Courts Budget

Now Nepotism Is Immigration Court Issue

November 10, 2014 By CCM Staff

It turns out that the under-staffed immigration courts still found time to hire family members of officials, sometimes in apparent violation of federal law, according to various reports. Says the Washington Post, “… the Federal investigators found rampant nepotism in recent years within the agency that oversees U.S. immigration courts, including three top officials who used their positions to help relatives land paid internships.

Adds WaPo in one of its federal government blogs: “In a report this week, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz said about 16 percent of the interns hired between 2007 and 2012 for the Executive Office of Immigration Review’s Student Temporary Employment Program were family members of employees.”

Read all about it: IG: Nepotism was rampant with U.S. immigration court’s interns

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: immigration, immigration court, immigration courts, Justice Department, nepotism, Washington Post

Warner Posts Challenge To GOP Senate

November 7, 2014 By CCM Staff

Courts Monitor Publisher Sara Warner is suggesting the new GOP Senate might find success with bankruptcy reform, but only once the Democrats come up with consumer protections for “perjury pawns.” See her ideas at the Huffington Post: Sara Warner

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: asbestos, Election 2014, garlock, GOP, Republican Party, Senate Take-over

6th Circuit Allows Gay Marriage Bans

November 7, 2014 By CCM Staff

In a divided decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has backed same-sex marriage bans in four states, leading to speculation that the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually tackle the issue. Reports the Vox.com news site: “Beyond stopping same-sex couples from marrying in several states, the decision makes it very likely that the Supreme Court will now step in to decide the issue of same-sex marriage.”

Vox offers some background: “[The] nation’s highest court previously side-stepped the debate, largely because all circuit courts had been in agreement that states’ same-sex marriage bans violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses. The decision not to act sparked a wave of court rulings ending same-sex marriage bans in several states, from Idaho to North Carolina.”

For more: A federal court just upheld gay marriage bans in 4 states. Will the Supreme Court step in?

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: gay marriage, gay rights, marriage equality, SCOTUS, US Supreme Court

Feds Demanding Interpreters In Civil Cases

November 5, 2014 By CCM Staff

In a situation sure to echo nationally, California is scrambling to “voluntarily” remedy a civil rights violation for not providing interpreters in certain civil cases, The Los Angeles Times reports. The Times notes that “… unlike those charged with a crime, people in civil court do not have the constitutional right to an interpreter. For many of California’s nearly 7 million limited-English proficient speakers — about one-third of whom live in Los Angeles County — that makes the system practically impenetrable… the problem led the U.S. Department of Justice last year to conclude that L.A. County and the state’s Judicial Council were violating the Civil Rights Act.

The Times explained that the investigation “was prompted by a complaint filed by the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles on behalf of two low-income clients. One had been sexually assaulted and sought a restraining order against her attacker; the other had filed for custody and child support for her son. Both were denied Korean interpreters. Federal authorities have given California the chance to voluntarily improve services. But failure to make the court system accessible to all could result in federal intervention.”

The Times story comes in a context of diminished civil court services and delays in family court, among other challenges. Top court officials have said mere access to courts become a civil rights issue.

Read the Times story here: After federal probe, state examines need for civil court interpreters

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: border children, border crisis, Border Enforcement, Border Kids, California, California Budget, california courts, civil court, Department of Justice, detainees, detention, DHHS, Gov. Jerry Brown, Homeland Security, ICE, immigration, immigration reform, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, refugee children, Superior Court

Magazine Notes High-Stakes Court Cases

October 28, 2014 By CCM Staff

Mother Jones magazine is offering a rundown on five states where electing state supreme court justices has become a high-stakes political battle, complete with spending millions of dollars on attack and counter-attack ads. The piece offers some familiar names for anyone who follows the judicial policy wars, like Texas and North Carolina, and some places where you might not have noticed conflict, like Tennessee.

In particular, the magazine notes that Florida, also home to significant fights over the governor’s office and of course a vital presidential swing state, has seen dramatic increases. Florida, says reporter A.J. Vicens, “… ranked near the bottom of the list between 2000-09 in terms of judicial candidate contributions, with nominees raising just $7,500 during that entire period. But that changed in the 2011-12 cycle, when three Supreme Court judges were up for retention votes, with candidate fundraising coming in at more than $1.5 million and independent spending topping $3.1 million.”

For court watchers, it may be interesting that the increased spending is happening in some states with “retention” models, which are believed to decrease political efforts in the judiciary. In those states, voters can only decide whether or not to keep or dismiss a judge – as opposed to choosing between candidates. California, for example, uses a retention system for its high court, although a huge majority of lower court judges run unopposed.

Read the Mother Jones take here: These states are witnessing big-money slugfests—to elect judges

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: access to justice, california courts, campaign finance, campaign finance reform, Courts, increased political spending, Judges, judicial elections, Mother Jones, transparency

ICE Holds Down Under ‘Trust Act’ Policy

October 23, 2014 By CCM Staff

Some new numbers are confirming that law enforcement officials are holding fewer immigrants on behalf of federal immigration authorities. The change comes under policies of the Trust Act that went into place earlier this year and follow court decisions on the “holds.” The Associated Press reports that “… immigration officials say local authorities across the U.S. released thousands of immigrants from jails this year despite efforts to take them into federal custody, including more than 3,000 with previous felony charges or convictions.”

The AP story explains that “… the Trust Act limits the ability of local law enforcement to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to hold immigrants longer than their scheduled release date to give ICE time to take them into custody.” Immigration issues are nearly always “civil,” not criminal issues.

California’s San Diego County was among the five counties nationwide with the most federal immigration requests declined, according to newly released ICE data. Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Alameda and Miami-Dade, FL, were the other four. In northern California, the number of detainees transferred to ICE custody fell 53 percent during fiscal year 2014, according to ICE. In the Los Angeles area, the number fell by 15 percent. Similar figures weren’t available for San Diego, but in fiscal year 2013, immigration authorities requested that 3,020 detainees be transferred to ICE custody from San Diego and Imperial counties, reports the AP.

See the story via California public radio here: Immigration Holds Plummet In First Year Of California’s Trust Act

Civil Costs Added To Double-Dip Red Light Ticket

October 21, 2014 By CCM Staff

Los Angeles TV station NBC4 is reporting about a “double-dip” situation involving civil assessments and those red light cameras. The problem focuses on what happens when the owner of the car in the photo is not driving the car. One family paid the $500 fine, but also noted that the owner was not driving. On the back, they said who was – and that driver got a second fine.

“… nearly 3 months after paying the ticket [the driver] received a letter from the court stating ‘as a result of your failure to appear’ … a civil assessment of $300 was added. Then this: “The court will refer this citation to a collection agency.”

In response to the NBC4 I-Team’s questions, the station said, the court is re-instating the original citation for Kim, ending the collections process and waiving the $300 fee for failure to appear. The courts are refunding $500 to the Kellys, and they’ve waived $300 in late fees for Kim. For those unable to interest a television news team in helping, there is some advice. If you get one of those tickets, and the owner of the car was not driving, just indicate that and send the document in – leave it to the courts to tell who was driving.

Read the story here: Family Alleges Court Double Dips on Red Light Citations

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California, California Budget, California Corrections, california court cuts, california courts, red light

Even China Looks For Civil Court Reform?

October 21, 2014 By CCM Staff

For those wondering about transparency in American courts and the demise of our “rule of law” culture, given the rationing of justice in civil courts, there’s a great report in Foreign Policy magazine about China. It seems reform is afoot, and Fordham University Professor Carl Minzner notes that the Chinese “… have made judicial transparency a priority, with some provincial court authorities striving to make all of their verdicts available online. Central authorities have partially revived concepts of judicial professionalism that had gone into eclipse during the later years of Hu Jintao’s administration. One example is the attempt to separate out legal disputes and court cases from the poorly-defined petitioning channels many citizens use in practice to resolve their disputes.”

He also adds that “… authorities are experimenting with insulating judges from interference by local officials. Pilot reforms in six provinces remove control over the funding and appointment of local judges from the hands of county authorities, vesting it instead with provincial courts. This does not mean a repudiation of any core policies. Far from it. Beijing’s commitment to maintaining social stability above all else remains unchanged. But central authorities appear to be gambling that recentralizing control over the court system will help curb social dissatisfaction by combating incestuous relationships between local judges and government officials that are the source of many citizen grievances.”

Compare and contrast here: What Does China Mean By ‘Rule of Law’?

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: access to justice, China, judicial transparency, justice

Supreme Court Considering Key Low-Level Drug Deportation Issue

October 16, 2014 By CCM Staff

The United States Supreme Court famously likes to use small cases to make big decisions, and thus we have the case of a man deported over a sock. The International Business Times explains that “… Moones Mellouli, an immigrant from Tunisia who has been fighting the grounds of his deportation order since 2012. A high court ruling against him could widen the deportation net for immigrants convicted of low-level drug-related crimes — even if the drugs in question aren’t designated controlled substances under federal law.”

The Times offers the backstory: “Mellouli came to the U.S. in 2004 on a student visa. He completed two master’s degrees, taught mathematics, secured a job as an actuary and received his green card. In 2010, he was stopped and detained in Kansas for driving under the influence, and then charged and convicted with possession of drug paraphernalia — specified under Kansas law as anything used to “store, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale or otherwise introduce a controlled substance into the human body.” In this case, it was a sock containing an unspecified drug… in Kansas, this counted as a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine. Under federal law, and in many other states where “drug paraphernalia” has a stricter definition, Mellouli’s behavior wouldn’t have amounted to a crime at all.”

The idea was that his sock, where he had stashed four Adderall pills, was paraphernalia. The Justice Department’s Immigration Court upheld the deportation. Now, says the Times, “… if the Supreme Court agrees, it could open the way for more of these types of low-level drug crimes to become deportable offenses… the case also highlights the degree to which the variability of state laws factors into deportations: If Mellouli had been in California, rather than Kansas, he may not have been convicted in the first place.

Read the fine report here: Immigration: Supreme Court To Rule On Deportation Standards For Drug Offenses

Filed Under: Border Kids, Community, Courts Budget, National Tagged With: border children, border crisis, Border Kids, California, California Budget, california courts, civil court, Department of Justice, detention, DHHS, Gov. Jerry Brown, Homeland Security, ICE, immigration, immigration reform, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, refugee children, Superior Court

Immigration Judges The ‘Cinderellas’ Of Justice System?

October 15, 2014 By CCM Staff

San Francisco immigration judge Dana Leigh Marks, who sidesteps a Justice Department gag order on her profession because she is also president of the National Association of Immigration Judges, is continuing to give voice to those who work inside the “border kid” crisis. She tells ABC News that “… we call ourselves ‘the legal Cinderellas’ in the Department of Justice, because we feel that we have been ignored resource-wise.”

She told ABC that, this year, “… $18 billion was spent on immigration law enforcement and only 1.7 perfect of that went to the courts…” Marks also cited non-functioning equipment and understaffed offices as key culprits in the “massive dysfunction” that immigration judges are currently facing. The judges are actually Justice Department employees.

Judge Marks outlined the scope of the problem: “Nationwide there’s more than 375,000 pending cases before 227 immigration judges who are sitting in the field,” Marks said. This works out to more than 1,500 cases per judge, but individual caseloads vary across the country. For example, Marks’ docket in San Francisco has more than 2,400 pending cases. The judge said the administration’s decision to “flip” the docket to move border kids to the front has meant longer delays for others.

Read the story from the front lines of immigration court here: Immigration Judge Says Court System Has Been Ignored, Underfunded