Recent Updates
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Scalia to Go Before the News Cameras
National News 04/09/2008Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who makes no secret of his disdain for the news media, has agreed to appear in a segment of CBS News' "60 Minutes" on April 27, the eve of the publication date for a new book he has co-authored. A knowledgeable s...
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Chemical Co. Settles Lawsuit for $1.8 Billion
National News 04/09/2008W.R.Grace, a specialty chemical company that operated plants inMassachusetts and Montana, agreed to a settlement yesterday forasbestos claims brought against the company in a class action lawsuit. More than 100,000 claims have been brought against W....
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Eyes on Supreme Court in Execution Case Tuesday
National News 04/08/2008By 6 p.m. Tuesday, when a Mississippi inmate is scheduled to die by lethal injection, the Supreme Court may give the clearest indication so far of whether it intends to call a halt to all such executions while a case from Kentucky that the justices a...
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Lawyers seek to bar statements obtained by torture
National News 04/07/2008Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdanon Friday asked a military tribunal to bar the use of statements made by Hamdan that were allegedly obtained through the use of torture and requested that the court declare that Hamdan has been su...
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Federal court decertifies status of cigarette lawsuit
National News 04/04/2008The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Thursday overturned class action certification for a lawsuit brought by "light" cigarette smokers against Philip Morris USA Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and other light cigarette makers. The class act...
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Federal court strikes down new patent rules
National News 04/02/2008The US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday rejected new US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rules that would have retroactively limited the number of claims that can be included in a patent application and the number of ...
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Taking A Look At Surveillance
National News 04/01/2008US Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Friday that he was willing to compromise with Congress on legislation amending the Foreign Intelligence Security Act but that the legislature would have to provide a "workable bill". Mukasey said that the bill...
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Supremes weigh habeas rights of US citizens held in Iraq
National News 03/27/2008The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the consolidated cases of Munaf v. Geren and Geren v. Omar where the Court is considering whether federal courts have jurisdiction over habeas corpus petitions filed by American citizens detained b...
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Guantanamo Claims Before EU Court of Human Rights
National News 03/26/2008Six Guantanamo Bay prisoners, whose case was heard by the USSupreme Court in December, filed claims in the European Court of HumanRights in Strasbourg against Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bosnianauthorities failed for many years to take any steps to n...
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High court rejects anti-Clinton movie case
National News 03/25/2008WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has rejected aconservative group's legal fight to air commercials promoting a moviecritical of Sen. Hillary Clinton. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal in a case involving ads for a movie critical of Sen. Hillary Cli...
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Supreme Court overrules Bush, OKs Texas execution
National News 03/25/2008WASHINGTON-- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday thatTexas can execute a Mexican murderer being held on its death row. Thecase pitted President Bush against his home state in a dispute overfederal authority, local sovereignty and foreign treaties. The ca...
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Use of MySpace May Violate Court Order
National News 03/24/2008In one of the first rulings of its kind, a Staten Island judge has said that a teenage girl could be charged with violating a restraining order by using MySpace.com to reach out to people she was told not to contact. The girl, Melisa Fernino, 16, of ...