Recent Updates
-
400 Marijuana Dispensaries To Close In Los Angeles
Lawyer Blogs 06/07/2010Los Angeles is home to hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries, but concern over their proliferation has provoked a backlash. Police are cracking down on most of them starting Monday. A new city ordinance limits the number and locations of medical...
-
Lesbian couple weds in Portugal's 1st gay marriage
Lawyer Blogs 06/07/2010A lesbian couple wed Monday in Portugal's first same-sex ceremony since the predominantly Catholic country introduced a law allowing gay marriage last month.Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao, divorced Portuguese mothers in their 30s who have been togeth...
-
Final NY hate crime suspect pleads guilty
Lawyer Blogs 06/04/2010The last of seven New York teenagers implicated in the hate crime killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant pleaded guilty on Wednesday.Anthony Hartford's plea to gang assault and other charges closes the prosecution phase of a case that attracted internati...
-
NY school sued after teen suspended over rosary
Lawyer Blogs 06/03/2010A federal judge says a New York school must reinstate a 13-year-old boy who was suspended for wearing rosary beads.Judge Lawrence Kahn ordered the Schenectady (skeh-NEHK'-ta-dee) seventh-grader reinstated pending a June 11 hearing into whether the su...
-
48 states: Funeral protests shouldn't be protected
Lawyer Blogs 06/02/2010Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have submitted a brief to the Supreme Court in support of a father who sued anti-gay protesters over their demonstration at the 2006 funeral of his son, a Marine killed in Iraq.Only Virginia and Maine d...
-
Judge: Conn. town can't hold graduations in church
Lawyer Blogs 06/01/2010A federal judge has ruled two Connecticut public high schools can't hold their graduations inside a church because that would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall made the ruling Monday in the case of En...
-
Court: Victims can sue ex-Somali prime minister
Lawyer Blogs 06/01/2010The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block a lawsuit against a former prime minister of Somalia over claims that he oversaw killings and torture in his home country.The high court said it will allow lawsuits against Mohamed Ali Samantar to go forw...
-
California court cases against Toyota consolidated
Lawyer Blogs 05/27/2010A 10-page order signed on Wednesday by Los Angeles County Superior Judge Carl West also recommends that the state-based litigation, consisting of consumer-fraud class actions and personal injury claims, be assigned to a single judge in neighboring Or...
-
Intn'l court reports Sudan to UN Security Council
Lawyer Blogs 05/26/2010The International Criminal Court said Wednesday it has reported Sudan to the U.N. Security Council for refusing to arrest a government minister and a militia leader suspected of war crimes in Darfur.Judges at the court said in a report that Sudan has...
-
Feds ask Va. health reform lawsuit be dismissed
Lawyer Blogs 05/25/2010The Obama administration is asking a federal judge in Virginia to dismiss the state's lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new health reform law.In a motion filed hours before the court deadline on Monday, Health and Human Services Secret...
-
Supreme Court to review Texan's death row case
Lawyer Blogs 05/24/2010The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a Texas death row inmate should have access to evidence for DNA testing that he says could clear him of three murders.The justices said Monday they will use the case of Hank Skinner to decide whether pri...
-
Elena Kagan's writings suggest judge's proper role
Lawyer Blogs 05/22/2010Elena Kagan, a Supreme Court nominee without judicial experience, has suggested in writings and speeches over a quarter-century that when judges make decisions, they must take account of their values and experience and consider politics and policy, r...