Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye Calls New Judicial Branch Budget Reduction ‘Devastating’ to Public. June 15, 2011, San Francisco—California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye today issued the following statement in response to a proposed reduction of $150 million in the judicial branch budget for fiscal year 2011–2012, in addition to other budget cuts. “This budget proposal is devastating and crippling to the judicial branch and to the public it serves. Courts have taken massive reductions over the past few years, and already took $200 million in reductions for next year.  [more]

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - Go to any shelter for homeless families, and you likely will find children who would not be there but for their fathers' failure to pay child support. Spend a day in family court, and you likely will see indigent fathers, with no lawyer, being taken away in handcuffs because they could not pay the child support they owed. So-called deadbeat parents, usually dads, have long been a conundrum for the law. On Wednesday, they are the U.S. Supreme Court's legal problem. Jailed For Being Too Poor? The justices are hearing a case testing whether indigent parents who fail to make child support payments may be jailed for as much as a year at a time, without the state providing a lawyer. Though most states provide counsel for those too poor to afford legal help, a minority of states do not, including Florida, Georgia, Maine, Ohio and South Carolina.  [more]

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - Bingham took the honors by beating Jones Day in a hotly contested Bocce finale. Kudos to Team Bingham! Congratulations to the final four teams contesting the prize: Bingham, FTI Consulting, Jones Day, and Mayer Brown. A shout out goes to Top Sponsor FTI Consulting for providing major support for this year's tournament. Special thanks go to Julie Davies, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, and the entire Amicus organizing committee.  [more]