Trump hush money trial loses 'intimidated' juror, US panel prohibits sentencing for 'acquitted conduct,' Biden nominates two for DC court, and more ?
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?? Good morning from The Legal File! Here is the rundown of today's top legal stories:
?? Trump hush money trial loses juror who felt intimidated, judge says
A juror was excused on Thursday from Donald Trump's criminal trial after saying she felt intimidated because some aspects of her identity had been made public, the judge overseeing the case said.
Addressing the court, the juror said family, friends and colleagues had reached out to her after deducing through press accounts that she was on the jury.
"I don't believe at this point that I can be fair and unbiased, and let the outside influences not affect my decision-making in the courtroom," said the juror, who had been one of seven selected earlier this week.
“We just lost what probably would have been a very good juror," the judge in the case, Justice Juan Merchan, said after the juror was excused, directing the press to refrain from reporting prospective jurors' responses to questions about where they work.
Six jurors remained.
The decision highlighted the extraordinary pressures around the first criminal trial ever of a former U.S. president.
Trump has criticized witnesses, court officials involved in the case and their relatives, prompting Merchan to impose a partial gag order on him.
Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate, is a divisive figure in U.S. politics and many of those being screened to serve on the jury have said they would not be capable of assessing his guilt or innocence.
Lawyers will continue searching for jurors to decide Trump's fate in the trial, which comes just months before his upcoming election rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
?? US panel prohibits judges from sentencing for 'acquitted conduct'
?A U.S. panel tasked with crafting sentencing policy on Wednesday voted in favor of curtailing the ability of judges to impose longer sentences on criminal defendants based on conduct for which they were acquitted at trial.
The unanimous vote by the seven-member U.S. Sentencing Commission follows calls by members of Congress and defense lawyers to do away with the ability of federal judges to sentence defendants for "acquitted conduct," a practice critics called unjust.
The U.S. Supreme Court last year?sidestepped the question?of whether the practice was unconstitutional, with several justices saying they would wait for the Sentencing Commission to first decide whether to address the issue.
The bipartisan panel, comprised of judges and lawyers, on Wednesday approved an?amendment to advisory federal sentencing guidelines that goes into effect Nov. 1 that prohibits judges from considering conduct for which a defendant was acquitted in federal court as relevant conduct that should be factored into a sentence.
Judges had been allowed to do so because while juries must consider whether a criminal charge is proven beyond a reasonable doubt, judges at sentencing may consider whether facts are proven based on a preponderance of the evidence, a lower standard of proof.
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The U.S. Department of Justice opposed barring the practice, citing the potential for split or inconsistent verdicts or acquittals on technical grounds, like jurisdiction.
?? SpaceX loses latest bid to keep lawsuit against NLRB in Texas
A divided federal appeals court on April 17 rejected rocket maker SpaceX's latest bid to keep a lawsuit the Elon Musk-led company filed challenging the structure of the National Labor Relations Board in Texas rather than California.
The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on a 8-8 vote?declined to reconsider a panel's ruling last month that rejected SpaceX's bid to block the transfer of the case at the NLRB's request from Brownsville, Texas, to Los Angeles.
Its decision to not have the full, or en banc, court rehear the matter came over the objections of a block of conservative judges on the 5th Circuit who said a lower-court judge wrongly denied SpaceX its choice of venue to litigate its claims.
?? Biden taps Morrison & Foerster appellate leader, ACLU alum for DC court
President Joe Biden on April 17 said he planned to nominate two veteran Washington, D.C. lawyers, including the co-leader of law firm Morrison & Foerster’s appellate and U.S. Supreme Court practice, to serve on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
The Biden White House in an?announcement said Morrison partner Joseph Palmore and civil rights lawyer Carmen Iguina González of law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink will be presented to the U.S. Senate for consideration to serve on D.C.’s highest local court.
Iguina González has been a counsel at Kaplan Hecker since 2022 and heads the Howard University School of Law Civil Rights Clinic. She was previously a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, and she was an associate at law firm Jones Day from 2018 to 2020. Iguina González clerked for Justice Sonia Sotomayor in 2017.
Palmore, a former Justice Department appellate lawyer, has been a Morrison partner since 2014. He has argued a dozen cases at the U.S. Supreme Court, where he clerked for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2001. Palmore’s law firm clients have included Apple and Chobani.
?? That's all for today, thank you for reading?The Legal File, and have a great day!
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Antitrust Lawyer
11 个月Trump's strategy of jury intimidation is working. I think any reasonable human being would believe voting to convict on that jury would put his/her life at risk.