U.S. Supreme Court Notebook

Man on death row loses at U.S. Supreme Court


HOUSTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review an appeal from a Northeast Texas man on death row for strangling his girlfriend 18 years ago.

The high court decision, without comment, upholds a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling last year rejecting arguments that 46-year-old Daniel Acker was innocent of the March 2000 slaying of 32-year-old Marquetta George of Sulphur Springs. Attorneys also contended Acker’s trial court erroneously excluded evidence of his innocence, that appeals he previously lost were based on false evidence and that he had poor legal help in earlier appeals.

Prosecutors said Acker killed George and dumped her body on a Hopkins County road. Trial attorneys said she jumped from Acker’s truck and then was hit.

Acker doesn’t yet have an execution date.

 

Court rejects anti-abortion pastor’s appeal on noise
 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won’t hear an appeal from a pastor who challenged a state law’s noise limit that was used to restrict his anti-abortion protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Portland, Maine.

The justices offered no comment Monday in rejecting the appeal from the Rev. Andrew March. He sued after he said Portland police officers repeatedly told him to lower his voice while he was protesting outside the clinic. March says police invoked a part of the Maine Civil Rights Act that applies to noise outside health facilities.

March says the law “targets pro-life advocates” in violation of the Constitution. A district judge temporarily blocked its enforcement, but the federal appeals court in Boston reversed that ruling.

 

Supreme Court again rejects Blagojevich appeal
 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has for the second time rejected an appeal by imprisoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich of his convictions on corruption charges.

The justices did not comment Monday in letting stand the convictions and 14-year prison term that Blagojevich is serving. He’s scheduled to be released in 2024.

Blagojevich’s lawyers had wanted the high court to take up his case to make clear what constitutes illegal political fundraising. They argued that politicians are vulnerable to prosecution because the line between what’s allowed and what’s illegal is blurry.

His convictions included trying to extort a children’s hospital for contributions and seeking to trade an appointment to the Senate seat Barack Obama vacated when he was elected president for campaign cash.

The court rejected an earlier appeal in 2016.