National Roundup

Indiana
Judge: $180,000 legal bill due after abortion law challenged
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the attorney general’s office to pay the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana more than $180,000 in legal fees for successfully challenging the 2016 genetic abnormality abortion law enacted by now-Vice President Mike Pence.

As an incentive to challenge potentially unconstitutional statues, federal law allows judges to require the government to pay a plaintiff’s legal fees.

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ordered a payment total of $182,499 to the ACLU of Indiana for its legal work on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky.

Pratt blocked the Indiana law after Planned Parenthood requested a preliminary injunction arguing the law was unconstitutional and violated women’s privacy rights.

The law would have banned abortions sought because of a fetus’ genetic abnormalities, genetic diseases or physical deformities.

The federal trial court in Indianapolis, federal appeals court in Chicago, and the U.S. Supreme Court all refused to allow a key provision of the law to take effect, The Northwest Times reported.

The nation’s high court, however, did permit a separate provision of the law requiring abortion providers to pay to bury or cremate any embryonic or fetal remains in their possession.

“In light of the fetal remains discovered in Illinois, we are especially grateful that the Supreme Court reversed the district court’s earlier decision that purported to invalidate Indiana’s fetal-remains law,” according to a statement from the Indiana Attorney General’s office.

According to an analysis of state spending records by The Times, Indiana paid more than $3 million to the ACLU between 2011 and 2020 following the group’s successful challenges to unconstitutional state laws.

Louisiana
Court considers whether men-only draft is constitutional
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Weeks before a government commission weighs in on the subject, federal appeals court judges will consider whether the military’s all-male draft system is constitutional.

A Texas-based federal judge ruled last year that it is not, in response to a lawsuit brought by the National Coalition for Men. The government appealed, leading to Tuesday’s hearing before a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The case is one of three being argued before the panel at Tulane University’s law school in New Orleans. The court holds hearings at Tulane once a year.

The United States government stopped drafting young men into the military in 1973. But every male must still register for the draft when he turns 18.

The Supreme Court upheld the male-only draft in 1981, at a time when women were not eligible for combat roles. Women became eligible in 2015 and U.S. District Judge Gray Miller cited the change in his ruling last year.

It’s not clear when the appeals court panel will rule. The hearing takes place about three weeks before a federal commission is scheduled to release a final report and recommendations on the draft — including whether the nation still needs a draft registration system, whether women should be required to register and whether other changes are needed.

The commission’s chairman, former Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Heck of Nevada, has publicly supported requiring women to register for the draft.

“The Commission has been following this case as it progresses, making our work all the more relevant and important,” Heck said in an emailed statement Monday. The commission is scheduled to release its report on March 25.

Illinois
1st African American on Illinois high court dies at 86
CHICAGO (AP) — Justice Charles E. Freeman, the first African American to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court, died on Monday, according to a statement from the state’s high court. He was 86.

Current Chief Justice Anne M. Burke heralded Freeman as someone with a sharp legal mind who broke down barriers throughout his life.

“Justice Freeman was ... a trailblazer,” she said in the statement announcing Freeman’s death. She added: “He was a gentleman and a truly gracious individual. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone.

The statement didn’t include a cause death.

Freeman, who was also the first African American to become chief justice on the court, won election to the open seat in 1990 by defeating Republican candidate Robert Chapman Buckley with 62% of the vote. Freeman retired in 2018.

While a Cook County circuit judge from 1976 to 1986, Freeman was the first African American to swear in a Chicago mayor. It was Harold Washington, who became the city’s first black mayor in 1983.
Once asked about the significance of his becoming the first black chief justice in Illinois, Freeman said it would not influence his assessment of the law, according to the Monday’s statement.

“I’m an African American who now has become chief judge,” he said. “I’m not an African American chief justice. I have no different perception on what course I would take because of my heritage.”

Colleagues described Freeman as always prepared for oral arguments and judicial conferences. As chief justice, he upgraded an educational program for judges and pushed for the creation of a special committee to study the death penalty and propose reforms.

In 1994, Freeman wrote the court’s majority opinion overturning the conviction of Rolando Cruz, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of 10-year-old Jeanine Nicarico.

Freeman asserted the jury heard improper evidence and wasn’t allowed to hear testimony that could have helped Cruz’s defense. Brian Dugan later admitted to Nicarico’s murder and was sentenced to death. Dugan’s sentence was later commuted to life in prison after Illinois abolished capital punishment in 2011.

Freeman was born in Richmond, Virginia, on Dec. 12, 1933, a descendant of slaves who secured their freedom before the Civil War. As an undergrad, he studied at Virginia Union University and got his law degree from John Marshall Law School in 1962.

Burke described Freeman as a devoted family man, saying Freeman told her how his wife of more than 50 years, Marylee, would slip a love note into his suitcase every time he traveled to Springfield.
“I knew then that they had one of those storybook romances — everlasting,” Burke said.

The supreme court statement says Freeman is survived by his son, Kevin Freeman, two grandchildren and a brother in Virginia.