"Supreme Court ends overall limits on political donations" by Matt Viser and Tracy Jan | Globe Staff April 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday struck down decades-long limits on how much individuals can make in combined contributions to political campaigns, another step in the court’s steady reversal of Watergate-era rules that were adopted to curb the influence of big money in American politics.
Illustrating the far-reaching ramifications of the ruling, just hours after it was announced Massachusetts ceased enforcing its own caps on overall contributions to state, county, and local candidates.
In a 5-to-4 decision that fell along ideological lines, the court ruled that it was unconstitutional for the government to limit the total amount of money an individual can give to all federal candidates, parties, and political action committees.
The ruling did not affect the current maximum contribution to any single candidate. But the court’s majority — reinforcing the concept that political spending is the equivalent of political speech — said First Amendment rights allow citizens to contribute the legal maximum to as many individual political candidates as they please. The justices nullified the government’s aggregate limit, which had been set at $123,200 for federal elections.
“Money in politics may at times seem repugnant to some, but so too does much of what the First Amendment vigorously protects,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in the majority opinion.
“If the First Amendment protects flag burning, funeral protests, and Nazi parades — despite the profound offense such spectacles cause — it surely protects political campaign speech despite popular opposition.”
What a misapplied non sequitur!
The decision continued to weaken campaign finance laws. The court’s 2010 Citizens United opinion allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections. A previous appellate court decision permitted unlimited donations to so-called super PACs, which also have transformed the electoral landscape in recent years.
Proving they are a completely corporate court.
Joining Roberts in the majority opinion Wednesday were the other four justices appointed by Republican presidents: Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, Samuel A. Alito Jr., and Clarence Thomas.
The minority argued that the decision could damage democracy and lead to political corruption.
We already have the corruption, but now it is going to be totally out of control.
“If the court in Citizens United opened a door, today’s decision we fear will open a floodgate,” Justice Stephen G. Breyer said in reading his dissent.
“Taken together with Citizens United . . . today’s decision eviscerates our Nation’s campaign finance laws, leaving a remnant incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy that those laws were intended to resolve,” he wrote.
We don't have democratic legitimacy because of the rigged voting machines.
Joining Breyer in the dissent were Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. All four were appointed by Democratic presidents.
Not that the partisanship really matters; corporations and wealthy elites buy both sides.
Specialists said the ruling will give contributors a freer hand to write more campaign checks in the current mid-term congressional elections.
Uh-oh. Goodbye Democrat control of the Senate!
Campaign finance watchdogs warned there would be a number of negative effects, opening up loopholes to funnel money to candidates in new ways.
The ruling appears to mostly benefit a small pool of the wealthiest donors: During the 2012 election, only 644 donors — including hedge fund and private equity managers — hit the donation limit to federal candidates and committees, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics....
The “$ky’s the limit.”
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The ruling is all three branches now represent corporate governance.
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Supreme Court ruling ignores real world of campaign cash
Not a very popular decision.
Also see: First Tuesday in April
At least they aren't controlled by Jews:
"Rabbi loses court case over frequent flier miles" by MARK SHERMAN | Associated Press April 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled Wednesday against a Minnesota rabbi whose frequent complaints about an airline led to his ouster from its frequent flier program.
The court dismissed a lawsuit from Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg over Northwest Airlines’ decision to end his frequent flier membership.
Northwest, since absorbed by Delta Air Lines Inc., said it cut off Ginsberg because he complained too much — 24 times in seven months. The rabbi said Northwest did not act in good faith and was trying to cut costs because of its merger with Delta.
The court said in an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that the federal deregulation of the airline industry in 1978 prohibits most lawsuits.
The frequent flier program is clearly connected to the airline’s prices, routes, or services, which are covered under the Airline Deregulation Act, Alito said.
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Related: Obnoxious Orthodox
I need to give myself a buffer zone like Israel.
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Needham doctor will face lesser charges in patients’ deaths; Prosecutors acknowledged they now face tougher standards" by Milton J. Valencia | Globe Staff April 04, 2014
Federal prosecutors in Boston have been forced to scale back criminal charges against a popular Needham-based doctor they accuse in the deaths of six of his patients by recklessly prescribing painkiller medications.
Prosecutors had alleged that Dr. Joseph P. Zolot, 64, a specialist in nonsurgical orthopedics, and his nurse practitioner Lisa M. Pliner, 54, caused the deaths of at least six people, and they cited other patient deaths.
The charges are being lessened after prosecutors acknowledged that they now face tougher standards under a recent US Supreme Court decision. Those standards, set in a little-noticed ruling in January, require prosecutors to prove that a drug dealer was responsible for a death because the drug he or she provided was the exact and only cause of the death....
I $u$pect the reason for the decision was a po$$ible penetration into the re$ponsibility of pre$cription pharmaceuticals.
The decision to scale back the case disappointed family members of the dead patients, who said Zolot should never have been prescribing opiate medications, including methadone, to them....
Legal analysts say the new standards make it more difficult to prosecute people in fatal drug overdoses, including doctors and street-level heroin dealers.
Not much difference between them sometimes.
In addition, the analysts said that prosecutors in recent years have overreached in charging people with causing a death, even when an overdose fatality could have been based on several outside factors.
“It adds another obstacle, another challenge to bringing those cases,” said Gerard T. Leone Jr., a former state and federal prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer for Nixon Peabody.
He added that “these have always been difficult cases, but this decision clarified the law.”
The federal case in Boston was precedent-setting in that it was one of the first to charge a doctor with causing the deaths of patients by running a reckless drug dealing operation, under the pretext of a medical practice....
The Supreme Court case, originating from Iowa and named after the defendant Marcus Andrew Burrage, involved allegations that Burrage sold heroin to a man who ultimately died after binging for two days on a mix of drugs. The trial judge had refused to dismiss the case after experts had testified that the heroin contributed to the death.
The Supreme Court, however, ruled that prosecutors were required under the law to prove that the heroin Burrage supplied was the exact and only cause of death, a higher standard.
“It can’t be a contributing cause, it has to be the only cause,” said Allison Burroughs, a lawyer with Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP.
Robert Sheketoff, a Boston lawyer who has handled similar cases, said the Burrage decision forced prosecutors to pull back from seeking the “cause of death” addition to the charges.
“It changed the standard, and it knocks them out of the box,” he said. “To me, it means they didn’t have a very strong case for causation. . . . You have to have proof the person caused the death.”
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They can revive you like Lazarus from the look I got:
"FDA OK’s injector device to counter drug overdoses; Health officials hail move to stem wave of deaths" by Deborah Kotz | Globe Staff April 04, 2014
Family, friends, or passersby who encounter a person passed out from a heroin or other opioid overdose could soon be able to administer a drug to reverse the effects before waiting for first responders to arrive....
“This is an extremely important innovation that will save lives,” Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA, said.
For a proactive government to be so reactive is strange.
It comes a week after Governor Deval Patrick declared a public health emergency to combat the growing abuse of opiates and recent spike in heroin deaths in the state; his declaration allows police and other emergency personnel to carry Narcan, a form of naloxone administered as an injection or formulated into a nasal spray (which is not FDA approved)....
I gave it a look for a link.
The program, which started in Boston, has been credited with reversing more than 1,800 overdoses from heroin, prescription painkillers, and other opiates. But its availability remains limited....
I guess the pharmaceuticals will have to start cranking to out.
In February, the Obama administration called on states to ease access to naloxone, and last month Ohio passed a “Good Samaritan” law allowing friends and family members of addicts to administer naloxone without fear of arrest.
Governor Paul LePage of Maine, however, vetoed legislation that would have made the drug more widely available, saying it was too expensive and encourages drug addiction.
While highly effective, naloxone might prove tricky for consumers to administer.
Uh-oh.
“It puts a person into sudden, acute withdrawal so they can become agitated and combative,” said Dr. Steven Kassels, medical director of Community Substance Abuse Centers, in Westfield.
First I've heard of that effect.
On the flip side, the drug’s ability to reverse the effects of an overdose depends on the dose and type of drug taken, so repeat doses might be needed. For this reason, the agency urged anyone who used Evzio to call for emergency help.
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Time to be more proactive:
"Malden career criminal charged with heroin distribution" by Jacqueline Tempera | Globe Correspondent April 04, 2014
A Malden career criminal was charged with heroin distribution this week, federal prosecutors said.
Yrvens Bain, 40, was arrested after an investigation following two fatal heroin overdoses in Arlington earlier this year. Bain was a longtime drug dealer, US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz’s office said.
Bain has been convicted of drug trafficking on four separate occasions.
And through the revolving door they go, huh?
His most recent conviction, in 2007, was on state charges of trafficking cocaine, as well as unlawful possession of a firearm, according to Ortiz’s office. He was sentenced to six years in state prison, with five years of probation, the US attorney’s office said.
He was on probation when undercover officers made two heroin purchases from him in February and March, prosecutors alleged.
Bain had a preliminary hearing at Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett on Wednesday. He was hospitalized after arresting officers allegedly saw him swallow something that appeared to be drugs, said US attorney’s spokeswoman Christina DiIorio-Sterling.
He was released from the hospital Thursday and is to appear in US District Court in Boston on Monday, DiIorio-Sterling said.
It was the second heroin investigation by Arlington police that led to arrests this year. The first concluded in February when Mariano Andujar-Perez, 30, and Louis Pena, 20, both of Dorchester, were arrested, according to Arlington Police Chief Frederick Ryan.
Each was charged with possession of Class A drugs with intent to distribute and conspiracy to violate drug laws during their Feb. 18 arraignment in Cambridge District Court. Andujar-Perez was also charged with furnishing a false name or Social Security number, Ryan said.
“Heroin is one of the greatest evils plaguing our community and the region. It is dangerous and deadly, and it damages families and neighborhoods,” Ryan said in a statement. “I am proud of the hard-fought undercover work and teamwork between Arlington Police and our partners in law enforcement.”
I agree, and no one in authority seems concerned where it is coming from (primarily Afghanistan), who is bringing it here (mostly CIA), and where the profits are being laundered (Wall Street banks).
The Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force, Ortiz’s office, the Suburban Middlesex County Drug Task Force, the Essex County Sheriff’s Department, and several local police departments assisted in the cases.
Yup, law enforcement doin' good work!
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I don't want to make a career out of this post, but:
"Worcester ‘career criminals’ facing 28 charges" by Catalina Gaitan | Globe correspondent March 10, 2014
Two men prosecutors are calling career criminals pleaded not guilty Monday to nearly 30 charges after State Police discovered a large-capacity, unlicensed gun in their possession.
Gilbert Morin, 28, of Worcester, is facing 14 charges that include being an armed career criminal, possession of an unregistered firearm, and resisting arrest, according to a statement from State Police.
He has faced criminal charges in Worcester Superior Court more than 10 times since 2005 for crimes that include drug possession with intent to distribute and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, according to court records.
Rabbi Lavarin, 31, also of Worcester, is also facing 14 charges that include being an armed career criminal, possession of a large-capacity firearm, and a firearm violation with three prior violent drug crimes, State Police said.
He has been to court three times for crimes that include breaking and entering into a boat with intent to commit a felony and carrying a dangerous weapon, according to court records.
State Police pulled over Lavarin’s white Cadillac Seville at the intersection of Belmont and Edward streets in Worcester for motor vehicle violations at about 3 a.m. Friday, the statement said.
After identifying Lavarin and his passenger, Morin, troopers searched the car and uncovered a large-capacity Taurus 9mm firearm and a magazine containing 13 rounds of ammunition.
Neither suspect was carrying a license for the weapon, and they were arrested.
During their arraignment in Worcester District Court Monday, Morin’s bail was revoked in a previous case. He is being held on $10,000 cash bail on the most recent charges, said Timothy Connolly, a spokesman for the Worcester district attorney.
Lavarin is being held on $250 cash bail.
Both men are to return to court on April 9 for a pretrial conference, said Connolly.
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Meanwhile, medical marijuana companies subjected to to stringent sifting and nonviolent marijuana offenders are locked up because of mandatory minimums.
