Case of 60s black militant H. Rap Brown declined
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is declining to take the case of a 1960s black militant formerly known as H. Rap Brown who is in prison for killing a Georgia sheriff's deputy in 2000.
As is usual, the justices didn't comment Monday in turning away Brown's case. Brown had argued his constitutional rights were violated at trial.
Brown converted to Islam and now goes by the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. He gained prominence more than 50 years ago as a Black Panthers leader and was at one point the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
In 2002, Al-Amin was convicted of murder in the death of Fulton County sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen and the wounding of Kinchen's partner, Deputy Aldranon English. He was sentenced to life in prison.
Al-Amin had argued that a prosecutor violated his right not to testify by directly questioning him during closing arguments in a sort of mock cross-examination.
Court backs police in traffic stops
WASHINGTON (AP) - Police can pull over a car when they know only that its owner's license is invalid, even if they don't know who's behind the wheel, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.
The court said in an 8-1 decision that unless there's reason to believe otherwise, it's common sense for an officer to think the car's owner will be driving.
"Empirical studies demonstrate what common experience readily reveals: Drivers with revoked licenses frequently continue to drive and therefore to pose safety risks to other motorists and pedestrians," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the court.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
The high court reversed a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that found police violated a driver's constitutional rights when they stopped his pickup based only on information that the truck owner's license had been revoked.
Justices won't hear case of 'Texas Seven' inmate
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up the case of a Texas death row inmate who argued he should get a new trial because the judge who presided over his case was biased against Jews.
The justices said they would not hear the case of Randy Halprin, one of the so-called Texas 7, but Halprin's claims of bias and that he should get a new trial are still under review by a Texas court.
Halprin and six others escaped from prison in 2000. The group later robbed a sporting goods store in Irving, Texas, fatally shooting responding police officer Aubrey Hawkins as they fled.
Lawyers for Halprin, who is Jewish, said an investigation found that Judge Vickers Cunningham, who presided over his trial, was anti-Semitic and frequently used racial slurs.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the facts Halprin presented are "deeply disturbing" but she nonetheless agreed with the decision not to hear his case. Sotomayor noted that Halprin's execution has now been stayed while state courts consider whether "bias infected his trial."
Sotomayor wrote that the Constitution clearly requires a fair trial before an unbiased judge.
"I trust that the Texas courts considering Halprin's case are more than capable of guarding this fundamental guarantee," she wrote. She suggested the Supreme Court could still take the case at a later date.
Tivon Schardl, a lawyer for Halprin, said in a statement that lawyers would "continue to seek a new, fair trial."
A Dallas Morning News story revealed in 2018, when Cunningham was running for county commissioner, that he had created a trust for his children that withheld money if they chose to marry someone who was not white or not Christian. The story also quoted a former campaign worker who said Cunningham used a racial slur to describe black defendants. In response, Cunningham denied ever using the racial slur and said in a statement that his "views on interracial marriage have evolved" since he set up the trust in 2010.
Halprin's lawyers followed up with an investigation of their own which found that Cunningham used racial slurs not only to talk about African Americans but also to talk about Jews and Latinos. The investigation also found he allegedly threatened not to pay for his daughter's law school tuition unless she broke up with a Jewish boyfriend.
Halprin and death row inmate Patrick Murphy are the only members of the Texas 7 that are still alive. One of the men committed suicide as authorities closed in on the group following their escape. Four others were convicted and executed. Murphy's execution has also been stayed.
Court rules for employee over age discrimination
By Mark Sherman
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - Well, OK, boomer.
The Supreme Court made it easier Monday for federal employees 40 and older to sue for age discrimination.
The justices ruled 8-1 that federal workers have a lower hurdle to overcome than their counterparts in the private sector. The decision came in the case in which Chief Justice John Roberts, a 65-year-old baby boomer, invoked the "OK, boomer" meme during arguments in January for the first time in high-court records.
The court issued the opinion without taking the bench for the third straight week because of the coronavirus. Arguments scheduled for the spring have been postponed indefinitely.
An employee can win a lawsuit by showing that age discrimination was part of the process, even if the people who were selected were better qualified, the court held in an opinion by another boomer, 70-year-old Justice Samuel Alito. The ruling came in the case of a Veterans Affairs Department employee who was in her early 50s when she sued for age discrimination after being denied promotions and training opportunities.
The outcome stands in contrast to a 2009 decision in which the court said age has to be the key factor in a private sector employment decision. The language of the law's provisions covering private and federal employees is different.
Alito wrote that, "if Congress had wanted to impose the same standard on all employers, it could have easily done so."
But the opinion also made clear that an employee could not expect to win back pay or the promotion she sought if discrimination was not the key factor in the employment decision at issue. There could be other options, including a court order forbidding the agency from using the same flawed process in the future, Alito wrote.
Justice Clarence Thomas, 71, also a member of the post-World War II baby boom generation, dissented.
Supreme Court justices sometimes will imagine themselves in situations like the ones that land people before the high court, but that can be hard to do when the subject is employment discrimination because the justices have lifetime tenure. The youngest justice, Neil Gorsuch, is 52. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, is the eldest.
The case is Babb v. Wilkie, 18-882.
Published: Wed, Apr 08, 2020
