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Tag: federal judge
Federal Judge Strikes Down Pennsylvania Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

Federal Judge Strikes Down Pennsylvania Ban On Same-Sex Marriage

By Michael Muskal, Los Angeles Times

Pennsylvania’s ban on same-sex marriages was toppled Tuesday in a federal ruling that is the latest in a string of victories for gay rights advocates since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling overturning parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act last year.

U.S. District Judge John Jones III, sitting in Harrisburg, Pa., ruled that the state’s 1996 ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The action means that all nine Northeast states have legalized same-sex marriage.

“We now join the twelve federal district courts across the country which, when confronted with these inequities in their own states, have concluded that all couples deserve equal dignity in the realm of civil marriage,” Jones wrote in his 41-page decision.

In his ruling, Jones used much of the same reasoning that has marked similar suits across the nation. Barring same-sex marriage violates the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, the jurist held, also citing the Supreme Court’s actions.

The ruling is a victory for the 11 couples, a widow and one of the couples’ two teenage daughters who filed the suit challenging the law. Gov. Tom Corbett’s office had defended the law after Attorney General Kathleen Kane called it unconstitutional and refused to defend it. Jones called the plaintiffs courageous.

Corbett’s office had no immediate comment, but the ruling is expected to be appealed.

“Today’s win in Pennsylvania finally brings the freedom to marry to the entire Northeast,” Evan Wolfson, president of Freedom to Marry, a group backing same-sex marriage, said in a statement emailed to reporters. “Loving and committed couples and their families in the nation’s sixth largest state will be able to share in the joy, security and dignity that come with the freedom to marry. The stone that was once left out has become the keystone, and now it’s time to finish the job nationwide.”

The U.S. Supreme Court last summer struck down parts of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act, opening up the courts to a variety of legislation on same-sex marriage. So far, 18 states and the District of Columbia completely recognize and all same-sex marriage, but another half dozen states have initial rulings that have been stayed while on appeal.

AFP Photo/Scott Olson

U.S. Judge Sides With Chevron In $9.5 Billion Ecuador Case

U.S. Judge Sides With Chevron In $9.5 Billion Ecuador Case

By Shan Li, Los Angeles Times

A U.S. judge ruled in favor of Chevron Corp. and declared that a $9.5 billion judgment in Ecuador against the oil giant for environmental damage was obtained by fraud and racketeering.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan ruled Tuesday that the 2011 judgment against the San Ramon, California, company on behalf of thousands of villagers living in the Lago Agrio region of the Amazon rain forest was procured by “corrupt means,” including coercion and money laundering.

Kaplan said that Steven Donziger, a New York lawyer, along with attorneys in Ecuador, poisoned the case by promising money to a judge for a favorable ruling and submitting faulty evidence, among other actions.

The judge barred Donziger and two Ecuadorean co-defendants from profiting from the judgment or collecting money via courts in the United States. That could complicate efforts to enforce the judgment in other countries besides the U.S.

“It is distressing that the course of justice was perverted,” Kaplan wrote in his ruling.

The original multibillion-dollar judgment stretches back to a 2003 lawsuit filed on behalf of Ecuadorean villagers for years of environmental damage stemming from oil operations in the area by Texaco, which Chevron later purchased.

In 2011, a judge in Ecuador slapped an $18 billion judgment against Chevron. In a later ruling, the verdict was upheld but the judgment was reduced to $9.5 billion.

Chevron said there was “overwhelming evidence of fraud” in the original judgment and lauded the new ruling as a “resounding victory for Chevron and our shareholders.”

“Any court that respects the rule of law will find the Lago Agrio judgment to be illegitimate and unenforceable,” the company said in a statement Tuesday.

Donziger said he plans to appeal the decision, which he deemed “wrong on the law and wrong on the facts.”

He said the judge was influenced by “implacable hostility” toward him, the country of Ecuador and the Ecuadorean villagers.

“Nothing in Judge Kaplan’s ruling will prevent my clients from pursuing the judgment’s enforcement in other countries,” Donziger said in a statement.

Photo: Rainforest Action Network via Flickr