The Legal Conservative

Judge Terry Lewis of the Leon County Circuit Court indicated on Sept. 2 that he might have a decision ready tomorrow on whether to dismiss charges against former House Speaker Ray Sansom and his co-defendants, developer Jay Odom and former Northwest Florida State College President Bob Richburg.

It was a tight time-frame, however, since Lewis also set tomorrow as the deadline for attorneys on both sides of the case to amend their motions and responses.

This afternoon, Lewis’ office confirmed that he will not make that ruling at tomorrow’s 10 a.m. pre-trial hearing. While attorneys for the defense and prosecution will appear before Lewis on motions pertaining to “case management,” the judge does not expect to rule on the defendants’ motion for dismissal.

via March On Politics: No ruling expected on dismissal at Sansom’s hearing tomorrow – from TBO.com Breaking News.

The motion to dismiss arguments in this case are not frivolous, and it will be interesting to discuss when the trial judge finally rules.

Its been a while in production but the new Woodring Law Firm website and Legal Conservative Blog are live!  Now it is just a matter of having time to write on good topics.

Several important cases up this fall bear notice, and will be more commented upon later. The first is the Hillary movie case (Citizens United v. FEC, 08-205), up for a special oral argument before the U.S Supreme Court. It is a hugely important case dealing with the underlying constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Act. It may be the vehicle the Court uses to strike down under the First Amendment restrictions on corporate contribution limits.  For further discussion from a conservative perspective is what the reach of the First Amendment is to be, since it was not even applied against the states until 1931, and initially was held not to protect corporations at all.  Link for discussion of OA

Another interesting case to watch is the beach renourishment case from Florida (Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection)that U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing this fall term on takings grounds. More information on the issues in this case to follow. A good discussion of this case is found here.

Locally,  it has been interesting to watch the NCAA litigation over public records issues. There are some significant issues to be resolved in this case as to the preemptive effect of federal statutory and constitutional law on Florida public records requirements, and even some interesting contractual issues so more discussion  to follow as this case is briefed – deadline for briefing is the 21st.

Still to come is a look back at some FL Supreme Court cases of this past year, including the judicial appointment case, and the Strand decision. I think it is ripe to discuss Stare Decisis in the context of Strand.