Fresh Loaf

The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that a still-incomplete 1,014-acre project across the harbor from historic Cumberland Island does not have to adhere to state-ordered environmental standards for the area.

In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled that the 1970 Coastal Marshlands Protection Act does not extend to “residential upland areas.” A coalition of environmental and conservation groups sued because they said the development would increase polluted stormwater into marshlands and endanger marine life. The residential portion of the project should have been considered during the permitting process that gave the greenlight to docks and marinas in the harbor.

A dash of irony — Land Resource, the builder of the Cumberland Harbor development, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last month. The future of the project is unknown.

To read the court’s ruling summary, follow the jump.

(more…)

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The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled today that Public Service Commission Democratic nominee Jim Powell can stay on the ballot.

UPDATE: Grift has some discussion on his site about the ruling, plus the actual opinion. You can also download it here.

Here is the release from the court:

STATE SUPREME COURT AFFIRMS POWELL’S RUN FOR PSC

Atlanta, Oct. 30, 2008 – The Supreme Court of Georgia today upheld James R. Powell’s right to run in Tuesday’s election for a seat on the Public Service Commission.

Secretary of State Karen Handel had appealed a Fulton County Superior Court ruling that sided with Powell and overturned her decision finding Powell ineligible to run based on where he lived. In June 2008, Handel first challenged Powell’s qualifications a month after he filed his intent to run as a Democrat against Republican Lauren McDonald for the PSC District 4 post. She argued that a homestead exemption Powell had on his Cobb County property established an irrefutable presumption of legal residence and proved Powell did not live in the North Georgia district he seeks to represent. In her appeal, Handel argued that under state law, the trial court should have given deference to her interpretation of the law on residency that she is in charge of enforcing.

But in today’s unanimous decision, written by Justice Robert Benham, the Supreme Court disagrees. “It is the role of the judicial branch to interpret the statutes enacted by the legislative branch and enforced by the executive branch…, and administrative rulings will be adopted only when they conform to the meaning which the court deems should properly be given,” 8-page opinion says. The facts of the case are not in dispute, merely the interpretation of the law, the opinion points out.

In 2006, Powell purchased a second home in Towns County, which is in District 4. In 2007, he attempted unsuccessfully to transfer his homestead exemption from Cobb to Towns County, but he missed the filing deadline. Evidence shows Powell spends more than 60 percent of his time in Towns County, where he has voted three times, attends church and pays taxes.

The residency law, which is Section 21-2-217 in the Official Code of Georgia, lists 15 rules for determining a candidate’s legal residence. At least seven apply to Powell, the Supreme Court has found, “but the Secretary’s decision did not take into account any of the applicable rules other than the homestead exemption rule.”

“We agree with the superior court that the Secretary committed an error of law that authorizes reversal of the Secretary’s decision,” today’s opinion says.

More to come.

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The Supremes just decided, 7-2, to uphold a semi-wacky law that allows child pornography charges to be brought in cases where the images are virtual and where the child victims aren’t real. Confused? Join the club.

According to this NYT story, the case in question involved a scumbag who’d served five years for trading images of naked kids. He was also charged with pandering in offering pictures of his own daughter, but apparently didn’t actually have any such photos.

An appeals court said the second set of charges should be dismissed, but the High Court ruled otherwise, voting to uphold a 2003 federal law the lower court had thrown out as being too vague and broadly worded.

Today’s decision also paves the way for the prosecution of “virtual” child pornography – computerized or graphic images that seem to portray sex with kids – and even of verbal descriptions of filthy acts that may never have happened, with children who don’t exist!

This is an issue Hollywood dealt with in the ’90s, when an earlier version of the newly upheld law said movie studios could be prosecuted for child porno, even if the onscreen sex was simulated, the actors weren’t minors and the images were created with the help of digital effects.

The idea was nutty then and it’s nuttier now. In this puritanical legal environment, could “30 Rock” get in trouble for its hilarious “MILF Island” segments?

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