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Recently in Litigation Category
May 26, 2008
Bye Bye, Three Day Weekend
Totally unproductive three-day weekend here at PJ headquarters. Just to get y'all back up to speed:
On the Texas front:
--The Texas Supreme Court reviewed documents over the weekend but so far has not made a decision on whether to overturn a ruling by the Third Court of Appeals that Texas was wrong to seize those 460 children from the FLDS compound.
--The "who loves veterans more" back-and-forth between Senate candidates John Cornyn and Rick Noriega continues. Noriega stoked the flames by penning an op-ed which ran in the Houston Chronicle about the Senator Jim Webb sponsored G.I. bill that the Senate passed last week: Unfortunately, my opponent, Sen. John Cornyn, failed to stand up for our troops. Cornyn was one of only 22 senators to vote against the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Act, continuing his history of turning his back on veterans. Adding insult to injury, Cornyn went so far as to condone and encourage a presidential veto of the bill. Webb's GI Bill passed with the support of 75 senators, including Texas' senior Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. GOP presidential nominee, Senator John McCain, joined Cornyn in voting against the bill. Both believe the bill will reduce the military's retention rate at a time when the country is trying to expand the size of the military.
For his part, Cornyn criss-crossed the state to spend time with military men and women on Memorial Day. Cornyn issued this statement: "As terrorism remains a real and serious threat, and our country must continue to stand strong against it, these young men and women have chosen a challenging and honorable course. They will be our nation's future leaders and defenders, and I was honored to congratulate each of them for their accomplishments and wish them the best.
"I hope each of us can give thanks not only on Memorial Day, but every day for our men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we hold so dearly." On the national front, Hillary Clinton sparked collective outrage from the mainstream press and the blogosphere late Friday after she said this about RFK. (It was later discovered that it's the second time she's made the statement): "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it." She said she regretted the comments if they offended anyone, and especially the Kennedy's. RFK Jr came out to defend her. MSNBC's Keith "Special Comment" Olbermann unleashed on her with a fury he usually reserves for President Bush:
Obama himself said on Saturday that he didn't take Clinton's comments to mean any harm.
Then on Sunday HRC surrogates blamed Obama's campaign for keeping this controversy in the press. Obama's people circulated a transcript of the Olbermann special comment on Saturday morning. So that's where we are on that.
May 12, 2008
Are You in Good Hands?
Texas Allstate customers will get a total of $71 million in refunds after the insurance company settled with the Texas Department of Insurance , over the insurance company's excessive premiums*. Here's how it will affect you, if you are in "good hands": Allstate will refund almost $37 million for new and renewal policies written between Dec. 1, 2004-April 23, 2006, a period when the state said its rates were too high.
Allstate also will reduce homeowners rates by 3 percent statewide for new and renewal policies written for one year beginning June 2. And it will credit or refund policy holders 3 percent between Aug. 20, 2007 and June 1.
The Texas Department of Insurance estimates as many as 700,000 policy holders will be affected by the settlement. Allstate is Texas' second-largest writer of homeowner policies and covers nearly 15 percent of the market. Texas Watch head Alex Winslow isn't happy about the outcome because Allstate made no "meaningful" rate reductions. He is calling for lawmakers to step in.
"Today's settlement with Allstate smacks of a political ploy by TDI to defuse legislative and public frustration over the agency's failure to fulfill the promise of meaningful rate relief for Texas homeowners. TDI is set to undergo serious legislative scrutiny starting next month and lawmakers should take heed of the fact another $20 million of their constituents' money is going into the insurance industry's pockets," he said in a statement.
"The insurance commissioner should quit playing politics with Texas homeowners' hard-earned money. Texans are sick and tired of half-baked settlements that allow insurance companies to pad their bottom lines without meaningful rate reductions.
*But that dude from 24 who does the commercials is convincing
April 28, 2008
Breaking: US Supreme Court Upholds Voter ID
By a 6-3 vote, the high court upholds voter ID laws in Indiana, which experts expect will fuel stronger voter ID movements in other states. Last session, eleven Democratic state senators in Texas blocked a voter ID requirement from becoming law. You might recall that, since State Senator Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, had to come back from liver transplant recovery in order to vote against it. This is new, so there's not a whole lot on it yet, but here's Indiana's WRTV-TV: WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.
In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana's strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. Its backers said it was needed to deter fraud.
It was the most important voting rights case since the Bush v. Gore dispute that sealed the 2000 election for George W. Bush.
The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,"' Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.
Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas also agreed with the outcome, but wrote separately.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter dissented.
More than 20 states require some form of identification at the polls. Courts have upheld voter ID laws in Arizona, Georgia and Michigan, but struck down Missouri's. Monday's decision comes a week before Indiana's presidential primary.
March 27, 2008
Craddick Deposition: Talk to the Hand
Our intrepid web team at KVUE has posted raw video of parts of Craddick's deposition (see post below), but if you want to see the condensed version we put on TV, here's the 6pm video story. In this version you can watch the travel company owner, Phillip Marsteller, talk about the so-called "threatening" letter he received from Craddick and lobbyist Bill Messer.
Since we didn't post all eighty minutes, I took a snapshot for you of an interesting moment we didn't post online. This is Craddick talking with his attorney, in the middle of the deposition. Instead of taking a break to meet privately, the attorney put his hand over Craddick's face. Not sure why Craddick didn't put his own hand over his mouth.
"I've never seen anything like that before in a deposition," plaintiff's attorney Kevin Buchanan said. "I made clear that they could take a break."
Craddick Under Oath: The Video
The deposition of Tom Craddick lasts about eighty minutes, and all of it is riveting when you consider Craddick almost never sits down for extended "interviews" like that. Click on the picture to see raw video of the end of the deposition, where Craddick walks out before questioning is finished.
This second clip is from earlier in the deposition, in which he claims he never read a letter in which a threat of "embarrassment to the reputation" of the travel company owner is made. Craddick signed the letter, but says he didn't read it.
Watch the second clip here.
Re: Deposition Day
I am watching House Speaker Tom Craddick's deposition video from this morning, and it's a lot of "I don't know", "I don't remember", "I'm not advised" and "I have no idea's".
Craddick was fidgety at first but overall appeared calm and at times even a little bored in the video. It lasts about 80 minutes, and lobbyist Bill Messer was deposed separately for another 90 minutes.
His attorney, Dallas-based Tom Thomas, is a tiger! (If I am ever in trouble with the law, I am so calling this guy.) He snaps at plaintiff's attorney Kevin Buchanan several times, and instructs his client, Tom Craddick, not to answer about every other question.
"You got questions for him, ask him. No politics, no histrionics in the corner," Thomas says.
Oh, and the deposition didn't actually finish. Craddick and his attorney stormed out.
Video tonight at six.
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