Recent Updates
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Lawmakers soften opposition to bonuses
Legal News Center 03/26/2009Lawmakers are softening their stance on denying bonuses to employees of bailed-out financial institutions after President Barack Obama warned them against alienating the industry. Less than a week after pushing through legislation to impose a 90 perc...
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Court turns down NYC case against gun industry
Legal News Center 03/10/2009The Supreme Court has turned away pleas by New York City and gun violence victims to hold the firearms industry responsible for selling guns that could end up in illegal markets. The justices' decision Monday ends lawsuits first filed in 2000. Federa...
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Supreme Court says defendant can't blame lawyer for delays
Legal News Center 03/09/2009The Supreme Court has ruled that a delay caused by a public defender in a criminal trial does not amount to a constitutional violation that requires dismissal of an indictment. The court ruling on Monday reverses a Vermont Supreme Court decision that...
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NY appeals court: couple can't have son's sperm
Legal News Center 03/04/2009The parents of a 23-year-old killed by cancer are not entitled to use their dead son's preserved sperm so they can have a grandchild, an appeals court ruled Tuesday. The New York state appeals panel issued a unanimous and unprecedented ruling in the ...
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Court to decide on convict's right to test DNA
Legal News Center 03/02/2009William Osborne, convicted in a brutal attack on a prostitute in Alaska 16 years ago, says a blue condom holds evidence of his innocence or confirmation of his guilt. Either way, he says, the Constitution gives him the right to test the genetic evide...
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Stevens: No White House oath needed for justices
Legal News Center 02/27/2009Justice John Paul Stevens says future Supreme Court justices shouldn't take their oath of office at the White House. Supreme Court justices take two oaths before assuming the bench. In recent years, several justices took one of the oaths at the White...
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Hawaii takes land dispute to Supreme Court
Legal News Center 02/26/2009The U.S. Supreme Court is to hear arguments that will determine whether the state of Hawaii has to reach a political settlement with native Hawaiians before it can sell or transfer up to 1.2 million acres of valuable property. The state is arguing th...
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Court rejects appeal from convicted Daley aides
Legal News Center 02/23/2009WASHINGTON - Mayor Richard M. Daley's former patronage chief and two other former city officials have failed to persuade the Supreme Court to consider setting aside their fraud convictions. The justices, in an order Monday, are letting stand Robert S...
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Nevada Supreme Court suspends Las Vegas lawyer
Legal News Center 02/20/2009A Las Vegas attorney who stole nearly $400,000 from clients to support his gambling addiction has been suspended by the Nevada Supreme Court. The court rejected a recommendation to disbar Douglas Crawford. Crawford admitted to 65 professional conduct...
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La. hotel chain doesn't owe foreign workers
Legal News Center 02/13/2009A federal appeals court has ruled a Louisiana hotel chain wasn't obligated to cover the relocation expenses incurred by immigrant workers recruited to work in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday dismisse...
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Feds make last plea to keep Bonds' steroids tests
Legal News Center 02/10/2009Federal prosecutors are again asking a judge to let them show a jury three drug test results they say show Barry Bonds used steroids. The judge said last week she was inclined to throw out those results unless someone could directly testify to collec...
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Over $1B in unpaid bail owed to Philadelphia
Legal News Center 02/09/2009Court officials in Philadelphia say people who are released on bail but don't show up for their trials owe the city more than $1 billion. Court officials compiled their first ever tally of bail jumpers in the city at the request of The Philadelphia I...