Supreme Court upholds conviction of lawyer in Chevron environmental case.
The US Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of Steven Donziger, a disbarred lawyer who was jailed for contempt of court after winning a $9.5bn judgment against Chevron in an environmental lawsuit in Ecuador. Donziger had asked the Supreme Court to take the case, arguing that a federal district court judge overstepped his legal authority in appointing three lawyers as special prosecutors to handle his contempt trial after the US Attorney in Manhattan declined to prosecute him. Two conservative justices dissented from the decision, saying they would have the Supreme Court accept the appeal by Donziger.