Fogbow

northland10 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:42 pm

raison de arizona wrote: ↑Thu Sep 23, 2021 4:57 pm Spicey and Vought file suit over their dismal dismissal!

President Biden has no statutory authority to terminate Mr. Spicer’s and Mr. Vought’s appointments to the Board. The statute governing the Board provides for staggered threeyear terms, and it makes no provision or allowance for at-will presidential removal based on political affiliation or otherwise. See Wiener v. United States, 357 U.S. 349 (1958); Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, 295 U.S. 602, 623–24 (1935); In re Hennen, 38 U.S. 230, 260 (1839).
32. President Biden has no constitutional authority under Article II to terminate Mr. Spicer’s and Mr. Vought’s appointments to the Board because it is a purely advisory nonpartisan entity that does not wield any executive power. See Humphrey’s Executor, 295 U.S. 602; Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 140 S. Ct. 2183, 2199–2200 (2020).
33. President Biden’s threatened terminations of Mr. Spicer and Mr. Vought are therefore ultra vires, unlawful, violate plaintiffs’ due process rights, and should be enjoined.
34. Mr. Spicer and Mr. Vought bring their claims for relief under, inter alia, 5 U.S.C. § 704, 28 U.S.C. § 2201, and Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corp., 337 U.S. 682, 689– 91 (1949).
DEMAND FOR RELIEF
35. Mr. Spicer and Mr. Vought respectfully request the following relief:
a. A declaration that defendants lack authority to terminate Mr. Spicer’s and Mr. Vought’s appointments to the Board.
b. An order holding unlawful and setting aside any action that terminates or threatens to terminate Mr. Spicer’s and Mr. Vought’s appointments.
c. A temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanent injunctions preventing defendants from removing Mr. Spicer and Mr. Vought from the Board and restoring their appointments to the Board if the President purports to remove them before this Court has the opportunity to act.
d. An award of their costs and attorneys’ fees.
e. Such other and further relief the Court deems just, proper, or equitable.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 57.1.0.pdf

In November, they filed for a preliminary injunction. It was denied by one of those conservative hating ultra-liberal judges appointed by, Trump (Dabney L. Friedrich)

https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/sh ... 21cv2493-9

Executive summary: They have standing but they will fail on the merits. Among other things, Parsons v. United States is controlling, and therefore, the term-of-office provisions do not limit the president's power to remove. She also points out that the board's only purpose is to advise the president so she is not clear on how not being able to do that is personally injurious or subverts the public interest.

Nor do they explain how it would serve the public interest to present advice to the President—the primary function of the Board, see 10 U.S.C. § 8468(f)—that the President does not intend to consider

Tiredretiredlawyer wrote: ↑Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:04 pm Do Board members get paid?

Australian man Craig Wright wins US court battle for bitcoin fortune worth billions
Florida jury finds Wright, who claims to have invented the cryptocurrency, did not owe half of 1.1m bitcoins worth $50bn to another family

Associated Press in New York
Tue 7 Dec 2021 08.52 GMT

Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who claims to be the inventor of bitcoin, has prevailed in a civil trial against the family of a deceased business partner that claimed it was owed half of a cryptocurrency fortune worth tens of billions of dollars.

A Florida jury on Monday found that Wright did not owe half of 1.1m bitcoins to the family of David Kleiman. The jury did award US$100m in intellectual property rights to a joint venture between the two men, a fraction of what Kleiman’s lawyers were asking for at trial.

“This was a tremendous victory for our side,” said Andres Rivero of Rivero Mestre LLP, the lead lawyer representing Wright.

David Kleiman died in April 2013 at the age of 46. Led by his brother Ira Kleiman, his family has claimed David Kleiman and Wright were close friends and co-created bitcoin through a partnership.

At the centre of the trial were 1.1m bitcoins, worth approximately $50bn based on Monday’s prices. These were among the first bitcoins to be created through mining and could only be owned by a person or entity involved with the digital currency from its beginning such as bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Now the cryptocurrency community will be looking to see if Wright follows through on his promise to prove he is the owner of the bitcoins. Doing so would lend credence to Wright’s claim, first made in 2016, that he is Nakamoto.

The case tried in federal court in Miami was highly technical, with the jury listening to explanations of the intricate workings of cryptocurrencies as well as the murky origins of how bitcoin came to be.



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... h-billions

Families of Boeing crash victims say the U.S. failed to consult them.

By Niraj Chokshi
Dec. 16, 2021

More than a dozen families of people killed in two Boeing 737 Max crashes are accusing the Justice Department of illegally leaving them in the dark when it reached a settlement with the company this year.

In a court filing on Thursday, 15 families accused the department of denying them an opportunity to weigh in on a criminal investigation into Boeing under a 2004 law meant to protect victims of crime and their representatives. They are asking a federal judge to force the department to turn over documents related to that investigation and to revoke the company’s protection from further criminal prosecution on the matter.

“What happened here in the waning days of the previous administration was a complete short circuit of the congressionally mandated process for the victims to be conferred with and have an opportunity to influence the outcome,” said Paul Cassell, a former federal judge who is representing the families.

The 15 families who brought the motion were joined by dozens more who signed on in support of it, representing a significant share of the 346 people killed in two Max crashes, in Indonesia in 2018 and in Ethiopia in 2019. The episodes led to a global ban of the plane for nearly two years, a debacle that cost Boeing billions of dollars and prompted investigations around the world.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/16/busi ... ilies.html

In a Boston Court, a Superstar of Science Falls to Earth
A jury found Harvard chemist Charles Lieber guilty of lying to the federal government about his participation in China’s Thousand Talents recruitment program.

By Ellen Barry
Dec. 21, 2021

BOSTON — Charles Lieber, one of the country’s top research chemists, sat miserably in a chair at the Harvard Police Department, trying to explain to two F.B.I. agents why he had agreed to partner with a lesser-known Chinese university in a relationship that had soured and landed him in trouble with the U.S. government.

The university had money to spend — “that’s one of the things China uses to try to seduce people,” Dr. Lieber said in the interrogation, clips of which were shown in court.

But money wasn’t the reason, he said. By training young scientists in the use of technology he had pioneered, he hoped to burnish his credentials with the committee that decides the ultimate scientific honor.

“This is embarrassing,” he said. “Every scientist wants to win a Nobel Prize.”

On Tuesday, after deliberating for two hours and 45 minutes, a federal jury found Dr. Lieber guilty of two counts of making false statements to the U.S. government about whether he participated in Thousand Talents Plan, a program designed by the Chinese government to attract foreign-educated scientists to China. They also found him guilty of failing to declare income earned in China and failing to report a Chinese bank account.

No date has been set for sentencing. A charge of making false statements carries a maximum sentence of five years. Dr. Lieber, who has cancer, sat expressionless through the six-day trial and said nothing as he left the courthouse with his wife.

Though it is not illegal to participate in Chinese recruitment programs, scientists are required to disclose their participation to the U.S. government, which also funds their research and may view it as a conflict of interest.
Dr. Lieber’s conviction is a victory for the China Initiative, an effort launched in 2018, under the Trump administration, to root out scientists suspected of sharing sensitive information with China.

“Mr. Lieber exploited the openness and transparency of our academic system,” said Joseph Bonavolonta, who heads the Boston division of the F.B.I. “The F.B.I. will not hesitate to work with our law enforcement partners to focus on those who put their financial and professional interests ahead of our country’s economic prosperity.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/scie ... ieber.html

Trump-Appointed Judge Sides With Cops Who Brutalized DAPL Protesters
The ruling "effectively legitimizes launching an hours-long barrage of freezing water, explosives, and highly dangerous munitions into a crowd of demonstrators."

KENNY STANCIL
December 31, 2021

Five years after police brutalized activists opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump has dismissed a lawsuit accusing North Dakota law enforcement officers of excessive use of force—a decision that critics have characterized as a tacit endorsement of the violent repression of climate justice advocates.

Several peaceful protesters who gathered at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to struggle against the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure were assaulted by law enforcement officers on November 20, 2016. Police sprayed demonstrators with water cannons amid sub-freezing temperatures that night, and according to the plaintiffs' lawyers, they also used tear gas and fired rubber bullets and exploding munitions "indiscriminately into the crowd."

Attorneys for law enforcement officers named as defendants, including Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier and Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler, "say officers were outnumbered and were concerned for their lives and safety," The Bismark Tribune reported Thursday. "They sought to have the protesters' legal claims dismissed."

"U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor issued the order granting their request Wednesday," the newspaper noted, "writing that 'the Court finds the undisputed and irrefutable evidence in this case could only lead a reasonable juror to conclude the officers' conduct in this case was objectively reasonable.'"

Traynor argued that police violence was justified given the "unprecedented" nature of the situation. He cited the fact that "officers issued two code red requests and a Signal 100, requesting the assistance of every available officer in the state," which "has never been done in North Dakota history."

Morton County Assistant State's Attorney Gabrielle Goter applauded the ruling, saying in a statement that "law enforcement reasonably believed the protestors were trespassing and therefore, law enforcement was permitted to use less lethal force to protect themselves and others, from violent protestors that law enforcement perceived as" threats who intended to "physically injure" them.




https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... protesters

RTH10260 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 03, 2021 11:02 pm

Ohio homeowner convicted of killing 2 teens he caught smoking pot in his garage

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oh ... e-rcna7611

The mothers of two teens who were shot and killed in a Dayton garage said they believe justice was served after the man who killed their sons was sentenced to at least the next two decades in prison.

Linda Henderson, the mother of 17-year-old Devin Henderson, and Carolann Harrison, the mother of 17-year-old Javier Harrison, said while the 21-years-to-life sentence imposed against Victor Santana for fatally shooting the teens in 2019 wasn’t the maximum, it was enough to ensure he wouldn’t be free anytime soon.


Santana, 65, stood before Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge Timothy O’Connell on Monday afternoon after he was convicted earlier this month on counts of murder and felonious assault.

Prosecutors said Santana snuck up on the 17-years-olds who trespassed into his detached garage as they were trying to smoke marijuana in a vehicle they thought was abandoned.

A witness in the case said Santana opened fire without warning. Prosecutors told the jury that Santana didn’t give the teens a chance to explain themselves and that they didn’t mean him any harm.

Prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Santana to the maximum of 36 years to life in prison.

“(Santana) made the conscious decision to leave his home and confront the three boys who were trespassing in what they thought was an abandoned garage,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum ahead of the hearing. “At no point did the boys present any threat to this defendant. Despite this, (Santana) took matters into his own hands and, giving the boys no chance of escape, opened fire. The result was the deaths of Javier Harrison and Devin Henderson. Defendant has shown no remorse for his actions.”

Santana’s defense attorney, Lucas Wilder, argued to a jury that Santana feared for his life when he opened fire. He said Santana didn’t know if the individuals inside one of his inoperable cars had a weapon or were going to attack him.

“In that moment, fear hits him and he decides to shoot,” Wilder said.


“This defendant shot and killed two teens for trespassing in his detached garage. Trespassing may be a crime, but it is not punishable by death. The Castle Doctrine does not apply to a detached garage, and the defendant’s claim of self‐defense was baseless. This defendant will now spend the rest of his life in prison for the senseless murder of Javier Harrison and Devin Henderson,” Heck said.

The judge ordered Santana to serve the life sentence, to register as a violent offender and noted that he would be on lifetime parole if ever released from prison. Santana got credit for the two years he has spent in the Montgomery County Jail awaiting trial.

But despite a jury finding Durst guilty last fall of murdering Berman, a friend and confidante, California law mandates that if a defendant dies while a case is under appeal, as is the situation with Durst’s case, then the conviction is vacated, said Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor not involved with the case.

“As the law is right now, Durst’s conviction will be vacated and it’s like it never happened,” Rahmani said. “This is such a unique case. It’s really unprecedented that someone can be involved in three different murders in three states and escape justice.”

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Tue Jan 11, 2022 11:34 amI'd heard of this before when someone died before being sentenced, but I never heard of this before.

Mark Joseph Stern @mjs_DC wrote: Read U.S. District Judge Robert Scola's order canceling a trial because some jurors were unvaccinated.

"It is the Court’s belief that the vast majority of the unvaccinated adults are uninformed and irrational, or—less charitably—selfish and unpatriotic."
https://documentcloud.org/documents/211 ... cola-order

(@DavidLat reported on this yesterday!)

David Lat
@DavidLat
Judge Scola (S.D. Fla.) canceled trial in this civil case because the lawyers would not agree to only vaccinated jurors—and he did not mince words in describing the unvaccinated. https://twitter.com/domarkus/status/1483571001288007680

U.S. Drops Its Case Against M.I.T. Scientist Accused of Hiding China Links
Gang Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering, was arrested a year ago, accused of concealing his affiliations with Chinese government institutions.

By Ellen Barry and Katie Benner
Jan. 20, 2022

BOSTON — Federal prosecutors on Thursday dropped the government’s charges against Gang Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in an embarrassing setback to the government’s drive to crack down on economic and scientific espionage by China.

The case against Dr. Chen was among the most visible of the China Initiative, an effort started in 2018 under the Trump administration. China has made aggressive efforts to steal American technology, through methods including the recruiting of overseas scientists as “non-traditional collectors.”

But many of the prosecutions of researchers that resulted, like the case against Dr. Chen, did not allege espionage or theft of intellectual property, but something narrower and highly technical: failing to disclose Chinese affiliations in grant proposals to U.S. funding agencies.

The prosecutions have come under criticism for singling out scientists based on their ethnicity, and for overreach, blurring the line between disclosure violations and more serious crimes like espionage. Critics in academia say it has instilled a pervasive atmosphere of fear among scientists of Chinese descent.

Dr. Chen was arrested on Jan. 14, 2021, during President Donald J. Trump’s last full week in office, and charged with omitting affiliations with Chinese government institutions in grant applications to the U.S. Department of Energy in 2017. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.




https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/20/scie ... ative.html

Elizabeth and Gabriel Rutan-Ram were excited about the prospect of starting a family by fostering and adopting a child. But as they prepared to attend their first day of foster-parent training at Holston United Methodist Home for Children in northeastern Tennessee last January, they received an email from the agency telling them not to come.

The group was refusing to help the couple because they are Jewish.

“As a Christian organization, our executive team made the decision several years ago to only provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our belief system in order to avoid conflicts or delays with future service delivery,” the email said, according to court documents.

Although it is a religious organization, Holston receives taxpayer funding and, on behalf of the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, assists families with foster-care placement, training and other related services.