Gandalf_The_Grey
7/23/2006, 09:23 PM
http://www.nbc4.tv/news/9560215/detail.html
LOS ANGELES -- A judge who threatened deportation to Mexico for an illegal immigrant seeking a restraining order against her husband has been dropped from the roster of part-time judges used by the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Judge Pro Tem Bruce R. Fink, a family law attorney from Orange, was removed from the list of about 1,200 attorneys who are used as substitute judges for the county, court spokesman Allan Parachini said Friday.
"A lot of people run from controversy," Fink said. "It doesn't bother me. Remember, I was doing this as a volunteer."
During the July 14 hearing in Pomona, Fink asked Aurora Gonzalez if she was an illegal immigrant.
Gonzalez, who accused her husband of verbal abuse and threatening to report her to immigration authorities, acknowledged being in the country illegally.
"I hate the immigration laws that we have, but I think the bailiff could take you to the immigration services and send you to Mexico," the judge responded, according to a court transcript. "Is that what you guys want?"
Fink later warned Gonzalez that he was going to count to 20 and expected her to disappear by the time he was finished.
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. When I get to 20, she gets arrested and goes to Mexico," Fink said, according to the transcript.
Gonzalez left the courtroom and Fink dismissed the case.
She moved into a domestic violence shelter last month, and could not be reached for comment.
Gonzalez has since resubmitted her request for a restraining order and had it granted, Parachini said.
Experts said that Fink as a state judge had no authority to order an arrest for violation of a federal immigration law.
"I did not want this woman deported," Fink said. "Now I understand that the court does not get involved in immigration status as long as it is not thrust upon it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643.html
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.
var technorati = new Technorati() ;technorati.setProperty('url','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643_Technorati.html') ;technorati.article = new item('ACLU Sues for Anti-Gay Group That Pickets at Troops\' Burials','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643.html','KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.','Garance Burke') ;document.write( technorati.getDisplaySidebar() );
setTimeout('update_delicious_form(delicious_cookie )',1)The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians.
Missouri lawmakers were spurred to action after members of the church protested in St. Joseph, Mo., last August at the funeral of Army Spec. Edward L. Myers.
The law bans picketing and protests "in front of or about" any location where a funeral is held, from an hour before it begins until an hour after it ends. Offenders can face fines and jail time.
A number of other state laws and a federal law, signed in May by President Bush, bar such protests within a certain distance of a cemetery or funeral.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the Missouri law tries to limit protesters' free speech based on the content of their message. It is asking the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and to issue an injunction to keep it from being enforced, which would allow the group to resume picketing.
"I told the nation, as each state went after these laws, that if the day came that they got in our way, that we would sue them," said Phelps's daughter Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the church in Topeka, Kan. "At this hour, the wrath of God is pouring out on this country."
Scott Holste, a spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, said, "We're not going to acquiesce to anything that they're asking for in this lawsuit."
The suit names Nixon, Gov. Matt Blunt (R) and others as defendants.
LOS ANGELES -- A judge who threatened deportation to Mexico for an illegal immigrant seeking a restraining order against her husband has been dropped from the roster of part-time judges used by the Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Judge Pro Tem Bruce R. Fink, a family law attorney from Orange, was removed from the list of about 1,200 attorneys who are used as substitute judges for the county, court spokesman Allan Parachini said Friday.
"A lot of people run from controversy," Fink said. "It doesn't bother me. Remember, I was doing this as a volunteer."
During the July 14 hearing in Pomona, Fink asked Aurora Gonzalez if she was an illegal immigrant.
Gonzalez, who accused her husband of verbal abuse and threatening to report her to immigration authorities, acknowledged being in the country illegally.
"I hate the immigration laws that we have, but I think the bailiff could take you to the immigration services and send you to Mexico," the judge responded, according to a court transcript. "Is that what you guys want?"
Fink later warned Gonzalez that he was going to count to 20 and expected her to disappear by the time he was finished.
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. When I get to 20, she gets arrested and goes to Mexico," Fink said, according to the transcript.
Gonzalez left the courtroom and Fink dismissed the case.
She moved into a domestic violence shelter last month, and could not be reached for comment.
Gonzalez has since resubmitted her request for a restraining order and had it granted, Parachini said.
Experts said that Fink as a state judge had no authority to order an arrest for violation of a federal immigration law.
"I did not want this woman deported," Fink said. "Now I understand that the court does not get involved in immigration status as long as it is not thrust upon it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643.html
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court in Jefferson City, Mo., on behalf of the fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church, which has outraged mourning communities by picketing service members' funerals with signs condemning homosexuality.
var technorati = new Technorati() ;technorati.setProperty('url','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643_Technorati.html') ;technorati.article = new item('ACLU Sues for Anti-Gay Group That Pickets at Troops\' Burials','http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200643.html','KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas church group that protests at military funerals nationwide filed suit in federal court, saying a Missouri law banning such picketing infringes on religious freedom and free speech.','Garance Burke') ;document.write( technorati.getDisplaySidebar() );
setTimeout('update_delicious_form(delicious_cookie )',1)The church and the Rev. Fred Phelps say God is allowing troops, coal miners and others to be killed because the United States tolerates gay men and lesbians.
Missouri lawmakers were spurred to action after members of the church protested in St. Joseph, Mo., last August at the funeral of Army Spec. Edward L. Myers.
The law bans picketing and protests "in front of or about" any location where a funeral is held, from an hour before it begins until an hour after it ends. Offenders can face fines and jail time.
A number of other state laws and a federal law, signed in May by President Bush, bar such protests within a certain distance of a cemetery or funeral.
In the lawsuit, the ACLU says the Missouri law tries to limit protesters' free speech based on the content of their message. It is asking the court to declare the ban unconstitutional and to issue an injunction to keep it from being enforced, which would allow the group to resume picketing.
"I told the nation, as each state went after these laws, that if the day came that they got in our way, that we would sue them," said Phelps's daughter Shirley L. Phelps-Roper, a spokeswoman for the church in Topeka, Kan. "At this hour, the wrath of God is pouring out on this country."
Scott Holste, a spokesman for Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, said, "We're not going to acquiesce to anything that they're asking for in this lawsuit."
The suit names Nixon, Gov. Matt Blunt (R) and others as defendants.