Recent Updates
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Court: Legal status can't be used in civil cases
Headline Legal News 07/17/2013A person's legal status in the country can't be used in civil cases by attorneys to intimidate or coerce under a new rule approved by the Washington Supreme Court last week. Since 2007, advocates have been working to make the change to the Rules of P...
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Court sides with Yahoo in data collection case
Headline Legal News 07/16/2013Yahoo has won a court fight that could help the public learn more about the government's efforts to obtain data from Internet users. The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews government requests to spy on individuals, ruled Mond...
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Ill. Supreme Court ends challenge to abortion law
Headline Legal News 07/12/2013The Illinois Supreme Court ended a lengthy and emotionally charged legal appeal over an abortion notification law Thursday, clearing the way for the state to begin enforcing a 1995 measure that requires doctors to notify a girl's parents 48 hours bef...
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SC high court overturns $11M defamation verdicts
Headline Legal News 07/06/2013South Carolina's high court has overturned $11 million in verdicts against a Charleston attorney accused of defaming a businessman by comparing him to television mobster Tony Soprano. The state Supreme Court this week sent a civil case against Paul H...
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Court: Ariz. citizenship proof law illegal
Headline Legal News 06/20/2013The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states cannot require would-be voters to prove they are U.S. citizens before using a federal registration system designed to make signing up easier. The justices voted 7-2 to throw out Arizona's voter-approved requ...
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Court: $1M coverage for Conn. fire victim families
Headline Legal News 06/11/2013Families suing the operator of a Hartford nursing home where 16 patients died in a 2003 fire suffered a setback Monday, when the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the home's insurance coverage was $1 million instead of the $10 million claimed by t...
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Intel chair says NSA court order is renewal
Headline Legal News 06/06/2013The chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence committee says the top secret court order for telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon is a three-month renewal of an ongoing practice. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California spoke t...
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Chicago man pleads guilty in NY hacking case
Headline Legal News 05/30/2013A self-described anarchist and "hacktivist" from Chicago pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges he illegally accessed computer systems of law enforcement agencies and government contractors. "As part of each of these hacks, I took and decimated confidenti...
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Wal-Mart pleads guilty in hazardous waste
Headline Legal News 05/29/2013Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will pay $81.6 million after pleading guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges of improperly disposing of fertilizer, pesticides and other hazardous products that were pulled from stores in California and Missouri because of damaged...
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Oil leasing dispute heads to federal court
Headline Legal News 05/24/2013Attorneys for the government and the oil industry will square off against environmental groups Friday in federal court in Montana in a dispute over greenhouse-gas emissions from oil and gas drilling. The Montana Environmental Information Center and t...
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Court strikes down Arizona 20-week abortion ban
Headline Legal News 05/23/2013A federal court in San Francisco Tuesday struck down Arizona's ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violates a string of U.S. Supreme Court rulings starting with Roe v. Wade that guara...
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Court shoots down Yakama tobacco company lawsuit
Headline Legal News 04/12/2013A federal judge has ruled that a tobacco manufacturer owned by a Yakama Nation tribal member must pay into an escrow account established under a 1998 settlement with big tobacco companies. The 1998 settlement required big tobacco companies to pay mon...