Pennsylvania
High court revives case challenging limits on Medicaid coverage for abortions
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court said Monday that a lower court must hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a decades-old state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortions.
The 3-2 decision both overturns a lower court decision to dismiss the case and puts aside a 1985 state Supreme Court decision that upheld a law banning the use of state Medicaid dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
The high court’s majority said Monday that prior court decisions did not fully consider the breadth of state constitutional protections against discrimination.
The lawsuit, brought by Planned Parenthood and other operators of abortion clinics, said the 1982 law unconstitutionally discriminates against poor women.
The new ruling does not necessarily find a constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania, where abortion is legal under state law through 23 weeks of pregnancy.
Rather, it turns on the question of whether the state Medicaid law unconstitutionally differentiated between women who want to carry to term and women who want to get an abortion.
The lower-court decision had cited the prior state Supreme Court decision in dismissing the lawsuit.
The majority said the lower court must reconsider whether Medicaid, called Medical Assistance, can legally draw a distinction “between pregnant women on Medical Assistance who would seek to obtain abortions and pregnant women on Medical Assistance who would seek to carry their pregnancies to term.”
Women who get an abortion receive no government funding for the reproductive care they seek, while women who carry to term receive full coverage, the majority opinion said.
New Mexico
State to automate how it shares info about arrest warrants
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico courts and law enforcement on Monday began streamlining how they exchange information about outstanding arrest warrants through a new electronic process aimed at improving the criminal justice system.
State Police and court officials said automating electronic delivery allows law enforcement to know that a person is subject to arrest within minutes after a court issues a warrant.
Any status changes will be shared on a real-time basis with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, which will also let officers to know immediately when a person has been cleared of an arrest warrant. The real-time updates should lessen the possibility of a person being arrested mistakenly because of out-of-date warrant information, according to authorities.
Under the new process, courts will automatically transmit an electronic warrant after a judge signs it. The new system includes information from magistrate courts, which handle traffic cases and account for many of the warrants issued.
Courts in 26 of New Mexico’s 33 counties will participate in the first phase of the electronic warrant process, along with nearly three quarters of the state’s magistrate courts.
Washington
Ex-IRS contractor sentenced for leak of tax info of rich people
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service who pleaded guilty to leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people was sentenced to five years in prison Monday.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. He gave the information to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she handed down the highest possible sentence to deter anyone else who might feel “an obligation to break the law.”
Littlejohn apologized to the people affected and for undermining “the fragile trust we place in government.”
Louisiana
Man convicted of manslaughter in the killing of former NFL star
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A man who shot former New Orleans Saints star Will Smith following a traffic crash nearly eight years ago has been convicted of manslaughter.
The jury deliberated for more than four hours and reached its verdict in the retrial of Cardell Hayes just after midnight Saturday, news outlets reported. He faces up to 40 years in prison.
The jury acquitted Hayes of attempted manslaughter in the shooting and wounding of Smith’s wife during the April 2016 confrontation.
Hayes, 36, had previously been convicted in December 2016 of manslaughter in Smith’s death and attempted manslaughter for the gunshot wounding of Racquel Smith. But the jury vote was 10-2 and the conviction was tossed after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed nonunanimous verdicts. Hayes was released on bond after having served more than four years of a 25-year sentence.
His retrial was delayed for various reasons, including court closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors rested their case against Hayes on Friday and the defense chose not to call witnesses after that.
The city’s top prosecutor insisted during his closing argument that Hayes fired needlessly.
“One gun was fired by one man,” District Attorney Jason Williams said, holding in the air the evidence-tagged handgun Hayes fired, hitting Smith eight times — seven in the back — and also hitting Smith’s wife in the legs.
Defense attorney John Fuller insisted prosecutors had not proven Hayes did not act in self-defense. Fuller pointed to a recording of a 911 call made soon after the shooting in which Hayes can be heard in the background claiming Smith had stated he intended to get a gun from his car.
Fuller sought to refute prosecutors’ claims that Racquel Smith had calmed her husband down by the time Hayes opened fire.
“You don’t say ‘Calm down it’s not worth it’ if you don’t have to say ‘Calm down it’s not worth it,’” he said, referring to prosecution testimony about Racquel’s efforts to defuse the argument.
Evidence showed Will Smith was intoxicated at the time of the confrontation. But there was no witness or forensic evidence to back up Hayes’ claim that Smith had wielded or fired a weapon.
High court revives case challenging limits on Medicaid coverage for abortions
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court said Monday that a lower court must hear a challenge to the constitutionality of a decades-old state law that limits the use of Medicaid dollars to cover the cost of abortions.
The 3-2 decision both overturns a lower court decision to dismiss the case and puts aside a 1985 state Supreme Court decision that upheld a law banning the use of state Medicaid dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.
The high court’s majority said Monday that prior court decisions did not fully consider the breadth of state constitutional protections against discrimination.
The lawsuit, brought by Planned Parenthood and other operators of abortion clinics, said the 1982 law unconstitutionally discriminates against poor women.
The new ruling does not necessarily find a constitutional right to an abortion in Pennsylvania, where abortion is legal under state law through 23 weeks of pregnancy.
Rather, it turns on the question of whether the state Medicaid law unconstitutionally differentiated between women who want to carry to term and women who want to get an abortion.
The lower-court decision had cited the prior state Supreme Court decision in dismissing the lawsuit.
The majority said the lower court must reconsider whether Medicaid, called Medical Assistance, can legally draw a distinction “between pregnant women on Medical Assistance who would seek to obtain abortions and pregnant women on Medical Assistance who would seek to carry their pregnancies to term.”
Women who get an abortion receive no government funding for the reproductive care they seek, while women who carry to term receive full coverage, the majority opinion said.
New Mexico
State to automate how it shares info about arrest warrants
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico courts and law enforcement on Monday began streamlining how they exchange information about outstanding arrest warrants through a new electronic process aimed at improving the criminal justice system.
State Police and court officials said automating electronic delivery allows law enforcement to know that a person is subject to arrest within minutes after a court issues a warrant.
Any status changes will be shared on a real-time basis with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, which will also let officers to know immediately when a person has been cleared of an arrest warrant. The real-time updates should lessen the possibility of a person being arrested mistakenly because of out-of-date warrant information, according to authorities.
Under the new process, courts will automatically transmit an electronic warrant after a judge signs it. The new system includes information from magistrate courts, which handle traffic cases and account for many of the warrants issued.
Courts in 26 of New Mexico’s 33 counties will participate in the first phase of the electronic warrant process, along with nearly three quarters of the state’s magistrate courts.
Washington
Ex-IRS contractor sentenced for leak of tax info of rich people
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service who pleaded guilty to leaking tax information to news outlets about former President Donald Trump and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people was sentenced to five years in prison Monday.
Charles Edward Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. He gave the information to two news outlets between 2018 and 2020.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she handed down the highest possible sentence to deter anyone else who might feel “an obligation to break the law.”
Littlejohn apologized to the people affected and for undermining “the fragile trust we place in government.”
Louisiana
Man convicted of manslaughter in the killing of former NFL star
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A man who shot former New Orleans Saints star Will Smith following a traffic crash nearly eight years ago has been convicted of manslaughter.
The jury deliberated for more than four hours and reached its verdict in the retrial of Cardell Hayes just after midnight Saturday, news outlets reported. He faces up to 40 years in prison.
The jury acquitted Hayes of attempted manslaughter in the shooting and wounding of Smith’s wife during the April 2016 confrontation.
Hayes, 36, had previously been convicted in December 2016 of manslaughter in Smith’s death and attempted manslaughter for the gunshot wounding of Racquel Smith. But the jury vote was 10-2 and the conviction was tossed after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed nonunanimous verdicts. Hayes was released on bond after having served more than four years of a 25-year sentence.
His retrial was delayed for various reasons, including court closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prosecutors rested their case against Hayes on Friday and the defense chose not to call witnesses after that.
The city’s top prosecutor insisted during his closing argument that Hayes fired needlessly.
“One gun was fired by one man,” District Attorney Jason Williams said, holding in the air the evidence-tagged handgun Hayes fired, hitting Smith eight times — seven in the back — and also hitting Smith’s wife in the legs.
Defense attorney John Fuller insisted prosecutors had not proven Hayes did not act in self-defense. Fuller pointed to a recording of a 911 call made soon after the shooting in which Hayes can be heard in the background claiming Smith had stated he intended to get a gun from his car.
Fuller sought to refute prosecutors’ claims that Racquel Smith had calmed her husband down by the time Hayes opened fire.
“You don’t say ‘Calm down it’s not worth it’ if you don’t have to say ‘Calm down it’s not worth it,’” he said, referring to prosecution testimony about Racquel’s efforts to defuse the argument.
Evidence showed Will Smith was intoxicated at the time of the confrontation. But there was no witness or forensic evidence to back up Hayes’ claim that Smith had wielded or fired a weapon.
