Recent Updates
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Court tosses jury award in Katrina jail lawsuit
Court Alerts 03/13/2012A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a jury's award of more than $650,000 to two Ohio tourists who were arrested in New Orleans on public drunkenness charges two days before Hurricane Katrina's landfall and jailed for more than a month after t...
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Miss. Supreme Court rules Barbour pardons valid
Court Alerts 03/09/2012The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the pardons issued by former Gov. Haley Barbour during his final days in office, including those of four convicted killers and a robber who had worked at the Governor's Mansion. Barbour, a Republican w...
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FBI chief describes GPS problem from court ruling
Court Alerts 03/08/2012A recent Supreme Court ruling is forcing the FBI to deactivate its GPS tracking devices in some investigations, agency director Robert Mueller said Wednesday. Mueller told a congressional panel that the bureau has turned off a substantial number of G...
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Ohio school shooting case may go to adult court
Court Alerts 03/07/2012A 17-year-old boy charged in a school shooting rampage that left three students dead was told by a judge on Tuesday that the case could be sent to adult court for trial. Authorities will decide later whether T.J. Lane will be tried as an adult and fa...
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Conn. high court rules prisoners can be force-fed
Court Alerts 03/06/2012Connecticut prison inmates who go on hunger strikes can be restrained and force-fed to protect them from life-threatening dehydration and malnutrition, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. The 7-0 decision came in the case of 51-year-old prisoner Wi...
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US Court rules against Helm in suit over ad
Court Alerts 03/02/2012A New York court says Levon Helm long ago signed away rights that let an advertising agency use the song "The Weight" in a cellphone commercial. The Band's former drummer and singer sued ad agency BBDO Worldwide Inc. in 2004. An appeals court ruled a...
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Court extends NYC church access to public schools
Court Alerts 03/01/2012A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected an attempt by New York City to keep churches out of its public schools while a judge decides whether a city law banning them from its school buildings can be enforced. But the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Ap...
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Court seems split on double jeopardy question
Court Alerts 02/23/2012The Supreme Court seemed divided Wednesday on whether to allow an Arkansas man to be retried on murder charges even though a jury forewoman said in open court that they were unanimously against finding him guilty. Alex Blueford of Jacksonville, Ark.,...
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Gay marriage on hold in California
Court Alerts 02/22/2012Same-sex marriage was on hold in California after opponents petitioned a federal appeals court Tuesday to review a split decision by three of its judges that struck down a voter-approved measure that limited marriage to a man and woman. Lawyers for t...
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Court: Rights don't have to be read to prisoners
Court Alerts 02/21/2012The Supreme Court said Tuesday investigators don't have to read Miranda rights to inmates during jailhouse interrogations about crimes unrelated to their current incarceration. The high court, on a 6-3 vote, overturned a federal appeals court decisio...
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Teen pleads not guilty in Ohio Craigslist killings
Court Alerts 02/17/2012An Ohio teen has pleaded not guilty to killing one man and attempting to kill a second in a deadly Craigslist robbery scheme that targeted older and single out-of-work men. Brogan Rafferty, his ankles and wrists cuffed, made a brief appearance Friday...
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Mass. court: Intent to sell pot still a crime
Court Alerts 02/14/2012The state’s highest court has ruled that a person can still be criminally charged with attempting to distribute marijuana even when the amount of the drug discovered is less than an ounce. But the court left open the question of whether those crimina...