A lack of judges has created a backlog of cases that now averages a year and eight months before conclusion. In some cities, the wait is much longer: Denver (819 days), Phoenix (806 days), Chicago (782 days), Los Angeles (768 days), Houston (636 days) and New York (605 days). Part of the reason for the delay is that the federal government prioritized cases involving undocumented minors and detained families. That pushed others who were waiting for a hearing to the back of the line.   read more

The Tribal Equal Access to Voting Act was recently proposed to reduce the distances that Native Americans and Alaska Natives must travel to reach a polling place.The bill would require elections agencies to put at least one office in each tribal community that requests it. “Our rights should be automatic,” said tribe cultural leader William Main. “Counties and states run elections, so they should be required to contact us and say, ‘Do you want an office? And where should we put it?’”   read more

The restrictions in both states came at the behest of oil and gas producers, who are big contributors to GOP politicians. Municipalities and environmental groups opposed the Oklahoma bill signed by Gov. Fallin. “There’s nothing in the bill that says cities can have the authority to protect local drinking water supplies,” said Norman Mayor Rosenthal. She's concerned about wastewater from fracking operations ending up in Lake Thunderbird, which supplies drinking water to about 200,000 people.   read more

Judge Durkin is the brother of Jim Durkin, the current Republican leader of the Illinois House. Despite the potential conflicts of interest, there has been no indication that Durkin will step down or be removed from the case. One expert said Durkin might bring up the contributions in court and ask if either side has an objection. “He could ask if anyone has a problem with that. Certainly, the government won’t have a problem with that,” said law professor Stephen Gillers.   read more

One day before the fourth anniversary of Denyakin’s shooting, Rankin shot and killed William Chapman, an 18-year-old unarmed black teenager suspected of shoplifting from a Walmart. Prior to the Denyankin shooting, police supervisors had been warned that Rankin had use-of-force issues and was “dangerous.” Portsmouth Police Chief Edward Hargis refused to say why Rankin had been allowed to stay on the street after the problems had been reported. “That’s a personnel matter..." he said.   read more

The statistic is based on the fact that 49 people who were not carrying a weapon were shot to death during the first 151 days of 2015. Among these victims, two-thirds were black or Hispanic. In addition to the 49 unarmed individuals, another 13 carrying toy guns were shot to death by law enforcement. The investigation also found that at least 385 people—whether armed or unarmed—were shot and killed by police nationwide during the first five months of this year, an average of more than two a day.   read more

Over the course of 50 years, more than 130 Nazis received social security checks after they had emigrated to the U.S. following World War II. The recipients included former Nazi officers, leaders of execution squads, and guards who served at concentration camps. Most received the payments while working at blue-collar jobs in various cities across the U.S. The SSA made the payments all within federal rules and laws in place at the time.   read more

North Carolina’s Pat McCrory, a former Duke Power executive, last week vetoed two bills opposed by progressives. One was an “ag-gag” bill, which would have blocked workers from recording video or sound with the intention of reporting abuses and violations. McCrory’s other veto scuttled a law that would have allowed magistrates in that state to decline to perform same-sex marriages.   read more

Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal once supported Common Core educational standards. He subsequently signed into law legislation instituting the Common Core standards in his state. Now, since he’s running for president and Common Core standards are opposed by the Tea Party wing of the GOP, Jindal has changed his tune—so dramatically, in fact, that he’s suing the federal Department of Education, claiming Washington is imposing the standards on his state.   read more

The Environmental Integrity Project says it obtained emails revealing that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) privately told members of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, the state’s electric power trade association, they could release air pollutants above what is acceptable under the federal Clean Air Act during the startup, shutdown, and maintenance of coal plants.   read more

The low national rate belies the fact that two U.S. states have much higher rates of following through on capital punishment sentences. In Virginia, 110 out of 152 people put on death row were executed, or 72%. Baumgartner attributed Virginia’s high rate to the fact that it limits the time one can appeal a death penalty sentence to one year. The state with the second highest rate is Texas, which executed nearly half of its prisoners to receive the death penalty, 508 out of 1,075, or 47%.   read more

“What this Court has seen along the way is a hopeful transformation of a school board which was initially tentative, recalcitrant, and partially uninformed regarding the depth of its responsibilities in the desegregation area,” wrote Judge Drell. “That board has now matured..." Officials must comply with adoption of a uniform admissions process and ensuring classrooms are desegregated. It must also change its policies resulting in blacks being suspended or expelled more than whites.   read more

The case involves the shooting of Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez, a Mexican teenager shot to death by a U.S. Border Patrol agent who opened fire on rock throwers on the other side of the border. An autopsy showed that Rodriguez had been shot about 10 times, mostly in the back. The boy’s family claims the agent, Lonnie Swartz, violated the Fourth and Fifth amendments by using “excessive and unjustified” force against the boy, whom they say was not involved in the rock throwing.   read more

Never before has a U.S. court considered granting legal protection to primates from being “unlawfully detained.” Plaintiff attorney Wise pointed out that detainees have won the right to use habeas corpus to challenge their indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay—a move opposed by some in legal and government circles. He even compared the fates of the chimps to African Americans held under slavery. “It’s not to protect human beings,” Wise said, referring to the writ. “It’s to protect autonomy.”   read more

It appears that the days are over when most of America wagged a disapproving finger at anyone who dared to engage in sex outside of marriage. As of this decade, 55% of Americans approved of premarital sex, compared with 29% who felt this way in the early 1970s, according to a new study. Among those 18-29 in age, acceptance of premarital sex has only grown. In the ‘70s, 47% of Baby Boomers felt sex before marriage was “not wrong at all.” By the 2010, Millennials’ approval registered at 62%.   read more

The oil giants “are pressing ahead with investments despite...that two-thirds of proven fossil fuel reserves will need to remain in the ground to prevent the earth from warming above pre-industrial levels – a proposed temperature limit beyond which scientists warn of spiraling and irreversible climate change.” Shell's van Beurden received $32.2 million linked to delivering projects including oil platforms above deepwater wells in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Guinea and South China Sea.   read more