National Roundup

Washington
Court seems reluctant to sweep Puerto Rico into SSI program
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appeared reluctant Tuesday to rule for a resident of Puerto Rico who claims it’s unconstitutional to be excluded from a welfare program that’s available in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The justices acknowledged that the differential treatment of Puerto Ricans might be problematic, but several suggested that it is up to Congress, not the courts, to act.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh said there are “compelling policy arguments” for including Puerto Rico in the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides benefits to older, disabled and blind Americans. But Kavanaugh said the court had to confront a provision of the Constitution that allows Congress to treat territories and states differently. The Caribbean island has been a U.S. territory since the Spanish American War in 1898.

Jose Luis Vaello-Madero, the Puerto Rico resident at the center of the case, began receiving SSI payments after he suffered a series of strokes while living in New York.

The payments continued to his bank account in New York even after he moved back to Puerto Rico. When he notified the Social Security Administration, the payments stopped and then the government sued to recover more than $28,000 it said he was not entitled to.

Lower courts sided with Vaello-Madero, ruling that the exclusion of Puerto Rico from the SSI program is unconstitutional. In a similar case in Guam, a federal judge ruled recently that residents of that Pacific island also should be able to collect SSI.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were born in Puerto Rico, was the clearest voice in favor of Vaello-Madero. Sotomayor said it seems irrational to treat poor Americans differently based on where they live.

“Needy is needy, whether in Puerto Rico or on the mainland,” Sotomayor said.

The Justice Department first filed its appeal of a ruling by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during the Trump administration, but maintained the case even after President Joe Biden took office.

The Biden administration has said it supports changing the law to extend SSI payments to Puerto Rico. The proposed Build Back Better bill in the House of Representatives would make residents of U.S. territories eligible for SSI payments.

Justice Department lawyer Curtis Gannon said that a pair of 40-year-old Supreme Court decisions already upheld the federal law that created SSI and excluded Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories from it. Congress later added in the Mariana Islands.

Herman Ferre, representing Vaello-Madero, said a series of court decisions dating back to 1901 known as the Insular Cases has left Puerto Rico without “a full seat at the table.”

Residents of the island have no vote for president or representation in Congress. They also do not pay federal income tax.

Justice Neil Gorsuch said the high court should formally renounce the Insular Cases, which included racist and xenophobic rhetoric about Puerto Ricans. “Why shouldn’t we just admit the Insular Cases were incorrectly decided?” Gorsuch asked.

Another case pending in the 1st Circuit could extend other federal welfare benefits to Puerto Rico as well.

A separate program, Aid to the Aged, Blind and Disabled, covers residents of the territories, but it has more stringent eligibility requirements and pays less generous benefits than SSI.

New York
Judge rejects bail for Maxwell in sex abuse case
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Tuesday again refused to let British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell trade a jail cell for home detention, citing previous rulings that the nature of charges alleging Maxwell recruited teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse and her ability to flee make it impossible to let her out.

It was the fourth time that U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan has rejected a bail application for Maxwell, 59. Previous applications were also twice rejected by a Manhattan federal appeals court.

Nathan made the rejection in a two-page order in which she also promised that Maxwell will be transported from her Brooklyn federal jail to her trial “in a way that is humane, proper, and consistent with security protocols.” The judge said lawyers for the Metropolitan Detention Center assured these protocols in a sealed letter.

One of Maxwell’s lawyers complained that she was brought to the courthouse last week for a hearing nearly six hours before its scheduled start and was poked by a guard to force her to wake up when she briefly fell asleep in a cold holding cell.

The jury selection process began Thursday to find a dozen people willing to fairly decide whether prosecutors can prove that Maxwell helped Epstein recruit and sexually abuse teenage girls  from 1994 to 2004. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Prospective jurors answered written questions in advance of oral questioning of them by the judge next week as a pool of hundreds of individuals is reduced to 12 jurors and six alternates. Opening statements at a trial expected to last six weeks are scheduled for Nov. 29.

In the latest bail request, Maxwell lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said her client has been subjected to physical and emotional abuse by jail guards. She also cited poor and unsanitary living conditions, insufficient nutrition, difficulties reviewing millions of legal documents and sleep deprivation.

In arguing against bail, prosecutors wrote that the latest bail application “turns to rhetoric and anecdotes better suited to tabloids than briefs. Where legal arguments can be found, they are cursory and unpersuasive.”

Epstein, a wealthy financier, was found dead in August 2019 in his cell in a Manhattan federal jail where he awaited a sex trafficking trial.


California
City sues to get scooter firms to pay for litigation
SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego is suing scooter companies to get them to pay the city’s costs to defend any lawsuits generated by the two-wheeled vehicles that have proliferated on public sidewalks.

The Union-Tribune reported Tuesday that City Attorney Mara Elliott filed suit last week against Bird, Lyft and a handful of other firms that signed operating agreements with San Diego to rent the dockless scooters.

The filing comes after disability-rights advocates sued the city in federal court alleging the scooters are too often left in the way of pedestrians, clogging public rights of way and endangering people who use wheelchairs or are visually impaired.

That class action suit initially named the scooter companies as defendants, but a judge dismissed them from the complaint last year, leaving the city as the sole defendant.

According to the city’s new lawsuit, the companies’ operating agreements specifically require Bird, Lyft and other firms to defend San Diego from any litigation related to the scooters.

A spokesman for Lyft said the company does not comment on pending litigation.