Recent Updates
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Ga. court upholds partial banishment for offenders
Lawyer Blogs 07/01/2008Faced with the question of whether banishment for criminals in Georgia should be banned, the state's top court answered Monday with its own caveat: It depends on how far the ban extends.The Georgia Supreme Court acknowledged with its 6-1 decision tha...
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Florida prepares for 1st execution since foul up
Lawyer Blogs 06/30/2008Florida's new procedure for lethal injections could be tested Tuesday when executioners strap down a condemned inmate for the first time since a botched execution.Mark Dean Schwab, 39, is scheduled to die exactly 16 years after he was sentenced in th...
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Summaries of leading Supreme Court rulings
Lawyer Blogs 06/29/2008Brief summaries of the rulings from the leading cases before the Supreme Court in its just-ended term:GUN BANRuled that Americans have a right to own guns for self-defense and hunting. It was the justices' first major pronouncement on gun rights in h...
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Supreme Court asserts broad gun rights
Lawyer Blogs 06/26/2008Americans have an individual right to possess and use firearms, even when the guns are not related to service in a government militia. In a historic ruling, the US Supreme Court on Thursday declared 5 to 4 that the Second Amendment's guarantee of a r...
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Court rejects death penalty for raping children
Lawyer Blogs 06/25/2008The Supreme Court on Wednesday outlawed executions of people convicted of raping a child.In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punis...
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Court to rule in Tenn. inmate's appeal
Lawyer Blogs 06/24/2008The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether poor death row inmates seeking mercy from state officials have a right to lawyers paid for by federal taxpayers.The justices will likely hear oral arguments around the end of the year in the ca...
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Court will hear appeal by Tenn. death row inmate
Lawyer Blogs 06/23/2008The Supreme Court is stepping into the case of a convicted murderer who claims authorities concealed evidence that might have spared him a death sentence.The justices have twice before reinstated the death sentence for Gary Bradford Cone, who was con...
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SF court protects privacy of work communications
Lawyer Blogs 06/20/2008A federal appeals court has made it more difficult for employers to legally snoop on their workers' e-mails and text messages sent on company accounts.Under a Wednesday ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, employers that contract an outsi...
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Court sides with employee in benefits case
Lawyer Blogs 06/19/2008[##_1L|1235780052.jpg|width="131" height="91" alt=""|_##]The Supreme Court said Thursday that courts should consider an insurance company's potential conflict of interest when reviewing the denial of an employee's health or disability benefits claim....
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Texas court orders execution warrant reinstated
Lawyer Blogs 06/18/2008A former topless-club bouncer condemned for a double slaying almost 20 years ago is waiting in a Texas cell not far from the death chamber as his appeals play out in the courts.Charles Dean Hood initially won a reprieve just over an hour before he co...
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Appeals court refuses to stop gay weddings
Lawyer Blogs 06/18/2008An appeals court has rejected a conservative group's latest effort to stop gay marriages in California before the November election.The Liberty Council had asked a state appeals court to block same-sex weddings until voters could decide the issue on ...
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Woman pleads not guilty in Internet suicide case
Lawyer Blogs 06/17/2008A Missouri woman pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles federal court Monday to charges in an Internet hoax blamed for a 13-year-old girl's suicide. Lori Drew, 49, stood quietly beside her attorney Monday. She pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy a...