Recent Updates
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Black robes or bathrobes? Virus alters high court traditions
Criminal Law 05/01/2020The coronavirus pandemic is forcing big changes at the tradition-bound Supreme Court. The justices will hear arguments this month by telephone for the first time since Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention in 1876.Audio of the arguments will b...
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Blind justice: No visual cues in high court phone cases
Bankruptcy Law 04/23/2020On the evening before he was to argue a case before the Supreme Court years ago, Jeffrey Fisher broke his glasses. That left the very nearsighted lawyer with an unappealing choice. He could wear contacts and clearly see the justices but not his notes...
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Texas clinics ask Supreme Court to abortions during pandemic
Criminal Law 04/12/2020Abortion clinics in Texas on Saturday asked the Supreme Court to step in to allow certain abortions to continue during the coronavirus pandemic.The clinics filed an emergency motion asking the justices to overturn a lower-court order and allow aborti...
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Court lifts part of order blocking Texas abortion ban
Criminal Law 04/10/2020A federal appeals court on Friday partially rescinded a lower-court order that had largely blocked the enforcement of an abortion ban in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic.By a 2-1 vote, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appea...
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Wisconsin’s pandemic election puts focus on state’s court
Legal Business 04/02/2020Anyone needing proof of the power and significance of the Wisconsin Supreme Court can look no further than the lines of mask-wearing voters that stretched for hours in Milwaukee during an election held despite a stay-at-home order because of the coro...
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Court affirms conviction in hot-grease injuries to wife
Business Law 03/17/2020The Mississippi Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction of a man who injured his wife by dousing her with hot grease after she said she was planning to leave him.Justices handed down a unanimous decision Thursday in the appeal of Kendall Woodson, 4...
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UK parents lose court appeal to keep baby on life support
Bankruptcy Law 02/11/2020The parents of a baby declared brain dead by doctors have lost the latest round of a legal battle in Britain’s courts to keep him on life support.Britain’s Court of Appeal on Friday rejected an attempt by Karwan Ali and Shokhan Namiq to o...
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Missouri county sued over jail time for unpaid court costs
Criminal Law 02/03/2020A Missouri man at the heart of a state Supreme Court case that overturned what critics called modern-day debtors’ prisons is back in jail and suing the local officials who put him there. Warrensburg resident George Richey, 65, is one of two Mis...
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Court to look anew at health care law birth control rules
Criminal Law 01/15/2020The Supreme Court will consider allowing the Trump administration to enforce rules that allow more employers to deny insurance coverage for contraceptives to women.The justices agreed Friday to yet another case stemming from President Barack Obama&rs...
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Court to hear resentencing bid in Arizona death penalty case
Business Law 12/10/2019The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal Wednesday by an Arizona death row inmate who is seeking a new sentencing trial, arguing the horrific physical abuse that he suffered as a child wasn't fully considered when he was first sentenced. The appeal...
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Bill Cosby sex assault verdict upheld; spokesman lashes out
Criminal Law 12/04/2019Bill Cosby lost his bid to overturn his sexual assault conviction Tuesday, as an appeals court upheld the verdict in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.In its ruling, the Superior Court affirmed the right of prosecutors to call other accuser...
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Supreme Court leaves Kentucky’s ultrasound law in place
Personal Injury 12/02/2019The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a Kentucky law requiring doctors to perform ultrasounds and show fetal images to patients before abortions. The justices did not comment in refusing to review an appeals court ruling that upheld the law. Enfo...