Voting Changes Upheld: Federal District Judge Timothy Corrigan will allow Florida to reduce the number of early voting days in that state from 14 to eight, ruling Monday that there was not enough proof that the voting rights of black Americans would be harmed by law, the Associated Press reported. The Republican-controlled Florida Legislature approved the change last year.
Out-Of-State Judges Enlisted: Nine federal judges have responded to calls for help from federal District Judge Alvin Thompson in Connecticut, the chief judge there who has a backlog of civil cases created by a shortage of district judges, The Connecticut Post reported. In the past year, senior judge Peter Dorsey died, District Judge Mark Kravitz has fallen ill and former District Judge Christopher Droney was elevated to the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Drilling Lawsuit Tossed: District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in Brooklyn has thrown out a lawsuit challenging proposed natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin since the regulations it sought to halt had not yet been finalized, Reuters reported. "The harms that plaintiffs ultimately are concerned about are speculative, and rely on a chain of inferences that may never come to pass," Garaufis wrote.
Campaigning Tax-Exempt Groups Pursued: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman wrote Congress on Tuesday to say he had the right to request federal tax documents from tax-exempt groups that have spent heavily on campaign ads, and even subpoena them if necessary, The New York Times reported. Schneiderman was responding to a letter from Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) insisting he go through the IRS.
Appeals Court Reverses Itself: The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed its own ruling Monday, and now says the Army Corps of Engineers cannot be sued for decisions it made that might have left the Mississippi River channel vulnerable to devastation like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, The New York Times reported.
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