Court narrows scope of previous immigration ruling
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court says there can be no retroactive application of its ruling that lawyers have to tell their clients if pleading guilty to a crime could cause their deportation.
The high court’s 7-2 ruling came Wednesday in the case of Roselva Chaidez, who came from Mexico.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that immigrants have a constitutional right to be told by their lawyers whether pleading guilty to a crime could lead to their deportation. Chaidez had already been convicted for mail fraud and was in a deportation proceeding. She then asked the courts to allow her to take advantage of the new ruling.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the 2010 ruling was a new rule, so it does not apply to convictions that came before. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented.
U.S. high court reject’s appeal by rapper C-Murder
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has passed up another chance to deal with an anomaly of constitutional law that requires federal juries to reach unanimous verdicts in criminal cases, but allows states to make different rules.
The court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of the rapper known as C-Murder, who is serving a life sentence for killing a 16-year-old fan in Louisiana. A jury voted 10-2 to convict the rapper, whose real name is Corey Miller.
Louisiana and Oregon are the only two states that allow for non-unanimous convictions for some crimes.
The justices recently have rejected similar appeals asking them to treat state and federal trials equally. Decisions involving gun rights and other issues generally require states to extend the same constitutional rights as the federal government.
Court conflicted on allowing use of FOIA out of state.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems unsure of whether it’s legal for a state to block out-of-staters from getting public documents through its Freedom of Information Act law.
Justices on Wednesday heard arguments from men from California and Rhode Island, who wanted to use the Virginia FOIA law to get state documents, but were denied because they are not Virginia citizens. Virginia’s FOIA law limits access to state citizens and some media outlets. But the two men say it is unconstitutional to not allow everyone access to the protections of a state’s FOIA law.
Justices noted that states can legally block out-of-staters from doing things like voting and hunting big game. But they also noted that state records can be used in commerce, which is supposed to move freely across state lines.
U.S. court to hear case of campaign donation limits
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to campaign finance laws limiting how much an individual can give to political campaigns.
The justices on Tuesday decided to hear an appeal from Shaun McCutcheon of Alabama and the Republican National Committee. They are arguing that it’s unconstitutional to stop a donor from giving more than $46,200 to political candidates and $70,800 to political committees and PACs.
McCutcheon says he accepts that he can only give $2,500 to a single candidate but says he should be able to give that amount to as many GOP candidates as he wants.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the limits, but the high court decided to review that decision.
