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Section 1983 gives people the power to sue in federal court when state officials violate their constitutional or statutory rights. In a 2019 lawsuit, his wife, Ivanka Talevski, said Talevski was subjected to harmful psychotropic drugs and unlawfully transferred to an all-male facility. A law called the Federal Nursing Home Reform Act places limits the use of physical or chemical restraints and on transferring patients. President Joe Biden's administration had urged the justices to reject a broad limitation on lawsuits pursued under Section 1983. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Additional reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will DunhamOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Ketanji Brown Jackson, Gorgi, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Ivanka Talevski, Talevski, Joe Biden's, Nate Raymond, Andrew Chung, Will Dunham Organizations: U.S, Supreme, Indiana, Health, Hospital Corp, Ku Klux Klan, Americans, Conservative, Valparaiso Care, Rehabilitation, Health and Hospital Corp, Federal Nursing Home, Thomson Locations: Indiana, Marion County, Valparaiso, Boston

Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of private equity executive John Wilson and former casino executive Gamal Aziz, the first two people to face trial of the dozens charged in the sprawling "Operation Varsity Blues" probe. All of Aziz's convictions were set aside, and all but one of Wilson's convictions were aside. Wilson and Aziz were the first to go to trial in 2021. A former University of Southern California water polo coach convicted in the second trial later won a new trial, and another parent was acquitted in the third trial. Aziz and Wilson were sentenced in February 2022 to 12 months and 15 months in prison, respectively.

Companies Robinhood Markets Inc FollowMay 3 (Reuters) - Massachusetts' highest court on Wednesday heard arguments on whether to revive a state fiduciary duty rule that was central to an enforcement action securities regulators filed against the online brokerage Robinhood. Lawyers for a Robinhood Markets Inc (HOOD.O) subsidiary and Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin argued before the state's Supreme Judicial Court over the legality of a 2020 state regulation, which Robinhood has said oversteps Galvin's authority. He argued that Robinhood violated the rule he adopted that raised the investment-advice standard for brokers and that its broker-dealer license in the state should be revoked. "Secretary Galvin feels strongly in the need to apply fiduciary duty standards to financial professionals," a spokesperson said. "The Robinhood case is the perfect example of the need for such a rule in Massachusetts."

April 27 (Reuters) - Massachusetts' top court on Thursday revived the indictments against two former leaders of a veterans' home charged with criminal neglect for their roles in handling a COVID-19 outbreak that killed 84 people. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in a 5-2 ruling, overturned a judge's decision to throw out the charges against former Holyoke Soldiers' Home Superintendent Bennett Walsh and former Medical Director David Clinton. "Of course, sometimes bad things happen for no discernable reason, and no one is to blame," Justice Dalila Argaez Wendlandt wrote for the majority. In bringing the charges against the men in September 2020, then-Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, now the state's Democratic governor, touted the criminal case as the first in the country tied to a COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing facility. The state of Massachusetts last year agreed to pay nearly $58 million to resolve a lawsuit by families of veterans who contracted COVID-19 during the outbreak.

REUTERS/Katherine Taylor/File PhotoWASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - A former Harvard University professor was sentenced on Wednesday to six months' house arrest for lying about his ties to a China-run recruitment program, prosecutors said, in one of the highest-profile cases resulting from a crackdown on Chinese influence on U.S. research. Lieber was sentenced to two days in prison - time that he had already served following his arrest - and half a year of house arrest with a fine of $50,000, prosecutors said. He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and a restitution to the Internal Revenue Service of $33,600, according to prosecutors. The failed cases included another one in Boston in which prosecutors in January 2022 dropped charges against Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Gang Chen for concealing his ties to China when seeking grant money. Prosecutors said Lieber failed to report his salary on his 2013 and 2014 income tax returns and for two years failed to report the bank account.

The justices turned away five appeals by the oil companies of lower court decisions that determined that the lawsuits belonged in state court, a venue often seen as more favorable to plaintiffs than federal court. A separate appeal filed by the oil companies challenging lower court decisions in cases out of New Jersey and Delaware is still pending before the Supreme Court. Theodore Boutrous, an attorney for Chevron, expressed confidence that the cases will be dismissed in state court. That decision prompted other federal appeals courts to reconsider whether they should send similar lawsuits by state and local governments back to state courts. Four other appeals courts reached similar conclusions in the lawsuits by Rhode Island and jurisdictions in California, Colorado, Hawaii and Maryland.

April 7 (Reuters) - The federal judge who on Friday suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is a former Christian legal activist whose small courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, has become a go-to destination for conservatives challenging Biden administration policies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, had a long track record of opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2019 to a life-tenured position as a federal judge. FAVORED VENUESince then, his courthouse has become a favored venue for conservative legal activists and Republican state attorneys general pursuing lawsuits seeking to halt aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda - often with success. In October, Kacsmaryk vacated Biden administration guidance requiring employers to allow transgender workers to dress and use bathrooms consistent with their gender identities. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi, Bill Berkrot and Diane CraftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Pool via REUTERSApril 8 (Reuters) - The federal judge who on Friday suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone is a former Christian legal activist whose small courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, has become a go-to destination for conservatives challenging Biden administration policies. U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former Republican President Donald Trump, had a long track record of opposing abortion and LGBTQ rights before the U.S. Senate confirmed him in 2019 to a life-tenured position as a federal judge. When anti-abortion groups in November filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's more than two-decade old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, they filed in Amarillo, guaranteeing the case would be heard by Kacsmaryk. FAVORED VENUESince then, his courthouse has become a favored venue for conservative legal activists and Republican state attorneys general pursuing lawsuits seeking to halt aspects of Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda - often with success. While the district's chief judge could order cases be reallocated, he has not.

Sentencing Commission approved new guidelines on Wednesday that will expand federal inmates' ability to qualify for compassionate release from prison. The First Step Act, signed into law by former President Donald Trump in 2018, expanded compassionate release criteria for sick and elderly federal inmates. Requests for compassionate release then surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, with 7,014 motions filed in fiscal year 2020. The new compassionate release guidelines approved on Wednesday expanded the criteria for what can qualify as "extraordinary and compelling reasons" to grant compassionate release, and it will give judges more discretion to determine when a sentence reduction is warranted. Among the new categories that could make an inmate eligible for compassionate release is if he or she becomes the victim of sexual assault by a corrections officer.

☆ Exclusive: Massachusetts regulator probes First Republic insiders' stock sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

He is seeking details about the firm's insider trading policies and how officers handled their stock sales from January 1. A spokesperson for First Republic declined to confirm the firm received a subpoena or comment on the stock sales. Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank were seized by regulators days later amid liquidity crises, actions that sapped investor confidence in the sector. SHARE SALESSeveral First Republic executives have sold shares this year, including founder and Executive Chairman James Herbert. Herbert and Roffler did not respond to requests for comment on their stock sales or the subpoena.

March 28 (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices and federal judges will be required to provide greater public disclosure of any free trips, meals or gifts they receive under new regulations adopted at the urging of lawmakers and judicial transparency advocates. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, who has argued for broader ethics reforms at the Supreme Court. He and other Democrats in Congress have introduced legislation that would require the Supreme Court to adopt a code of ethics, strengthen recusal standards for judges and bolster financial disclosure requirements. Under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, U.S. Supreme Court justices and federal judges are required, like certain other government officials, to complete financial disclosure reports annually. Under the new regulations, judges still will not have to disclose gifts that include food, lodging or entertainment extended by an individual for a non-business purpose.

Donziger's lawyers argued that this appointment violated separation-of-powers principles set out in the Constitution delineating the authority of the three branches of the U.S. government. In 2011, an Ecuadorian court entered an $18 billion judgment that was later reduced to $9.5 billion against Chevron for contamination resulting from oil production. In 2014, Kaplan concluded in that case that the Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron in Ecuador was obtained fraudulently through a corrupt process, rendering it unenforceable in the United States. When Chevron suspected Donziger was violating a related ban on trying to monetize or profit from the judgment, Kaplan ordered him to turn over electronic devices and email accounts for examination. After federal prosecutors in Manhattan declined to take the case, Kaplan in an unusual move tapped a private lawyer, Rita Glavin, to lead the prosecution of Donziger.

REUTERS/Stefan WermuthMarch 25 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge has ruled that an online library operated by the nonprofit organization Internet Archive infringed the copyrights of four major U.S. publishers by lending out digitally scanned copies of their books. The San Francisco-based non-profit over the past decade has scanned millions of print books and lent out the digital copies for free. But Koeltl said there was nothing "transformative" about Internet Archive's digital book copies that would warrant "fair use" protection, as its e-books merely replaced the authorized copies publishers themselves license to traditional libraries. "Although IA has the right to lend print books it lawfully acquired, it does not have the right to scan those books and lend the digital copies en masse," he wrote. Internet Archive promised an appeal, saying the ruling "holds back access to information in the digital age, harming all readers, everywhere."

REUTERS/Stefan WermuthMarch 24 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday ruled that an online library operated by the nonprofit organization Internet Archive had infringed the copyrights of four major U.S. publishers by lending out digitally scanned copies of the books. The San Francisco-based non-profit over the past decade has scanned millions of print books and lent out the resulted digital copies for free. But Koeltl said there was nothing "transformative" about the Internet Archive's digital book copies that would warrant "fair use" protection, as its ebooks merely replaced the authorized copies publishers themselves license traditional libraries. "Although IA has the right to lend print books it lawfully acquired, it does not have the right to scan those books and lend the digital copies en masse," he wrote. The Internet Archive in a statement promised an appeal, saying the ruling "holds back access to information in the digital age, harming all readers, everywhere."

WASHINGTON, March 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to allow a federal law stand that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to own firearms. It was the latest victory for gun rights advocates since a Supreme Court ruling last June granting a broad right for people to carry firearms outside the home. The Justice Department's petition to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court was posted on Twitter late on Friday by Jake Charles, a law professor at Pepperdine University with expertise on gun control issues. The Justice Department said it was pursuing the Supreme Court appeal on a "highly expedited schedule" so the justices could potentially take up the case before the current term ends. Neither the Justice Department, nor the federal public defender representing Rahimi immediately responded to requests for comment.

[1/2] Francisco Severo Torres looks on in this undated handout picture. U.S. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein in Boston granted a request by prosecutors for Francisco Severo Torres, 33, to be committed to a facility for a psychiatric evaluation, saying there was reason to believe he was mentally incompetent. According to prosecutors, about 45 minutes before the flight landed in Boston, the flight crew received an alarm in the cockpit that a door between the first class and coach sections had been disarmed. Passengers then tackled him and the flight crew restrained him. Torres was charged with one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon and faces up to life in prison if convicted.

U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston was randomly assigned the case despite the Justice Department's contention that the lawsuit should be heard by another judge who is overseeing a separate antitrust case involving JetBlue. The Justice Department on Tuesday argued that Sorokin should hear the Spirit case as well because both involved "an assessment of JetBlue's network plans, aircraft orders and configurations, and pricing strategy." Sorokin, an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama, on Wednesday in a brief order said the Spirit case was wrongly assigned to him because it was "incorrectly marked as related and thus not randomly assigned." The Justice Department and JetBlue declined to comment. In the case filed on Tuesday, the Justice Department said the merger of JetBlue and Spirit would "combine two especially close and fierce head-to-head competitors."

Sentencing Commission is obliged to increase sentences for those defendants under a provision of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the major gun safety measure that President Joe Biden signed into law in June. The commission, which has seven voting members, in January proposed two options to increase penalties, by either allowing judges to enhance sentences for straw purchasers or amending the federal sentencing guidelines to increase the starting, or base, range for sentences. "A knee jerk response to the directive in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act will not make us safer," she said in a testimony at the hearing, arguing policy makers should collect data first before adopting any measure. The panel faces a May 1 deadline to submit any amendments to the guidelines to Congress. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. judge rules Missouri state gun law is unconstitutional
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Sarah N. Lynch | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge ruled that a Missouri state law aimed at invalidating many federal gun regulations was unconstitutional, handing the U.S. Justice Department a victory on Tuesday in its bid to get the law tossed out. "SAPA’s practical effects are counterintuitive to its stated purpose," Wimes wrote. Spokespeople for Missouri Governor Michael Parson did not have an immediate comment on the ruling. The Justice Department has previously said that HB85, which was signed into law in June 2021, has harmed partnerships between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and state and local law enforcement. A Justice Department spokesperson did not have any immediate comment on the judge's ruling.

BOSTON, March 6 (Reuters) - A United Airlines (UAL.O) passenger has been arrested after trying to open an emergency exit door during a flight on Sunday from Los Angeles to Boston and then trying to stab a flight attendant in the neck, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday. Passengers tackled Francisco Severo Torres, 33, after the attempted stabbing and the flight crew helped restrain him prior the plane landing at Boston Logan International Airport, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said that about 45 minutes before the flight landed in Boston, the flight crew received an alarm in the cockpit that a door between the first class and coach sections had been disarmed. Torres soon after tried to stab of the flight attendants with a broken metal spoon, hitting him on the neck area three times before Torres was tackled, prosecutors said. Torres was charged with one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon.

As a part of a plea deal with prosecutors, the 33-year-old agreed to forfeit $1.3 million and serve six years in prison, 16 months of which may overlap with a five-year sentence she received in October in a separate Florida bank fraud case. Prosecutors said Miller used the identities of more than 10 people to fraudulently set up bank accounts and obtain more than $1 million in pandemic-related loans intended for small businesses. Originally from New York, Miller is the daughter of a former New York State Bar Association president and a graduate of the prestigious Horace Mann School. She was already facing charges in the separate Florida state court fraud case when she was arrested in May 2021 at a luxury apartment in Miami, where she had moved during the pandemic. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Will Dunham and Alexia GaramfalviOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

BOSTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins has hired a former Justice Department inspector general to defend her in a widening ethics investigation into her appearance at a political fundraiser and her travel. The controversy has threatened to undermine Attorney General Merrick Garland’s vow to protect the Justice Department from partisan influence and efforts to extend progressive criminal justice policies championed by Rollins to the federal level. It is unclear what the inspector general's probe will find or when it will be completed. James Borghesani, a spokesman for Hayden, said they have received no inquiries from the inspector general's office. Investigators are also looking at Rollins' use of a personal cellphone, rather than her government-issued one, for Justice Department business, said two other people familiar with the matter.

The ruling authored by Jackson, who was confirmed last year by the Senate as the newest of the nine justices, was unanimous. Under that law, money orders that go uncashed can be generally taken by the state in which they are purchased. Circuit Judge Pierre Leval, later agreed with Delaware's view that they were not legally money orders but were "third-party bank checks." Jackson rejected that position, saying the financial instruments were similar to money orders in function and operation by allowing prepayment of a specified amount to a specific person. "And none of the differences Delaware identifies relates to the statutory text or ordinary meaning of a money order," Jackson wrote.

"It's judge shopping on steroids," said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, executive director of the progressive legal advocacy group Take Back the Court. The Biden administration has called the lawsuit "unprecedented" and urged Kacsmaryk to not deprive women of a long-approved safe and effective drug. At least eight have led to rulings blocking Biden policies, with several more pending. The chief judges of Texas federal courts have the authority to reallocate cases to other judges, but have largely not done so, he said. Absent a change, litigants have every right to take advantage of that structure to seek a favorable judge, he said.

Feb 4 (Reuters) - A federal law prohibiting marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Oklahoma has concluded, citing last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights. "The mere use of marijuana carries none of the characteristics that the Nation's history and tradition of firearms regulation supports," Wyrick wrote. She called marijuana the most commonly used drug illegal at the federal level. Circuit Court of Appeals cited that decision in declaring unconstitutional a federal law barring people under domestic violence restraining orders from owning firearms. Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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