Recent Updates
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Ruling Limits Courts' Role In Environmental Review
National News 07/07/2008Three people are accused of beating, torturing and prostituting a mentally disabled teen. Waquita "Goddess" Wallace, 33, Richard Marquis Harper, 20, and a woman identified only as "April" were charged in federal court with sex trafficking by force, f...
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Texas Fired Her For Dissing 'Creationism'
National News 07/03/2008The longtime director of science curriculum claims the Texas Education Agency illegally fired her because she forwarded an email announcing a lecture by a speaker who opposes teaching creationism in science classes. Christina Castillo Comer claims th...
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Fidelity Director May Be Liable For Insider Trading
National News 07/02/2008The 9th Circuit reversed and remanded a ruling for attorney J. Thomas Talbot, a member of the board of directors of Fidelity National Financial, who was accused of insider trading by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Judge Wardlaw found that Ta...
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NY Sets Bar High for Adult Victims of Predatory Clergy
National News 06/30/2008New York’s highest court has set the bar prohibitively high for proving certain civil cases against predatory clergy by ruling that a woman cannot sue a rabbi who had an affair with her because she was not “uniquely vulnerable and incapable of self-p...
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"Parrot Fever" Suit May Not Fly
National News 06/27/2008The family of a Texas man who allegedly died of a disease contracted from a sick cockatiel has sued PetSmart for wrongful death, but the fate of similar cases around the country suggests their products liability theory will not fly.The cockatiel that...
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Naked Cowboy Sues M&M's
National News 06/24/2008"This is the case of The Naked Cowboy versus The Blue M&M," afederal judge wrote in allowing The Naked Cowboy's lawsuit against Marscandy and Chute Gerdeman ad agency to proceed. "Plaintiff Robert Burckis a 'street entertainer' who performs in Ne...
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Supreme Court weighs whales vs war preparation
National News 06/24/2008The Supreme Court will have the final say on whether war preparation trumps whale protection.Acting at the Bush administration's urging, the court agreed Monday to review a federal appeals court ruling that limited the use of sonar in naval training ...
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Fight over White House subpoenas heads to court
National News 06/23/2008Congress issued its demands. The White House refused. Now it's up to a federal judge to settle a dispute over documents and testimony regarding fired federal prosecutors.Lawyers for the White House and Congress were headed to court Monday to argue th...
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Federal court issues stay in SC execution
National News 06/20/2008A man scheduled to be executed on Friday was issued a stay just minutes before he was to be electrocuted, triggering a flurry of legal moves as the state sought to carry out the sentence before a midnight deadline.James Earl Reed had been scheduled t...
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Supreme court puts limits on mentally ill defendants
National News 06/19/2008The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that criminal defendants with a history of mental illness do not always have the right to represent themselves, even if they have been judged competent to stand trial.The justices, by a 7-2 vote, said states can give ...
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City Evicts Boy Scouts For Anti-Gay Bias
National News 06/16/2008The City of Philadelphia wants to evict the Boy Scouts of America from the rent-free property that has been its headquarters since 1928, for violating the city's anti-discrimination policy. The city says the Scouts' Cradle of Liberty openly discrimin...
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Supreme Court Re: US Citizens detained abroad by US
National News 06/13/2008The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the consolidated cases of Munaf v. Geren and Geren v. Omar that federal courts have jurisdiction over habeas corpus petitions filed by American citizens detained abroad by US military personnel, even if the mili...