Op-Ed: Why I resigned as an immigration judge I have been an immigration lawyer dedicated to fairness and due process for immigrants my entire career. In 2015, convinced that my 18 years of experience as an advocate would make me a good immigration judge, I applied for the job. Most immigration judges are former attorneys from the chief counsel’s office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, former assistant U.S. attorneys or former attorneys from other federal government agencies. Former advocates are appointed less frequently, but I believed in the importance of having judges from varied backgrounds on the bench and therefore applied. I made it through the application and vetting...
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Judge sets tentative date for Jeffrey Epstein's trial NEW YORK (AP) — The soonest Jeffrey Epstein will stand trial on sex trafficking charges is June 2020, though his defense lawyers are pushing for a later date. The 66-year-old financier was back in court Wednesday for a pretrial hearing on the charges, which accuse him of having sex with girls as young as age 14. Unlike previous court appearances where Epstein was communicating with his lawyers and looking through papers, he appeared subdued with his hands folded in front of him throughout the brief hearing. There were no visible signs of any injuries after he was found on the floor of his cell last week with neck bruises. After the...
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This article by Paul Szoldra originally appeared on Task & Purpose, a digital news and culture publication dedicated to military and veterans issues. A week after Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher was found not guilty of murder at a military court-martial that garnered international media attention, members of the U.S. government team that prosecuted him were awarded medals for their "superb results" and "expert litigation," according to legal filings obtained by Task & Purpose. The Navy's Region Legal Service Office in San Diego hosted an award ceremony July 10 in one of its courtrooms for four attorneys and four legal support staffers involved in the Gallagher case, according to a...
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A week after Navy SEAL Chief Eddie Gallagher was found not guilty of murder at a military court-martial that garnered international media attention, members of the U.S. government team that prosecuted him were awarded medals for their "superb results" and "expert litigation," according to legal filings obtained by Task & Purpose. The Navy's Region Legal Service Office in San Diego hosted an award ceremony on July 10 in one of its courtrooms for four attorneys and four legal support staffers involved in the Gallagher case, according to a motion filed in a companion case on July 19 by military attorneys representing Navy SEAL Lt. Jacob Portier, Gallagher's former platoon commander. The...
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Financier Jeffrey Epstein looked physically healthy when he appeared in court in New York on Wednesday in his sex trafficking case, about a week after reportedly being found unconscious in his jail cell with neck injuries. He wore dark blue jail scrubs during his brief appearance in Manhattan federal criminal court on Wednesday morning, in a proceeding scheduled before the apparent incident behind bars last week. There were no signs of injuries that had been reported at the time and he appeared well and more neatly presented than at some previous hearings. His lawyers did not bring up the incident in court and refused to comment on the topic following the hearing, which focused on...
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Katy Perry will pay damages to a Christian rapper after a jury in California found that her song Dark Horse plagiarised one of his tracks. In Marcus Gray, who records as Flame, and co-writers Emanuel Lambert and Chike Ojukwu of his 2008 track Joyful Noise sued Perry and five other producers and songwriters who worked on Dark Horse. Among those sued include Dr Luke and Max Martin, and rapper Juicy J. Gray’s lawyers argued that the beat of Dark Horse had been copied from Joyful Noise, but Perry and her co-writers claimed they had never heard the track, and were not aware of Gray. But Gray’s lawyer successfully argued that Joyful Noise was a widely known song, pointing to its millions of...
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After a few weeks of trying to link Gov. John Bel Edwards with supporting unchecked immigration, the Democratic governor’s Republican opponents also are blaming his “trial lawyer” ways for what they call Louisiana’s sluggish economy. Unlike whether the state should build a wall on the Mexican border, the trial lawyer riff is linked to a relevant policy debate for Louisiana. “Let’s be clear, our oil and gas industry hasn’t taken a beating from the economy. It’s taken a beating from John Bel Edwards and his trial attorney donors,” Republican challenger U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham stated in a piece released Thursday by his campaign. It’s a refrain both Abraham, of Alto, and Baton Rouge millionaire...
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LAFAYETTE, La. — A Louisiana district judge has found a public defender in contempt of court after he filmed a bailiff duct-taping a defendant's mouth during a sentencing hearing this month. State District Judge Marilyn Castle barred attorney Michael Gregory from bringing a cellphone into the 15th Judicial District court building or from using anyone else's cellphone in the courthouse for six months, The Acadiana Advocate reported. She also ordered him to pay a $100 fine. "This is not pleasurable for me to do. If I ignored it, I'd be in violation of the rules," Castle said, later adding, "I have no hard feelings for you." Gregory said he plans to appeal Friday's ruling. The contempt hearing...
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The U.S. Supreme Court has spoken: Any attempt to ban arbitration in employment disputes is prevented by Federal Law. This means businesses can ask employees to sign arbitration agreements to settle employment disputes, avoiding costly litigation. Unfortunately, some members of the California legislature are determined to disregard the Court’s ruling. Together, they are pushing forward on Assembly Bill 51, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, which would ban employers from requiring arbitration in employment contracts, and worse, expose business owners to criminal liability. The provisions of AB51 have been purposefully placed within a section of the Labor Code which makes...
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The important things Robert Mueller could tell us — if he wants to For five months, we’ve been speculating about what special counsel Robert S. Mueller III might say if he were to testify in front of Congress. On Wednesday, we’ll find out. Mueller’s testimony loomed particularly large when it seemed we might not see all of his report. Once the report was released — and pre-spun by Attorney General William P. Barr — the idea of Mueller testifying became a source of hope for Trump opponents who were unsatisfied with the repercussions. Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today’s most popular stories on The Washington Post We can say a couple things about it. First: Expectations should be...
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