Supreme Court Notebook

Court says ex-wife gets man’s insurance money

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says a Virginia law can’t override a federal employee’s decision to make his ex-wife, not his wife, his beneficiary in a federal insurance program.
Warren Hillman made Judy Maretta beneficiary of his Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance policy before their divorce and his re-marriage to Jacqueline Hillman. He never changed his beneficiary designation, and Maretta got the money after his death.
The second wife sued, but the Virginia Supreme Court said the first wife gets the money since her name was on the form.
Virginia law revokes a beneficiary designation in favor of the current spouse. But Maretta argued it was pre-empted by federal law saying named beneficiaries get the money.
Court: Can man protest outside military base?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide whether to reinstate a man’s conviction for protesting outside a military base in California.
Federal officials on Monday asked justices to reinstate John Dennis Apel’s trespass convictions. Apel had been banned from Vandenberg Air Force Base for previous protesting activities, so he set up in a designated protest area on a highway that passes through the base. The military owns the highway but grants the state and Santa Barbara County an easement so the public can use it. Military officials say since Apel had been banned from the base, he also could not use the protest area. Federal appeals judges overturned his conviction, saying since the military does not have exclusive right of possession to the highway, Apel’s trespass conviction had to be dismissed.


High court reinstates rape conviction in Vegas

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has reinstated the sexual assault conviction for a Las Vegas man.
In an unsigned opinion, the justices said Monday that a federal appeals court was wrong to overturn the conviction of Calvin O. Jackson for assaulting a woman with whom he had a tumultuous decade-long relationship.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Jackson should be freed or re-tried because he was prevented from presenting evidence that his victim made prior claims of sexual assault against him. The high court said that the appeals court should have deferred to the judgment of state courts that found the evidence was properly excluded.