As the final parades roll through New Orleans today, the State of Louisiana can celebrate more than just Mardi Gras.
There's a new Chief Justice in town, y'all. And the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals didn't have to select her.
The changing of the guard -- from former Chief Justice Kitty Kimball to new Chief Justice Bernette Johnson -- occurred on February 1, but it was preceded by plenty of drama.
Last week, the top BP supervisor on the Deepwater Horizon rig lost his appeal to avoid testifying in the upcoming civil case about the 2010 explosion that devastated the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans' WWL-TV reports.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Jan. 3 that Donald Vidrine must comply with a district court order to submit to a medical examination and provide his medical records and reports to a court-appointed doctor.
Back in 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon platform was gushing barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico — and brilliant plans like "let's throw garbage at the leak" failed to stymie the flow — the Obama administration decided that offshore drilling might not be all that it was cracked up to be.
Ten days after the Deepwater explosion, President Obama ordered Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to review the event and report on additional precautions and technologies to “improve the safety of oil and gas exploration and production operations."
Less than a month later, the Secretary directed a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs and an immediate halt to drilling operations on the 33 permitted wells that were currently being drilled using floating rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.
Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list.
Last week, Fifth Circuit Chief Judge Edith Jones announced that she would be stepping down from her chief-dom "a bit early" due to family problems. We're going to miss the feisty Judge Jones as the head of the court, but today we're focusing on the future and welcoming the new chief: Judge Carl E. Stewart.
The Louisiana Supreme Court is embroiled in a bit of a brouhaha.
Chief Justice Kitty Kimball is retiring in January after 20 years on the state’s Supreme Court and 3 years as the chief justice. Now, the remaining justices are bickering about who should be the next chief.
The Louisiana Constitution makes it pretty clear: The judge oldest in point of service on the supreme court shall be chief justice. The debate within the state: What qualifies as service?
Around this time seven years ago, we were sitting in Louisiana and hoping that Hurricane Katrina would pass our beloved Bayou State without wreaking havoc. Once again, we're spending the final days of August playing a wait and see game with a hurricane heading straight for the Gulf Coast.
Monday afternoon, Isaac's wind speed increased to 70 mph, just 4 mph short of a hurricane, NBCNews.com reports. The National Hurricane Center is predicting that Isaac will reach Category 2 status with 100 mph winds late Tuesday night or early Wednesday.
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith does not like hearing that judicial review is "unprecedented."
Judge Smith was clearly irked when President Obama commented on Monday, "I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress."
So he gave the Justice Department a homework assignment while hearing oral arguments for Physician Hospitals of America vs. Sebelius, a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals challenge to the Affordable Care Act.
The task? Submit a three-page, single-spaced letter on judicial review by noon Thursday.
Diesel exhaust is bad for you. Allegedly.
If you hadn't already guessed that based on the fact that diesel exhaust is a smelly cloud -- and smelly clouds are generally hard on the lungs -- then you should thank the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for green-lighting the release of a study (20 years in the making) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Jerry Smith indicated yesterday that the Texas primary election scheduled for April 3 will likely be delayed because the Texas redistricting map conflict has not been resolved, reports The New York Times. While a new date has not been set, the court asked the Democratic and Republican parties to propose new candidate filing periods for a May 29 primary.
As the primary date continues to move, Texas could either become a kingmaker, or completely irrelevant in the Republican nominating process.
While most lawyers used the final week of 2011 to deplete their paid-time-off reserves, watch NFL games, and cheer for their favorite college teams in bowl games, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was busy issuing opinions.
In an attempt to get you caught up with the latest and greatest in the Fifth Circuit, we're going over a few of the highlights from the last week:
