Recent Updates
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Court sidesteps Connecticut student speech case
US Legal News 10/31/2011The Supreme Court is refusing to disturb a court ruling that Connecticut school officials acted reasonably in disciplining a student for an Internet posting she wrote outside of school. The justices on Monday turned down an appeal from Avery Doninger...
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PETA lawsuit seeks to expand animal rights
US Legal News 10/26/2011A federal court is being asked to grant constitutional rights to five killer whales who perform at marine parks — an unprecedented and perhaps quixotic legal action that is nonetheless likely to stoke an ongoing, intense debate at America's law schoo...
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Mom pleads guilty to forcing beer on children
US Legal News 10/22/2011A Connecticut mother has pleaded guilty to charges that she forced her 4-year-old son to drink beer and gave her 10-month-old daughter beer and cocaine. The Connecticut Post reports Juliette Dunn, of Bridgeport, pleaded guilty Wednesday to risk of in...
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Court orders new trial for convicted Cass County killer
US Legal News 10/21/2011The 6th District Court of Appeals in Texarkana has ordered a new trial for a Cass County man convicted of killing his wife. The Texarkana Gazette reports that the court on Wednesday granted 50-year-old David Len Moulton's request for a new trial. Mou...
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Court to hear bid to sue Shell for Nigerian abuses
US Legal News 10/17/2011The Supreme Court said Monday it will use a dispute between Nigerian villagers and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to decide whether corporations may be held liable in U.S. courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas. The justices said they will revi...
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Airline attack suspect sought martyrdom
US Legal News 10/11/2011A young Nigerian allegedly on a terrorist mission for al-Qaida prayed, washed and put on perfume moments before trying to detonate a bomb in his underwear to bring down an international jetliner on Christmas 2009, a prosecutor told jurors as the man'...
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Alberto Gonzales joins Nashville law firm
US Legal News 10/06/2011Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the first Hispanic attorney general in U.S. history, has joined one of Nashville’s largest law firms and will play a role in mentoring younger lawyers. Gonzales, 56, will focus on government relations, g...
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Ga. ban on guns in places of worship before court
US Legal News 10/05/2011A federal appeals court in Atlanta is hearing from a gun rights group that wants to overturn a Georgia state ban on guns in places of worship. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta will hear arguments Thursday on whether the 2010 law viol...
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Mass. man charged in terror plot pleads not guilty
US Legal News 10/03/2011A man accused of plotting to fly explosives-packed remote-controlled model planes into the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol pleaded not guilty Monday.The bail hearing that had been scheduled for Rezwan Ferdaus, of Ashland, was delayed for several weeks ...
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US soldier found not guilty in contractor death
US Legal News 10/02/2011A U.S. soldier has been found not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsibility in the killing of a Hungarian civilian contractor in Iraq, military officials said Saturday. Pfc. Carl T. Stovall had pleaded not guilty in the March 2009 shooting of...
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Appeals court hears challenge to health care law
US Legal News 09/26/2011A conservative-leaning panel of federal appellate judges raised concerns about President Barack Obama's health care overhaul Friday, but suggested the challenge to it may be premature. The arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington over a l...
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W.Va. lawyer nominated to federal appeals court
US Legal News 09/09/2011President Barack Obama has nominated Hamlin native Stephanie Dawn Thacker as a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Thacker has been a partner in the Charleston law firm of Guthrie & Thomas since 2006. Before that she spent seven years...