USA Today - 13.11.2019

4A z WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2019z USA TODAY NEWS

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court
refused Tuesday to shield a major arms
manufacturer from potential liability in
the 2012 school shooting that left 26 stu-
dents and educators dead in Newtown,
Connecticut.
The justices’ action allows a lawsuit
filed by parents of Sandy Hook Elemen-
tary School victims to move forward at
the state level, on the allegation that
Remington Arms Co. marketed the mil-
itary-style rifle used in the mass shoot-
ing “for use in assaults against human
beings.”
The case tests the reach of a 2005 law
passed by Congress to protect firearms
manufacturers from being held liable for
crimes committed by gun purchasers.
That law was hailed by the National Ri-
fle Association, but it included excep-
tions, including one for violating rules
related to marketing and advertising.
Gun control advocates have said a
victory by the families in the long-run-
ning dispute could lead to more lawsuits
and damaging disclosures involving the

firearms industry.

Josh Koskoff, an attorney represent-

ing the families, said the lawsuit now

can proceed to “shed light on Reming-

ton’s profit-driven strategy to expand

the AR-15 market and court high-risk

users at the expense of Americans’ safe-

ty.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.,

the state’s former attorney general,

tweeted: “Newtown families will now

have their day in court – access to basic

justice – against companies that wrong-

ly sold & promoted assault weapons.”

The Connecticut Supreme Court

ruled 4-3 in March that Remington can

be sued because of the way the AR-15-

style Bushmaster rifle was marketed.

The families’ lawsuit contends that

Remington glorified the gun in adver-

tising aimed at young people, includ-

ing in violent video games.

The Sandy Hook killer, Adam Lan-

za, was 20 when he shot and killed his

mother at home, then went to the

Newtown school and gunned down

first-graders and educators. Lanza

then killed himself.

The Supreme Court already has a

gun rights case on its docket. That

case, to be heard in early December,

will decide whether a New York City

regulationthat restricts the transpor-

tation of legally owned guns violates

their owners’ constitutional rights.

In court papers, Donald Verrilli, the

lawyer for the families suing Reming-

ton, said its advertising “continued to

exploit the fantasy of an all-conquer-

ing lone gunman, proclaiming: ‘Forces

of opposition, bow down. You are sin-

gle-handedly outnumbered.’”

Scott Keller, the lawyer represent-

ing Remington, told the court that un-

der the 2005 federal law, the lawsuit

“is exactly the kind of case arising

from a criminal’s misuse of a firearm

that ‘may not be brought in any federal

or state court.’”

Supreme Court lets Sandy

Hook lawsuit proceed

Families sue gun maker

following school shooting

Richard Wolf
USA TODAY

A Connecticut State Police detective in

2013 displayed a Bushmaster AR-

rifle.JESSICA HILL/AP

WASHINGTON – The Supreme

Court on Tuesday appeared likely to

side with the Trump administration in

its effort to end a program that lets

nearly 700,000 young, undocumented

immigrantslive and work in the USA

without fear of deportation.

During an extended, 80-minute oral

argument inside a packed courtroom

that included some of the threatened

immigrants, several conservative jus-

tices noted the Department of Home-

land Security laid out several reasons

for its decision to rescind the Deferred

Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DA-

CA, program.

Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch ac-

knowledged that the case’s “sympa-

thetic facts ... speak to all of us,” but he

said the large number of people affect-

ed and the impact ending DACA would

have on employers and entire commu-

nities was taken into consideration.

The court’s four liberal justices ar-

gued that the decision to end DACA

should rise or fall on the administra-

tion’s tenuous claim that it was illegal,

rather than what Associate Justice

Ruth Bader Ginsburg said might be a

more legitimate reason: “We don’t like

DACA, and we’re taking responsibility

for that, instead of trying to put the

blame on the law.”

Chief Justice John Roberts looked

to be the key vote, as he was in June

when he voted with the court’s four

liberal justices to strike down the

Trump administration’s effort to add a

citizenship question to the 2020 cen-

sus.

This time, he said the attorney gen-

eral might be justified to say DACA was

illegal after a related ruling by the U.S.

Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit

that the Supreme Court upheld on a

4-4 vote in 2016.

“You’ve got a court of appeals deci-

sion affirmed by an equally divided

Supreme Court,” Roberts said. “Can’t

he just say that’s the basis on which

I’m making this decision?”

The court’s ruling probably won’t be

handed down until next spring, when

the 2020 presidential election cam-

paign is in full swing. Even if the court

allows the program to be rescinded,

most DACA recipients will retain the

two-year protection until President

Donald Trump or his Democratic suc-

cessor takes the oath of office in Janu-

ary 2021.

The threat of losing their protected

status prompted hundreds of DACA

recipients to march, ride or fly to

Washington for Tuesday’s argument

and stage demonstrations outside the

court.

Inside, the audience included Uni-

versity of California President Janet

Napolitano, who authorized DACA as

secretary of Homeland Security in

2012 and sued the Trump administra-

tion over its elimination; Ken Cucci-

nelli,Trump’s acting director of Citi-

zenship and Immigration Services;

and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the

Senate’s second-ranking Democrat.

Until now, nearly every federal

judge to hear the dispute has sided

with the so-called DREAMers, leaving

the program intact nationwide.

But the Supreme Court’s decision in

Juneto hear the case signaled a poten-

tial win for Trump and the White

House.

Justices

seem to

side with

Trump

on DACA

DACA recipients head in to hear

arguments before the U.S. Supreme

Court on Tuesday.

JACK GRUBER/USA TODAY

Ending program could

affect 700K immigrants

Richard Wolf

USA TODAY

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Two professors from the American

University of Afghanistan, one of

whom is a U.S. citizen, will be released

from Taliban captivity as part of a pris-

oner exchange with the militant group,

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani an-

nounced Tuesday.

The two men – American Kevin King,

63, and Australian Timothy Weeks, 50 –

were ambushed at gunpoint while leav-

ing the university in 2016. They last ap-

peared in a video released in 2017 ap-

pealing to President Donald Trump to

secure their release. In the video, they

appear pale and gaunt.

Ghani confirmed the deal in a tele-

vised speech and said he hoped the

move would “pave the way for face-to-

face” peace talks with the Taliban. He

said the decision was made in coordi-

nation with the United States and in-

ternational community.

Three Taliban commanders – Anas

Haqqani, Haji Maali Khan and Abdul

Rasheed Haqani – were released as

part of the agreement, the president

said. He did not specify where King

and Weeks were held or when they

would be released.

There was no immediate reaction

from the White House. The American

University of Afghanistan said in a

statement that it welcomed the devel-

opment and was “encouraged to hear

reports of the possible release.”

In September, Trump ended

months of U.S.negotiations with Tali-

ban leaders, who control large parts of

Afghanistan, after the group admitted

killing a U.S. soldier in a suicide bomb-

ing that killed 12 people in total.

The canceled peace talks were to be

held with the Taliban and the Afghan

president at the U.S. president’s coun-

try retreat at Camp David. The talks,

complicated by the Taliban and Af-

ghan government’s unruly relation-

ship, were aimed at securing a peace

deal to end nearly 20 years of war in

Afghanistan, a conflict that has killed

at least 2,400 U.S. soldiers, according

to the Pentagon.

In 2014, President Barack Obama

announced the formal end of the U.S.

combat mission in Afghanistan – an

invasion that took place after the Sept.

11, 2001, attacks because the Taliban

provided refuge to the perpetrators, al-

Qaida. About 14,000 U.S. forces re-

main in the country under a NATO

mission that has dragged on with no

clear conditions for walking away.

Withdrawing the majority of them is

one of Trump’s signature campaign

promises.

U.S. Navy SEAL commandos at-

tempted to rescue King and Weeks in a

suspected Taliban hideout in the moun-

tains of eastern Afghanistan shortly af-

ter they were kidnapped, The Guardian

reported in 2017. They may have missed

the men by only a few hours. The Tali-

ban said King suffered from heart dis-

ease and had a kidney problem. “If we

stay here for much longer, we will be

killed. I don’t want to die here,” Weeks

said in the video released in 2017, ad-

dressing Trump.

The three Taliban commanders

who were released as part of the agree-

ment are members of the Haqqani net-

work, which is the same Taliban affili-

ate that held U.S. soldier Sgt. Bowe

Bergdahl captive in brutal conditions

for five years after he walked off his

post in Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl

was released in 2014 in a prisoner ex-

change with the Taliban brokered by

Qatar.

Prisoner exchange

to free US hostage

This screen grab of video released on Jan. 11, 2017, by the Taliban shows

Australian Timothy Weeks, left, and American Kevin King.EPA-EFE

Kim Hjelmgaard

USA TODAY

Taliban agrees to release

2 professors held in 2016

More than 50 children in southwest
China were injured in a chemical at-
tack at a kindergarten, state media re-
ported Tuesday.
Fifty-one children and three teach-
erswere hurt in the attack in Kaiyuan
in Yunnan Province, Xinhua News
Agency reported.
According to CNA, the suspect
climbed a wall to enter the kindergar-
ten and sprayed caustic soda.
A 23-year-old man was arrested an
hour later, and police said he wanted
“revenge on society,” Xinhua reported.
The Washington Post reported Kai-
yuan police found the man behind the
school and cited his “troubled family
background.”
Similar attacks on schoolchildren
have been carried out in recent years in
China. Eight children were killed on
the first day of school in in Hubei prov-
ince in September, the South China
Morning Post reported. In January, a
man with a hammer injured 20 chil-
dren at a school in Beijing.
Contributing: The Associated Press

Chemical attack

in China injures

51 kindergartners

Ryan W. MillerUSA TODAY