This morning the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling finding that there is no constitutionally-protected right to an abortion, overturning the fifty-year-old Roe vs. Wade and thirty-year-old Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decisions that had established that right. The majority opinion follows closely the leaked Alito draft, but this final …
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State appeals court whittles down COVID-era eviction bans
This morning a state Court of Appeals panel updated an earlier ruling; it largely affirmed a lower court ruling that upheld the City of Seattle’s eviction moratorium and required payment plans but found that the city’s ban on landlords collecting interest on unpaid rent was pre-empted by state law. The …
Continue readingState appeals court affirms Seattle payroll tax
As expected, this morning a state Court of Appeals panel handed down a ruling affirming the legality of the City of Seattle’s payroll tax. The Seattle Chamber of Commerce had sued to block it, arguing that it was an illegal tax on the right of employees to work, as prohibited …
Continue readingAppeals court ruling on Highway 99 tunnel liability
Last week a state appeals court handed down a ruling in its review of a jury verdict that sided with the Washington State Department of Transportation in a dispute related to the breakdown of the tunnel boring machine that was digging the Highway 99 tunnel under Seattle. WSDOT had claimed …
Continue readingSPD officers’ and Seattle’s request to block video livestream at Charleena Lyles inquest
As reported by Axios Seattle this morning, the two police officers involved in the shooting of Charleena Lyles in her apartment have requested that the Administrator of the inquest prohibit live-streaming video of the inquest as well as the media taking an publishing photographs of their faces during the inquest …
Continue readingWashington Supreme Court ruling: State vs. Sum
This morning the Washington State Supreme Court handed down a ruling that rewrites the rules for “Terry stops,” when a police officer interrogates a person without a warrant. At issue is the point at which an individual being interrogated by an officer becomes “seized,” i.e. they believe that they are …
Continue readingCDC mask mandate appeal
In April, a U.S. District Court judge in Florida struck down the Center for Disease Control’s mask mandate. Earlier this week, the U.S. government filed a brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to try to overturn the lower court’s ruling. I hope you found this article valuable. If …
Continue readingSeattle City Attorney Criminal Division Quarterly Report
The criminal division of the Seattle City Attorney’s Office has published its first quarterly report on the activities in the first three months of 2022. It contains an unprecedented amount of detail, in charts and graphs, on the case referrals from SPD and the ones that were declined, further broken …
Continue readingAppeals court ruling on railroad tracks in the Burke-Gilman Trail “missing link”
This morning the state Court of Appeals ruled that the City of Seattle does not have the right to require the Ballard Terminal Railroad Company (BTRC) to relocate railroad tracks that cross where the city intends to build out the “missing link” of the Burke-Gilman Trail. The court ruled that …
Continue readingLeaked Seattle City Attorney’s Office memos to Human Rights Commission
As first reported by the South Seattle Emerald, last month the Seattle City Attorney’s Office sent a memo to the Seattle Human Rights Commission advising that it does not have legal standing or authority to petition the U.S. District Court to seek amicus curiae standing with regard to the 2012 …
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