In brief: Ruling opens gate for immigrant bail action
PHOENIX – A U.S. Supreme Court ruling has cleared the way for a wave of bail hearings for immigrants across Arizona.
Hundreds of immigrants who have been denied bail under a strict Arizona law will now have the opportunity to be released.
The high court Thursday kept intact a lower-court ruling from three weeks ago that struck down the law that was passed in 2006 amid a series of immigration crackdowns in Arizona over the past decade.
The law denies bail to immigrants who are in the country illegally and have been charged with a range of felonies that include shoplifting, aggravated identity theft, sexual assault and murder. As a result, immigrants spend months in jail and often simply plead guilty and get turned over to federal immigration authorities for deportation.
An 11-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the law last month, ruling that it violates due-process rights by imposing punishment before trial.
FDA considers ending gay-blood donor ban
WASHINGTON – A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel has begun to consider whether to overturn a long-standing ban against accepting blood donations from gay men.
Thursday, the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Blood and Tissue Safety and Availability heard testimony from advocates who say that the lifetime ban is discriminatory and that technological advances have made it obsolete.
“The ban on gay and bisexual men … was enacted in 1985 and focuses on sexual orientation more than the risk and science itself,” said Caleb Laieski, a 19-year-old gay activist who has sued the FDA to overturn the ban.
The ban in the United States applies to any prospective male blood donor who has had sex with another man since 1977, the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S.
Group files suit to stop filmmaker’s museum
CHICAGO – Opponents of George Lucas’ plan to build a museum along Chicago’s lakefront filed a lawsuit Thursday to try to kill the project, calling it an “assault on the shores of Lake Michigan” and urging the “Star Wars” creator to pick a different spot.
The federal lawsuit filed by Chicago advocacy group Friends of the Parks argues that the city has no authority to hand over the land, citing a legal principle known as the public trust doctrine. That doctrine makes the state a trustee over natural resources and requires it to ensure open spaces are preserved and accessible to the public.
Group president Cassandra Francis said members aren’t against the museum, just its location along the lake.
The lawsuit is the latest trouble for The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, where the filmmaker wants to enshrine his collection of art and movie memorabilia. Lucas chose Chicago after negotiations over a waterfront site fell through with San Francisco.