Welcome to Justiceline, ThinkProgress Justice’s morning round-up of the latest legal news and developments. Remember to follow us on Twitter at @TPJustice
- The most recent nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit will finally get a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee April 10, a year after he was nominated. Sri Srinivasan would be the first South Asian federal appeals court judge, and the first Obama nominee to fill one of several long-empty slots on what is often called the nation’s second-most powerful court. The last nominee, Caitlin Halligan, withdrew her nomination after she was filibustered twice by the Senate.
- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against James Holmes, accused of killing 12 people in an Aurora, Co. movie theater. They rejected a deal by Holmes’ lawyers to agree to life in prison without parole.
- The primary suspect in the deadly shooting of the former Colorado corrections chief at his front door was released four years early because of a clerical mistake. Ebel had been held in solitary confinement for much of his 8 years in prison, and was released directly from solitary confinement, without the sort of transition period the deceased Corrections Chief had called for.
- Arizona’s controversial immigration law is back before a federal appeals court judge this week, as Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vies to save provisions in SB1070 struck down by a federal trial court judge.
- Courts and federal public defender services are starting to cut crucial staff and services as the long-term impacts of sequestration set in.
Advertisement