Recent Updates
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High court questions courts’ role in partisan redistricting
Legal Issues 03/29/2019The Supreme Court’s conservative majority sounded wary Tuesday of allowing federal judges to determine when electoral maps are too partisan, despite strong evidence that the political parties drew districts to guarantee congressional election o...
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Court records reveal a Mueller report right in plain view
Legal Issues 02/24/2019The Democrats had blamed Russia for the hacking and release of damaging material on his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump wasn’t buying it. But on July 27, 2016, midway through a news conference in Florida, Trump decided to entertai...
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Dakota Access developer sues Greenpeace in state court
Legal Issues 02/23/2019The developer of the Dakota Access oil pipeline is going after the environmental group Greenpeace in state court in North Dakota, after a judge tossed the company's $1 billion racketeering claim out of federal court.Texas-based Energy Transfer Partne...
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Kenya court postpones ruling on anti-gay laws to May 24
Legal Issues 02/21/2019A Kenyan court Friday postponed a ruling on whether to decriminalize same sex relationships, disappointing many in the country's LGBT community.The ruling will not be made until May 24 because some judges had been busy, Justice Chaacha Mwita of the H...
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Court case to tackle jails' medication-assisted treatment
Legal Issues 02/10/2019The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine started making its case in federal court on Monday against the ban on medication-assisted treatment in county jail amid the opioid crisis.Democratic Gov. Janet Mills recently lifted the Maine Department of ...
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No-cost birth control, now the norm, faces court challenges
Legal Issues 01/16/2019Millions of American women are receiving birth control at no cost to them through workplace health plans, the result of the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, which expanded access to contraception.The Trump administration sought to allow more employers ...
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Freed by court, Pakistani Christian woman still a prisoner
Legal Issues 01/14/2019Aasia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian acquitted of blasphemy, still lives the life of a prisoner, nearly three months after her release from death row, awaiting a final ruling on her fate.She spends her days in seclusion for fear of being targeted by ang...
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Family's fight for liquor license leads to Supreme Court
Legal Issues 01/11/2019Doug and Mary Ketchum chose Memphis, Tennessee, as a place to live with their disabled adult daughter because it has clearer air than their former home in Utah.That was the easy part. Their decision to support themselves by buying a liquor store has ...
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Health isn't 1st priority for energy regulators, court rules
Legal Issues 01/11/2019The Colorado Supreme Court said Monday that state law does not allow oil and gas regulators to make health and environmental protection their top priority, prompting Democrats who control the Legislature to call for changing the law.In a victory for ...
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Supreme Court stays out of dispute over Whitaker appointment
Legal Issues 01/09/2019The Supreme Court is refusing to be drawn into a dispute over the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as the acting U.S. attorney general.The justices on Monday rejected an appeal in a case dealing with gun rights that also included a challenge to Presid...
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High court to take new look at partisan electoral districts
Legal Issues 01/03/2019The Supreme Court is plunging back into the issue of whether electoral districts can be too partisan.Disputes have arisen in cases involving North Carolina's heavily Republican congressional map and a Democratic congressional district in Maryland, an...
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Chief justice details efforts to combat workplace misconduct
Legal Issues 01/01/2019Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is using his annual report on the federal judiciary to highlight the steps the branch has taken to combat inappropriate conduct in the workplace.In December 2017, Roberts asked that a working group be put toge...