A federal jury in Manhattan found on Wednesday that former Gov. George E. Pataki of New York was not liable for violating the rights of six convicted sex offenders who had sued, claiming they were wrongly confined in state psychiatric hospitals after completing prison sentences for their crimes.
B1 Ruling in Profiling Case Thirteen years after the Oneonta police department conducted a dragnet of black residents while looking for a crime suspect, a judge found the state liable for violating the rights of a school administrator who was required to show her identification to a state trooper before being allowed to a board a bus.
Earlier this year, the city won a couple of legal victories: cigarette wholesalers were found potentially liable for violating a federal law, and the city was allowed to proceed with racketeering lawsuits against out-of-state Internet cigarette retailers.
In response, the officers argued that they were immune from suit under the doctrine of "qualified immunity," which provides that government officials cannot be held liable for violating a law or constitutional principle that was not clear at the time.
Microsoft was held liable for violating antitrust laws by an appeals court last year, but the ultimate result of that decision lies with Judge Colleen Koflar-Kothely oFederal District Court Court.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE -- The court will decide in Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales, No.04-278, whether a police department can be held liable for violating a victim's rights when harm ensues from a failure to enforce a court's order of protection.
So even if Lehman is liable for violating GAAP, concluded Judge Kaplan, the question boils down to whether Ernst "knew enough about Lehman's use of Repo 105s to 'window-dress' its period-end balance sheets to permit a finding that E&Y had no reasonable basis for believing that those balance sheets fairly presented" the company's financial condition.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said that only the fund itself could be held liable for violating a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that makes it unlawful for "any person, directly or indirectly" to "make any untrue statement of material fact" in connection with buying or selling securities.
It is essential that the Justice Department and federal courts make clear that police departments will be held liable for violating this constitutionally protected right.
In one, he argued on behalf of a health maintenance organization in a case in which the court ruled that the financial incentives placed on doctors to hold down costs do not make H.M.O.'s liable for violating a duty to put patients first.
