A Texas county filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court this week in the latest bid to stop construction of hundreds of miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In asking the court to review a lawsuit previously dismissed by a federal court judge, lawyers for El Paso County contend that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff overstepped his legal authority when he waived 37 federal laws that could have slowed or blocked construction of fencing along the border.
Attorneys for the county also allege that Chertoff violated the 10th Amendment, which grants states the right to enforce laws neither prohibited by nor delegated to the federal government.
Congress authorized the fence to help secure the border and slow illegal immigration, and then gave Chertoff the power to waive the federal laws in 2005.
Previous legal challenges to the waiver authority, which includes a lawsuit by several environmental groups in San Diego, failed to gain traction in courts. The Supreme Court also declined to hear border fence challenges.
El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez said Wednesday he believed the 10th Amendment protects the county and other jurisdictions from Chertoff's action.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Regulators allege illegal monopoly for baby meds
Federal regulators alleged Tuesday that an Illinois-based company bought the only two medicines approved to treat premature babies born with a potentially life-threatening congenital heart defect, and then increased prices nearly 1,300 percent.
The Federal Trade Commission said in a civil lawsuit that Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., illegally maintained a monopoly in drug treatments for the heart defect. The commission seeks to prevent Ovation from maintaining simultaneous interest in the two drugs — NeoProfen and Indocin. Also, it seeks forfeiture of all unlawfully obtained profits.
The commission said Ovation purchased the rights to Indocin in August 2005 and then acquired the rights to NeoProfen five months later. It set the price for the two medicines at about $500. Before the second acquisition, Indocin was priced at $36.
An estimated 30,000 babies are treated with the drugs each year.
"Ovation's profiteering on the backs of critically ill premature babies is not only immoral, it is illegal," said FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz in a statement issued separately from the lawsuit.
Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Deerfield, Ill., rejected the commission's allegations. It said NeoProfen is superior to Indocin, and is not interchangeable for most premature infants with the heart defect.
The Federal Trade Commission said in a civil lawsuit that Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., illegally maintained a monopoly in drug treatments for the heart defect. The commission seeks to prevent Ovation from maintaining simultaneous interest in the two drugs — NeoProfen and Indocin. Also, it seeks forfeiture of all unlawfully obtained profits.
The commission said Ovation purchased the rights to Indocin in August 2005 and then acquired the rights to NeoProfen five months later. It set the price for the two medicines at about $500. Before the second acquisition, Indocin was priced at $36.
An estimated 30,000 babies are treated with the drugs each year.
"Ovation's profiteering on the backs of critically ill premature babies is not only immoral, it is illegal," said FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz in a statement issued separately from the lawsuit.
Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Deerfield, Ill., rejected the commission's allegations. It said NeoProfen is superior to Indocin, and is not interchangeable for most premature infants with the heart defect.
Sen. Kennedy awarded honorary degree from Harvard
Saying he has "lived a blessed time," Sen. Edward Kennedy smiled broadly and flashed a thumbs up as he accepted an honorary degree Monday from his alma mater during a rare special convocation at Harvard University.
The 76-year-old senator walked onstage to a standing ovation and leaned lightly on a cane. He made no mention of his battle with cancer but sounded a reflective note toward the end of his eight-minute address.
"We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make," Kennedy said. "I have lived a blessed time. Now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the world."
In being honored at a special convocation, Kennedy joins a select group that includes George Washington, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a former Kennedy staffer, spoke at the ceremony, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden was among those in attendance. The event had been scheduled for last spring but was postponed as the senator recovered from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor.
The 76-year-old senator walked onstage to a standing ovation and leaned lightly on a cane. He made no mention of his battle with cancer but sounded a reflective note toward the end of his eight-minute address.
"We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make," Kennedy said. "I have lived a blessed time. Now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the world."
In being honored at a special convocation, Kennedy joins a select group that includes George Washington, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a former Kennedy staffer, spoke at the ceremony, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden was among those in attendance. The event had been scheduled for last spring but was postponed as the senator recovered from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor.
Judge gives would-be LAX bomber same 22-year term
A federal judge in Seattle has re-imposed a 22-year sentence on an Algerian convicted of plotting to bomb the Los Angeles airport at the turn of the millennium.
An appeals court had told U.S. District Judge John Coughenour (COON'-our), to recalculate the 22-year term he handed down three years ago to Ahmed Ressam (AH'-med res-AHM'). But Coughenour on Wednesday kept the same sentence.
Prosecutors had sought a life term because they say Ressam has stopped cooperating on other cases.
The judge earlier had shown Ressam leniency for testifying against two coconspirators and providing other information about his training with al-Qaida.
U.S. border guards in Washington state arrested Ressam as he drove a rented car packed with explosives off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. Investigators determined Ressam's target was a terminal at LAX, busy with holiday travel.
A jury convicted Ressam in 2001.
An appeals court had told U.S. District Judge John Coughenour (COON'-our), to recalculate the 22-year term he handed down three years ago to Ahmed Ressam (AH'-med res-AHM'). But Coughenour on Wednesday kept the same sentence.
Prosecutors had sought a life term because they say Ressam has stopped cooperating on other cases.
The judge earlier had shown Ressam leniency for testifying against two coconspirators and providing other information about his training with al-Qaida.
U.S. border guards in Washington state arrested Ressam as he drove a rented car packed with explosives off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. Investigators determined Ressam's target was a terminal at LAX, busy with holiday travel.
A jury convicted Ressam in 2001.
Appeals court upholds embassy bombers' convictions
A federal appeals court established a legal precedent Monday that U.S. citizens overseas can face searches without a warrant, ruling that three Osama bin Laden followers convicted in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies received fair trials.
"There is nothing in our history or our precedents suggesting that U.S. officials must first obtain a warrant before conducting an overseas search," the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.
The three-judge panel added, however, that the searches must meet the Fourth Amendment's requirement of reasonableness, saying an individual's expectation of privacy must be weighed against the government's need for certain information.
Defendant Wadih El-Hage of Arlington, Texas, had argued that his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated when U.S. authorities searched his home in Nairobi, Kenya, and tapped his telephone lines without a warrant.
The appeals court responded that the searches' intrusion on El-Hage's "privacy was outweighed by the government's manifest need to monitor his activities as an operative of al-Qaida because of the extreme threat al-Qaida presented, and continues to present, to national security."
El-Hage, 48, was convicted in 2001 with three others in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and prompted President Bill Clinton to launch cruise missiles on bin Laden's Afghan camps two weeks later.
"There is nothing in our history or our precedents suggesting that U.S. officials must first obtain a warrant before conducting an overseas search," the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.
The three-judge panel added, however, that the searches must meet the Fourth Amendment's requirement of reasonableness, saying an individual's expectation of privacy must be weighed against the government's need for certain information.
Defendant Wadih El-Hage of Arlington, Texas, had argued that his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated when U.S. authorities searched his home in Nairobi, Kenya, and tapped his telephone lines without a warrant.
The appeals court responded that the searches' intrusion on El-Hage's "privacy was outweighed by the government's manifest need to monitor his activities as an operative of al-Qaida because of the extreme threat al-Qaida presented, and continues to present, to national security."
El-Hage, 48, was convicted in 2001 with three others in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and prompted President Bill Clinton to launch cruise missiles on bin Laden's Afghan camps two weeks later.
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