Recent Updates

  • Alabama inmate seeks execution stay from US Supreme Court

    Alabama inmate seeks execution stay from US Supreme Court

    Headline Legal News 12/04/2016

    An Alabama inmate on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his upcoming execution to consider whether a judge should have been able to give him a death sentence when the jury recommended life imprisonment.   Ronald Bert Smith is scheduled ...

  • Green Party taking bid for election recount to federal court

    Green Party taking bid for election recount to federal court

    Legal Events 12/04/2016

    Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein is taking her bid for a statewide recount of Pennsylvania's Nov. 8 presidential election to federal court. After announcing Stein and recount supporters were dropping their case in state court, lawyer Jon...

  • State high court to hear wind power appeal

    State high court to hear wind power appeal

    National News 12/03/2016

    A decision on a proposed high-voltage power transmission line that would run through several Illinois counties is now heading to the state Supreme Court after an energy company decided to appeal a ruling against construction. The high court agreed la...

  • Connecticut court to hear appeal in Newtown shooting case

    Connecticut court to hear appeal in Newtown shooting case

    Recent Cases 12/02/2016

    The Connecticut Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of families whose wrongful-death lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre was dismissed. The high court decided Tuesday to bypass a l...

  • Court revives lawsuit against California bullet stamping law

    Court revives lawsuit against California bullet stamping law

    Headline Legal News 12/02/2016

    Gun manufacturers have the right to present evidence supporting their claim that technology does not exist to comply with a California law requiring new models of semi-automatic handguns to stamp identifying information on bullet casings, a state app...

  • Court: Asylum not automatic for former gang members

    Court: Asylum not automatic for former gang members

    National News 12/01/2016

    Immigrants in the United States illegally are not automatically eligible for asylum on the basis that they are former gang members who risk persecution if they return home, a federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday. Three judges from the 9th U.S....

  • China court clears man 21 years after his execution

    China court clears man 21 years after his execution

    Headline Legal News 12/01/2016

    China's supreme court ruled Friday that a young man executed 21 years ago for rape and murder had been innocent, in a case that has drawn attention to problems in the legal system as well as the frequent application of the death penalty. Nie Shubin w...

  • Election judge pleads not guilty in absentee ballot case

    Election judge pleads not guilty in absentee ballot case

    Recent Cases 11/21/2016

    An 88-year-old election judge from southern Illinois has pleaded not guilty after allegedly sending in an absentee ballot in her late husband's name. The (Belleville) News-Democrat reports that Audrey Cook appeared Thursday in Madison County Circuit ...

  • Ohio sheriff accused of drug theft changing not guilty plea

    Ohio sheriff accused of drug theft changing not guilty plea

    Headline Legal News 11/21/2016

    A suspended sheriff in Ohio who has denied stealing prescription drugs and misusing office funds is due in court to change his not guilty plea. Sandusky County Sheriff Kyle Overmyer is scheduled to attend a change of plea hearing Monday in Fremont. O...

  • Philippine court urged to order Marcos' remains exhumed

    Philippine court urged to order Marcos' remains exhumed

    Recent Cases 11/20/2016

    Human rights victims who suffered during the rule of Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos filed petitions Monday asking the Supreme Court to order the exhumation of his remains that were buried last week at the country's Heroes' Cemetery. They also w...

  • Justice Thomas: Honor Scalia by reining in government

    Justice Thomas: Honor Scalia by reining in government

    Legal Events 11/18/2016

    Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is calling fellow conservatives to continue the work of the late Justice Antonin Scalia to keep the power of the courts and other branches of government in check. Thomas tells 1,700 people at a dinner in honor of...

  • French court restores far-right candidate's ties to father

    French court restores far-right candidate's ties to father

    Headline Legal News 11/18/2016

    French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen thought she had cut the political cord with her controversial father by expelling him from the far-right party he founded, but a court ruled Thursday Jean-Marie Le Pen still is the National Front's honorary...