Tag: judge

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-Top News USA

Judge denies Trump’s delay request for hush-money trial

Trump’s attempt to delay the trial was based on his assertion of immunity from prosecution for actions taken during his presidency…reports Asian Lite News

A Manhattan judge has dealt a blow to former President Donald Trump’s efforts to delay his hush money trial, rejecting his request to postpone proceedings until the Supreme Court rules on his claims of presidential immunity. The decision, made by Judge Juan M. Merchan, underscores the judiciary’s insistence on adherence to procedural rules and timelines.

Trump’s attempt to delay the trial was based on his assertion of immunity from prosecution for actions taken during his presidency. His legal team argued that evidence, including social media posts, pertaining to his time in office should be excluded from the trial due to this immunity. However, Merchan deemed this argument untimely, pointing out that Trump’s lawyers had ample opportunities to raise the immunity issue earlier in the legal process.

The timing of Trump’s immunity claim, coming after the deadline for pretrial motions had passed, raised doubts about the sincerity of the defense’s motion. Merchan’s ruling highlighted the importance of procedural fairness and adherence to deadlines in the legal system.

The hush money case revolves around allegations that Trump falsified records to conceal payments to his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who arranged to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels about an alleged affair with Trump. Trump has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The trial’s significance extends beyond the specific charges against Trump. It represents a test of the legal principle of presidential immunity and raises questions about the limits of executive authority. Trump’s attempt to use immunity as a defense underscores the broader debate over the balance of power between the executive branch and the judiciary.

The rejection of Trump’s request for a delay is a victory for prosecutors, who have argued against any special treatment for the former president. They contend that Trump’s actions, including the alleged cover-up of the hush money payments, do not qualify as official acts protected by immunity. This stance has been supported by previous rulings in the case and by appellate courts.

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-Top News Politics USA

US Judge denies Trump relief from $83.3 mn defamation judgment

At the time, Trump accused her of making up claims that he raped her in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store in spring 1996…reports Asian Lite News

The federal judge who oversaw a New York defamation trial that resulted in an $83.3 million award to a longtime magazine columnist who says Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s refused Thursday to relieve the ex-president from the verdict’s financial pinch.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told Trump’s attorney in a written order that he won’t delay deadlines for posting a bond that would ensure 80-year-old writer E. Jean Carroll can be paid the award if the judgment survives appeals.

The judge said any financial harm to the Republican front-runner for the presidency results from his slow response to the late-January verdict in the defamation case resulting from statements Trump made about Carroll while he was president in 2019 after she revealed her claims against him in a memoir.

At the time, Trump accused her of making up claims that he raped her in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store in spring 1996. A jury last May at a trial Trump did not attend awarded Carroll $5 million in damages, finding that Trump sexually abused her but did not rape her as rape was defined under New York state law. It also concluded that he defamed her in statements in October 2022.

Trump attended the January trial and briefly testified, though his remarks were severely limited by the judge, who had ruled that the jury had to accept the May verdict and was only to decide how much in damages, if any, Carroll was owed for Trump’s 2019 statements. In the statements, Trump claimed he didn’t know Carroll and accused her of making up lies to sell books and harm him politically.

In his order Thursday, Kaplan noted that Trump’s lawyers waited 25 days to seek to delay when a bond must be posted. The judgment becomes final Monday. “Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions,” Kaplan wrote.

The judge noted that Trump’s lawyers seek to delay execution of the jury award until three days after Kaplan rules on their request to suspend the jury award pending consideration of their challenges to the judgment because preparations to post a bond could “impose irreparable injury in the form of substantial costs.”

Kaplan, though, said the expense of ongoing litigation does not constitute irreparable injury.

“Nor has Mr. Trump made any showing of what expenses he might incur if required to post a bond or other security, on what terms (if any) he could obtain a conventional bond, or post cash or other assets to secure payment of the judgment, or any other circumstances relevant to the situation,” the judge said.

Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, did not immediately comment.

Since the January verdict, a state court judge in New York in a separate case has ordered Trump and his companies to pay $355 million in penalties for a yearslong scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated his wealth. With interest, he owes the state nearly $454 million.

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-Top News Afghanistan UK News

Afghan judge hunted by Taliban wins case

A member of Taliban stands guard at a security checkpoint in Kandahar city, Afghanistan, Sept. 11, 2021. (Photo by Sanaullah Seiam/Xinhua/IANS)

The UK government argued he had not worked closely enough with the UK in Afghanistan to qualify for relocation. A UK government spokesperson says officials are “considering” the ruling…reports Asian Lite News

An Afghan judge who has been forced to go into hiding from the Taliban was wrongly refused relocation to the UK, the High Court has ruled.

The anonymous claimant prosecuted Taliban and Islamic State group members, and has since avoided an assassination attempt, the court heard.

The UK government argued he had not worked closely enough with the UK in Afghanistan to qualify for relocation. A UK government spokesperson says officials are “considering” the ruling.

The Afghan judge is currently in hiding in an unspecified third country with his wife and children, two of whom are in poor health, it emerged in court.

He lives with the constant “risk that they may be forcibly returned to Afghanistan”, according to a ruling in his favour. Zoe Cooley, the claimant’s solicitor, said the government had a “moral, as well as a legal, responsibility to bring our client and his family to safety”.

The ruling does not automatically qualify him for relocation but does mean the government must now reassess his application in light of the court’s findings.

Cooley called on the UK government to act “very swiftly” to bring the judge and his family to the UK before it was “too late”. The Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme was set up to offer people who worked for or with the UK government in Afghanistan a path to move to the UK.

It is aimed at those who could be exposed to retribution by the Taliban, which re-seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, due to their association with international forces involved in the invasion.

The Afghan judge who brought the High Court case first applied to ARAP in August 2021 but was rejected in March 2022 – a decision upheld by an appeals panel in May 2023.

The government officials responsible for reviewing the application effectively ruled that he did not directly work for or with the UK government and was therefore not eligible. Now High Court judge Justice Julian Knowles has ruled that decision was “irrational” and based on “plainly faulty” reasoning as the Afghan judge’s activities “personally and directly” had helped to further the UK’s goals in Afghanistan.

The High Court heard the judge asked for help to leave Afghanistan during the August 2021 evacuation but “did not receive a reply” and was left in the country. He served as a senior judge for six years in an area which saw some of the heaviest fighting and counter-insurgency during the Afghanistan war.

The court heard he oversaw cases involving murder, violence against women, terrorism, kidnapping, drug smuggling and corruption. The perpetrators were often members of the Taliban and the Daesh group.

When the Taliban had surrounded his home city in 2021 during its rapid campaign to seize control of Afghanistan, the judge had to be “air-lifted out of the region by military aircraft” for his safety, the High Court was told.

Justice Knowles accepted the claimant’s evidence that the Taliban had had informants on the court’s staff during his time as a judge – some of whom now hold high-ranking positions in the government. Some of the people the judge sentenced in Afghanistan have since “obtained high positions in the present Taliban regime”. The judge was involved in cases where suspects were apprehended after operations based on intelligence provided by “international forces” operating in Afghanistan.

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India News World News

Judicial independence critical, says ICJ judge  

New Delhi, Feb 10 (ANI): International Court of Justice, Judge Hilary Charlesworth at an event marking the Supreme Court's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, at Supreme Court in New Delhi on Saturday. (ANI Photo)

Charlesworth said that the international judiciary can draw inspiration from the distinguished history of independence of India’s apex court…reports Asian Lite News

The Judge of the International Court of Justice, Hilary Charlesworth, on Monday paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar in the Supreme Court.

ICJ judge Charlesworth sat on the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and witnessed judicial proceedings.

As the bench assembled in the morning, CJI said, “I have great pleasure in welcoming ICJ judge Hilary Chalesworth among us. She has taught earlier at the Mayo College here. She is a distinguished jurist.”

CJI said called Charlesworth a friend of India.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, “We all welcome her Ladyship to the court.”

Charlesworth is an Australian international lawyer who has been a judge of the International Court of Justice since 5 November 2021.

ICJ judge Charlesworth on Saturday delivered a lecture at the Supreme Court as part of the annual lecture series organised to commemorate the Supreme Court’s diamond jubilee. The topic of the lecture was “The International Court of Justice: A legal forum in a political environment.”

Charlesworth had come to India to be a part of the annual lecture series organised to commemorate the Supreme Court’s diamond jubilee celebration. She, on Saturday, delivered a lecture at the Supreme Court on the topic, “The International Court of Justice: A legal forum in a political environment.”

Charlesworth, an Australian international lawyer who has been a judge of the ICJ since 5 November 2021, is in India at present.

On Saturday, she delivered the second annual lecture on ‘The International Court of Justice: A legal forum in a political environment’ on the Supreme Court premises.

Referring to the role of the ICJ in the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, she said though the international court’s judgement did not resolve the tension between India and Pakistan, it “at least it provided a resolution and (that too a) legal resolution to an acute problem dividing them.” On April 10, 2017, Jadhav was sentenced to death by a Field General Court Martial in Pakistan. The ICJ stayed his execution pending final adjudication of the case.

The ICJ had held that Pakistan will have to review the entire process of trial and conviction of Kulbhushan Jadhav and provide consular access to India.

She said judicial independence in the international context was aimed at eliminating any non-legal considerations that might affect a judge’s reasoning.

“Judicial independence is critical to the operation of legal institutions, particularly in volatile political contexts,” she said.

Charlesworth said that the international judiciary can draw inspiration from the distinguished history of independence of India’s apex court.

“Our two courts, the Supreme Court of India and the ICJ, while very different, I noticed that we are of a very similar age, you are going into your 75th year, we’re going into our 78th year,” she said.

But both faced the task of “navigating highly charged political environments,” Judge Charlesworth said. “The international judiciary, I think, can draw inspiration from the Supreme Court of India’s distinguished history of independence, innovation. What is also really impressive to me, is the Supreme Court’s courageous capacity of introspection,” she said.

Quoting Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud’s recent talk at the ICJ’s ceremonial sitting, the judge said, “Introspection is the art of bringing the seemingly unattainable within the line of vision.” She congratulated the SC on its foundation day and wished it a “rich and rewarding future.” Judge Charlesworth said the idea of an international judicial tribunal came to fruition after the first world war through the covenant of the League of Nations in 1919. It conducted its last public sitting in 1939, just after the outbreak of the second world war, she said.

The ICJ, established under the charter of the United Nations was distinct from the earlier court and elevated to the status of a principal organ of the UN, She said.

She said the ICJ is composed of 15 judges who are required to be of different nationalities and are elected by the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Security Council, which vote simultaneously, for nine-year terms which are renewable.

ALSO READ-Trump’s Defamation Trial Delayed As Judge Falls Ill

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-Top News Politics USA

Judge cautions Trump on trial influencing statements

The former President is already subject to a protective order in a separate upcoming New York case about alleged hush money payments to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels…reports Asian Lite News

A US federal judge has warned former President Donald Trump against making “inflammatory” statements which could taint the jury pool ahead of his 2024 trial for conspiring to overturn the result of the 2020 election.

At the 90-minute hearing on Friday in Washington D.C., US District Judge Tanya Chuktan noted that while Trump’s rights as a criminal defendant would be protected, his First Amendment right to free speech was “not absolute”, CNN reported.

“In a criminal case such as this one, the defendant’s free speech is subject to the rules,” she said.

“He is a criminal defendant. He is going to have restrictions like every single other defendant. The fact that the defendant is engaged in a political campaign is not going to allow him any greater or lesser latitude than any defendant in a criminal case.”

Judge Tanya Chuktan closed the hearing with a promise that the case would advance like any normal proceeding in the criminal justice system, but warned that the more “inflammatory” statements were made by a party, the quicker she would need to move toward a trial to preserve a fair jury.

“It is a bedrock principle of the judicial process in this country,” she said, while quoting precedent, “that legal trials are not like elections, to be won through the use of the meeting hall, the radio and the newspaper”, CNN reported.

“This case is no exception,” she said.

What Trump can reveal publicly is one of several battles being fought between his legal team and federal prosecutors, the BBC reported.

The former President is already subject to a protective order in a separate upcoming New York case about alleged hush money payments to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

His legal team also agreed to similar conditions in another case related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Trump pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election last week, and the judge cautioned his lawyers about any public statements by their client that could possibly intimidate of witnesses.

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Kashmiri girls started to flourish one by one: Bilquis Mir selected as judge for Asian Games

Currently an international water sports coach, Bilquis would earlier participate in several national and international competitions both inside and outside India. A graduate of the Maulana Azad Women’s College, for Bilquis this achievement is a dream come true…reports Shujaat Ali Quadri (Writer is Delhi Based Journalist and Community Leader)

Decades passed in uncertainty and talent was used to go in vain, but first time after the abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir, administration is paying a chance to our youth to demonstrate their talent.

Series of players from Kashmir are nowadays shining at various national and international levels. People are nowadays enough satisfied with the current administration as our youngsters are in the limelight and feeling their energies channelised in a proper way.

First Kashmiri female water sports coach Bilquis Mir appointed as a judge for the upcoming 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games in September, Kashmir’s first water sports coach Bilquis Mir expressed her joy at being the only Indian selected for this honour at the Games.

Hailing from Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir Bilquis Mir had her humble beginnings in the waters of the serene and picturesque world-famous Dal Lake. From that to reach the stage of the Asian Games and as a judge is indeed a commendable achievement for the Khanyar-born coach.

“It’s a dream come true for me. Two days back, I got appointed as a judge in the Asian Games by Asian Games Canoe Federation. This will be my second Asian Games but this one is quite special for me being a girl from Kashmir, who began her career from Dal Lake and finally reached on such a high level as a judge is a big achievement for whole Kashmir. “This is Asia’s highest-level competition, covering all the games in the region. In 2007, I gave an exam in Hungary and became the second-best candidate among people from 26 countries. It was a big achievement for me as it is a very high-level exam that tests your knowledge about the game. I was also given a license and with that, I can even go to Olympics,” she added.

Currently an international water sports coach, Bilquis would earlier participate in several national and international competitions both inside and outside India. A graduate of the Maulana Azad Women’s College, for Bilquis this achievement is a dream come true.

“I participated in World Cup 2009 and I observed that the judges’ bench would only consist of males. So, this is like a big achievement for me that I have been appointed as the judge and this will bring a big change for our women,” said Bilquis.

Years long Uncertainty and Conflict caused depression and state of psychosis in minds of Kashmiri youth.  Sports can act as rehabilitation policy and can nourish the talent of youth. Administration must take the kind of initiatives which can extract our youth from the hell designed by separatism and Pak sponsored policies.

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Legal USA

Sarala Nagala nominated as US federal judge

Nagala is currently the Deputy Chief of the Major Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Connecticut…reports Asian Lite News

President Joe Biden has nominated Indian-American civil rights attorney Sarala Vidya Nagala as a federal judge in the State of Connecticut, media reported.

If confirmed by the Senate, federal prosecutor Nagala would become the first judge of South Asian descent to serve on the District Court for the District of Connecticut.

Nagala is currently the Deputy Chief of the Major Crimes Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Connecticut, a role she has held since 2017.

She joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2012, and has served in a number of leadership roles in the office, including as Hate Crimes Coordinator.

Previously, Nagala was an associate at Munger, Tolles, & Olson in San Francisco, California from 2009 to 2012. She began her legal career as a law clerk for Judge Susan Graber on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 2008 to 2009.

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Nagala received her J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law in 2008 and her B.A. from Stanford University in 2005.

Nagala’s nomination came along with another four candidates for the federal bench and two new candidates for District of Columbia courts, “all of whom are extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution,” according to a White House statement.

Myrna Perez nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sarah A. L. Merriam and Omar A. Williams for the District Court for the District of Connecticut, and Jia M. Cobb for the District Court for the District of Columbia.

This is President Biden’s fourth round of names for federal judicial positions, bringing the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 24.

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-Top News Asia News USA

Biden picks Indian American as Washington judge

US President Joe Biden

Biden has nominated Rupa Ranga Puttagunta to be a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which is a local court for Washington…reports Asian Lite News

US President Joe Biden has nominated an Indian American to be a judge in the local court system of the nation’s capital after having withdrawn another’s nomination made by his predecessor Donald Trump.

The White House announced on Tuesday that Biden was nominating Rupa Ranga Puttagunta to be a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, which is a local court for Washington.

Last month, he withdrew the nomination of Vijay Shankar to a higher local court, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, that Trump had made as one of a spate of last-minute appointments in January before his term was to end.

Shankar needed the Senate confirmation for his appointment, which he could not get with the Democrats getting control of it.

Puttagunta is now an administrative judge for the District of Columbia Rental Housing Commission dealing with landlord-tenant issues and rental housing regulations.

She had earlier represented the poor in criminal cases and worked with victims of domestic abuse, according to the White House.

Meanwhile, Biden has appointed a Pakistani American, Zahid N. Quraishi, to be a federal judge.

He would become the nation’s first Muslim federal judge if confirmed by the Senate.

Another Muslim, Abid Qureshi, was nominated by former President Barack Obama in 2016 to be a federal judge but the Senate did not act on his nomination before Trump took office and it lapsed.

The federal judgeship would be an elevation for Quraishi who is now a federal magistrate judge in New Jersey.

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Magistrate judges are appointed by the federal judges to assist them on matters like first appearances by the accused in criminal cases and setting bail. Unlike federal judges, they are not nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and, therefore, do not issue judgments or hear cases.

Quraishi is a former US Army captain who ad served in Iraq and has also worked as an assistant chief counsel in the Department of Homeland Security and as an assistant federal prosecutor.

Former US President Donald Trump(IANS)

The South Asian Bar Association welcomed their nominations, tweeting, “We are proud to see Judges Rupa Ranga Puttagunta and Zahid Quraishi on the list” of Biden’s judicial nominees.

The White House said that the nominations announced on Tuesday reflect Biden’s “intent to nominate highly-qualified candidates to federal courts that reflect his deeply-held conviction that the federal bench should reflect the full diversity of the American people — both in background and in professional experience.”

Biden, who has said that he would nominate an African America woman to the Supreme Court, named Ketanji Brown Jackson to be a judge on the Federal Appeals Circuit Court in Washington, which is considered the most important after the Supreme Court.

If she is confirmed, it would put her on a fast track to become the nation’s first African American woman on the Supreme Court if a vacancy occurs during Biden’s term.

Brown Jackson replaces Merrick Garland, who was Obama’s unsuccessful nominee for the Supreme Court and is now the attorney-general in the Biden administration.

Trump’s nomination of Shankar was not meant to be taken seriously as he had lost the election and was an attempt at asserting himself in the last days in office.

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