Recent Updates

  • Judge won’t halt execution over intellectual disability

    Judge won’t halt execution over intellectual disability

    Legal Compliance 03/29/2022

    A judge on Tuesday dismissed a motion to declare a Tennessee death row inmate intellectually disabled, a move that would have prohibited his upcoming execution.Senior Judge Walter Kurtz wrote that federal courts had previously determined Byron Black ...

  • Court: Local Wisconsin heath departments can’t close schools

    Court: Local Wisconsin heath departments can’t close schools

    U.S. Court Watch 06/11/2021

    The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Friday that local health departments do not have the authority to close schools due to emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic, delivering a win to private and religious schools that challenged a Dane County order....

  • Court nixes South Carolina’s lifelong sex offender registry

    Court nixes South Carolina’s lifelong sex offender registry

    U.S. Court Watch 06/09/2021

    South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a state law requiring sex offenders to register for life, without prior judicial review, is unconstitutional. In a unanimous ruling, justices wrote that “requirement that sex offender...

  • Supreme Court ruling gives immigrant facing deportation hope

    Supreme Court ruling gives immigrant facing deportation hope

    U.S. Court Watch 06/01/2021

    A Guatemalan man who lived in a Massachusetts church for more than three years to avoid deportation said Tuesday he’s hopeful a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision boosts his efforts to remain in the country. Lucio Perez’s lawyer, Glenn Fo...

  • Europe’s human rights court finds fault with Polish tribunal

    Europe’s human rights court finds fault with Polish tribunal

    National Legal News 05/08/2021

    The European Court of Human Rights said Friday that Poland’s top court violated a local company’s right to fair trial because a judge on the review panel handling its case had been irregularly appointed to the tribunal.Law experts in Pola...

  • Lawsuit seeks Confederate statue’s removal from courthouse

    Lawsuit seeks Confederate statue’s removal from courthouse

    U.S. Court Watch 05/05/2021

    Civil rights advocates sued a Maryland county on Wednesday to seek the court-ordered removal of a Confederate monument from a courthouse lawn on the state’s Eastern Shore, calling it a racist symbol of oppression.In their federal lawsuit, an NA...

  • Slain girl’s grandmother wants caseworkers deemed ‘reckless’

    Slain girl’s grandmother wants caseworkers deemed ‘reckless’

    National Legal News 04/30/2021

    The grandmother of a 2-year-old girl who was beaten and starved to death wants to file a wrongful death lawsuit against three caseworkers who oversaw the girl’s care, and has taken her case to the Ohio Supreme Court.During oral arguments Wednes...

  • Florida court deals blow to marijuana ballot initiative

    Florida court deals blow to marijuana ballot initiative

    Legal Compliance 04/22/2021

    The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday dealt a potentially fatal blow to supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at legalizing marijuana under certain circumstances.The justices ruled that the initiative’s ballot summary is &ldqu...

  • Supreme Court asked to give access to secretive court’s work

    Supreme Court asked to give access to secretive court’s work

    U.S. Court Watch 04/19/2021

    Civil liberties groups are asking the Supreme Court to give the public access to opinions of the secretive court that reviews bulk email collection, warrantless internet searches and other government surveillance programs.The groups say in an appeal ...

  • Supreme Court asked to give access to secretive court’s work

    Supreme Court asked to give access to secretive court’s work

    U.S. Court Watch 04/19/2021

    Civil liberties groups are asking the Supreme Court to give the public access to opinions of the secretive court that reviews bulk email collection, warrantless internet searches and other government surveillance programs.The groups say in an appeal ...

  •  Ex-police chief gets 1 year in prison for hiring scandal

    Ex-police chief gets 1 year in prison for hiring scandal

    U.S. Court Watch 04/15/2021

    The former police chief of Connecticut’s largest city was sentenced Monday to one year and one day in prison for rigging the hiring process that led to his appointment in 2018.A federal judge in Bridgeport handed down the punishment to Armando ...

  • Court rules Norman violated FOIA when approving budget

    Court rules Norman violated FOIA when approving budget

    U.S. Court Watch 04/14/2021

    The city of Norman violated the state’s Open Meeting Act when it approved a budget that cut the police budget by $865,000, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.The court upheld a circuit judge’s December ruling that a required notice ...