Word: legal
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...Ricci v. DeStefano, the closely watched affirmative-action case, the court was criticized by liberals - and praised by conservatives - for inventing a new legal standard to determine when cities can throw out promotion exams that have discriminatory effects on minority firefighters. Whether or not you like the decision, there's no question that the court was making policy, coming up with a pragmatic rule that Congress never passed...
That such dramatic developments in two such sensitive cases should come now is probably no coincidence. Call them Exhibits A and B in the case to protect France's legal system from President Nicolas Sarkozy's reformist zeal. Sarkozy wants to do away with the post of independent investigating judge - a key feature of France's legal system - and place control of criminal inquiries in the hands of politically appointed state prosecutors. Citing a small number of high-profile instances in which judges have overstepped their investigative and detention powers, Sarkozy says he wants to reform France's inquisitorial justice...
...Sundberg says that with the IRS intensifying its hunt for alleged tax evaders, Swiss banks, fearful of potential legal problems, are closing the accounts of resident Americans and refusing to open new ones. Both UBS and Switzerland's second largest bank, Credit Suisse, have told Americans to move their money into specially created units registered in the U.S., or lose their accounts. Many smaller Swiss banks are simply turning away Americans. (See pictures of the top 10 scared traders...
...members of the legal community have voiced concerns about the political intervention in France's independent justice system. That action provokes even more alarm given French President Nicolas Sarkozy's planned reforms to shift investigative control of criminal cases to state prosecutors - who, as political appointees, critics accuse, are more attentive to the interests of their governmental mentors than...
...despite the unspeakable brutality and hatred in Halimi's murder that has unleashed wide condemnation of anti-Semitism in France, some officials are worried that the retrial will set a bad precedent. "Justice isn't the same thing as vengeance," warned Emmanuelle Perreux, president of one of the French legal profession's main labor unions, on radio station RTL. "Giving in to pressure from any [civil party] that believes, and will always believe, that punishment isn't severe enough strikes me as troubling." Perhaps, but as those pushing for a new trial note, adding a few years to prison sentences...