Judicial Reports: LexPress: Ramos Clips Grasso

By Lily Henning

Posted 10-20-06

A Manhattan judge says the stock exchange chief tricked his board, and the Court of Appeals says religious groups can't exclude birth control from their health care plans.

 

RAMOS DE-GREENS GRASSO
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Charles Ramos ruled yesterday that Grasso, the former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, must forfeit a portion of his $139.5 million compensation package, Joseph Goldstein reports in the New York Sun. Grasso, who was tight lipped about how much his pay package was worth — and actually said he didn't know — "thwarted" an NYSE executive board "from perfroming its duty of care and obedience," Ramos wrote. We aren't told how much Grasso will have to fork over. The 72-page decision skirts Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's main (and most controversial) charge, that the amount of compensation was unreasonable (actually illegal) for the head of a non-profit institution such as the exchange. That question, Ramos said, will wait for trial. Nonetheless, Spitzer in his bid for governor, can still chalk this one up as a win. Grasso's attorney vowed an appeal.
 
 
RELIGIOUS GROUPS DENIED BIRTH CONTROL CONTROL
A handful of Roman Catholic and Baptist groups have to provide birth control in the prescription plans they offer to employees — or not offer drug plans at all — the Court of Appelas ruled yesterday. In upholding the constitutionality of a women's health act that requires the coverage, the court rejected the request of 10 faith-based groups for an exemption in the Women's Health and Wellness Act, the New York Law Journal reports. When writing the law, the legislature created an exemption for employers whose "main purpose is the promotion of theological values," but rejected a broader clause that would have allowed a large category of employers, from church-affiliated schools to clinics to deny contraception coverage. Judge Robert Smith wrote for the court that the act did place a "substantial burden" on the plaintiffs' religious practices, but is not a constitutional violation.

S.I. DA KILLED
Former Staten Island prosecutor Larry Simon was killed late Wednesday when a car struck him as he was walking down the street. Simon, 41, died after being hit on Forest Avenue by a car driven by Taliyah Taylor, who was driving the wrong direction and told police she had recently taken Ectasy, The New York Times reports. Taylor was charged in Staten Island Criminal Court with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Simon, who worked as an assistant DA until 2000, when he became a defense lawyer.

NEWS TO PIRRO: GET A CLUE
The Daily News skewers Jeanine Pirro on its editorial page for flip-flopping on whether the sentencing of lawyer Lynne Stewart was fair. Apparently, state AG hopeful Pirro is a little confused. "I think what was done was outrageous. I really do. And I think the sentence was appropriate. I've been a judge. Let the judges sentence," Pirro told the News Editorial Board...but the News said Pirro didn't know the length of sentence when she said that. When she found out (we're still mystified as to why — or how — she was commenting on a sentence without knowing how long it was), Pirro reportedly said, "Twenty-eight months? I have a lot of trouble with that ... I generally say the judge knows, the judge is in the best position to do it. No. That's wrong."

FISHING ALLOWED
A Federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the Bush administration to release information about who visited Vice President Dick Cheney's office and personal residence, the Times reports via AP. The Washington Post had asked for the visitor logs, in an effort to probe the depths of lobbyists' access to the VP. The Secret Service refused the request and government lawyers called it ''a fishing expedition into the most sensitive details of the vice presidency.'' But U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina disagreed, ordering the Secret Service to show its cards and questioned the primary argument that te logs are protected by Cheney's right to executive privilege.

 

Posted by Dirk on October 20, 2006 11:37 AM to Judicial Reports