Recent Updates
-
ACLU sues over detention in United Arab Emirates
Legal News Center 08/20/2010American Civil Liberties Union lawyers filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the FBI, CIA and other federal intelligence agencies, accusing them of detaining and torturing an American citizen later convicted on terrorism charges in the United Arab Emirat...
-
Appeals court: Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional
Legal News Center 08/18/2010A three-year-old federal law that makes it a crime to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military is unconstitutional, an appeals court panel in California ruled Tuesday.The decision involves the case of Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, Ca...
-
LA judge frees thief who got 25 yrs on 3rd strike
Legal News Center 08/17/2010A judge on Monday ordered the release of a man who spent 13 years behind bars for trying to steal food from a church, his third offense under California's three-strikes law.Tears streamed down Gregory Taylor's face when Judge Peter Espinoza amended h...
-
Retrial possible in dad's NY samurai sword slaying
Legal News Center 08/13/2010An appeals court has ordered a new trial for a New York man convicted of using a samurai sword to kill his stepfather while he slept on a living room couch.Zachary Gibian was convicted in 2006 of nearly beheading retired police officer Scott Nager in...
-
Judge testifies he felt threatened by NJ blogger
Legal News Center 08/12/2010A federal appeals court judge from Illinois testified Wednesday that he felt threatened by a New Jersey blogger's inflammatory Internet tirades over a ruling supporting gun control.The rant against a three-judge panel in Chicago "was a threat of viol...
-
Court clears way for horse roundup on CA-NV border
Legal News Center 08/11/2010A federal appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for the roundup of more than 2,000 wild horses in California and Nevada, rejecting critics' claims that the free-roaming mustangs have a legal right to remain on the range.In an after-hours order, th...
-
Stealth expert guilty of selling secrets to China
Legal News Center 08/10/2010A former B-2 bomber engineer who marketed and sold his stealth expertise to China is facing life in a federal prison following his conviction for bartering U.S. military secrets.Noshir Gowadia, 66, was found guilty Monday on charges that he designed ...
-
Children in Dependency Proceedings Need Lawyers
Legal News Center 08/09/2010Lawyers who represent children in dependency proceedings say it’s time for these children – regardless of which state they live – to have a right to legal counsel.Meeting yesterday at the 2010 American Bar Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco,...
-
Judge: No forced treatment for Ohio convert
Legal News Center 08/04/2010A state juvenile court judge on Tuesday rejected the request of a Christian convert's Muslim parents to order their daughter to continue chemotherapy for uterine cancer.The request from the parents of Rifqa Bary does not meet the legal requirement of...
-
Ginsburg: OK to look to foreign law for good ideas
Legal News Center 08/02/2010Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says judges can look to foreign law for good ideas without diminishing their ability to apply U.S. law faithfully.Ginsburg told a meeting of international lawyers Friday that American judges can learn from th...
-
NY suit seeks $30 million in Madoff family money
Legal News Center 07/30/2010The court-appointed trustee seeking to recover billions of dollars lost by jailed financier Bernard Madoff sued three entities Thursday to get back more than $30 million that he said the Madoff family had invested, mostly in oil and gas properties an...
-
Texas, feds wait turns in polygamist leader cases
Legal News Center 07/29/2010A Utah Supreme Court decision that overturns polygamous church leader Warren Jeffs' 2007 criminal conviction won't automatically make him a free man. Even if Utah doesn't retry him, Texas and federal prosecutors are waiting to move forward with their...