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National Stories
Louisiana plans to go after the bank accounts and state licenses of politicians, lobbyists and political organizations that owe more than $1.2 million in ethics fines, under a crackdown launched in response to a news investigation of Louisiana's campaign finance system. Officials in charge of a new Office of Debt Recovery, set to launch Jan. 1, endorsed this week state Treasurer John Kennedy's proposal to go after people and entities with outstanding Board of Ethics fines. The office, which the Legislature authorized, will have the power to collect money directly from the personal bank accounts of those with outstanding state debts. It also will be able to suspend debtors' state licenses, including licenses for professional accreditations and even for hunting and fishing.
Times-Picayune
They’re as predictable as sunrises. Get a speeding ticket or any other traffic summons in New Jersey and you can count on getting solicitations in the mail a week or so later from an attorney offering to represent you. While some people may like the idea of not having to hunt for a lawyer, state Sen. Nick Scutari (D-Union) says others consider it embarrassing and an invasion of their privacy. As a result, he’s trying to ban traffic summonses from being in the public domain. Last week, Scutari introduced a bill (S-3056) that would exempt traffic summons records from public access under the state’s Open Public Records Act.
Star-Ledger
The District Court in Arapahoe County, Colo. has denied an attempt by defense lawyers to restrict access to court records in the case of alleged Colorado theater gunman James Holmes. Holmes had asked the court to suppress all transcripts of the proceedings and the register of actions, and deny electronic access to the records in the case. The court denied the request without a hearing on Nov. 22. Since much of the information has already been released, the court wrote that suppressing it now was not likely to eliminate any risk to the fairness of the trial. The court previously issued an order to keep bench conferences confidential, but all other proceedings are open to the public. Since the proceedings remain open, “It would defy logic and common sense to suppress the transcripts of those proceedings,” Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. wrote in the order denying the motion. –
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
U.S. Supreme Court justices have made it dramatically clear this month that they don't only speak through formal decisions, instead using a range of other vehicles to influence the court's agenda and telegraph their views to lower court judges, practitioners and to each other. During November the court handed down only one signed decision in an argued case. But individual justices issued seven different opinions about cases that the court did not grant. Justices issued only nine such nondecision opinions during the entire 2012-2013 term that ended in June. Two of the latest series of opinions were comments for and against pending stay applications in a Texas abortion case. Three were dissents from the denial of review or certiorari, explaining why individual justices would have taken up the case. And two were labeled opinions "respecting the denial" of review, in which justices agreed the cases should have been rejected — but suggesting that the issue involved needs to be resolved soon. In all of these circumstances, the court normally acts without any justice making a peep.
National Law Journal
British and U.S. intelligence officials say they are worried about a "doomsday" cache of highly classified, heavily encrypted material they believe former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has stored on a data cloud. The cache contains documents generated by the NSA and other agencies and includes names of U.S. and allied intelligence personnel, seven current and former U.S. officials and other sources briefed on the matter said.
Reuters
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