Recent Updates

  • Japan court says requiring same surname in marriage is legal

    Japan court says requiring same surname in marriage is legal

    Legal Events 12/18/2015

    Japan's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that requiring married couples to have the same surname is constitutional, dealing a blow to a longtime effort for gender equality in choosing names. The law does not say which partner must give up his or her nam...

  • Court papers: Witness ID'd man in playground shooting

    Court papers: Witness ID'd man in playground shooting

    Breaking Legal News 12/01/2015

    A witness's statement and photo identification led to the arrest of a man accused in a playground shootout that wounded 17 people, court papers show. Joseph "Moe" Allen, 32, faces 17 counts of attempted murder in the Nov. 22 gunfight at Bunny Friend ...

  • US court rejects Virginia death row inmate's appeal

    US court rejects Virginia death row inmate's appeal

    Recent Cases 11/30/2015

    A federal appeals court has rejected a Virginia death row inmate's appeal of his murder-for-hire conviction. Ivan Teleguz was sentenced to death in 2006 for hiring a man to kill his former girlfriend, Stephanie Sipe, in Harrisonburg. After two key pr...

  • Appeals court: EPA chief doesn't have to give deposition

    Appeals court: EPA chief doesn't have to give deposition

    Legal Events 11/26/2015

    A federal appeals court says U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy doesn't have to give a deposition in a coal company's lawsuit over the impact of regulations on jobs. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of A...

  • High court directs Andhra Pradesh government to prepare summer plan

    High court directs Andhra Pradesh government to prepare summer plan

    Recent Cases 11/25/2015

    The Hyderabad High Court has directed the Andhra Pradesh government to take steps to protect people from heat waves during summer season. The bench of acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice S Ravi Kumar gave AP two weeks to come up with a p...

  • Detroit-area ex-officer found guilty in videotaped beating

    Detroit-area ex-officer found guilty in videotaped beating

    U.S. Court News 11/22/2015

    A white, former Detroit-area police officer was found guilty Thursday of assault and misconduct in the bloody beating of a black driver during a traffic stop that was captured on video.   Wayne County jurors handed down the verdict in the case a...

  • Rancher pleads guilty to falsely claiming cattle losses

    Rancher pleads guilty to falsely claiming cattle losses

    U.S. Court News 11/22/2015

    A South Dakota rancher has pleaded guilty in federal court to falsely claiming he lost more than a hundred cattle during the autumn blizzard of 2013 that left ranchers in the state reeling with financial losses.   Karl Knutson pleaded guilty Fri...

  • Perry's indictment in hands of top Texas criminal court

    Perry's indictment in hands of top Texas criminal court

    Legal Events 11/19/2015

    Attorneys for former Texas Gov. Rick Perry urged the state's highest criminal court Wednesday to dismiss felony abuse-of-power charges that the Republican blames in part for foiling his short-lived 2016 presidential run. After two hours of arguments,...

  • Texas man executed for setting fire that killed 3 children

    Texas man executed for setting fire that killed 3 children

    Recent Cases 11/18/2015

    A Texas inmate was executed Wednesday for setting a fire that killed his 18-month-old daughter and her two young half-sisters at an East Texas home 15 years ago. Raphael Holiday, 36, became the 13th convicted killer put to death this year in Texas, w...

  • Snowboarders fight ban at Utah resort in appeals court

    Snowboarders fight ban at Utah resort in appeals court

    Breaking Legal News 11/17/2015

    A group of snowboarders who argue a ban on their sport at Utah's Alta Ski Area amounts to discrimination are set to present their case Tuesday to a federal appeals court in Denver. The lawsuit, filed in early 2014, brought renewed attention to the lo...

  • Kansas court's approval of death sentence not seen as shift

    Kansas court's approval of death sentence not seen as shift

    U.S. Court News 11/16/2015

    Even though the state Supreme Court recently upheld a death sentence for the first time under the state’s 1994 capital punishment law, Kansas isn’t likely to see executions anytime soon or a shift in how the justices handle capital murder cases. “Sym...

  • Ruling gives Sandusky back $4,900-a-month Penn State pension

    Ruling gives Sandusky back $4,900-a-month Penn State pension

    U.S. Court News 11/15/2015

    The state must restore the $4,900-a-month pension of former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky that was taken away three years ago when he was sentenced to decades in prison on child molestation convictions, a court ordered Friday. A ...