawyer charged in alleged Mercedes attack

Shooter of unarmed black man found guilty of manslaughter; sheriff hadn’t charged him Michael Drejka’s self-defense argument didn’t succeed when Florida jurors convicted him of manslaughter Friday for fatally shooting a black man who shoved him to the ground. Prosecutors brought charges after the Pinellas County sheriff declined to charge…

Aug 26, 2019 4:17 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Once-high-profile lawyer disbarred; prescription diet cat food lawsuit reinstated

Lawyer who represented Oklahoma City bomber is disbarred A Colorado lawyer who once represented Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh has been disbarred at age 77. Dennis Hartley’s misconduct included converting client funds, disobeying a prior suspension order and failing to report drunken driving and impaired driving convictions. A lawyer who…

Aug 22, 2019 4:02 PM CDT

Tony the truck-stop tiger wasn’t an individual under FOIA, 9th Circuit rules

A captive tiger named Tony wasn’t an individual under a Freedom of Information Act provision that allows expedited processing of some records requests, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Aug 15, 2019 11:48 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: AG Barr blasts prosecutors and ‘prancing punks;’ self-defense bid fails for A$AP Rocky

• On Monday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr blasted progressive prosecutors and “prancing punks” who recently pelted police with water. District attorneys who style themselves as social justice reformers “spend their time undercutting the police, letting criminals off the hook, and refusing to enforce the law,” Barr said in his…

Aug 14, 2019 4:28 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Suit allowed over website’s bankruptcy-lawyer ban; judge resigns and ends case

• The California Supreme Court has revived bankruptcy lawyer Robert White’s civil rights suit against the online payment service Square. White contended that he was wrongly denied service by the company because of a user agreement that banned bankruptcy attorneys or debt collectors from using its services. The court said…

Aug 13, 2019 5:21 PM CDT

Supreme Court lifts injunction that had blocked military funding for border wall

U.S. Supreme Court

Jul 29, 2019 9:54 AM CDT

Suspended lawyer ordered to pay $3.4M in attorney fees to Chevron as contempt sanction

A suspended lawyer who was found in contempt of court for stonewalling Chevron’s efforts to collect a money judgment against him has been ordered to pay $3.4 million in attorney fees to the oil company. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered New York lawyer Steven Donziger to pay the attorney…

Jul 24, 2019 2:56 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Lawyer pleads guilty to courthouse parachute jump; cat declawing banned in this state

• The U.S. Department of Justice has informed former special counsel Robert Mueller that he is expected to confine his congressional testimony Wednesday to the boundaries of his public report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The DOJ warned that Mueller shouldn’t discuss the conduct of uncharged third…

Jul 23, 2019 4:24 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Unlicensed PD’s clients stick with plea deals; lawyer a no-show at sentencing

• Defendants whose plea bargains were handled by an unlicensed public defender in Madison County, Illinois, apparently aren’t interested in a do-over. All but one of the defendants whose cases involved jail time stuck with the same deal they received when the cases were handled by unlicensed law grad Kelcie…

Jul 15, 2019 4:45 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: James Comey’s daughter prosecutes Epstein; cop accused of planting drugs in cars

• A daughter of former FBI Director James Comey is one of the lead prosecutors in the federal sex trafficking case against billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Maurene Comey is an assistant U.S. Attorney in Manhattan. President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton were both acquaintances of Epstein, leading some conspiracy…

Jul 11, 2019 4:30 PM CDT

Lawyer is charged after shooting injured raccoon near courthouse

A Pennsylvania lawyer has been charged with reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct for shooting an injured raccoon near the Luzerne County Courthouse last month.

Jun 27, 2019 11:26 AM CDT

All charges dropped in Flint water case with promise of continuing investigation

Prosecutors in Michigan have dropped all pending criminal charges against officials accused in connection with the leaching of lead into the water supply in Flint. Prosecutors said they dropped the charges against eight defendants because of problems with the investigation under the previous attorney general, Bill Schuette, report the Detroit…

Jun 14, 2019 10:26 AM CDT

Fracking companies lost on trespassing, but a court just gave them a different win

A week after the West Virginia Supreme Court unanimously upheld the property rights of landowners battling one natural gas giant, the same court tossed out a challenge filed by another group of landowners against a different natural gas company.

Jun 13, 2019 11:10 AM CDT

Suits accuse dairy company of consumer fraud for touting ‘extraordinary care and comfort’ of cows

Two lawsuits filed in federal court in Chicago accuse the Fairlife milk company of consumer fraud for promoting its “extraordinary care and comfort” of dairy cows. The would-be class actions, filed June 11 and June 12, cite mistreatment of cows at the company’s northwest Indiana dairy, Fair Oaks Farms, that…

Jun 13, 2019 7:00 AM CDT

Judge orders transfer of gorilla from sanctuary to zoo; bacterial infection could aggravate trip

A federal judge in San Francisco has ordered that Ndume the gorilla be transferred from a California sanctuary to the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden this week amid a dispute over the advisability of travel. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg ordered the transfer of Ndume in two orders. In his…

Jun 11, 2019 7:00 AM CDT