Recent Updates

  • Court rejects challenge to Michigan's emergency manager law

    Court rejects challenge to Michigan's emergency manager law

    Labor & Employment 09/13/2016

    An appeals court on Monday rejected a challenge to Michigan's emergency manager law, saying Gov. Rick Snyder's remedy for distressed communities doesn't violate the constitutional rights of residents. Emergency managers have exceptional power to run ...

  • LA Supreme Court considers teen robber’s 99-year sentence

    LA Supreme Court considers teen robber’s 99-year sentence

    Business Law 09/13/2016

    Louisiana’s Supreme Court is considering whether recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings about juveniles convicted of murder mean a juvenile robber’s 99-year sentence is unconstitutional. Alden Morgan is now 35. He was 17 years old when he held up a couple...

  • Appeals court sympathetic to voting rules challenge

    Appeals court sympathetic to voting rules challenge

    Criminal Law 09/12/2016

    A federal appeals court seems likely to side with voting rights groups trying to stop Kansas, Georgia and Alabama from making residents prove they are U.S. citizens when registering to vote using a national form. Judges heard arguments in the case Th...

  • Sotomayor calls job on high court blessing and curse

    Sotomayor calls job on high court blessing and curse

    Class Action News 09/12/2016

    Serving on the U.S. Supreme Court has been both a blessing and a curse and reaching decisions is harder than she ever expected, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Thursday during a visit to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The court's first Hispanic ju...

  • Biden, Supreme Court nominee on Hill to pressure GOP

    Biden, Supreme Court nominee on Hill to pressure GOP

    Criminal Law 09/11/2016

    Judge Merrick Garland found himself back on Capitol Hill on Thursday in a familiar place ? meeting with a Democratic senator who used the visit to complain about Republicans' inaction on President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee. Vermont Sen. Pa...

  • High court temporarily blocks subpoena over sex ads

    High court temporarily blocks subpoena over sex ads

    Lawyer Blogs 09/10/2016

    Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday temporarily blocked a congressional subpoena that seeks information on how the classified advertising website Backpage.com screens ads for possible sex trafficking. The order came hours after Backpa...

  • Mexico's Supreme Court overturns state anti-corruption laws

    Mexico's Supreme Court overturns state anti-corruption laws

    Criminal Law 09/09/2016

    Mexico's Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional two state anti-corruption laws that outgoing governors passed in apparent attempts to shield themselves from investigation. Many Mexicans were outraged when the governors of the states of Veracruz and...

  • Stepmom of scalded boy who died pleads guilty to murder

    Stepmom of scalded boy who died pleads guilty to murder

    Criminal Law 09/08/2016

    A woman accused of holding her 4-year-old stepson in a scalding bath, covering his burns and not getting him medical care before he died was sentenced to at least 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder and other charges on Thursday. A War...

  • Gays can seek parental rights for nonbiological kids

    Gays can seek parental rights for nonbiological kids

    Criminal Law 09/07/2016

    New York's highest court expanded the definition of parenthood Tuesday by ruling that former same-sex couples may seek visitation and custody of children even when they aren't the biological or adoptive parent. The Court of Appeals decision resolves ...

  • Egypt court releases lawyer who defied president

    Egypt court releases lawyer who defied president

    Business Law 08/28/2016

    An Egyptian rights lawyer who had been held in solitary confinement for over 100 days after defying President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was released from jail Sunday on a court order. Malek Adly, who was incarcerated on a rolling series of administrative...

  • Appeals court refuses to reconsider Wisconsin voter ID cases

    Appeals court refuses to reconsider Wisconsin voter ID cases

    Headline News 08/27/2016

    A federal appeals court has refused to reconsider a pair of rulings affecting Wisconsin's voter ID law, meaning no more changes to the requirement are likely before the November election. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday unanimously de...

  • Judge in Stanford swimmer case switching to civil court

    Judge in Stanford swimmer case switching to civil court

    Lawyer Blogs 08/26/2016

    A judge whose six-month sentence in the sexual assault case of a former Stanford swimmer has removed himself from handling criminal matters, but efforts to recall him remain. Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky requested that he be assigned to civi...