National Roundup

Missouri
State high court to hear challenge to gun law
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The Missouri Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Monday on the constitutionality of a new state law forbidding local law enforcement from enforcing federal gun laws.

A lower court judge rejected a challenge to the law brought by St. Louis city and county and Kansas City officials last August, so they appealed to the higher court.

The gun law has drawn strong opposition from police departments across the state, and federal law enforcement officials have said it hampers criminal investigations and hurts cooperation between federal and local investigators.

The cities say in their appeal that the law could also prevent state and local officers from participating in important task forces with federal officials.

State officials who are defending the law argue it is necessary to prevent federal officials from trying to enforce new gun control measures.

Gun rights groups, such as the Missouri Firearms Coalition, have also weighed in, arguing that the law is needed because “gun rights are in a precarious situation in America.”

A separate lawsuit asking a judge to clarify the provisions of the law is also progressing in lower courts. That lawsuit filed by the city of Arnold attracted support last month from a group of nearly 60 Missouri police chiefs associated with the St. Louis Area Police Chiefs Association or the Missouri Police Chiefs Association.

Utah
Lawsuit appealed over Mormon church use of donations
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — James Huntsman, a member of one of Utah's most prominent families and brother of a former governor, is persisting in his argument that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used donations the church solicited for charity for commercial purposes.

Huntsman, a member of one of Utah's most prominent families, filed an appeal Friday with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. A federal judge in California dismissed Huntsman's complaint against the church in September, saying no reasonable juror would believe that church leaders made false statements about how funds would be used.

Huntsman, brother of former U.S. diplomat and ex-Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and son of late billionaire philanthropist Jon Huntsman Sr., said he was defrauded out of millions of dollars during the 24 years he gave 10% of his annual income to the church. He is seeking the return of $5 million.

Contributions to the Utah-based faith known widely as the Mormon church “are used for a broad array of religious purposes, including missionary work, education, humanitarian causes and the construction of meetinghouses, temples and other buildings important in the work of the Church,” spokesperson Eric Hawkins said in a statement after the complaint was filed.

The lawsuit  was filed more than a year after a former church investment manager filed a whistleblower complaint with the IRS, saying that the church has misled members and possibly broken federal tax rules for religious organizations by using an affiliated investment arm to set aside about $1 billion a year from the $7 billion that the faith received annually in member donations. The whistleblower lawsuit said the church's investments totaled $100 billion.

The church reported its largest investment fund contained nearly $38 billion at the end of 2019. The report did not detail all of the church's investments.

Huntsman said he planned to give the millions of dollars in damages he is seeking to “organizations and communities whose members have been marginalized by the Church's teachings and doctrines, including by donating to charities supporting LGBTQ, African-American, and women's rights.”

New York
Judge approves $65M settlement in polluted water lawsuit
HOOSICK FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — A federal judge has approved a $65 million settlement in a class action lawsuit with three companies over chemical contamination of the water supply in an upstate New York village.

The Times Union reported the ruling Friday by U.S. District Senior Judge Lawrence E. Kahn sets off a 30-day period for an appeal to be filed challenging the settlement. Kahn had previously ruled the settlement was “fair, reasonable and adequate.”

Under the settlement, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, Honeywell International and 3M will compensate plaintiffs who are current or former residents of Hoosick Falls, northwest of Albany, for their exposure to PFOA, a chemical once used in certain industrial processes.

The residents of Hoosick Falls learned several years ago that their drinking water had been contaminated by PFOA, or perfluorooctanoic acid, which has been connected to cancer and thyroid disease.

Payments under the settlement are expected to be divided among 1,800 property owners.

New Jersey
2 convicted in 1994 home invasion slayings can seek review
VINELAND, N.J. (AP) — An appellate court in New Jersey has cleared the way for two men to seek release from prison after serving more than a quarter-century behind bars in the home invasion murders of a couple, crimes committed when the defendants were juveniles.

Since 1995, 45-year-old Jason Baker and 44-year-old Luis Beltran have been serving life sentences in the 1994 slayings of 64-year-old George and 64-year-old Margaret McLoughlin in Vineland.

The state Supreme Court ruled last month that juvenile inmates should be allowed to apply for release after 20 years. The appellate court said Friday that Baker and Beltran two are eligible for a sentencing review at which defendants can show evidence of rehabilitation and seek release, NJ.com reported.

Authorities said Jason Baker was 17 years old and Luis Beltran was 16 when they and another teen went to the McLoughlin house looking for guns, but did not find any. Margaret
McLoughlin was shot four times and her husband was beaten, pistol whipped and stabbed, authorities said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declared unconstitutional life sentences with no chance of parole for juvenile defendants. In New Jersey, life sentences commute to a 30-year minimum before parole can be sought, and the state's highest court last month said that was unconstitutional.

In the case of James Comer, who was 17 during a 2000 robbery spree in Essex County in which a man died, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that barring juvenile defendants from parole for 30 years was a form of “cruel and unusual punishment.” The high court said juvenile inmates should be able to apply for release after 20 years.