Latest news with #mostly-Black
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge dismisses lawsuit challenging minority representation on Alabama board
The Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama as seen on Feb. 4, 2025. A law that maintains diversity on the Alabama Real Estate Appraisers Board remains after case challenging it is dismissed. (Brian Lyman/Alabama Reflector) A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit last week that challenged a state law and administrative regulation requiring the Alabama Real Estate Appraisers Board to have at least two minority members. U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker, Jr. dismissed the case on Friday after both parties agreed to end the proceedings after the plaintiff in the case, American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), objected to being subjected to discovery. With both parties agreeing to end the litigation, Huffaker then agreed to the stipulations from both parties and ended the case with prejudice. The American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER), a group founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, argued that a 1989 law requiring that 'no less than two of the nine board members shall be of a minority race' on the board violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Huffaker, appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump, dismissed the case without weighing in on the merits of the case after the litigants agreed to end it. Pamela Wyatt, president of the Alabama Association of Real Estate Brokers (AAREB), a mostly-Black organization that intervened to preserve the law, said in a statement that the case 'allowed us to demonstrate how important state laws ensuring diversity on state boards are to people in Alabama.' 'State boards make decisions that affect all Alabamians and should be reflective of the communities they serve,' the statement said. 'For the past three decades, this Alabama law has aimed to ensure that state boards reflect the state's rich diversity, and we are thrilled that this case has been dismissed with prejudice.' The association intervened in the case after Gov. Kay Ivey's office said in court filings that the regulations were an 'unconstitutional requirement that 'she does not—and will not—enforce,'' according to court documents. The governor's office did object to AAER's challenge to inclusivity language in the statute. Blum, the founder of the AAER, brought a lawsuit that led to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 to strike down race-conscious college admissions. The AAER sued the state after the appraisers board rejected an application filed by Laura Clark, a member of AAER, because her appointment would have violated state statute that at least two of the board members be nonwhite. Clark, who is white, also serves as the interim president of the Alabama Center for Law and Liberty, a conservative nonprofit law firm that says it advocates for 'limited government, free markets, and strong families.' The AAREB said Alabama's long history of racial discrimination in housing made minority representation on the state appraisal board critical to fairness. 'This particular law is critically important for that organization and many, many, other real estate professionals of color, and people of color in the state, who will suffer immensely if the law is struck down,' said Brooke Menschel, an attorney with Democracy Forward, representing the AAREB, last year. The parties proceeded to discovery last July after Huffaker rejected a request for summary judgment filed by AAER for the court to rule in its favor. AAER was listed as a plaintiff in the case, which subjected it to discovery. That meant opposing counsel could depose the members and staff of the organization and request documents to be used as evidence during litigation. 'Rather than continue to litigate an issue that both plaintiff and defendant agree is unconstitutional, we went ahead and agreed to have the case be dismissed,' said Haley Dutch, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. In the spring, AAER requested to be removed as a party to the case and have Clark added instead, which would have subjected her to discovery. 'AAER brought this case on Ms. Clark's behalf, relying on the doctrine of associational standing to assert her interests, not its own,' AAER said in a request filed with the court in March to substitute Clark for AAER as the plaintiff. 'AAER is thus not a necessary or indispensable party to the litigation.' Democracy Forward opposed the request. 'It is a fundamental rule of litigation that when you choose to sue you have to expose yourself to discovery,' Democracy Forward said in a filing in April opposing the substitution. 'AAER has a clear choice. If AAER does not want to litigate this case, it may voluntarily dismiss this litigation and Ms. Clark can file a new case if and when she has standing with regard to a live controversy. But if AAER wants to maintain this action, it must sit for a deposition, like all other litigants. It cannot shirk its discovery obligations.' Huffaker rejected the request for substitution. 'What does appear clear is that AAER declared itself the jockey in a race that it started and has ridden this horse in this manner since February 2024,' Huffaker said. 'Clark could have been the jockey from the outset, but AAER chose not to proceed in that manner. Similarly, AAER could have switched riders (i.e., Clark for AAER) well before the amended pleadings deadline.' 'The Court will not tolerate such tactics,' Huffaker added.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Yahoo
Lawsuit accuses Orange deputies of failing to notify Pine Hills accused killer Moses on loose
A second lawsuit has been filed related to the 2023 killings of three people in Pine Hills, this time accusing the Orange County Sheriff's Office of 'racially discriminatory policies' after failing to notify the community accused killer Keith Moses was on the loose. The lawsuit focuses on killings hours after investigators said Moses shot 38-year-old Natacha Augustin as he sat behind her in the backseat of his cousin's car. According to the 36-page complaint filed Monday in federal court, deputies didn't issue an alert about Moses while an unnamed deputy at the scene — identified in the filing as 'Deputy John Doe' — waved off Brandi Major's concerns before she and 9-year-old daughter T'Yonna were shot in their home. T'Yonna was killed and Moses went on to fatally shoot Spectrum News 13 reporter Dylan Lyons, 24, as he sat in a news van, the lawsuit said. The complaint was brought on behalf of T'Yonna and Brandi Major, who survived, as well as Lyons' estate. Augustin is not a party to the lawsuit, as she was Moses' first victim. Though the lawsuit mentions agency policies it argues discriminate against Pine Hills' mostly-Black population, none were specifically cited. Rather, lawyers at NeJame Law, which represents Major's and Lyons' families, told reporters Tuesday that existing policies about alerting the community of criminal activity are unequally applied in what legal partner Ryan Vescio called a 'policy of complacency.' 'Crime is acceptable nowhere, so in a situation like this we do believe there is a demonstration of acceptance that these things are going to happen and the citizens of Pine Hills are just going to have to deal with it,' Vescio said. 'Although, if this were another neighborhood that Mark [NeJame] lives in or I would live in, then everybody would know as soon as it happened. That's just wrong.' In a statement, a sheriff's office spokesperson called the claims in the lawsuit 'unfounded' and the agency's legal team will seek a motion to dismiss the case. It added: 'Keith Moses is the only person responsible for the heinous acts of violence that took the lives of three of our residents and gravely injured two others. We grieve those losses along with our community.' Kissimmee considers 9 candidates — including retired OPD chief — to lead scandal-tainted police department Moses faces the death penalty after being charged with the murders of Augustin, T'Yonna and Lyons — which took place within a mile of each other around Harrington Drive and Hialeah Street. Reports released in that case show deputies cleared the scene hours after Augustin was killed. Moses, however, remained in the area and entered the Majors' house through an open back door and shot T'Yonna and Brandi Major several times before leaving. Lyons was parked outside near the home and was shot while working. Moses also injured Jesse Walden, the cameraman who accompanied Lyons, the suit said. Walden has not been party to any lawsuits regarding the shootings. According to the lawsuit, Moses was identified by the sheriff's office through his cousin, who was driving when Augustin was shot in the passenger seat, but the agency did not release his name or issue a description as they looked for him. The complaint further alleges nearby residents weren't notified of the situation while an unnamed deputy told Brandi Major 'everything is under control' when she asked about law enforcement's activity in the area. 'We expect better,' NeJame said. 'A 9-year-old little girl was killed because the sheriff's office waved a mother in with her daughter and didn't tell them that there was a murderer on the loose and had been on the loose and had killed somebody earlier.' The lawsuit against OCSO is the second one related to the killings. The first accused Spectrum News 13, an Orlando Sentinel news partner, of failing to provide proper safety equipment or conducting 'an appropriate risk assessment' before sending Lyons to Pine Hills, where he was assigned to cover the shooting that killed Augustin. That complaint raises questions of the obligations news organizations have to keep their reporters safe in the field. It's also an unusual one — incidents documented by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, which monitors attacks on reporters and news outlets, show nearly all of the 322 instances of reporters shot on duty in the last 10 years were by law enforcement, and only 25 of them resulted in lawsuits. Of those lawsuits, just one was against a news organization: The Capital Gazette and the Baltimore Sun, which settled in 2023 after they were accused of wrongful death and negligence for the 2018 newsroom massacre that killed five people on staff. A statement from Spectrum News denied the claims in the lawsuit brought by Lyons' family, calling his death 'an unforeseeable and horrible tragedy.'
