Recent Updates

  • High court raises doubts over Puerto Rico sovereignty

    High court raises doubts over Puerto Rico sovereignty

    Recent Cases 01/14/2016

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday raised doubts about whether Puerto Rico should be treated as a sovereign state with powers that go beyond its status as a territory of the United States.   The justices considered the question during arguments in a...

  • Florida asks court to deny inmate's execution-delay request

    Florida asks court to deny inmate's execution-delay request

    Recent Cases 01/13/2016

    Florida has asked the state's high court to reject a condemned inmate's request to delay his execution based on the U.S. Supreme Court's finding that Florida's procedure for imposing the death penalty is illegal. In a brief filed Thursday, Florida At...

  • Japan court gives go-ahead for restart of 2 nuke reactors

    Japan court gives go-ahead for restart of 2 nuke reactors

    Legal Events 12/24/2015

    A Japanese court gave the go-ahead for the restart of two nuclear reactors Thursday after its operator said in an appeal they were safe. The Fukui District Court in western Japan lifted an April injunction that was filed by a group of residents who s...

  • ACLU to appeal court ruling in Missouri drug testing case

    ACLU to appeal court ruling in Missouri drug testing case

    Justice Review 12/22/2015

    The American Civil Liberties Union said it plans to appeal a federal court ruling that upheld a technical college’s plan to force every incoming student to be tested for drugs. Tony Rothert, legal director for the ACLU’s Missouri chapter, told the Je...

  • Court won't order immediate evaluation of mogul Redstone

    Court won't order immediate evaluation of mogul Redstone

    US Legal News 12/21/2015

    A judge Monday declined to order a medical examination of Sumner Redstone but ruled that lawyers for his former companion can take the sworn testimony of two of the ailing media mogul's doctors. Judge David J. Cowan also ruled that Redstone's longtim...

  • Ex-Illinois guardsman pleads guilty in Islamic State plot

    Ex-Illinois guardsman pleads guilty in Islamic State plot

    Breaking Stories 12/20/2015

    A former Illinois National Guard soldier pleaded guilty Monday to charges alleging he conspired to provide material support to the Islamic State group. Hasan Edmonds, 23, of Aurora, Illinois, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to provide mater...

  • High court takes up challenges to drunken-driving test

    High court takes up challenges to drunken-driving test

    Headline Legal News 12/20/2015

    The Supreme Court will decide whether states can criminalize a driver's refusal to take an alcohol test even if police have not obtained a search warrant. The justices on Friday agreed to hear three cases challenging laws in Minnesota and North Dakot...

  • Polish court convicts chemist of planning parliament attack

    Polish court convicts chemist of planning parliament attack

    Breaking Stories 12/19/2015

    A court in southern Poland has handed a 13-year prison term to a chemist found guilty of having plotted a bomb attack on parliament and other buildings in 2012. The man, identified as Brunon Kwiecien, a university teacher in Krakow, was arrested in 2...

  • Japan court says requiring same surname in marriage is legal

    Japan court says requiring same surname in marriage is legal

    Legal Events 12/18/2015

    Japan's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that requiring married couples to have the same surname is constitutional, dealing a blow to a longtime effort for gender equality in choosing names. The law does not say which partner must give up his or her nam...

  • Court papers: Witness ID'd man in playground shooting

    Court papers: Witness ID'd man in playground shooting

    Headline Legal News 12/01/2015

    A witness's statement and photo identification led to the arrest of a man accused in a playground shootout that wounded 17 people, court papers show. Joseph "Moe" Allen, 32, faces 17 counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 22 gunfight at Bunny Friend ...

  • US court rejects Virginia death row inmate's appeal

    US court rejects Virginia death row inmate's appeal

    Recent Cases 11/30/2015

    A federal appeals court has rejected a Virginia death row inmate's appeal of his murder-for-hire conviction. Ivan Teleguz was sentenced to death in 2006 for hiring a man to kill his former girlfriend, Stephanie Sipe, in Harrisonburg. After two key pr...

  • Appeals court: EPA chief doesn't have to give deposition

    Appeals court: EPA chief doesn't have to give deposition

    Legal Events 11/26/2015

    A federal appeals court says U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy doesn't have to give a deposition in a coal company's lawsuit over the impact of regulations on jobs. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of A...