Recent Updates
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Government seeks tough sentence against NY lawyer
Lawyer Blogs 07/15/2010A judge was poised to decide whether the government and some fellow judges were right when they said a 70-year-old former civil rights lawyer convicted in a terrorism case received too much leniency when she was sentenced to just over two years in pr...
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NY judges may limit filmmaker raw footage ruling
Lawyer Blogs 07/15/2010Federal appeals court judges in New York may limit the amount of raw footage that a filmmaker must turn over from his documentary about a legal dispute between Chevron and Ecuadoreans over oil contamination.A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit...
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NYC court tosses FCC's fleeting expletives policy
Lawyer Blogs 07/14/2010A federal appeals court on Tuesday struck down a government policy that can lead to broadcasters being fined for allowing even a single curse word on live television, saying it is unconstitutionally vague and threatens speech "at the heart of the Fir...
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Gov't hopes new drilling moratorium can survive
Lawyer Blogs 07/13/2010Rebuffed twice by the courts, the Obama administration is taking another crack at a moratorium on deep-water drilling, stressing new evidence of safety concerns and no longer basing the moratorium on water depth. But those who challenge the latest ba...
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Chicago's tough new gun ordinance goes into effect
Lawyer Blogs 07/12/2010A new gun ordinance in Chicago that officials say is the strictest of its kind in the country went into effect on Monday.The ordinance was pushed through quickly by Mayor Richard Daley and the City Council after the U.S. Supreme Court last month made...
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Violent protests after Calif train killing verdict
Lawyer Blogs 07/09/2010The U.S. Department of Justice's civil rights division will investigate a white Oakland police officer accused of killing an unarmed black man on a crowded train platform, a case reminiscent of the racially charged 1992 police beating of Rodney King....
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Appeals court to hear drilling moratorium case
Lawyer Blogs 07/08/2010A federal appeals court is set to hear the Justice Department's bid to delay a judge's decision to overturn a six-month deepwater drilling moratorium.A three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is scheduled to hear a...
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Ky. man pleads guilty to threatening Obama in poem
Lawyer Blogs 07/07/2010A Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to writing and posting on a white supremacist website a poem threatening the assassination of President Barack Obama.Johnny Logan Spencer Jr. of Louisville entered an open plea — admitting guilt without a deal with p...
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Band penalized for copied riff in 'Down Under' hit
Lawyer Blogs 07/06/2010A judge ordered Australian band Men at Work on Tuesday to hand over a portion of the royalties from their 1980s hit "Down Under," after previously ruling its distinctive flute riff was copied from a children's campfire song.But the penalty — 5 percen...
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WTO rules some EU Airbus subsidies illegal
Lawyer Blogs 07/05/2010The WTO on Wednesday dealt the European Union a painful blow in a transatlantic trade row over multibillion dollar subsidies for US and European aircraft, ruling some state support for Airbus illegal.Rival US airplane manufacturer Boeing claimed a "s...
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New trial ordered in NYC for ex-food service boss
Lawyer Blogs 07/02/2010A federal appeals court ordered a new trial Thursday for the former chief marketing officer of one of the nation's biggest food products distributors, saying errors by a judge make it necessary to dissolve the conviction and the seven-year prison ter...
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Court lets Vatican-sex abuse lawsuit move forward
Lawyer Blogs 07/01/2010The Supreme Court won't stop a lawsuit that accuses the Vatican of transferring a priest from city to city despite repeated accusations of sexual abuse.The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the Holy See, the legal name for the Vatic...