Results tagged “supremecourt”

Dude, the Manhattan Supreme Court Website got so pwn'd yesterday! Someone out there in computerland is mighty pissed about a recent court decision that forced Google to reveal the identity of a blogger who wrote bad things about former model Liskula Cohen. So yesterday visitors (all three of them) to the Manhattan Supreme Court website got quite a surprise...

Today, President Obama held a White House reception to celebrate new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. However, Obama pointed out, "We're here not just to celebrate our extraordinary new Supreme Court justice and all those who've been a part of her journey to this day. We're here as well to celebrate an extraordinary moment for our nation." He noted, "While this is Justice Sotomayor's achievement, the result of her ability and determination, this moment is not just about her. It's about every child who will grow up thinking to him or herself, 'If Sonia Sotomayor can make it, then maybe I can, too.' This is a great day for America."

This morning, federal judge—and Bronx native with inspiring life story—Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in to the Supreme Court, making her the first Hispanic and third woman to serve on the nation's highest court. For the Judicial Oath, Sotomayor was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts, while her mother Celina Sotomayor held a bible and her brother Dr. Juan Louis Sotomayor looked on. The Judicial oath has justices promise to "administer justice without respect to persons and do equal right to the poor and to the rich."

Bronx native and federal judge Sonia Sotomayor found out she was confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court by watching it in the 8th floor of a Manhattan federal courthouse conference room. The Daily News reports that the cheers started when it was official and she received a phone call, "'Mommy, I have people here,' Sotomayor told her - to laughs in the room. They spoke briefly in Spanish before hanging up, and the misty-eyed Suprema nueva told her friends, 'My mother is so happy she's crying.'" And while celebrating at a party with her close friends, she wanted to know the Yankees' score and said that when she gets a break, "I'm going to go to a Yankee game." And the NY Times examined the pride the Puerto Rican community has taken with Sotomayor's rise, "In New York, many have welcomed the judge’s visibility during a summer when the most celebrated — and reviled — local politicians were two Puerto Rican state senators who brought the state government to a standstill by mounting an abortive coup against their fellow Democrats."

The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as an associate Supreme Court justice today, in a 68-31 vote. The NY Times reports, "Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation was never in much doubt, given Democrats’ numerical advantage in the Senate. But the final vote — 68 to 31 — represented a partisan divide. No Democrat voted against her, while all but 9 of the chamber’s 40 Republicans did so. Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, is ailing and did not vote." She will be the third female justice on the Supreme Court and (some say) the Court's first Hispanic justic.

With the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings over, a few Republican Senators have indicated their support for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, federal judge Sonia Sotomayor. CBS News reports that Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Indiana) said she was "clearly qualified to serve on the Supreme Court," while Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Florida) said he takes "great pride in her historic achievement." And Sen. Arlen Specter, the former Republican turned Democrat, said Sotomayor had "displayed intellect, restraint and judicial demeanor." Last night, The Daily Show's Wyatt Cenac visited the South Bronx native's high school, Cardinal Spellman, to "expose [her] gang ties and racist affiliations by talking to her former classmates." See video after the jump:

Today is expected to be the final day of confirmation hearings for federal judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's first nominee to the Supreme Court. Yesterday, Sotomayor was questioned about her views on abortion and the Second Amendment, and the Washington Post notes, "Like nominees of both parties before her, she declined to be forthcoming about a host of legal issues. Her demeanor was more relaxed, yet she took no chances, joking openly with Judiciary Committee members while increasingly avoiding their questions. By midafternoon yesterday, even two Democrats on the panel sounded frustrated by her long, legally detailed and often evasive replies."

During day 2 of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings, federal judge Sonia Sotomayor discussed her much-talked about 2001 remarks where she said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” Today, Politico reports that Sotomayor "publicly backed off the remarks... During the first day of direct exchanges between senators and the nominee at her confirmation hearings, Sotomayor said her statements were only intended to inspire women and Latinos pursuing careers in the law and were not meant to suggest they would make better judges than others." Sotomayor added that they were a "rhetorical flourish that fell flat... It left an impression that life experience commanded a result in a case but that’s clearly not what I do as a judge,” and said it was an unsuccessful play on former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's statement ("I can't see that on the issues that we address at the court that a wise old woman is going to decide a case differently than a wise old man").

Federal judge Sonia Sotomayor will face grilling from the Senate Judiciary Committee today as she begins confirmation hearings for a seat on the Supreme Court. The Obama administration is confident that the Bronx native will become the third woman to sit on the nation's highest court: The Daily News reports, "The White House released a photo of a casually dressed Obama flashing a full-grill grin during a call to wish the Bronx-raised judge good luck" and notes that Senator Chuck Schumer said, "She has wowed people [on both sides of the political aisle]," even suggesting she may get more than 78 yea votes.

After her nomination to the Supreme Court in May, Sonia Sotomayor will begin her confirmation hearings on Monday. The Daily News reports that among the "A-list of cops, prosecutors and pols" to testify are Mayor Bloomberg, former Yankee pitcher David Cone, Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau (her first boss), and ex-FBI director Louis Freeh. Cone was the union rep during the 1994 baseball strike and Freeh was a fellow U.S. District Court judge; Freeh told NPR, "I haven't read anything in her opinions that would make me think, from a conservative point of view, that there is anything 'radical' or off the mainstream." As for coverage of the hearings, they will be broadcast live on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News and will be available on various online news sites.

A man who spent 16 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit is angry all over again because the judge who dismissed his appeal over a procedural error is now on her way to the Supreme Court. When he was 16 years old, Jeffrey Deskovic was convicted of raping, beating and strangling a Peekskill High School classmate in a jealous fit of rage; he was finally exonerated in 2006 after DNA evidence was matched to a man serving time for another Westchester murder. But Deskovic could have been out much sooner had Sonia Sotomayor not rejected his habeas corpus petition appeal because the paperwork arrived four days late in 1997. Deskovic's lawyer blamed a clerk for providing the wrong deadline, but Sotomayor ruled that the "alleged reliance of Deskovic’s attorney on verbal misinformation from the court clerk" was his problem. Needless to say, all the liberal praise for Sotomayor rings a bit hollow for Deskovic, who tells the Times, "To hear that a judge who put procedure over innocence could be moving to a higher court is very upsetting to me."

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings would begin on July 13. However, Politico reports that Republicans are "infuriated." Apparently Committee chairman Pat Leahy set the date "without informing Republicans on the Judiciary Committee"; Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), the senior Republican on the committee, said, "I don't think it’s a good way to begin the proceedings." Leahy pointed out that this schedule follows what was done for Justice John Roberts in 2005: "That agreement was reached before the Committee received the answers to the bipartisan questionnaire, and before the Committee had received any of the 75,000 pages of documents from his years working in Republican administrations. If 48 days were sufficient to prepare for that hearing, in accordance with our agreement and the initial schedule, it is certainly adequate time to prepare for the confirmation hearing for Judge Sotomayor." In the meantime, former First Lady Laura Bush, who hoped her husband would replace Sandra Day O'Connor with a female justice (instead, Samuel Alito was chosen) said of Sotomayor's nomination, "As a woman, I'm proud that there might be another woman on the court. I wish her well."

Less than a week before President Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia, the Justice Department has filed a brief before the Supreme Court urging justices not to hear a lawsuit brought by families of some of the 9/11 victims against the Saudi royal family. The lawsuit, which was formally filed by the families' insurance companies, contends that members of the House of Saud helped finance Al Qaeda preceding the 9/11 attacks. A district court threw out the lawsuit, finding that the Saudi royal family has legal protection under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act. The Justice Department says their filing had nothing to do with the President's upcoming visit, and was just "coincidental." (A spokesperson explains that the brief had to be filed soon because the Supreme Court is deciding whether to hear the case before their June recess.) Kristen Breitweiser, a leader of the families, tells the Times, "I find this reprehensible. One would have hoped that the Obama administration would have taken a different stance than the Bush administration, and you wonder what message this sends to victims of terrorism around the world."

With federal judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court, everyone is predicting how things will turn out during the Senate confirmation hearings. Newsday looks at how Sotomayor actually has many similarities with Justice Samuel Alito, who was appointed by President Bush in 2005: "Both grew up Roman Catholic in modest homes wanting to be judges, attended the same Ivy League schools, became prosecutors in their first full-time jobs and served more than a decade on the circuit court. And both have remained closely tied to their ethnic roots and the communities where they grew up: Alito, 59, as an Italian American in New Jersey, and Sotomayor, 54, as a Puerto Rican in the Bronx." And, as Sotomayor's impartiality gets the once over, keep in mind that Alito said during his confirmation hearings, "When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account."

Watching her daughter be nominated to the Supreme Court by President Obama brought Celina Sotomayor Lopez to tears on Tuesday. Obama noted her commitment to her children during his introduction of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, "Her mother worked six days a week as a nurse to provide for Sonia and her brother -- who is also here today, is a doctor and a terrific success in his own right. But Sonia's mom bought the only set of encyclopedias in the neighborhood, sent her children to a Catholic school called Cardinal Spellman out of the belief that with a good education here in America all things are possible." Now the 82-year-old is all smiles, too, telling reporters, "Words cannot tell you how proud I am...I never told them [Sonia and her brother] to do anything for a living. I didn't tell them to be this or be that. I just said be the best you can always be. Be honest. If you have to clean toilets, that's fine." She added, "I am feeling great, but very tired...I guess the best word is overwhelmed."

Federal judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court is front page news around the country and especially in her hometown of New York. And as Republicans gear up to voice criticism of her, Democrats are ready—and excited. The former executive director of the Democratic National Committee Mark Siegel tells the Daily News, "I'm not only ecstatic, I pray that the Republicans do a frontal attack on her. Thirty-one percent [of the Hispanic vote] is too much for them. I want them to go down to three." And a Florida pollster who surveyed Hispanic voters for Obama's campaign told Politico, "The picture of an African-American president standing next to a Hispanic woman as his first choice for the Supreme Court — that picture is the worst nightmare for the Republican Party."

Radio host Rush Limbaugh had plenty to say about Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court: "Here you have a racist — you might want to soften that, and you might want to say a reverse racist... [Liberals] of course, say that minorities cannot be racists because they don't have the power to implement their racism. Well, those days are gone, because reverse racists certainly do have the power. ... Obama is the greatest living example of a reverse racist, and now he's appointed one.” Limbaugh was referring to to Sotomayor's past statement during a speech (read it here), "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,"—and then noted how "wise men like Oliver Wendell Holmes and Justice Cardozo voted on cases which upheld both sex and race discrimination in our society." Politico reports that Limbaugh also complained about moderate Republicans (of course!), "I'm the one doing the heavy lifting. Colin Powell panders to moderate Republicans. If the moderates in the Republican Party offer no way to address this danger, then they are useless.”

Now that U.S. Court of Appeals judge—and Bronx native—Sonia Sotomayor has been nominated to the Supreme Court, her fellow New Yorkers are rejoicing. Mayor Bloomberg issued a statement noting that he had told President Obama that "Sonia Sotomayor would be an outstanding choice for the Supreme Court, and people whose legal opinions I greatly respect speak very highly of her," and also said, "She has been an incredibly good federal judge, and having risen from humble beginnings in the Bronx, she brings a perspective that will serve the Court - and our nation - very well. Her story is a perfect example of the kind of opportunity that is available in this City - and this country - to those who devote themselves to their dreams. Judge Sotomayor was first recommended to the federal bench by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan - and of all his great legacies, she may prove to be one of the most important.”

Here's the video feed of President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. If appointed, she will be the first Hispanic and third woman Justice. And she would join five fellow Catholics on the bench. And when Sotomayor's name was raised in nomination speculation earlier this month, the Daily News had an editorial noting, "Up from the Bronxdale Houses via Cardinal Spellman High School to serious consideration for the highest bench in the land. That's a hell of a journey, one that deserves note by the young in today's hard-scrabble city."

Officials say that President Obama will nominated U.S. Court of Appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to fill David Souter's seat on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor, who grew up in a Bronx public housing project and was named to the federal bench by President George H.W. Bush, has been mentioned as a possible nominee since even before the election. The announcement will be made at 10:15 a.m.; the Caucus reports, "The president reached his decision over the long Memorial Day weekend...The president narrowed his list to four, according to people close to the selection process, including Federal Appeals Judge Diane P. Wood of Chicago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Solicitor General Elena Kagan." Obama hopes to have his pick confirmed by the time Senate recesses in August. SCOTUS blog has an interesting post on a Sotomayor nomination: "For Republican Senators to come after Judge Sotomayor is not only hopeless when it comes to confirmation (something that did not deter Democrats in their attacks on Roberts and Alito) but a strategy that risks exacting a very significant political cost among Hispanics and independent voters generally."

U.S. Court of Appeals judge—and Bronx native— Sonia Sotomayor is in the headlines as a possible candidate to fill Supreme Court Justice David Souter's seat. President Obama said of his selection process, "I will seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity."

President Obama decided to address the media about Supreme Court Justice David Souter's retirement and made an unexpected cameo during White House press secretary Robert Gibbs' press briefing. After joking needing to do Gibbs' job for him, Obama said he just spoke to Souter and called him a "fair-minded and independent judge" and noted how he "consistently defied labels and rejected absolutes, focusing instead on just one task -- reaching a just result in the case that was before him." The President added told Souter that he was "incredibly grateful for his dedicated service."

After more than 18 years on the Supreme Court, Justice David Souter will retire at the age of 69. Appointed by George H.W. Bush in 1990 to replace Justice William Brennan, the formerly conservative Souter went on to establish a reputation as the "surprise justice" on the Supreme Court, frequently siding with the Court's more liberal wing. His retirement will give President Obama his first opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court justice, but is unlikely to change the ideological makeup of the Court. (There is speculation that Obama will appoint a woman, since there is only one female justice on the court.) Souter, a lifelong bachelor, is reportedly in fine health, and Washington insiders theorize that he's simply ready to quit DC, a city he's never liked, and retire to his family farm in rural New Hampshire. Others suggest Souter was waiting to step down until Bush was out of office; it's said that he was appalled by the Court's decision in the 2000 Florida ballot disputes that handed the presidency to George W. Bush. One colleague tells CNN: "He was very aggrieved by December 12, 2000. He believed it was the ultimate politicization of the Supreme Court."

Aww, one look at that adorable Yorkie and you get why humans are bitterly fighting over who gets to gaze into those big blue eyes day after day. Ravely Arias of Douglaston, the original owner of "Panda," has filed a lawsuit in Queens Supreme Court accusing her old friend Leandro Rohde of refusing to give back her dog. According to Arias, she temporarily turned Panda over to Rohde in January because her work schedule left her unable to adequately care him. But now that she has a new job, she wants Panda back and Rohde won't surrender! Arias tells the Post, "The guy fell in love with him, and I feel bad." But Rhodes, a marketing director who lives on the Upper East Side, insists Arias gave him the dog because Panda was "putting a crimp in her social life." He says, "The only thing she asked was that she could visit him on Sundays. She never said it was temporary. I'm not a dog hotel." The only way this story could get better is if Arias kidnaps Panda and goes on the lam with various doggie disguises, prompting a nationwide dog-hunt. And previously on Dog & Order...

In one corner, you have Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer; in the other, there's Cardinal Edward Egan, head of the NY Archdiocese. And in the middle, it's Fordham's Law School, which is drawing heat from Catholics for bestowing its annual Fordham Stein Prize on Breyer. Breyer, appointed by Bill Clinton in 1994, has supported abortion rights (as have other Fordham Stein honorees), prompting a petition opposing the award. In particular, Breyer's opinion in Stenberg v. Carhart--known at the case about partial-birth abortions--where the majority found "Nebraska’s statute criminalizing the performance of 'partial birth abortion[s]' violates the Federal Constitution"--bothers Catholics. A NY Archdiocese spokesman said Egan called Fordham and was "confident that a mistake of this sort will not happen again," though the AP points out other prize honorees have supported abortion rights.

On tonight's CBS Evening News, Katie Couric posed questions about Roe v. Wade to both vice presidential candidates, as well as a follow-up about any Supreme Court decisions they disagreed with. Joe Biden why he thought Roe v. Wade was a good decision, Sarah Palin why it was a bad one.

The Supreme Court ruled that Washington D.C.'s ban on handgun ownership is unconstitutional; per the Times; the five of the court's nine justices found "the Constitution protects an individual’s right to have a gun, not just the right of the states to maintain militias."

Today the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by 11 Brooklyn property owners and tenants whose homes and businesses would be razed to make way for the $4 billion Atlantic Yards project. Coincidentally, today marks the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s narrow 5-4 ruling in the case of Kelo v. City of New London, which affirmed the government’s power to use eminent domain to accommodate private development.

The California State Supreme Court refused to put a hold on gay marriage in its state, denying a requested stay by opponents to the legal and social evolution that is scheduled to go into effect June 17th. The decision was 4-3 against the stay.

If you are one of the 700,000 people who pass through Grand Central Terminal every day there are things that you may take for granted or just may not know about the great train station. Thanks to Metro-North's Dan Brucker, Gothamist can reveal some of them to you.