Tag: delay

Supreme Court delay prompts federal judges to act over South Carolina redistricting dispute



WASHINGTON —The Supreme Court has delayed resolving a South Carolina redistricting case for so long that a lower court has has been forced to step in, saying on Thursday that a congressional district it previously ruled was racially gerrymandered can be used in this year’s election.

Last year, a federal court ruled that the Charleston-area district held by Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., was unlawfully drawn by removing thousands of Black voters.

But on Thursday, the same court said in an order that the map could be used for this year’s congressional election.

The three-judge panel wrote that “with the primary election procedures rapidly approaching, the appeal before the Supreme Court still pending, and no remedial plan in place, the ideal must bend to the practical.”

The decision constitutes a setback for Democrats, who might have gained a more favorable map if it was redrawn.

The Supreme Court has spent months considering the merits of whether map-drawers unlawfully considered race when drafting the map but has yet to issue a ruling despite both sides saying it needed to be resolved well before the election.

The justices have also failed to act on an emergency application brought by Republican state officials asking for the existing map to remain in place, at least for now.

In a nine-month term running from October to June dominated by cases involving former President Donald Trump, the justices have issued only 11 rulings in argued cases.

Oral arguments in the South Carolina case were held on Oct. 11, giving the justices ample time to rule.

State officials had argued their sole goal was to increase the Republican tilt in the district in drawing the map. But in January 2023, the lower court ruled race was of predominant concern when one of the state’s seven districts was drawn. Republicans led by South Carolina Senate President Thomas Alexander appealed the decision.

The three-judge panel had said the state did not have to take any action to draw a new map until after the Supreme Court resolved the appeal — on the understanding that the justices would act more quickly.

Republicans redrew the boundaries after the 2020 census to strengthen GOP control of what had become a competitive district. Democrat Joe Cunningham won the seat in 2018 and narrowly lost to Mace in 2020. Two years later, with a new map in place, Mace won by a wider margin.

The roughly 30,000 Black voters who were moved out of the district were placed into the district held by Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, who is Black. It is the only one of the seven congressional districts held by Democrats.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other civil rights groups alleged not only that Republicans unlawfully considered race when they drew the maps, but also that they also diluted the power of Black voters in doing so.

The claims were brought under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which requires that the law applies equally to everyone. The case arose under a different legal theory than was at issue in the major ruling this year in which civil rights advocates successfully challenged Republican-drawn maps in Alabama under the Voting Rights Act.



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Trump co-defendant’s struggle to find lawyers seen as ‘delay tactic’ by Florida lawyers



“I think that’s comical,” Gregorie said. “Here’s a guy from Palm Beach and he can find a lawyer in Washington, D.C., but in the busiest criminal district in the country, in the Southern District of Florida, he’s not able to find a lawyer? It’s almost funny.”

Appearing before a federal judge in Miami last week, De Oliveira, wearing a navy suit and glasses and without a local attorney, was unable to enter a plea. 

It was a reprise of the two delays that led Walt Nauta, Trump’s personal aide who is also indicted in the classified documents case, to postpone entering his not guilty plea. 

The district has no shortage of legal firepower, said Philip Reizenstein, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor.

“We’re very active as defense attorneys,” Reizenstein said. “We don’t just roll over and plead guilty.”

Mark Schnapp, a veteran federal prosecutor who led the criminal division at the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami, said, “I don’t know what’s taking so long.” Schnapp said De Oliveira “had to know” he would be charged ahead of time. 

Typically the government will contact targets to let them know they’re going to be charged and offer them opportunities to cooperate, former prosecutors said.

A source familiar with the matter said De Oliveira’s legal team was informed ahead of time that the government intended to seek an indictment. The source said the defense was offered a chance to explain why he should not face charges.

But even after the charges were announced in a superseding indictment and De Oliveira made his first court appearance, his defense team was still working to lock down local counsel.

“This is a delay tactic,” said Dave Aronberg, the state attorney in Palm Beach County. “I’ll walk outside in a couple of minutes. I’m going to trip over at least three lawyers who are admitted into the Southern District of Florida. You’ve got to watch your step.”

“This is a delay tactic. I’ll walk outside in a couple minutes. I’m going to trip over at least three lawyers who are admitted into the Southern District of Florida. You’ve got to watch your step.”

— Dave Aronberg, Palm Beach County, Florida, state attorney

Yet despite the historic challenge of wanting to represent a former president, veterans of the South Florida legal world who spoke to NBC News said other issues could be complicating the decision. 

The cost of securing an attorney independent from Trump’s operation could prove a daunting challenge for workers targeted by federal investigators in the special counsel’s probes. 

Gregorie pointed to potential conflicts with Trump, who promised to find De Oliveira an attorney, according to the updated indictment. 

Trump’s Save America fundraising group spent at least $20 million on legal fees in the first half of the year, some of it with the firms of lawyers who have signed on to represent his employees, federal records show. 

For De Oliveira, a former maintenance worker at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate accused with him and Nauta of conspiring to subvert federal investigators’ efforts to retrieve sensitive classified documents from Trump in his post-presidency, the stakes could not be higher.

Prosecutors allege that De Oliveira lied to the government by denying he had any knowledge of boxes of classified files, despite his role in moving them, and then tried to delete security video at the Palm Beach club after the Justice Department sought to obtain it. Trump called De Oliveira, and the two spoke for more than 20 minutes, according to the indictment. 

He later approached another employee, identified as Yuscil Taveras, and informed him that “the boss” wanted the video deleted, prosecutors allege. That employee, who was once represented by a lawyer shared with another Trump defendant, sought new counsel last month. 

De Oliveira, who is set to appear before the federal judge assigned to the case Thursday, faces a delicate path that could lead to new challenges down the line.  

“This is a question of ‘how is this guy going to pay for his lawyer?’ And if he is being paid by Trump, that lawyer has got to say: ‘Listen, my job is to represent you. Some of the things I’m going to recommend to you may not be what Mr. Trump wants,’” Gregorie said. “That may be a real difficulty.” 

Former prosecutors for the Southern District said lawyers face their own liabilities, including the financial peril of a defendant who loses the means to pay or the threat of landing in the very public crosshairs of Trump’s ire.

If a lawyer signs on to a case in Florida and the defendant stops paying, “you’re stuck,” Schnapp said.

Reizenstein said: “Unspoken among my colleagues who wanted to work for the president — within a group of certain people who were being consulted — [was] a cost-benefit analysis. Literally there were lawyers who were asking themselves how much is your reputation worth. Because a lot of people who take on the representation end up getting damaged themselves.” 

“That was an undercurrent within the Miami legal community when he was looking for lawyers,” Reizenstein said of Trump. 

Said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney for Southern Florida: “Lawyers associated with Donald Trump have had bad luck.”



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Bear escapes from crate in plane’s cargo hold, causing unbearable delay



BAGHDAD — Iraq’s prime minister has ordered an investigation into how a bear escaped from its crate in the cargo hold of an Iraqi aircraft as it was due to depart from Dubai airport, leaving passengers disgruntled over the delay and causing a stir on social media.

Iraqi Airways said it wasn’t to blame for the bear’s escape and that the aircraft’s crew worked with authorities in the United Arab Emirates, which dispatched specialists to sedate the animal and remove it from the plane.

A video clip circulating on social media showed the plane’s captain apologizing to passengers for Friday’s takeoff delay because of the bear’s escape from its crate in the cargo hold.

Iraqi Airways said Saturday that procedures to transport the bear were carried out in accordance with the law and with procedures and standards approved by the International Air Transport Association.

The airline said the bear was being flown from Baghdad to Dubai. But a person speaking on the video clip making the social media rounds suggested otherwise, saying the aircraft was an hour late for its trip to Baghdad and that passengers were being asked to disembark until the issue was resolved.

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, declined to comment.

An Iraqi Airways official confirmed to The Associated Press on Sunday that the bear was, in fact, being transported to the Iraqi capital. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak about the matter publicly, declined to name the animal’s owner.

Keeping predatory animals as pets in Iraq — especially in Baghdad — has become popular among the wealthy.

Authorities have struggled to enforce legal provisions to protect wild animals. Baghdad’s police has previously called on citizens to assist authorities in preventing such animals from being let loose on the city’s streets or ending up as exotic meals in restaurant by reporting such cases.




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Damage from clashes could delay start of school year in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp, UN says


BEIRUT (AP) — Damage to the school complex in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp from recent clashes between factions could delay the start of the school year for some 6,000 children, a United Nations official said Friday.

The concern arose after heavy street battles broke out Sunday in Ein el-Hilweh between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and Islamist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. The clashes erupted after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp.

The fighting has killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more and displaced thousands from the camp, which is home to more than 50,000 people.

Although an uneasy calm has prevailed over the past two days, staff from the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been unable to access the camp to make a full damage assessment or to provide services.

Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, told The Associated Press that a heavily fortified complex of four of the agency’s schools “was raided by the involved militants and was unfortunately also used as a starting point for the battle.”

Militants from the Islamist groups reportedly shot Armoushi from a position inside the school complex.

In the fighting that followed, the schools incurred “significant damages,” Klaus said, and “the school year for 6,000 children … may have to be delayed until we enact the necessary repairs.” The UNRWA school year is currently slated to begin in the first week of October, in parallel with Lebanese schools.

This week’s clashes were not the first that have broken out between factions in the camp. As a result, Klaus said, the school complex “was over time fortified to ensure that when … clashes erupted outside during school time, (the children) are safe.” But recently, it’s also been used as a fortress, she said.

“I believe we will have to reflect on the entire architectural design of the school to ensure that looking forward, the school cannot … ever again be used as a launchpad for assassinations and armed activities,” she said.

The cost of repairs and reconstruction within the camp is likely to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Klaus said. It is unclear where that funding will come from.

Even before the recent clashes, UNRWA officials had warned of major shortfalls in the agency’s funding that could result in service cuts or being unable to pay staff salaries by the fall.

UNRWA was founded after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to serve hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Today, their numbers have grown to some 5.9 million people, most in the Gaza Strip and Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as neighboring countries in the Middle East. In recent years, the agency has been in a near-perpetual state of financial crisis.

Reconstruction of another camp in Lebanon, Nahr al-Bared, which suffered massive destruction in 2007 during fighting between Islamist militants in the camp and the Lebanese army, has still not been completed. Klaus said the agency is still missing $40 million to complete the reconstruction.

Klaus said any reconstruction taking place in Ein el-Hilweh should be tied to a “road map” to ensure that the clashes are not repeated.

“Any investment that would be undermined by further destruction … later in the year because no sustainable solution has been found, would be very much deplorable,” she said.

There are nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees registered in Lebanon, although the actual number in the country is believed to be around 200,000, as many have emigrated but remain on UNRWA’s roster.

Palestinians in Lebanon are restricted in their rights to work and own property, and the vast majority of them live in poverty.

Klaus said the recent clashes are “reflective of an unresolved conflict, of the unresolved status of Palestine refugees here in Lebanon.”

“One can only hope that major crises, such as we’ve just undergone in Ein el-Hilweh, would also open the door to reflecting on how can more sustainable approaches to the Palestine refugee presence in Lebanon be found,” she said.



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Damage from clashes could delay start of school year in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian camp, UN says


BEIRUT (AP) — Damage to the school complex in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp from recent clashes between factions could delay the start of the school year for some 6,000 children, a United Nations official said Friday.

The concern arose after heavy street battles broke out Sunday in Ein el-Hilweh between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and Islamist groups Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. The clashes erupted after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp.

The fighting has killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more and displaced thousands from the camp, which is home to more than 50,000 people.

Although an uneasy calm has prevailed over the past two days, staff from the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been unable to access the camp to make a full damage assessment or to provide services.

Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, told The Associated Press that a heavily fortified complex of four of the agency’s schools “was raided by the involved militants and was unfortunately also used as a starting point for the battle.”

Militants from the Islamist groups reportedly shot Armoushi from a position inside the school complex.

In the fighting that followed, the schools incurred “significant damages,” Klaus said, and “the school year for 6,000 children … may have to be delayed until we enact the necessary repairs.” The UNRWA school year is currently slated to begin in the first week of October, in parallel with Lebanese schools.

This week’s clashes were not the first that have broken out between factions in the camp. As a result, Klaus said, the school complex “was over time fortified to ensure that when … clashes erupted outside during school time, (the children) are safe.” But recently, it’s also been used as a fortress, she said.

“I believe we will have to reflect on the entire architectural design of the school to ensure that looking forward, the school cannot … ever again be used as a launchpad for assassinations and armed activities,” she said.

The cost of repairs and reconstruction within the camp is likely to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Klaus said. It is unclear where that funding will come from.

Even before the recent clashes, UNRWA officials had warned of major shortfalls in the agency’s funding that could result in service cuts or being unable to pay staff salaries by the fall.

UNRWA was founded after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 to serve hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes. Today, their numbers have grown to some 5.9 million people, most in the Gaza Strip and Israeli-occupied West Bank, as well as neighboring countries in the Middle East. In recent years, the agency has been in a near-perpetual state of financial crisis.

Reconstruction of another camp in Lebanon, Nahr al-Bared, which suffered massive destruction in 2007 during fighting between Islamist militants in the camp and the Lebanese army, has still not been completed. Klaus said the agency is still missing $40 million to complete the reconstruction.

Klaus said any reconstruction taking place in Ein el-Hilweh should be tied to a “road map” to ensure that the clashes are not repeated.

“Any investment that would be undermined by further destruction … later in the year because no sustainable solution has been found, would be very much deplorable,” she said.

There are nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees registered in Lebanon, although the actual number in the country is believed to be around 200,000, as many have emigrated but remain on UNRWA’s roster.

Palestinians in Lebanon are restricted in their rights to work and own property, and the vast majority of them live in poverty.

Klaus said the recent clashes are “reflective of an unresolved conflict, of the unresolved status of Palestine refugees here in Lebanon.”

“One can only hope that major crises, such as we’ve just undergone in Ein el-Hilweh, would also open the door to reflecting on how can more sustainable approaches to the Palestine refugee presence in Lebanon be found,” she said.



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