U.S. Supreme Court Story Archives - Page 7 of 7 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Request to Block Mercury Rule

The Supreme Court has left intact a federal rule that targets mercury pollution — giving the Environmental Protection Agency time to fix legal problems…

The Supreme Court has left intact a federal rule that targets mercury pollution — giving the Environmental Protection Agency time to fix legal problems and come out with a revision by April.

West Virginia and Texas led a coalition of 20 states that wanted the court to block the rule while the government decided how to account for its costs.

Chief Justice John Roberts turned down their request on Thursday, March 3.

The justices ruled last year that the EPA should have considered the costs and benefits before imposing limits on mercury and other air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants.

But the justices let the rule stay in effect and sent it back to a federal appeals court to decide how a cost-benefits analysis should be conducted.

The appeals court also has declined to postpone the rule.

Arch Coal Again Appeals W.Va. Strip Mine Permit Veto

Arch Coal is continuing to fight a 2011 veto of a West Virginia strip mining permit.

Late last month in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Arch’s Mingo Logan Coal Co. subsidiary filed an appeal notice for the Spruce No. 1 mine case.

In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency retroactively vetoed the mine’s permit, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued four years earlier.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson later ruled the agency overstepped its authority.

In April 2013, the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled EPA acted within its authority. The court denied St. Louis-based Arch’s motion to rehear the case in July 2013.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Arch’s appeal to reinstate the Logan County mine’s permit.

Candidates on the Attack: The Race for the 2nd Congressional District

The race in the 2nd Congressional District has gotten more and more ugly over the past few weeks as candidates dig in for the final push before Election Day. Democratic candidate Nick Casey talks about his view of the partisan politics in Washington and how he thinks he can make a change, as well as discusses the major issues facing the district.

Dr. Scott Crichlow of West Virginia University discusses how a non-decision from the U.S. Supreme Court, in less than a week, caused West Virginia to go from a state defining marriage as between a man and a woman to one that is issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples.

In a reporter roundtable, we recap the U.S. Senate debate between Shelley Moore Capito and Natalie Tennant and look forward to a debate in the 3rd Congressional District pitting Congressman Nick Rahall against state Sen. Evan Jenkins.

What Does the U.S. Supreme Court's Inaction Mean for Gay Marriage in W.Va.?

When the United States Supreme Court ruled Monday not to consider the appeals before them against lower courts’ same sex marriage rulings that meant five…

When the United States Supreme Court ruled Monday not to consider the appeals before them against lower courts’ same sex marriage rulings that meant five new states could now issues marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples.

But that list of five states, Virginia, Utah, Indiana, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, does not include West Virginia. Well, at least not explicitly.

“It also is likely to mean that in the six additional states in the 4^th and 7^th and 10^th judicial circuits, we are likely to soon see the ability of same sex couples to marry,” Jon Davidson, legal director with Lamdba Legal said during an informational conference call Monday night.

West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and North and South Carolina make up the 4^th Judicial Circuit on the federal appellate court level, meaning a the ruling that Virginia’s same sex marriage ban is unconstitutional will now have legal implications in all of the other states in the circuit.

The final ruling on that, though, is left up to Federal District Court Judge Robert Chambers in Huntington. Chambers put a case challenging West Virginia’s same sex marriage ban on hold earlier this year saying he wanted to wait for the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Virginia case.

Camilla Taylor, Lambda Legal’s national marriage project director, said the organization immediately began filing documents in the West Virginia case asking the judge to rule against the ban.

A member of Chambers’ staff reportedly said Monday he would not immediately issue an opinion, but did not estimate when a final judgment would be released.

So, in West Virginia, the statute that defines marriage as between a man and a woman still stands and courts must uphold the law, but Fairness West Virginia Executive Director Andrew Schneider said he believes it’s just a matter of time before gay and lesbian couples in the state are afforded the same rights as straight couples.

“It’s just the right thing to do given the fact that so much of the country is now opening its doors to marriage equality,” Schneider said. “It’s well past time for West Virginia to do the same.”

In a press release Tuesday, Allen White, president of The Family Policy Council of West Virginia, a conservative policy group who lobbies the state legislature on social issues, said the court’s decision cost people of faith their First Amendment rights.

“Over the last 15 years, more than 40 million Americans in more than 30 states have voted at the ballot box to define marriage as one man and one woman,” White said, “and in the last 12 months some U.S. judges have attempted to erase those votes.”

Sixty Years Ago: Black and White at East-West

Sixty years ago this week, two Marion County Schools – Dunbar High School and Fairmont Senior High School – met for the first – and last – time on the football field. Local historians say it was the first gridiron meeting in West Virginia of an all-black school and an all-white school. It came amid the tensions surrounding that year’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on school segregation.

It’s been sixty years since the game, but local historian D. D. Meighen says the event continues to resonate and offer lessons for today. He and a group of others rediscovered the story of the game a few years ago while researching how to handle an uptick in racial tension.

“This football game in 1954 seemed to be the answer,” says Meighen. “Where in the midst of a week full of very high tension where parents were protesting the integration of schools, a school outside of Fairmont – that this first football game between a black and a white school was being played. We were interested as to how that worked out.”

THE GAME

The game was played on September 30^th 1954…just a few months after the Supreme Court told schools in America they would have to integrate. The court granted schools time to comply. Dunbar and Fairmont Senior High Schools were to be integrated the following year. The two school principals agreed that, although they had never played each other before, they would compete in this final year before the two schools went together.

But just days before the game, tensions in the county were running high. The Marion County Board of Education had started the integration process that fall – a move that was met with protests, pickets, boycotts and threats at one small school.

A local judge denounced the actions as “rebellion against the government” and issued an injunction against protestors.

With that as a backdrop, the two teams prepared to meet for the first – and last – time. Local law enforcement was on high alert and out in force.

But Meighen says the event ran smoothly. And he credits the fact that, although they attended different schools, the players all knew each other.

“The surprising thing was, and people didn’t realize, was that these young men had played against each other in sandlot ball and even lived next to each other,” says Meighen. “And so there was absolutely no violence and no trouble that evening and there were only three penalties called.”

Meighen says that familiarity, and an ability to enjoy friendly competition, were the keys then…and are the keys now…to easing racial tensions and fostering healthy communities. As America refocuses on these tensions in light of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and elsewhere, Meighen believes a football game, played sixty years ago, offers lessons and hope.

Lesson number one: opportunities to live, work and play together are key.

“And I think a secondary lesson is that we need to utilize sports in a better way,” says Meighen. “When people talk about this game sixty years ago, they don’t talk about really who won… or who lost. The score was incidental except to the players and they still debate as to how they could have won and you know what could have happened that would have made the game different. But it was a great game – 7-6 was the final score by the way. But I think we need to fashion sports in a way in which we don’t have such a high level of competition but a lot of you know cooperation. “

Q: But that seems the opposite of where we’ve headed with sports.

“ Yeah, it seems to be and with the high salaries and everything and the premium placed on children competing at a high level and getting involved in intensive training even as early as pre-school – it kind of takes the joy out of just sharing the athleticism on the field or wherever it may be.”

Q: So – 7 to 6, who won?

“ Uh you’ll have to ask them…(laughter) Fairmont Senior won…but the person from Dunbar, who represents Dunbar, said they could have won if they had run the play that he wanted to run. “

The Dunbar/Fairmont Senior football game of 1954 is now firmly back in the community’s shared memory – and commemorated with a special plaque at East-West Stadium where it was played sixty years ago.

The plaque commemorating the Dunbar versus Fairmont Senior game of 1954 will be dedicated Friday, September 26, 2014 during a pre-game ceremony at East-West Stadium in Fairmont.

Ruling Delayed on Same Sex Marriage in West Virginia

A federal judge in West Virginia has delayed ruling on a lawsuit challenging the state's same-sex marriage ban. U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers in…

A federal judge in West Virginia has delayed ruling on a lawsuit challenging the state’s same-sex marriage ban.

U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers in Huntington says due to the “overlap of issues” presented in the West Virginia case and a similar one in Virginia, he put the case on hold this week pending a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In August the Supreme Court delayed a decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, that struck down that state’s gay marriage ban.

A number of similar rulings around the country have been put on hold while appeals are pursued.

The West Virginia lawsuit was filed on behalf of three same-sex couples and the child of one couple.