Tag Archives: Supreme Court
A fisherman’s tale of fighting Uncle Sam
We’re probably going well off the beaten path on this one, but I wanted to draw your attention to a lawsuit which has been percolating in the system since 2015 and may be coming to the Supreme Court later this year. It involves a small volume fisherman who is fighting back against onerous regulations from the Department of Commerce which are threatening to put him (and so many other family operations) out of business. David Goethel is in the fight of his life because new government regulations are costing him more per day than he can generally earn in profit from his fishing operation. Cause of Action Institute (CoAI) is working on this case and provides the details. click here to read the story 11:45
Georgia-Florida water fight now in hands of special master, Supreme Court to decide
A month long trial aimed at settling a high-stakes water dispute between Georgia and Florida ended Thursday with a special master imploring both sides to negotiate a settlement. Special master Ralph Lancaster reminded both parties that there’s much to be lost by booming metropolitan Atlanta or by residents of tiny Apalachicola, Florida. “Please settle this blasted thing,” Lancaster said. “I can guarantee you that at least one of you is going to be unhappy with my recommendation — and perhaps both of you.” Florida blames the booming Atlanta metropolitan area and agriculture in Georgia for causing low river flows that have imperiled fisheries in Apalachicola Bay. Georgia contends there’s not enough evidence to support drastic action that could imperil the state’s economy. The lawsuit played out for a month with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of exhibits in Portland, Maine’s largest city, more than 1,000 miles from the disputed watershed. Georgia’s attorney, Craig Primis, and Florida’s attorney, Phil Perry, declined to comment after Lancaster implored them to return to the negotiating table. Read the story here 10:27
Fate of Apalachicola Bay, seafood industry, could hang on upcoming Supreme Court test
A special master of the U.S. Supreme Court has scheduled a trial for Oct. 31 in Florida’s lawsuit against Georgia over the river system they share — and with the latest in a series of droughts threatening, downstream users say the fate of the Apalachicola Bay could well be at stake. “That last drought we had — if we get just half of that, this bay may never be able to rebuild itself,” said Shannon Hartsfield, president of the Franklin County Seafood Workers’ Association. Florida sued Georgia in 2013, contending that Georgia’s overconsumption of water had reduced freshwater flows from the top of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin, near metro Atlanta, to the Florida Panhandle, home of the Apalachicola Bay. Georgia denies it, arguing that Florida’s mismanagement of the bay is to blame for its woes. The Apalachicola Bay’s seafood industry was once a formidable economic driver for the region, producing 90 percent of Florida’s oysters and 10 percent of the nation’s supply. Its commercial and recreational fishing industries generated $200 million a year and supported 85 percent of the local population. But no more. Read the story here 13:17
The Court and Overcriminalization: Bond v. United States and Yates v. United States
In both Bond v. United States and Yates v. United States, the Supreme Court reversed federal criminal convictions. Neither defendant’s conduct was constitutionally protected; there were no procedural irregularities in either trial, no vagueness or overbreadth issues, and no police misconduct (debatable) . Instead, each case involved prosecuting a small-time individual with a big-time statute: In Bond, the federal government used the Chemical Weapons Convention Implementation Act of 1998 against a “jilted wife.” In Yates, it unleashed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on a mischievous fisherman. Both proceedings raised concerns about overcriminalization that implicitly drove the Court’s analysis in a new direction. Read the rest here 13:00
Off the Hook: Florida fisherman lands in U.S. Supreme Court case weighing government overreach
John Yates doesn’t make his living as a commercial fisherman anymore. The federal conviction he is fighting all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court took care of that. Instead, he scraped together everything he had, opened a boutique furniture store and called it Off the Hook. Read the rest here 19:32
The personalities behind this week’s Supreme Court cases
There’s almost always a real human at the bottom of a Supreme Court case, but the justices’ work this week is notable for the number of easy-to-identify-with personalities whose names will be forever inscribed in law books. will be making his second trip, Florida fisherman John Yates is becoming the face of overzealous prosecution, And former air marshal and whistleblower Robert MacLean would rather be somewhere else altogether, Read the rest here 08:07
The Supreme Court’s Fish Tale
Holy mackerel! The biggest Supreme Court shredding case since the justices overturned Arthur Andersen’s conviction for destroying Enron-related records in 2005 turns out to be a fish story. Former Florida commercial fisherman John L. Yates was convicted in federal court in 2012 for violating the document-destruction provisions of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law by dumping overboard three undersized groupers netted in federal waters five years earlier in an effort to avoid a $500 penalty. Read more here 13:40:23 I’m sorry to inform, there is now a pay-wall up.
Drakes Bay oyster farm denied Supreme Court hearing
Oyster farmer Kevin Lunny’s reaction to what looked to others like the last legal gasp of his operation at punched right to the point: “It’s not over until the last oyster is shucked.” Read more here 08:20
BP to ask Supreme Court to hear claims issue
NEW ORLEANS — BP PLC said Wednesday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether businesses must prove they were directly harmed by the 2010 Gulf Of Mexico oil spill to collect payments from a 2012 settlement. Read more here 16:13
