Recent Updates
-
High court upholds texting suicide manslaughter conviction
Recent Cases 02/03/2019The involuntary manslaughter conviction of a young woman who encouraged her boyfriend through dozens of text messages to kill himself was upheld Wednesday by Massachusetts' highest court.The Supreme Judicial Court agreed with a lower court judge who ...
-
Man accused of kidnapping Wisconsin girl to appear in court
Legal Exams 02/02/2019A man accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl and killing her parents is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday for a preliminary hearing.Jake Patterson, 21, is accused of killing James and Denise Closs on Oct. 15 and kidnapping their daug...
-
NC high court sidesteps decision on tracking sex offenders
Legal Exams 02/01/2019The North Carolina Supreme Court is brushing aside a rapist's appeal that he shouldn't be forced into a lifetime of electronic monitoring after serving his 41-year prison sentence.The state's highest court on Friday let stand without comment that 50-...
-
Weather, shutdown blamed for immigration courts backlog
Recent Cases 01/28/2019U.S. immigration officials blame the government shutdown and the extreme winter weather for confusion about immigration court hearings.In an emailed statement, the part of the Justice Department overseeing immigration courts said some immigrants with...
-
Russian court says bobsledder can keep Olympic titles
Legal Events 01/14/2019Russian bobsledder Alexander Zubkov won a Moscow court ruling on Friday that could make it harder for the International Olympic Committee to recover his gold medals.The Russian flagbearer at the 2014 Sochi Olympics was stripped of his two gold medals...
-
Kansas abortion foes brace for state Supreme Court decision
Recent Cases 01/10/2019Abortion opponents in Kansas have been bracing themselves for nearly two years for a ruling from the state's highest court that protects the right to have an abortion and potentially upends politics in a state long at the center of the national debat...
-
Appeals court sides with Trump in transgender military case
Legal Exams 01/04/2019A federal appeals court is siding with the Trump administration in a case about the Pentagon's policy of restricting military service by transgender people.A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday that a lowe...
-
GOP candidate asks North Carolina court to declare he won
Recent Cases 01/02/2019The Republican in the nation's last undecided congressional race asked a North Carolina court Thursday to require that he be declared the winner because the now-defunct state elections board didn't act.A lawsuit by GOP candidate Mark Harris claims th...
-
NC court: Counties not responsible for school underfunding
Bar Associations 12/26/2018North Carolina's top court says the state is responsible, not the counties, when schools are so underfunded that some children don't get the constitutionally required sound basic education.In a decision issued Friday, the state Supreme Court ruled ag...
-
Prominent Chinese rights lawyer tried in closed proceedings
Recent Cases 12/25/2018The trial of a prominent human rights lawyer began in northern China on Wednesday with about two dozen plainclothes officers stationed outside a courthouse and at least one supporter taken away by police.Reporters, foreign diplomats and supporters we...
-
Mississippi chief justice: Time for another to lead court
Recent Cases 12/24/2018After 21 years on the Mississippi Supreme Court and 10 years as chief justice, Bill Waller Jr. says it's time for someone else to take the helm.Waller's court has at times questioned problems with forensic evidence, but passed when asked to rule on t...
-
Spain court grants $1.7 billion compensation for oil spill
Recent Cases 12/22/2018Spain's Supreme Court has ruled that the captain and the insurer of the Prestige oil tanker must pay more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) in compensation for Spain's biggest environmental disaster, when the vessel sank in 2002. The court s...