Recent Updates
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Court interpreters return to work - without pay raises
Legal News Center 10/18/2007Los Angeles County court interpreters returned to work Wednesday after a six-week strike that failed to yield a desired pay increase. More than 300 interpreters took part in the job action, union officials said. Members of the largely Latino, middle-...
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Law for domestic partners stands in Oregon
Legal News Center 10/10/2007[##_1L|1198658431.jpg|width="120" height="91" alt=""|_##]State election officials say opponents failed to turn in enough signatures to block Oregon's domestic-partnership law for same-sex couples. State elections officials reported Monday that the ef...
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Maine, N.H., Vermont applaud clean air settlement
Legal News Center 10/09/2007[##_1L|1186347418.jpg|width="101" height="102" alt=""|_##]Officials and environmentalists in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are applauding a landmark settlement that will dramatically reduce the pollution that causes acid rain and fouls the air ove...
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Woman Told to Ditch Bra to Enter Court
Legal News Center 10/05/2007[##_1L|1199293171.jpg|width="180" height="128" alt=""|_##]Security guards refused to allow a woman into a federal courthouse until she removed a bra that triggered a metal detector. Lori Plato said she and her husband, Owen Plato, were stunned when U...
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Pastor Pleads Guilty In Sex Case
Legal News Center 10/04/2007[##_1L|1060866311.jpg|width="130" height="94" alt=""|_##]After months of denial, even in the face of two incriminating DNA tests, a storefront pastor entered a guilty plea Wednesday to charges he sexually assaulted an 11-year-old member of his congre...
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Crack Sentence Gets High Court Review
Legal News Center 10/02/2007[##_1L|1173260812.jpg|width="180" height="128" alt=""|_##]A federal judge's decision to slice a few years off a lengthy prison term has brought to the Supreme Court the racially tinged issue of harsh sentences for dealing crack cocaine. Derrick Kimbr...
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Tobacco industry appeal rejected in Florida case
Legal News Center 10/01/2007[##_1L|1225891609.jpg|width="104" height="138" alt=""|_##]The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a tobacco industry appeal on two issues in a Florida class-action case that has already resulted in a $145 billion punitive award against the cigarette mak...
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Justices to consider voter identification
Legal News Center 09/28/2007[##_1L|1115733648.jpg|width="180" height="135" alt=""|_##]The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will consider whether state laws requiring voters to present photo identification at polling places unfairly discriminate against the poor and minorities...
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Judge: No Breath Tests for Pedestrians
Legal News Center 09/27/2007[##_1L|1022404394.jpg|width="127" height="85" alt=""|_##]A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Michigan law that requires pedestrians under 21 to submit to a breath test without a search warrant. The American Civil Liberties Union, which had sued on...
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High court to review lethal injection
Legal News Center 09/26/2007[##_1L|1000547554.jpg|width="180" height="135" alt=""|_##]Facing near legal chaos in states that use the death penalty, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Tuesday to review a Kentucky lethal injection case signals the justices are prepared to try to s...
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Supreme Court to rule on lethal injection executions
Legal News Center 09/25/2007[##_1L|1374613952.jpg|width="104" height="138" alt=""|_##]The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether the commonly used lethal injection method of execution violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The natio...
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Pasadena church wants apology from IRS
Legal News Center 09/22/2007The rector of a liberal Pasadena church today demanded an apology and a clarification from the Internal Revenue Service after being notified that the agency had closed a lengthy investigation of the church over a 2004 antiwar sermon -- but also found...