LEGAL NEWSLINE

A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida has returned an indictment charging three executives of an election voting machine and service provider company and a former Chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) of the Republic of the Philippines. The charges pertain to their alleged involvement in a bribery and money laundering scheme related to the 2016 Philippine elections.

A phony email sent in 2011 to one person alleged a Warren County township trustee was demanding bribes. The email resurfaced years later.

NASHVILLE – The Office of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has filed a notice of appeal in the case Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County et al. v. Bill Lee et al., which concerns Section 1(a) of House Bill 48.

The National Association for Court Management (NACM) has announced Kelly Hutton of Grand Forks, North Dakota, as the President-Elect for the 2024-2025 Board of Directors. Hutton currently serves as the Court Administrator for the Northeast and Northeast Central Judicial Districts. She is in her third year as one of the five officers in the Association, following three years in a Director position.

Today, in response to a lawsuit filed by Right to Life of Michigan and other anti-choice organizations and advocates, the Michigan Department of Attorney General filed a Notice of Supplemental Authority alerting the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan to a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting certain plaintiffs’ standing to challenge regulations on mifepristone. The notice was filed after the briefing on the Defendants’ motion to dismiss concluded in April. The Right to Life lawsuit seeks to strike down the right to reproductive freedom.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined a coalition of 16 states in filing a lawsuit to prevent the Biden-Harris administration from extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) benefits to undocumented immigrants. The policy, scheduled to take effect on November 1, would make over 200,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health plans, including 3,460 individuals in Alabama.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has been appointed as co-chair of the National Association of Attorneys General’s (NAAG) Tobacco Committee.

The 2024-2025 school year has officially begun for most Louisiana students. While parents often take pictures of their children before their first day, caution is advised against sharing too much personal information on typical ‘back to school signs.’ Such details can be exploited by predators to commit identity theft or gain a child's trust.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has elected Mary Tabor, Des Moines, as chief judge. Chief Judge Tabor has served on the court of appeals since 2010. She is the eleventh chief judge since the state legislature established the Iowa Court of Appeals in 1976. She replaces Chief Judge Thomas Bower, who recently retired.

A former North Dakota State Senator pleaded guilty today to traveling to Prague, Czech Republic, to engage in commercial sex acts with minor boys.

NASHVILLE – Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, alongside a coalition of 14 other state attorneys general led by Kansas, has filed a lawsuit in federal court to halt the Biden administration's plan to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) benefits to illegal immigrants. The final rule, set to take effect on November 1, would grant taxpayer-subsidized health plans to over 200,000 illegal immigrants, including thousands in Tennessee.

Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant has been elected president of the Conference of Chief Justices by a vote of his fellow chief justices in state courts nationwide. Chief Justice Durrant will serve as president for a one-year term beginning on August 8, 2024. He succeeds Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, who served as president for the past year.

Attorney General Raoul charges Will County woman over fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program loans

Attorney General Hilgers, along with a coalition of 15 state attorneys general led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, has filed a lawsuit in federal court to prevent the Biden-Harris administration from extending Obamacare benefits to illegal aliens. The final plan, scheduled to take effect on November 1, would make over 200,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) recipients eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health plans. This includes 2,420 individuals from Nebraska.

Two former corrections officers from the Southern Regional Jail in Beaver, West Virginia, pleaded guilty today for their roles in an assault that resulted in the death of an inmate identified by the initials Q.B. on March 1, 2022. Ashley Toney and Jacob Boothe each admitted to violating inmate Q.B.’s civil rights by failing to intervene to protect him from being physically assaulted by other correctional officers.

A former Syrian government official was indicted today in Los Angeles on criminal charges for lying to U.S. immigration authorities about his time running a Syrian prison where prisoners, including political dissidents, were physically mistreated.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL) released documents from its lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) concerning alleged federal records concealment related to government-sponsored censorship before the 2022 midterm elections.

In December 2023, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton initiated an investigation into the major fundraising platform ActBlue to assess its compliance with applicable laws. ActBlue has faced numerous allegations of illicit activities, including claims that its platform may facilitate fraud. A key focus of the investigation is ActBlue’s previous failure to require donors to provide “CVV” codes when making credit card donations on the platform, a commonly required security measure.

The Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) announced today that it will engage with the Boston Police Department (BPD) through the COPS Office Collaborative Reform Initiative’s Critical Response program.

LANSING – On Tuesday, Kimberly Coden, 38, of Berkley, pled guilty in the 44th Circuit Court in Livingston County before Judge Suzanne Geddis to multiple felonies related to impersonating a health care professional and witness intimidation, announced Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. Coden pled to six counts of the Unauthorized Practice of a Health Profession, a felony punishable by up to four years’ imprisonment and/or $5,000; two counts of Identity Theft, a felony punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment and/or $25,000; and one count of Intimidation or Interfering...