Legal Updates

Legal News Headlines by Lawyers.com

1. Feds win round 1 against Arizona; Immigration rules blocked

   A federal judge on Wednesday blocked key parts of Arizona's tough new immigration law one day before it was to take effect, setting up a protracted legal battle and ensuring the issue will continue to roil the country through November's elections. Judge Susan R. Bolton, sitting in Phoenix, in a preliminary injunction sided with the Obama administration by ruling that the law would overwhelm the federal government and could hurt legal immigrants and U.S. citizens. Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, vowed to file an expedited appeal and said she will "battle all the way to the Supreme Court, if necessary, for the right to protect the citizens of Arizona." The judge's ruling could put the brakes on efforts in a number of other states to pass similar laws, but in the near term it exposed the sharp division between much of official Washington, which praised the decision, and the rest of the country, where polls show Arizona's law is popular and the Justice Department's lawsuit is not. Judge Bolton, who was appointed by President Clinton in 2000, said that requiring police to check the immigration status of those they arrest or whom they stop and suspect are in the country illegally would overwhelm the federal government's ability to respond, and could mean legal immigrants are wrongly arrested.

2. U.S. probing report of lunch thefts by Philadelphia teachers

   The U.S. Department of Labor has asked the Philadelphia School District for information about its recent investigation into allegations that teachers were stealing student lunches from a summer program at Germantown High School.

3. Foreclosures boom among former most-creditworthy; Rate has soared 425% for prime loans, 600% on jumbos

   A record number of borrowers once judged the most creditworthy are heading into foreclosure as the job market leaves more homeowners unable to keep up with mortgage payments. Foreclosures among borrowers with prime conforming loans have shot up 425% since January 2008, according to Lender Processing Services, which compiles mortgage data. Conforming loans are those eligible for purchase by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal agencies that buy mortgages from lenders.