Supreme Court

Students from the Wilson College Political Science Association attended oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in the spring. The cases for argument were Microsoft vs. i4i, a major case on intellectual property; and Tapia vs. United States, which involves the role of rehabilitation in criminal sentencing. Jill Hummer, assistant professor of political science, was accompanied by students Hayley Glass, Ian Irvin, Christina Shick and Brie-Anne Asbury.

Commentary I'm officially withdrawing my name for consideration for an appointment to the Supreme Court. Who knew they had to work summers? I always thought they showed up in November and maybe then again in March, made a few decisions and retired to the Catskills for the rest of the year. But here they've been deciding stuff in June. Well, forget that noise, I'm trying to work less in the summer. The president can just go out and find himself someone else. Personally, I can't understand why so many people have their gizzards in an uproar over which lawyerly trilobite is going to be added to that collection of black-robed fossils in Washington, who while-away long hours contemplating the finer points of the interstate commerce clause.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - State Sen. John Yoder said on Tuesday that he will decide by Dec. 1 as to whether he will seek another four-year term. Yoder, R-Jefferson, also confirmed that he intends to form an exploratory committee to gauge a possible bid for a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, the state's high court. Yoder, 56, was first elected to the State Senate in 1992. In 1996, the Harpers Ferry, W.Va., attorney unsuccessfully campaigned for a seat on the high court.

HAGERSTOWN -- The U.S. Supreme Court in October will hear a case involving a Hagerstown man's confession in a child-molestation case. The court will seek to clarify how long a request for a lawyer during police interrogation should be valid. The case involves Michael Blaine Shatzer Sr., 51, who pleaded guilty in Washington County Circuit Court in 2002 to sexually abusing a juvenile. The question before the Supreme Court will be if "a break in custody or a substantial lapse in time" after a suspect asks for his Fifth Amendment right to counsel affects whether authorities can question the suspect.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Wednesday denied a request by the state Department of Transportation to reconsider a decision that threatens to block construction of a proposed Exit 7 off Interstate 81 in Franklin County. Now a decision on the project rests with the state Supreme Court. On Aug. 30, a three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court ruled the department violated state law by not submitting a plan to acquire part of a Greene Township couple's property to the Agricultural Lands Condemnation Approval Board, according to Thomas Linzey, the attorney for Lamar and Lois White.

Accident victim remembered as 'friend to everyone' Unsettled issues surround bowling alley project Supreme Court hears Hagerstown man's case Police find missing woman after hours of searching What's wrong with this picture?

A Berkeley County judge has been assigned to hear a state Supreme Court case involving a pilot public campaign-funding program that he said in December he would comply with when he was mulling a possible 2012 election bid for the high court. Twenty-third Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes, along with fellow state trial judges James P. Mazzone (1st Circuit) and J. Lewis Marks Jr. (15th Circuit), were assigned to the public campaign-funding case involving Republican state Supreme Court candidate Allen H. Loughry II last week, according to court documents.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The state Supreme Court's new pilot mediation project for workers' compensation appeals is being implemented this month. The first part of the Supreme Court's mediation project is in-house mediation. The goal is to mediate approximately 60 cases during the September term. In-house mediation began on Sept. 3. So far, three of the six cases that have gone through in-house mediation have been settled. The second part of the project is a series of monthly settlement week conferences conducted by outside mediators.

By DAVE McMILLION Staff Writer, Martinsburg MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Just when a battle over an open seat on the Berkeley County Commission appeared to have been settled, a group of Berkeley County residents have come forth with their own idea on how the matter should be resolved. Seven Berkeley County residents presented the commissioners with a petition Thursday asking for a special election to allow voters to choose between Democrat Robert L. Burkhart and Republican John E. Wright.

The question posted Monday on The Herald-Mail's website was: Should Supreme Court nominees be required to have judicial experience? Poll results: Yes: 794 votes (77 percent) No: 232 votes (23 percent) "I voted yes. Why should every job a person applies to they would ask if you had any experience except a job where you can affect every citizen of the USA with your choice? Just another bumbling move by the worst president in history. " --- "For what the Supreme Court is asked to adjudicate, I'd say they should have quite a bit of federal judicial experience.

Motorists charged with driving under the influence are entitled to have the state provide downloadable data that shows the working history of the breath machine used on them, according to a West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals opinion filed Monday. “Any citizen arrested for DUI that submits to the breath machine shall now have meaningful access to their biggest accuser, the breath machine,” said defense attorney Harley O. Wagner, who successfully argued for the right to obtain the evidence.

National Rifle Association President David Keene is unhappy about the gun-control measures passed Wednesday in by the House of Delegates in Maryland. “I'm a Maryland resident, so I'm not very enthused by the way Gov. (Martin) O'Malley has gone about all this. The so-called assault weapons ban he's tried to impose in Maryland and he's now gotten through the legislature is something I don't think will stand up to constitutional challenge,” Keene said in an interview with The Herald-Mail.

Citing a recent state Supreme Court decision, Berkeley County Circuit Court Judge Gray Silver III on Monday dismissed felony murder charges against two men in the 2008 shooting death of a man at the former Orioles Club on Mid Atlantic Parkway. Dale E. Knight, 26, and Donzell W. White, 27, also were indicted on charges of first-degree robbery and conspiracy in connection with the death of Kenneth E. Waybright. Those charges are pending. Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Games-Neely told Silver she intended to appeal his decision to the state Supreme Court of Appeals.

The headquarters of the state's new business court division was unveiled Wednesday evening at the Berkeley County Judicial Center in Martinsburg. At the ceremony, 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes, the chairman of the newly created division, said every state that has a business court was studied and efforts were made to glean the best aspects from each. West Virginia became the 28th state to have a business court when the division's formation was announced Sept.

West Virginia's new business court division will be headquartered in the former law library of the Berkeley County Judicial Center in Martinsburg, the state Supreme Court of Appeals announced Monday. A grand opening in the remodeled space at 380 W. South St. will be held at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 10, the date the new division is to begin operating, the court said in a news release. The former law librarian will staff the office and 23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes' administrative assistant will take on additional business court duties, the state court announced.

It is a safe bet that many Americans are unaware that two legal milestones are reaching their 50th birthday: Engel v. Vitale, which brought an end to government sponsored prayers (1962) and Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) which struck down the law that banned artificial forms of contraceptives were decided by the Supreme Court. Both decisions were - and remain - very controversial topics of conversation. Engel v. Vitale became a case when the Supreme Court was called upon by five New York citizens to determine if a state written prayer could be a required activity in public schools.

A Berkeley County judge has been assigned to hear a state Supreme Court case involving a pilot public campaign-funding program that he said in December he would comply with when he was mulling a possible 2012 election bid for the high court. Twenty-third Judicial Circuit Judge Christopher C. Wilkes, along with fellow state trial judges James P. Mazzone (1st Circuit) and J. Lewis Marks Jr. (15th Circuit), were assigned to the public campaign-funding case involving Republican state Supreme Court candidate Allen H. Loughry II last week, according to court documents.

Granted, my memory isn't the greatest, but I can't recall ever seeing so many people huddled around the TV set awaiting a Supreme Court decision. Has the whole world gone nerd? A moon landing I get, but a decision on the legality of reams of arcane and impenetrable health care legislation? This is public policy, people. Not the O.J. Simpson trial, public policy. Yet here were housewives, bartenders and maintenance crews - who otherwise wouldn't know the Commerce Clause from Santa Claus - hanging on every word, parsing the framers' true intentions in the realm of implied powers.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld Maryland's 2012 congressional map, but it could face an up or down vote in November if opponents get enough signatures to put a referendum on the ballot. The Supreme Court won't hear a complaint against Maryland's congressional redistricting map by voters unhappy with the state's new maps. The high court affirmed Maryland judges' decision to throw out the lawsuit. Some voters had complained that the new maps passed by the state legislature last year discriminated against blacks by failing to create a third majority-black congressional district in the state.

An attorney who faces multiple felony charges of false pretense no longer can practice law in West Virginia, according to a state Supreme Court of Appeals order. The state high court's March 29 order to annul Kenneth J. Ford's license came at the recommendation of the hearing panel subcommittee of the Lawyer Disciplinary Board, according to records released Tuesday by the Supreme Court. The disciplinary board recommended the 37-year-old Baltimore attorney's license be annulled.