Recent Updates
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High court to take new look at affirmative action
Lawyer Blogs 02/21/2012The Supreme Court will once again confront the issue of race in university admissions in a case brought by a white student denied a spot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas. The court said Tuesday it will return to the issue of affirmat...
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Student bra search case goes to NC Supreme Court
Lawyer Blogs 02/13/2012The North Carolina Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether school officials should be allowed to search students' bras for drugs. A student at an alternative school sued after students had to untuck their shirts and pull out their bras with t...
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US Supreme Court won't permit Ohio execution
Lawyer Blogs 02/08/2012The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday added another wrinkle to Ohio's debate over how strictly the state's lethal injection procedures should be followed. The court without comment refused to allow the execution of a condemned killer of an elderly coup...
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Appeals court: Seniors can't reject Medicare right
Lawyer Blogs 02/07/2012A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that seniors who receive Social Security cannot reject their legal right to Medicare benefits, in a rare case of Americans suing to get out of a government entitlement. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey is ...
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Court rules against abortion protester's lawsuit
Lawyer Blogs 02/03/2012A federal appeals court in Philadelphia has ruled that an anti-abortion protester arrested near the Liberty Bell in 2007 can't collect damages from park rangers who detained him. The three-judge panel on Thursday upheld a lower-court ruling to dismis...
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Court won't release CA gay marriage trial videos
Lawyer Blogs 02/03/2012A federal appeals court refused Thursday to unseal video recordings of a landmark trial on the constitutionality of California's same-sex marriage ban. Siding with the ban's supporters, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled the...
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Ex-Calif. teacher in court on molestation charges
Lawyer Blogs 02/01/2012The children at Miramonte Elementary School never complained about their third-grade teacher. Not, authorities said, when he blindfolded them, not when he put tape over their mouths or even placed live cockroaches on their faces. He told them it was ...
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Conviction and sentence upheld in Palin email case
Lawyer Blogs 01/30/2012A federal appeals court panel has upheld the conviction and sentence of a University of Tennessee student in the hacking of Sarah Palin's email in 2008. The three judge panel in a Monday decision affirmed the conviction of 24-year-old David Kernell. ...
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Judge can't block $18B Chevron judgment
Lawyer Blogs 01/27/2012A judge overstepped his authority when he tried to ban enforcement around the world of an $18 billion judgment against Chevron Inc. for environmental damage in Ecuador, a federal appeals court said Thursday. The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circ...
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NY court: Judge can't block $18B Ecuador judgment
Lawyer Blogs 01/26/2012A judge overstepped his authority when he tried to ban enforcement around the world of an $18 billion judgment against Chevron Inc. for environmental damage in Ecuador, a federal appeals court said Thursday as it explained why it lifted the ban last ...
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Court overturns Calif. slaughterhouse law
Lawyer Blogs 01/23/2012The Supreme Court on Monday blocked a California law that would require euthanizing downed livestock at federally inspected slaughterhouses to keep the meat out of the nation's food system. The high court ruled that the state's 2009 state law was blo...
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Colo. court weighs energy leases near Utah parks
Lawyer Blogs 01/19/2012A federal appeals court in Denver was to hear arguments Thursday on the Obama administration's decision to cancel Bush-era oil and gas leases near national parks in Utah, the auction for which prompted an environmental activist to drive up prices wit...