Tag: judge

‘Critical matter, serious effects for democracy’, SC judge on delay in appointment of judges

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Bengaluru: Supreme Court judge Justice B.V. Nagarathna, who is poised to become India’s first woman Chief Justice in 2027, said on Saturday that the issue of delay in the appointment of judges could have serious effects for democracy in general, and judiciary in particular.
Delivering the inaugural address at the fifth conference of Central government counsels from southern states in Bengaluru, Justice Nagarathna said, “The adequate manning of the judiciary at all levels by independent and fearless judges is necessary to ward off any semblance of interference from any quarter. I must say, in my most humble way, that government or executive’s inaction or delay in critical matters concerning the judiciary such as the appointment of judges could have serious effects for democracy in general, and judiciary particular.”
She added, “In fact, in my humble view, there is a Constitutional obligation upon the executive to effectively process appointments and transfer of judges recommended by the collegium of the Supreme Court within the earliest possible time, so that there are no vacancies in courts, which could hamper effective judicial functioning. If empowerment of the judiciary is to be seriously considered, I feel that vacancies must be filled and transfers must be affected at the earliest possible time.”
Her statement is crucial against the backdrop of increasing friction between the Supreme Court collegium and the Central government over the delay in the appointment and transfer of judges of the high courts.
Earlier this week, the apex court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, had taken a serious view of the delay by the Centre in taking a decision on the names reiterated by it for appointment as judges to the high courts.
“Reiterated names ought not to be withheld or overlooked as this disturbs their seniority whereas those recommended later steal march on them. Loss of seniority of candidates recommended earlier in point of time has been noted by the collegium and is a matter of grave concern,” the SC collegium had said.
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#Critical #matter #effects #democracy #judge #delay #appointment #judges

( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 25, 2023
Nadia Kahf becomes first-headscarf wearing judge in New Jersey

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After a year of waiting, Nadia Kahf, a family law and immigration attorney from Wayne, has become the first headscarf-wearing woman to serve as a state Superior Court judge in the Passaic County, United States (US) of New Jersey.
After being appointed to her new position in New Jersey, Kahf took an oath on Tuesday, March 21, by pressing her hand on the Holy Quran inherited from her grandmother.
‘New Jersey’nin ilk başörtülü hakimi’ haberi Türkiye’de gündem oldu
Avukat Nadia Kahf’ın atanacağını 1 yıl önce paylaşmıştık
Uzun bir süreç sonrasında 21 Mart Salı günü resmen başladı
1800’lerden kalma büyük annesinden miras el yazması Kuran-ı Kerim’e el basarak yemin etti 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/P6olwDg2ts
— Anıl Sural (@AnilSural) March 24, 2023
“I am proud to represent the Muslim and Arab communities in New Jersey in the United States (US). I want the younger generation to see that they can practice their religion without fear that they can be who they are. Diversity is our strength, it is not our weakness,” Nadia said during a sworn-in ceremony.
Watch the video below
American attorney Nadia Kahf, appointed to the Supreme Court of the state of New Jersey, became the first hijab-wearing judge on the bench.
She took the oath of office with her hand on the Quran pic.twitter.com/LyNoYwjga8
— TRT World (@trtworld) March 23, 2023
Kahf’s nomination, which came a year ago but was delayed by Senator Kristen Corrado. She was confirmed earlier this month.
Know more about Nadia Kahf
Nadia Kahf immigrated to the United States (US) from Syria when she was 2-year-old.
She has been working in the country’s Islamic foundations for a long time.
Since 2003, she has been a member of the board of directors for the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an Islamic civil rights organization where she now serves as chair of the board.
Kahf serves as president of the Islamic Center of Passaic County, one of the state’s largest mosques.

She is also legal counsel for Wafa House, a nonprofit domestic violence and social service agency based in Clifton.
In 2020, New Jersey’s Insider newspaper ranked her among the top Muslims for influence in academia and business, government, law and politics, religion, social justice, and more.
Nadia is not the first Muslim judge
Kahf became the first state judge in the US to wear a headscarf, but she is not the first Muslim judge.
There are Muslim women judges working in different parts of the United States.
Nadia Kahf will be the third Muslim woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court, which hears both criminal and civil cases.
Sharifa Salaam serves as Supreme Court justice in Essex and Kalimah Ahmad in Hudson.
With this achievement, Kahf follows in the footsteps of other Muslim women who have achieved success in the legal field.
In June 2022, Laila Ikram made history by taking the bench as the first female Muslim judge in the state of Arizona.
In January 2023, US President Joe Biden selected eight judicial candidates, including Nusrat Chaudhry who will be the first Muslim woman to serve as a federal judge.

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#Nadia #Kahf #firstheadscarf #wearing #judge #Jersey
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 24, 2023
Judge sentences Jan. 6 defendant who breached Pelosi’s office to 36 months in prison

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Jackson’s sentence was the close of one of the earliest sagas to emerge after the Jan. 6 attack. Williams was one of the first felony defendants charged, and she was suspected at the time of stealing Nancy Pelosi’s laptop, in part because she told friends that she did.
A jury convicted Williams in December of civil disorder and resisting police but deadlocked on a charge that Williams obstructed Congress and abetted the theft of Pelosi’s laptop. Williams is on tape entering Pelosi’s conference room while other rioters took the laptop, and she encouraged them to steal it, but Williams’ lawyers contended that it was unclear if the other rioters heard her comment.
Jackson spent much of her sentencing colloquy dismantling the defense’s claim that Williams was too young or too small to be responsible for the grave offenses the government charged. The defense team leaned on Williams’ youthful demeanor and the fact that she seemed briefly confused about which building was being stormed — calling it the White House as she approached. But Jackson said any momentary confusion Williams expressed was clarified by her repeated acknowledgment of why she was there.
It was not, Jackson emphasized, “because her dizzy little head was confused about which building in Washington was which.”
Fuentes, she noted, was born the same year as Williams. People can sign up for the military at 18, she added, noting that Williams was old enough on Jan. 6 to have completed a tour of duty. John Lewis was 21 when he became a freedom fighter, Jackson added.
“She was old enough to be one of the police officers she resisted,” Jackson said.
Jackson also took on the defense’s repeated assertions about Williams’ diminutive stature, noting that figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Liz Cheney and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had all achieved prominence despite their size.
“Riley June Williams was old enough and tall enough to be held accountable for her actions,” Jackson said.

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#Judge #sentences #Jan #defendant #breached #Pelosis #office #months #prison
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 23, 2023
Trump, Pence urge judge to reject special counsel bid to obtain former VP’s testimony

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It’s one of the weightiest constitutional fights that Smith is likely to undertake, one that could shape the balance of power between all three branches of government in unpredictable ways. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom, one of Smith’s lead investigators, was seen entering the courtroom as well.
It’s also an early test for Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who took the chief’s gavel last week after his predecessor Beryl Howell’s seven-year term as chief expired. The chief judge is tasked with overseeing all grand jury matters in the district, which include Smith’s special counsel probes.
Pence’s fight to block the subpoena is not the only way Smith’s inquiry could have far-reaching constitutional consequences. A three-judge appeals court panel is expected to rule imminently on his separate effort to access the cellphone data of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a key ally in Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election results. Perry, like Pence, is arguing that his communications should be shielded by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which grants Congress sweeping immunity from compelled testimony — if it pertains to lawmakers’ official duties.
The Perry dispute drew intervention from the House of Representatives, which filed a sealed amicus brief in the matter that raised concerns about the implications for the institution should the appeals court adopt a narrow view of “speech or debate” immunity.
The hearing also underscored the extraordinary confluence of acute legal and criminal matters Trump is facing.
Corcoran himself has been ordered by a federal judge to testify as soon as Friday in Smith’s other ongoing criminal probe of Trump’s handling of sensitive national security records discovered at his Mar-a-Lago estate. And while Corcoran was waiting in the cafeteria Thursday, an attorney for Joseph Biggs — one of five Proud Boys facing seditious conspiracy charges for actions on Jan. 6 — approached him to attempt to serve a subpoena on Trump.
The attorney, Norm Pattis, said Corcoran told him he was ”not authorized” to accept service on Trump’s behalf.
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#Trump #Pence #urge #judge #reject #special #counsel #bid #obtain #VPs #testimony
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 23, 2023
Judge permits Imran Khan to go back after marking attendance outside Islamabad court

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Islamabad: Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zafar Iqbal on Saturday permitted PTI Chairman Imran Khan to go back after marking his attendance outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex where the PTI chief is set to be indicted in the Toshakhana case, media reported.
“The situation as it is, the hearing and appearance cannot proceed that is why all those who have gathered here should disperse after marking attendance. There is no need for shelling or pelting, the hearing cannot be held today,” the judge said, Dawn reported.
He added that once the PTI chief’s signatures were received then it could be later discussed at what date to hold Imran’s appearance again.
People inside the courtroom were facing difficulties due to the effects of the teargas and the windows were pelted by stones as well, Dawn reported.
As Imran and his motorcade earlier reached outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex, he alleged that he was not being allowed to enter the court’s premises.
In an audio message released to the media, Imran said: “I am waiting outside the (judicial complex’s) door for 15 minutes and am fully trying to enter but they’ve done teargas (shelling) and erected checkpoints and it seems they don’t want that I reach here.”
Despite that, he reiterated that he was outside the complex and was attempting to enter it.
A large number of party workers, who were accompanying the former Prime Minister, are attempting to escort him onto court premises, but due to security arrangements, they were not being allowed to, Dawn reported.

As PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his motorcade reached outside the Islamabad Judicial Complex on Saturday, where he was to be indicted in the Toshakhana case, the capital police alleged that party workers began to pelt stones at them, Dawn reported.
The PTI leader is scheduled to appear before the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Zafar Iqbal to attend proceedings on a complaint filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for allegedly concealing details of gifts in his assets declarations, Dawn reported.
Imran, who left his Lahore home a little after 8 a.m. and had warned in a video message that he was expecting an attempt to arrest him, had yet to reach the court, though the Islamabad Police tweeted that Imran’s convoy was right in front of the Judicial Complex.
“Political workers are requested to clear the way so that Imran Khan can reach the court,” the police said on Twitter, Dawn reported.
It also claimed that political activists had “started pelting stones at the police” and ‘shelling” was also being carried out by them. A police picket was also allegedly set on fire, Dawn reported.
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#Judge #permits #Imran #Khan #marking #attendance #Islamabad #court
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 18, 2023
D.C. chief judge post turns over with Trump probes in balance

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“What fascinating issues!” Friedman declared wryly as Howell remained stone-faced on the dais. “We’d all love to read her opinions, but we can’t,” he said to laughter.
Friedman did note, however, that Howell had issued 100 secret grand jury opinions during her seven-year term.
Another colleague, Judge Tanya Chutkan, also alluded to Howell’s work resolving disputes related to the court’s grand juries over the past seven years.
“There’s so much work Chief Judge Howell has done that we may never know about,” Chutkan said.
Another tribute to Howell came from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who served on the district court in D.C. before being elevated to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and then the Supreme Court. Jackson said Howell has been vital to keeping the critical district court in the Capital operating through a series of major challenges.
“She’s like that steel beam in a construction project that holds everything else up,” Jackson said.
Howell was replaced as chief Friday by Judge James Boasberg. Both are appointees of President Barack Obama.
Boasberg also referenced Howell’s handling of secret grand jury proceedings.

“Most of the work she has done has been secret so she doesn’t even get credit for that,” he said.
By law, the chief judge position on federal courts is filled chiefly by seniority, with a maximum term of seven years. Howell, a former prosecutor and Senate aide who has served on the U.S. District Court since 2010, will continue to hear cases in the normal rotation.
No major shift in the direction of the court or those probes is expected as a result of the change, but Boasberg will now have to resolve privilege fights and other disputes at the grand jury and could receive remands from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is now considering several appeals related to Howell’s decisions.
Howell’s work overseeing the high-profile grand jury matters involving former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, the ongoing Trump probes and the criminal cases stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol have brought her a cult following on social media.
Chutkan alluded to that fame in her remarks Friday, pointing to memes about Howell on TikTok and to “stans” who applauded her rulings.
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#D.C #chief #judge #post #turns #Trump #probes #balance
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 18, 2023
Conservative Texas judge weighs challenge to abortion pills

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Mifepristone, when combined with a second pill, has become the most common method of abortion in the U.S. and has been increasingly prescribed since Roe was overturned.
Acknowledging the significance of the case, Kacsmaryk, who was appointed by then-President Donald Trump, asked Baptist if he could cite a prior example of a court removing an FDA-approved drug after many years on the market.
Baptist acknowledged that there are no prior examples, but he blamed the drug’s longevity on the FDA’s “stonewalling” of his group’s prior requests to remove the drug. The group petitioned the FDA in 2002 and in 2019 seeking to curb access to the pill.
Lawyers for the FDA are expected to argue that pulling mifepristone would upend reproductive care for U.S. women and undermine the government’s scientific oversight of prescription drugs.
Kacsmaryk gave each side two hours to make their arguments — with time for rebuttal — in the high-stakes case. Mifepristone’s manufacturer, Danco Laboratories, will join the FDA in arguing to keep the pill available.
A ruling could come any time after arguments conclude. A decision against the drug would be swiftly appealed by U.S. Department of Justice attorneys representing the FDA, who would also likely seek an emergency stay to stop it from taking effect while the case proceeds.
One of the alliance’s chief arguments against the FDA is that it misused its authorities when it originally approved the pill.
The FDA reviewed the drug under its so-called accelerated approval program, which was created in the early 1990s to speed access to the first HIV drugs. Since then, it’s been used to expedite drugs for cancer and other “serious or life-threatening diseases.”

The alliance, which was also involved in the lawsuit that led the Supreme Court to overturn Roe, argues that pregnancy is not a disease and therefore mifepristone should not have been considered for accelerated approval.
“The contrast between these illnesses and the FDA jamming pregnancy into … the FDA regulations could not be more stark,” Baptist told Kacsmaryk.
But the FDA says the group’s argument is flawed on multiple counts. First, FDA regulations make clear that pregnancy is considered a “medical condition” that can be serious and life-threatening in some cases.
Second, while the FDA reviewed the drug under its accelerated approval regime, it didn’t expedite the drug’s review. In fact, approval only came after four years of deliberation. Instead, the FDA used regulatory powers under the accelerated program to add extra safety restrictions to mifepristone, including requiring physicians to be certified before prescribing it.
The hearing is the first in the case and is being closely watched by groups on both sides of the abortion issue in light of the reversal of Roe. Removing mifepristone from the market would curtail access to abortion even in states where it’s legal.
If Kacsmaryk rules against the FDA, it’s unclear how quickly access to mifepristone could be curtailed or how the process would work. The FDA has its own procedures for revoking drug approvals that involve public hearings and scientific deliberations, which can take months or years.
If mifepristone is sidelined, clinics and doctors that prescribe the combination say they would switch to using only misoprostol, the other drug used in the two-drug combination. That single-drug approach has a slightly lower rate of effectiveness in ending pregnancies but is widely used in countries where mifepristone is illegal or unavailable.
In addition to challenging mifepristone’s approval process, the lawsuit takes aim at several later FDA decisions that loosened restrictions on the pill, including eliminating a requirement that women pick it up in person.
Lawyers for the FDA have pointed out that serious side effects with mifepristone are rare, and the agency has repeatedly affirmed the drug’s safety by reviewing subsequent studies and data. Pulling the drug more than 20 years after approval would be “extraordinary and unprecedented,” the government stated in its legal response.
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#Conservative #Texas #judge #weighs #challenge #abortion #pills
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 16, 2023
Judge denies media access to records in Mar-a-Lago grand jury fight

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In her latest six-page ruling, Howell said revealing any of the records publicly would invade grand jury secrecy.
“Responding to petitioners’ request would be infeasible without disclosing grand jury material because, if the government asked to hold the former president in contempt, as petitioners allege, that request would have been part of an effort to secure compliance with the grand jury Subpoena,” wrote Howell, taking care not to confirm any details of the battle. “The requested filings would invariably and consistently touch on ‘matters occurring before the grand jury.’”
Howell noted news reports about prosecutors’ efforts to seek contempt proceedings over allegedly inadequate efforts by Trump lawyers to locate documents with classification markings related to the ongoing probe headed by special counsel Jack Smith.
Last month, Howell denied a similar access request from POLITICO and The New York Times for information about privilege battles relating to prosecutors’ efforts to call former White House aides before a grand jury investigating attempts to interfere with the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
But last month, Howell also opted to unseal several significant filings in a grand jury matter connected to Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a key ally in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. Howell said the grand jury materials in that case could be released in part because the court of appeals held public arguments about the matter that revealed details that had previously been public.
Howell, an appointee of President Barack Obama, is set to end her seven-year term as chief judge next week. Grand jury-related matters not resolved by then are expected to be transferred to her successor, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, also an Obama appointee.
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#Judge #denies #media #access #records #MaraLago #grand #jury #fight
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 12, 2023
Judge okays use of Access Hollywood tape in Trump defamation trial

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In the tape, a recording from 2005 that was widely scrutinized during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump boasts, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything,” adding: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Though Carroll’s 2019 lawsuit alleges only defamation, not sexual assault itself, Judge Kaplan found that “in order to prevail on her libel claim, Ms. Carroll must prove that Mr. Trump sexually assaulted her.”
Without proving the underlying claim of sexual assault, the judge wrote, “she cannot establish that Mr. Trump’s charge that her story was a lie and a hoax was false.”
In November, Carroll also filed a second lawsuit in New York alleging defamation and battery under a new state law. The 2019 lawsuit is set to go to trial in April. A judge hasn’t ruled whether the two cases will be combined.
Trump has denied defaming or assaulting Carroll. “We maintain the utmost confidence that our client will be vindicated at the upcoming trial,” a lawyer for Trump, Alina Habba, said in a statement Friday.
The judge’s ruling Friday will also permit Carroll to use the testimony of Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, two women who alleged Trump assaulted them in the years before he ran for office. Leeds alleged Trump groped her while they flew on an airplane together. Stoynoff alleged he sexually assaulted her while she was reporting a story for People Magazine.
Trump has denied both of their accounts.
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#Judge #okays #Access #Hollywood #tape #Trump #defamation #trial
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 11, 2023
Judge: Trump trade adviser Navarro must surrender White House-related emails

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“Dr. Navarro contends that he has no statutory duties under the PRA. … This position would defeat the entire purpose of the statute, i.e., to ensure that Presidential records, as defined, are collected, maintained and made available to the public,” wrote Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of President Bill Clinton. “The PRA makes plain that Presidential advisors such as Dr. Navarro are part and parcel of the statutory scheme in that they are required to preserve Presidential records during their tenure so that they can be transferred to [the National Archives and Records Administration] at the end of an administration.”
Navarro argued that the personal-account provision didn’t apply to messages he received, only to those he sent, but the judge dismissed that contention.
“All the emails in Dr. Navarro’s personal email account, whether created or received, are therefore subject to being assessed as potential Presidential records if they arose out of his employment in the administration,” she wrote.
An attorney for Navarro did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The tone of Kollar-Kotelly’s 22-page opinion was brutal, but the lawsuit is far from Navarro’s biggest legal worry. He is facing a trial in the coming months on two criminal, misdemeanor charges of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Trump’s role in fomenting doubt about the 2020 presidential election results.
Despite his role as a trade adviser, Navarro drew the attention of congressional investigators because in his final weeks in the White House, he shifted his focus toward efforts to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results. He prepared a report based on discredited claims of fraud and worked with longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon and GOP lawmakers to strategize ways to object to the results on Jan. 6, 2021.
Navarro argued in the lawsuit that he should not have to turn over the disputed emails because the government might seek to use them against him in the criminal case, but the judge also saw no merit in that position.
“Producing these pre-existing records in no way implicates a compelled testimonial communication that is incriminating,” Kollar-Kotelly wrote. She ordered Navarro to turn over “forthwith” about 200 to 250 messages his lawyers have already deemed likely presidential records. She gave the two sides 30 days to sort out a protocol to find other official records in Navarro’s personal account.

The Justice Department is set to make a key filing in Navarro’s criminal case next week, explaining why the department concluded that Navarro is not immune from a congressional subpoena even though he was serving as a top adviser to Trump in the White House in the weeks before and after Jan. 6, 2021.
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#Judge #Trump #trade #adviser #Navarro #surrender #White #Houserelated #emails
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 10, 2023