constititutional law

As of Monday afternoon, 49 of 67 counties in Alabama refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses in Alabama, Montgomery Advertiser's Brian Lyman reports. Even though a federal judge has struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has ordered the probate judges not to issue same-sex marriages. The U.S. Supreme Court also refused to grant a stay against the issuance of same-sex marriage licenses.

U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade, who struck down the state's ban on same-sex matrimony, denied a motion for contempt against Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis for refusing to issue marriage licenses, ruling that the parties had not yet shown they were harmed by a failure for the constitution to be followed.

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle has clarified that marriage licenses should be issued throughout Florida, not just in the county in which he ruled that it was unconstitutional not to give a same-sex couple permission to get married, BuzzFeed's Chris Geidner reports. The judge, however, said his current injunction applies only to couples who sued to have the right to marry, but he warned court clerks that "'the constitution requires" the issuance of marriage licenses and they could face more lawsuits in which plaintiffs could recover attorney fees and costs.

After a federal judge upheld the constitutionality of Oklahoma's new lethal injection protocol, a group of inmates slated to be executed next year are planning to appeal the decision, according to the Associated Press. U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot ruled that the 500-milligram dose of the sedative midazolam makes it a "'virtual certainty'" that inmates will be unconscious before drugs are administered to stop their hearts and their respiratory systems.

But the inmates argue the drug poses a substantial risk of unconstitutional pain and suffering. When the state used a 100-milligram dose of midazolam, inmate Clayton Lockett "writhed on the gurney, mumbled and lifted his head during his 43-minute execution," the AP further reports.

St. Louis Circuit Judge Rex Burlison ruled yesterday that denying same-sex couples the right to marry in Missouri denies them equal protection and due process under the law and is unconstitutional, the Post-Dispatch's Doug Moore reports. Moore struck down the ban in the state constitution because of the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment of the federal Constitution.

The Missouri Attorney General will appeal the ruling to the Missouri Supreme Court.

There has been a flurry of legal activity eroding Colorado's ban on same-sex marriage. Most recently, a federal judge rejected Colorado Attorney General John Suthers' request to halt proceedings after the judge's decision declaring Colorado's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, the Denver Post reports. Both state and federal judges have declared the ban unconstitutional, and "some attorneys and advocates have accused Suthers of standing alone in opposition," the Post further reports.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney has ruled that decades-long delays in carrying out the death penalty sentence of an inmate violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel or unusual punishment, the Los Angeles Times reports. Whether the ruling will be upheld on appeal is uncertain. "'I think it has a shot in the 9th Circuit, but I don't know about the U.S. Supreme Court,'" Gerald Uelmen, a Santa Clara University law professor and who was chairman of a "state commission that concluded the system needed substantially more money to operate effectively," told the LA Times. '"It is conceivable that the U.S. Supreme Court and the 9th Circuit could say California is such an outlier — its system is so dysfunctional, with twice the national delay — that it cannot be sustained,"' Uelmen added.

Last week, a divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissed a case challenging the constitutionality of paying flat fees to Philadelphia defense counsel in capital cases, The Legal Intelligencer's P.J. D'Annunzio reports. Mark Bookman, one of the lawyers who brought the case, told The Legal "'the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had a real opportunity to bring Philadelphia up to, or at least closer to, national standards on how you handle these serious cases. The evidence that this representation is insufficient and has been insufficient for years now is the constant stream of [death penalty] reversals in the state courts and federal courts.”'

The U.S. Supreme Court halted same-sex marriages in Utah this morning while an appeal of a ruling that the state's ban on same-sex nuptials violates constitutional rights proceeds in the Tenth Circuit, NPR reports. A stay during an appeal was denied by lower courts. The justices' order was without comment or dissent.

A federal judge in New York has issued a conflicting ruling with that of a federal judge in D.C. over the legality of the National Security Agency's surveillance of nearly every phone call made in America, CNN reports: "In his ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge William Pauley said the NSA's bulk collection of phone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act was legal. The program was revealed in classified leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden."

The New York Times reports that the White House has asserted the state secrets privilege in two federal cases pending in California. The plaintiffs are challenging the constitutionality of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance programs. "The government said that despite recent leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor, that made public a fuller scope of the surveillance and data collection programs put in place after the Sept. 11 attacks, sensitive secrets remained at risk in any courtroom discussion of their details — like whether the plaintiffs were targets of intelligence collection or whether particular telecommunications providers like AT&T and Verizon had helped the agency," The Times reports.