Category Archives: Legal News

Trump administration tells court law does not ban bias against gay workers

(Reuters) – A Trump administration lawyer on Tuesday urged a U.S. appeals court in Manhattan to rule that federal law does not ban discrimination against gay employees.

The U.S. Department of Justice is supporting a New York skydiving company, Altitude Express Inc, in a lawsuit brought by former instructor Donald Zarda, who accused the company of firing him after he told a customer he was gay and she complained. Zarda died in a BASE-jumping accident after filing the lawsuit, and his estate took over the case.

Judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals focused their questions on whether discrimination against gay workers is a form of unlawful sex bias under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law bans discrimination based on workers’ sex, race, religion and other traits.

Justice Department lawyer Hashim Mooppan told the court that Congress never intended for that law to protect gay workers against bias. And in recent years, he said, lawmakers have repeatedly declined to pass bills that would prohibit employment discrimination against gay workers.

During the Obama administration, the Justice Department had not weighed in on the case. But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which appeared at Tuesday’s hearing on behalf of Zarda’s estate, has been arguing for five years that bias against gay workers violates the law. The EEOC is an independent federal agency that enforces Title VII.

 read full – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lgbt-court/trump-administration-tells-court-law-does-not-ban-bias-against-gay-workers-idUSKCN1C10EW

Angelina Jolie Reveals How The Kids Are Since The Divorce: “Happy And Light, We Needed That”

The actress tells The New York Times about her post-Brad life.

Rocco Morabito: Italian mafia boss held in Uruguay

One of Italy’s most wanted fugitives has been arrested in Uruguay after 23 years on the run from convictions for mafia association and drug trafficking.

Rocco Morabito of the ‘Ndrangheta organised crime gang was detained in the resort of Punta del Este.

Uruguayan police said he had been living there for more than 10 years under a false identity.

He was nicknamed “cocaine king of Milan” for his involvement in shipping the drug from South America to Italy.

The ‘Ndrangheta controls much of the world’s cocaine trade and police say Morabito was behind the smuggling of hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Brazil to Italy.

South American hideaway

Morabito is believed to have arrived in Uruguay in 2002.

Police arrested Morabito in a hotel in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo. But officials said he had settled in the resort of Punta del Este with false Brazilian identity papers in the name of Francisco Capeletto.

Read Full – http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-41146886

Drug companies want to dismiss Ohio’s lawsuit over opioid epidemic

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio – Companies that make prescription opioids want a Ross County Common Pleas judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine that charged them with stoking Ohio’s opioid epidemic by fraudulently marketing their products.

Legal briefs filed by Purdue Pharma, which makes Oxycontin, say U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements for its products preempt Ohio law, and DeWine’s lawsuit also failed to prove the company’s actions caused the harm he cites.

“The State does not identify a single physician who prescribed one of Purdue’s opioid medications to any patient when it was allegedly medically unnecessary, much less, a physician who did so because of Purdue’s allegedly misleading marketing or promotional materials,” the company’s legal filings say.

Read Full – http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/09/drug_companies_want_to_dismiss.html

PROOF in Brief + Celeb Legal News Roundup + Jill Stanley

Week Ending 9.8.2017

  • A French court ruled that topless photos taken of Kate, Duchess of York were an invasion of privacy. The photos were taken back in 2012 with a long lense as Kate and William were vacationing at a private estate. Interesting timing given it’s 20 years since Lady Di’s death which many still attribute to paparazzi. (Note: charges were ultimately dropped against paps in connection with her death.)
  • Usher responds to California lawsuit filed by 3 plaintiffs alleging he may have exposed them to Herpes. In his answer, Usher denied the allegations but the singer has still not released medical evidence proving he does not have the disease  Click here to read the complaint filed against him.
  • Dallas Cowboy Ezekiel Elliott just got a little luck. A federal judge granted the NFL Players Association request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to stop his six-game suspension stemming from the NFL’s finding that there was “substantial evidence” that Elliott committed acts of domestic physical violence against his former girlfriend,Tiffany Thompson.
  • The Mel B/Stephen Belafonte lawsuit continues with more damaging allegations. This time about a sham marriage that Belafonte purportedly arranged so the couple’s former nanny (with whom both he and Mel B are alleged to have had sexual relations) would not be deported. Read More 
  • The family of Aaron Carter is very worried about him and the very real risk of suicide they feel may be present; they’ve had cops called to Aaron’s home several times recently. Read More
  • Fox News host, Charles Payne, will return to his show now that the Network has completed its investigation into sexual harassment claims. Payne was suspended earlier this summer pending the outcome of that investigation.

Sourced From http://proofwithjillstanley.com/proof-in-brief/