Recent Updates
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Court orders YouTube to give Viacom video logs
Lawyer Blogs 07/05/2008Dismissing privacy concerns, a federal judge overseeing a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit against YouTube has ordered the popular online video-sharing service to disclose who watches which video clips and when.U.S. District Judge Louis L. S...
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Florida Supreme Court nixes Indian casino pact
Lawyer Blogs 07/03/2008The Florida Supreme Court is overturning the agreement Gov. Charlie Crist signed with the Seminole Tribe to expand gambling at its casinos.The court ruled Thursday that Crist doesn't have the constitutional authority to enter into the agreement that ...
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Judges rip Texas courts in death penalty case
Lawyer Blogs 07/02/2008A federal appeals court blasted Texas courts for refusing to hold a hearing to consider evidence that a convicted killer may be mentally disabled, therefore ineligible for the death penalty.A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals...
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N.D. Supreme Court revives workers' comp charges
Lawyer Blogs 07/01/2008North Dakota's Supreme Court revived two felony charges Monday against a former state workers' compensation director, saying prosecutors may put him on trial for allegedly misspending more than $18,000 in agency funds.Sandy Blunt was forced out as Wo...
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Ga. court upholds partial banishment for offenders
Lawyer Blogs 07/01/2008Faced with the question of whether banishment for criminals in Georgia should be banned, the state's top court answered Monday with its own caveat: It depends on how far the ban extends.The Georgia Supreme Court acknowledged with its 6-1 decision tha...
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Florida prepares for 1st execution since foul up
Lawyer Blogs 06/30/2008Florida's new procedure for lethal injections could be tested Tuesday when executioners strap down a condemned inmate for the first time since a botched execution.Mark Dean Schwab, 39, is scheduled to die exactly 16 years after he was sentenced in th...
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Summaries of leading Supreme Court rulings
Lawyer Blogs 06/29/2008Brief summaries of the rulings from the leading cases before the Supreme Court in its just-ended term:GUN BANRuled that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting. It was the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in h...
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Supreme Court asserts broad gun rights
Lawyer Blogs 06/26/2008Americans have an individual right to possess and use firearms, even when the guns are not related to service in a government militia. In a historic ruling, the US Supreme Court on Thursday declared 5 to 4 that the Second Amendment's guarantee of a r...
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Court rejects death penalty for raping children
Lawyer Blogs 06/25/2008The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child.In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punis...
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Court to rule in Tenn. inmate's appeal
Lawyer Blogs 06/24/2008The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether poor death row inmates seeking mercy from state officials have a right to lawyers paid for by federal taxpayers.The justices will likely hear oral arguments around the end of the year in the ca...
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Court will hear appeal by Tenn. death row inmate
Lawyer Blogs 06/23/2008The Supreme Court is stepping into the case of a convicted murderer who claims authorities concealed evidence that might have spared him a death sentence.The justices have twice before reinstated the death sentence for Gary Bradford Cone, who was con...
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SF court protects privacy of work communications
Lawyer Blogs 06/20/2008A federal appeals court has made it more difficult for employers to legally snoop on their workers' e-mails and text messages sent on company accounts.Under a Wednesday ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, employers that contract an outsi...