Recent Updates
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Supreme Court to begin new term: About the top cases
Legal Outlook 10/07/2019The biggest cases before the Supreme Court are often the last ones to be decided, and the focus on the court will be especially intense in June, just a few months before the 2020 election.President Donald Trump first announced his intention in 2017 t...
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Gun-control backers concerned about changing federal courts
Legal Outlook 08/11/2019California has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, including a ban on the type of high-capacity ammunition magazines used in some of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings.How long those types of laws will stand is a growing concern amo...
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Supreme Court sides with Alabama company in patent dispute
Legal Outlook 06/14/2019The Supreme Court sided Monday with an Alabama technology company over the U.S. Postal Service in a patent dispute.The dispute before the justices had to do with U.S. Patent No. 6,826,548. That's the patent Birmingham-based Return Mail has for a syst...
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News attorneys: Opioid distribution data should be public
Legal Outlook 04/29/2019Attorneys for news organizations argued Thursday that the U.S. public should be allowed to see federal data about how prescription opioids were distributed as the nation’s overdose crisis was worsening.They urged a three-judge panel of the 6th ...
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Nissan ex-chair Ghosn appeal on extended detention rejected
Legal Outlook 04/16/2019Japan's top court said Thursday it has rejected an appeal by former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn's lawyers against his extended detention after his fourth arrest on allegations of financial misconduct.The decision upholds the extension of his detenti...
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Court sets hearing on Trump administration's asylum policy
Legal Outlook 04/13/2019A federal appeals court on Wednesday scheduled a hearing over whether to stop the Trump administration from forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their immigration court hearings.The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set a hearing for April 24...
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Kansas tells court broad support is reason to OK schools law
Legal Outlook 04/08/2019Lawyers for Kansas told the state Supreme Court on Monday that it should sign off on a new law boosting spending on public schools and end a protracted education funding lawsuit partly because the law has broad, bipartisan support.Attorney General De...
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High court won’t referee dispute over Michael Jordan images
Legal Outlook 03/25/2019The Supreme Court said Monday it won’t step in to referee a copyright dispute between Nike and a photographer who took a well-known image of basketball great Michael Jordan. That means lower court rulings for the athletic apparel maker will sta...
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Supreme Court tosses $315 million award in USS Cole lawsuit
Legal Outlook 03/23/2019The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a nearly $315 million judgment against Sudan stemming from the USS Cole bombing, saying Sudan hadn't properly been notified of the lawsuit.The justices ruled 8-1 that notice of the lawsuit should have been maile...
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Court: Constitutional ban on high fines applies to states
Legal Outlook 02/16/2019The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that the Constitution's ban on excessive fines applies to the states, an outcome that could help efforts to rein in police seizure of property from criminal suspects.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the ...
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Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion clinic law
Legal Outlook 02/08/2019A divided Supreme Court stopped Louisiana from enforcing new regulations on abortion clinics in a test of the conservative court's views on abortion rights.The justices said by a 5-4 vote late Thursday that they will not allow the state to put into e...
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Russian court sends Jehovah’s Witness to prison for 6 years
Legal Outlook 02/04/2019A regional court in western Russia on Wednesday sentenced a Danish Jehovah’s Witness to six years in prison, in arguably the most severe crackdown on religious freedom in Russia in recent years.The court in Oryol found Dennis Christensen guilty...