Justices reject appeal from lawyers over
2020 election lawsuit in Michigan
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on
Tuesday rejected an appeal from Sidney Powell and other lawyers allied with
former President Donald Trump over $150,000 in sanctions they were ordered to
pay for abusing the court system with a sham lawsuit challenging the 2020
election results in Michigan.
The justices did not comment in leaving in place the sanctions against seven lawyers who were part of the lawsuit filed on behalf of six Republican voters after Joe Biden's 154,000-vote victory over Trump in the state.
Among the lawyers is L. Lin Wood, whose name was on the lawsuit. Wood has insisted he had no role other than to tell Powell he would be available if she needed a seasoned litigator.
The money is owed to the state and
Detroit for their costs in defending the lawsuit. The sanctions initially
totaled $175,000, but a federal appeals court reduced them by about $25,000.
In October, Powell pleaded guilty to state criminal charges in Georgia over her efforts to overturn Trump's loss in the state. She pleaded guilty to six misdemeanors accusing her of conspiring to intentionally interfere with the performance of election duties.
Powell gained notoriety for saying in November 2020 that she would "release the Kraken," invoking a mythical sea monster when talking about a lawsuit she planned to file to challenge the results of the presidential election.
Court leaves in place the admissions plan
at an elite Virginia public high school
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on
Tuesday left in place the admissions policy at an elite public high school in
Virginia that some parents claimed discriminates against highly qualified Asian
Americans.
The court's order, over the dissent of
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, ended a legal challenge to a policy
that was overhauled in 2020 to increase diversity, without taking race into
account.
A panel of the federal appeals court in Richmond had earlier upheld the constitutionality of the admissions policy at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a school frequently cited among the best in the nation.
The high court's consideration of the case followed its decision in June that struck down admissions policies at colleges and universities that took account of the race of applicants.
The Fairfax County School Board
overhauled the Thomas Jefferson admissions process in 2020, scrapping a
standardized test. The new policy gives weight in favor of applicants who are
economically disadvantaged or still learning English, but it does not take race
into account.
The effect in the first freshman class admitted under it was to increase the percentage of Black students from 1% to 7% and Hispanic students from 3% to 11%. Both groups have been greatly underrepresented for decades. Asian American representation decreased from 73% to 54%.
For the current school year, Black and Hispanic students made up 6.7% and 6%, respectively, of those offered admission, the school board said. Asian Americans represented 61.6% of those admitted, the board said.
'We have long believed that the new admissions process is both constitutional and in the best interest of all of our students. It guarantees that all qualified students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a fair shot at attending this exceptional high school," said Karl Frisch, Fairfax County School Board chair.
In 2022, a federal judge found the school board engaged in impermissible "racial balancing" when it overhauled admissions. The appeals court reversed that ruling.
Alito wrote that the district court got it right. The appeals court essentially ruled that "intentional racial discrimination is constitutional so long as it is not too severe," he wrote.
The parents who challenged the policy say it discriminates against Asian American applicants who would have been granted admission if academic merit were the sole criteria, and that efforts to increase Black and Hispanic representation necessarily come at the expense of Asian Americans.
"The Supreme Court missed an important opportunity to end race-based discrimination in K-12 admissions," said Pacific Legal Foundation senior attorney Joshua Thompson, who represents the parents who challenged.
Appeal from 3 GOP House members over $500 mask fines rejected
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on
Tuesday rejected appeals from three Republican U.S. House members who
challenged fines for not wearing face coverings on the House floor in 2021.
The justices did not comment on leaving
in place $500 fines issued in May 2021 to U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of
Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
The mask requirement was part of the House's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the mandate remained in place even after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance noting that "fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing."
The lawmakers showed up on the House floor without masks, even posing for a selfie. The requirement was lifted in June 2021.
Lower courts had refused to disturb the fines, ruling that courts lack the power to review the mask policy.
Lawyers for House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, had urged the court to reject the appeal from fellow Republican representatives, though they noted that Johnson and every other member of the Republican leadership voted against the mask policy.
Court won't hear lawsuit tied to contentious 2014 Senate race in Mississippi
By Emily Wagster Pettus
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme
Court said Tuesday that it will not consider a dispute over a lawsuit filed by
the family of a Mississippi lawyer who took his own life after he was arrested
and accused of providing information to people who snuck into a nursing home
and photographed the ailing wife of a U.S. senator during a contentious
election.
Rose Cochran's image appeared briefly online during the 2014 Republican primary for U.S. Senate, in a video that accused Sen. Thad Cochran of having an affair while his wife was bedridden with dementia — an accusation that Cochran denied. Cochran died in 2019.
The primary exacerbated rifts between establishment Republicans who supported Cochran and tea party activists, including lawyer Mark Mayfield, who backed Cochran's Republican primary challenger, state lawmaker Chris McDaniel.
In 2017, Mayfield's survivors sued Madison Mayor Hawkins-Butler and others, saying the defendants were part of a network of Cochran supporters who pushed Mayfield to suicide in June 2014. Mayfield died by gunfire, and police said he left a suicide note, days after Cochran defeated McDaniel in a primary runoff and before the felony charge against Mayfield could be prosecuted.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves dismissed the lawsuit in 2021, writing that Mayfield's relatives did not prove the city of Madison improperly retaliated against Mayfield for constitutionally protected speech or political activity.
A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Reeves' ruling in July. In a split decision in August, the full appeals court said it would not reconsider the Mayfield family's appeal.
Mayfield's mother lived in the same nursing home as Rose Cochran in the Jackson suburb of Madison. Mayfield was charged with conspiracy to exploit a vulnerable adult, after Madison authorities accused him of giving information to other McDaniel supporters who entered the facility without permission and photographed Rose Cochran. McDaniel condemned the operation and said it was not authorized by his campaign.
Two other people who supported McDaniel in 2014, John Mary and Clayton Kelly, each pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
Cochran's campaign said in 2014 that he wasn't involved in an improper relationship. He was reelected that November, and Rose Cochran died the following month. The senator married a longtime aide in May 2015.
Cochran served six years in the House before winning a Senate seat in 1978, and he rose to the chairmanship of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. He retired in frail health in 2018, and he was 81 when he died in 2019.
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