Legal News
Divided Court Applies First Amendment to McCain-Feingold
Friday, January 22, 2010On January 21, 2010 a closely divided Supreme Court struck the parts of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law that prohibited companies from using money from their general treasuries to produce and run their own campaign ads and that barred union- and that corporate-paid issue ads in the closing days of election campaigns.
In a A 90 page dissent Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's longest-serving justice, said the majority's "glittering generality" that corporate speech, like individual speech, is protected under the First Amendment was a "conceit" that is "not only inaccurate but also inadequate to justify the court's disposition of this case."
The Washington Post noted that Stevens wrote of his conservative colleagues' "agenda" and said they had transformed a simple case about whether a conservative group's movie about Hillary Rodham Clinton violated McCain-Feingold into a constitutional quandary. Stevens said: "Essentially, five justices were unhappy with the limited nature of the case before us, so they changed the case to give themselves an opportunity to change the law."
Kudos: Julius Chambers and James Ferguson Lauded
Thursday, January 21, 2010The current issue of the American College of Trial Lawyers's publication The Bulletin profiles Julius Chambers and James Ferguson in an article “A Towering Presence in the Fight Against Injustice.” The “Small Racially Integrated Southern Law Firm.”
WALKER NOMINATED U.S. ATTORNEY
Thursday, January 21, 2010In December Charlotte attorney Thomas G. Walker was nominated to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Walker has previously served as special counsel to N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of N.C. and as assistant district attorney for Mecklenburg County.
Antitrust, Trade Regulation and Unfair Competition.
Friday, May 26, 2006Allen and Pinnix attorneys have taught Antitrust and Trade Regulation and Unfair Business Practice Law as Adjunct Faculty for the Campbell University School of Law for almost two decades. Attorneys in the firm have authored two treatises and currently serve as United States Editor for the multi-volume publication on Western European and United States Antitrust Laws. Senior Partner, Noel Allen, has served as Chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section of the Administrative Law Section of the American Bar Association. Representative cases include: Pinehurst Airlines, Inc. v. Resort Air Services, Inc., 476 F. Supp. 543 (M.D.N.C.1979), O'Leary v. Purcell Co., 1984, 66.242 M.D.N.C., 1984-2 Trade Cas. (CCH), and Burke v. Wilkins, 131 N.C. App. 687; 507 S.E.2d, 913; (1988).