Latest news with #U.S.1stCircuitCourtofAppeals
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal appeals court agrees to keep Maine's 72-hour law on hold
Apr. 10—A federal appeals court in Boston ruled Thursday that Maine's 72-hour waiting period on gun purchases will remain on hold pending a larger appeal from the state attorney general's office. State lawmakers passed the 72-hour bill last year along with several other gun safety reforms following the mass shooting in Lewiston in October 2023 that killed 18 people and wounded more than a dozen others. It required any gun seller who violated the waiting period to pay fines between $200 and $1,000, depending on the nature of the violation. Gun rights advocates quickly sued the state in November after Gov. Janet Mills allowed it to become law without her signatures. Chief U.S. District Judge Lance Walker then granted their request in February to temporarily pause the law, siding with their arguments that the waiting period likely violated their constitutional right to bear arms. The Office of the Maine Attorney General immediately appealed that decision to the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. Chief Deputy Attorney General Christopher Taub has argued the law saves lives and that it doesn't infringe on Mainers' constitutional ability to bear arms. Taub asked Walker if the law could be temporarily restored, pending the appeal, which Walker also denied in March. The appeals court is still weighing that aspect of the case. View this document on Scribd The 1st Circuit wrote in Thursday's ruling that the question at the center of Maine's case is so new, "in an emerging area of constitutional law involving a legal standard that is difficult to apply and subject to varying interpretations," that they are not persuaded the law should be restored at this point in the legal battle. Copy the Story Link
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Bangor judge accused of harassment violated rules of conduct for attorneys, panel finds
Feb. 17—The Maine bar has agreed to publicly admonish a former Bangor judge, but not to impose any discipline against him, for unwelcome comments he made to women at a professional conference. Charles Budd was in charge of Bangor's drug treatment court in 2022 when he and several others in the program attended a multiday conference in Nashville. There, drug treatment counselor Samantha Pike said, Budd sexually harassed her several times. Pike has previously said Budd appeared to drink more than what was appropriate while in Nashville, where he was surrounded by attorneys, counselors and probation officers he regularly oversaw in court. His sexual propositions and comments about Pike's appearance and that of other women made her uncomfortable when they returned to Maine, she has said Budd was placed on administrative leave that fall, according to the state judicial branch. When his term expired in early 2023, he chose not to reapply. Budd did not respond to an email Monday afternoon seeking his reaction to the panel's decision. On Friday, members from a disciplinary panel for the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar determined Budd had violated Maine's rules for professional conduct, specifically those barring any activity "prejudicial to the administration of justice." Budd should have known his comments to Pike and others "would be construed as sexual advances or unwelcome," they said. The admonition is supposed to "send a message that comments and behavior of the type described here will not be tolerated." "As a sitting judge, Budd was bound by the Maine Code of Judicial Conduct which requires judges to 'act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the ... integrity ... of the judiciary; to avoid impropriety; and to avoid the appearance of impropriety," two of the three panel members wrote. But the board did not find that Budd had violated their rules against harassment, because his conduct occurred at a conference in Nashville and not in a more professional setting, like a courtroom or a law office. Unlike the American Bar Association, Maine's standards don't address alleged harassment that might occur in "business or social activities in connection with the practice of law," the panel wrote. The members decided this is a "seemingly intentional omission." Pike previously sued Budd for his conduct on the Nashville trip. That complaint was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Lance Walker in 2023. Pike was still waiting Monday to see if the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston upholds that dismissal. The Maine bar panel's decision Friday does not make any findings on allegations that Budd treated women differently in his court, despite testimony about this from a Penobscot County prosecutor. During a three-day hearing in October, the panel heard extensively from Budd, Pike and other witnesses from the Nashville trip. Natasha Irving, a district attorney on the Midcoast, told the panel Budd had propositioned her during a brief encounter in Tennessee. The panel agreed Budd was wrong to also make her feel uncomfortable. The panel noted that Budd admitted to some of the alleged statements and disputed others. But he "never acknowledged that any of the conduct alleged ... was inappropriate and could reasonably be construed as making others uncomfortable." Budd repeatedly cast his actions as getting to know other drug court participants "on a personal level," the panel members wrote, and "never acknowledged that his status as a judge created an imbalance of power." Copy the Story Link
Los Angeles Times
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Appeals court won't halt judge's order requiring Trump administration to unfreeze federal cash
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Tuesday refused to immediately halt a judge's order requiring the Trump administration to release billions of dollars in federal grants and loans that remain frozen even after a court blocked a sweeping pause on federal funding. The Boston-based U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals turned back the emergency appeal, though it said it expected the lower court judge to act quickly to clarify his order and would keep considering the issue. The Justice Department argued the sweeping lower court order to keep all federal grants and loans flowing was 'intolerable judicial overreach.' That ruling came from U.S. District Judge John McConnell in Rhode Island, the first judge to find that the administration had disobeyed a court order. McConnell is presiding over a lawsuit from nearly two dozen Democratic states filed after the administration issued a boundary-pushing memo purporting to halt all federal grants and loans, worth trillions of dollars. The plan sparked chaos around the country. The administration has since rescinded that memo, but McConnell found Monday that not all federal grants and loans had been restored. Money for things such as early childhood education, pollution reduction and HIV prevention research has remained tied up even after his Jan. 31 order halting the spending freeze plan, the states said. McConnell, who was appointed by former President Obama, ordered the Trump administration to 'immediately take every step necessary' to unfreeze federal grants and loans. He also said his order blocked the administration from cutting billions of dollars in grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, a move announced last week. The Justice Department said McConnell's order prevents the executive branch from exercising its lawful authority, including over discretionary spending or fraud. 'A single district court judge has attempted to wrest from the President the power to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed.' This state of affairs cannot be allowed to persist for one more day,' government attorneys wrote in their appeal. The states, meanwhile, argued that the president can't block money that Congress has approved, and the still-frozen grants and loans are causing serious problems for their residents. They urged the appeals court to keep allowing the case to play out in front of McConnell. The court battle is unfolding as a string of court losses is increasingly frustrating top administration officials by slowing President Trump's agenda. Judges have also blocked, at least temporarily, Trump's push to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S., access to Treasury Department records by billionaire Elon Musk's team and a mass deferred resignation plan for federal workers. The Republican administration previously said the sweeping funding pause would bring federal spending in line with the president's priorities, including increasing fossil fuel production, removing protections for transgender people and ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. A different federal judge in Washington has also issued a temporary restraining order against the funding freeze plan and since expressed concern that some nonprofit groups weren't getting their funding. Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press.
