Recent Updates
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Court officer investigated for photographing lawyer's notes
Criminal Law 03/03/2017A court security officer in Maine has been placed on leave while under investigation for sending a cellphone photo of a defense attorney's notes to a prosecutor. The Kennebec Journal reports that court officials are calling the incident a serious eth...
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Lawmakers want Supreme Court review of voting law continued
Criminal Law 03/01/2017North Carolina Republican legislative leaders want the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the new Democratic state attorney general's bid to dismiss their appeal of a lower court ruling that struck down a voting law based on racial bias. Lawyers the Genera...
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Top court reviews free speech case of man's anti-police rap
Criminal Law 01/29/2017Pennsylvania's highest court is reviewing the conviction of a Pittsburgh man for making threats against police in a rap song after he was charged with drug offenses. The Supreme Court on Monday said it would take up an appeal by Jamal Knox, who argue...
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Supreme Court to hear case about party in vacant DC house
Criminal Law 01/21/2017The Supreme Court will hear a case in which people arrested for having a party in a vacant house sued police for violating their constitutional rights and won. The justices said Thursday they will review lower court rulings in favor of 16 people who ...
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Court ponders mass murderer Breivik's prison conditions
Criminal Law 01/19/2017An appeals court in Norway is considering whether the prison conditions under which mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is being held amount to a violation of his human rights. The six-day trial ended Wednesday in a makeshift courtroom inside Skien ...
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Supreme Court considers suit over 2001 detention of Muslims
Criminal Law 01/13/2017Ahmer Abbasi speaks softly as he describes the strip searches, the extra shoves, the curses that he endured in a federal jail in Brooklyn following the Sept. 11 attacks. "I don't think I deserved it," Abbasi said during a telephone interview with The...
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Circus operator agrees to plea deal in tent collapse
Criminal Law 01/05/2017Court records show a Florida-based circus operator has agreed to a plea deal following a tent collapse in New Hampshire in 2015 that killed two people and injured dozens. The Caledonian-Record in Vermont reports details of the plea deal involving Sar...
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Appeals court: Minnesota sex offender program constitutional
Criminal Law 01/01/2017Minnesota's program for keeping sex offenders confined after they complete their prison sentences is constitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, reversing a lower-court judge who said it violates offenders' rights because hardly anyone is ...
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Kenya president: International Criminal Court not impartial
Criminal Law 12/21/2016Kenya's president on Monday criticized the International Criminal Court as "not impartial," saying his government "will give serious thought" to its membership of the court. In a speech during celebrations marking 53 years since Kenya became independ...
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Court: Asylum not automatic for former gang members
Criminal Law 12/02/2016Immigrants 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....
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UK court brings Brexit plans screeching to halt
Criminal Law 11/04/2016Britain's High Court brought government plans for leaving the European Union screeching to a halt Thursday, ruling that the prime minister can't trigger the U.K.'s exit from the bloc without parliamentary approval. The government said it would go to ...
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Supreme Court won't hear challenge to FBI fitness test
Criminal Law 11/03/2016The Supreme Court won't hear a dispute over whether a physical fitness test for FBI special agents is biased against men. The justices on Monday turned down an appeal from an Illinois man who failed the test after completing 29 out of 30 untimed push...