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Jodi Arias has been found GUILTY in the murder of Travis Alexander. Justice has been served!

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that it’s legal for a state to limit use of its Freedom of Information Act to its own residents. The court unanimously upheld a federal appeals court decision validating Virginia’s limitation of its FOIA law to state citizens and some media outlets. In the case before the court, Rhode Island resident Mark J. McBurney and California resident Roger W. Hurlbert were suing Virginia for blocking them from getting public documents in Virginia that in-state citizens could have easily obtained. Virginia’s FOIA law limits access to state citizens and some media outlets. “We hold, however, that...

Setting the stage for a constitutional showdown, the Obama administration on Thursday urged the Supreme Court to rule that presidents have broad authority to make certain appointments without Senate approval. In January the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that three appointments to the panel, which normally has five members, were invalid. In the brief filed on Thursday, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli defended the recess appointment powers of the president, disputing the court's conclusion that it can only be used in the period between formal sessions of the Senate. If the appeals court ruling was...

t’s shaping up to be a dramatic day in the courtroom for those keeping a watchful eye on the Dr. Kermit Gosnell case. According to columnist J.D. Mullane, a writer for the Bucks County Courier Times, the abortion doctor was acquitted this morning on three counts of murder. In a series of tweets from inside the courtroom, Mullane described the dismissals, noting that Gosnell still has five murder charges remaining against him (in sequence from oldest to newest): #Gosnell defense atty Jack McMahon asks Judge Jeffrey Minehart for abort doc's acquittal. Judge listens, takes recess. #Gosnell Judge Minehart acquits abort...

Va. court upholds GPS tracking of suspect's vehicleBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 09, 2010 Richmond, Va. - The same GPS technology that motorists use to get directions can be used by police without a warrant to track the movements of criminal suspects on public streets, the Virginia Court of Appeals said yesterday. In a case that prompted warnings of Orwellian snooping by the government, the court unanimously ruled that Fairfax County police did nothing wrong when they planted a GPS device on the bumper of a registered sex offender's work van without obtaining a warrant. Police were investigating sexual...

It came on Good Friday, a gift from God and U.S District Judge Deborah Batts. The lawsuit by American Atheists seeking to ban the cross found at Ground Zero from being displayed in a museum has been tossed out, and the cross will be permitted to stay. The fact that this ruling came on the holiest week of the year for Christians is a delicious irony, one that I can bask in for months, possibly even years to come. I thank God for the sensibility of Judge Batts. Those fun-loving folks over at American Atheists – who despise any and...

The U.S. Supreme Court this morning rejected an appeal from former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill in his effort to reclaim his job, a move that led university officials to declare "the matter is now over." The justices did not comment this morning in refusing to review a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in favor of the university.

The Supreme Court has ruled that police use of a drug-sniffing dog on a homeowner's porch is a violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. [...]

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with timber interests in a dispute over the regulation of runoff from logging roads in western forests. In a 7-1 vote, the court reversed a federal appeals court ruling that held that muddy water running off roads used in industrial logging is the same as any other industrial pollution, requiring a Clean Water Act permit from the Environmental Protection Agency.

A federal judge has struck down a Missouri law exempting moral objectors from mandatory birth control coverage because it conflicts with an insurance requirement under [Obamacare].

(AP) Judge: US can't make Monaghan offer contraceptives DETROIT A judge has blocked the federal government from requiring the founder of Domino's Pizza to provide mandatory contraception coverage to his employees under the health care law. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the contraception provision of the law against Tom Monaghan and Domino's Farms Corp. near Ann Arbor, Mich.

<p>A state judge on Monday stopped Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration from banning the sale of large sugary drinks at New York City restaurants and other venues, a major defeat for a mayor who has made public-health initiatives a cornerstone of his tenure.</p>

Ottawa, Ontario – The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that Biblical speech opposing homosexual behavior, including in written form, is essentially a hate crime. On Wednesday, the court upheld the conviction of activist William Whatcott, who found himself in hot water after distributing flyers regarding the Bible’s prohibitions against homosexuality throughout the Saskatoon and Regina neighborhoods in 2001 and 2002. “The Bible is clear that homosexuality is an abomination,” one flyer that was found to be in violation stated, citing 1 Corinthians 6:9. “Scripture records that Sodom and Gomorrah was given over completely to homosexual perversion and as a...

Guns: An Illinois court has ruled that the Second Amendment means what it says and has ordered the state legislature to adopt a law by June that lets citizens bear arms in self-defense, not just keep them. On Feb. 22, a 5-4 majority of the 10-member U.S. Seventh Court of Appeals upheld the Dec. 11 decision, which had been rendered by a three-member panel, to address absurdity and inconsistency of Illinois gun laws that allowed ownership of a firearm, but not the right to carry it outside the home. In other words, the "right to keep but not to bear...

Court Rules There Is No Right To Carry A Concealed Weapon Larry Bodine, Lawyers.comFebruary 25, 2013, 6:42 AM In a sweeping ruling, the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there is no Second Amendment right to carry a concealed firearm in public. The broad wording of the decision in Peterson v. Martinez creates a far-reaching national precedent against carrying a loaded handgun outside the home. The case began on a narrow point – a challenge by a Washington State man against Colorado’s law to issue CHL permits (“Concealed Handgun License”) only to state residents. But the final ruling...

Sobering Thoughts from the Romeike Case By Michael Farris, J.D., LL.M. HSLDA Founder and Chairman Having immersed myself for about eight days in writing a brief for the Romeike family (a German homeschooling family who fled to the United States for political asylum), I wanted to share some insights I gained into the view of our own government toward the rights of homeschooling parents in general. You will benefit from some context. The U.S. law of asylum allows a refugee to stay in the United States permanently if he can show that he is being persecuted for one of several...

A U.S. Court of Appeals has thrown out the rules adopted in 2011 by the Department of Energy to try to regulate gas-log fireplaces so that they use less energy. The court has ordered the Department of Energy to rewrite its efficiency rules for the “faux hearths” that simulate a wood fire with artificial logs and a natural-gas flame, The Wall Street Journal reports. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected the DOE’s attempt at regulating the energy efficiency of the gas-log fireplaces, but left the door open for future regulation.

MIAMI, February 8, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) - In what could become a landmark decision, a Florida judge has ruled that a 23-month-old girl can have three people listed on her birth certificate as her parents. Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Antonio Marin approved a settlement between a lesbian couple, Maria Italiano and Cher Filippazzo, who were legally "married" in Connecticut, and Massimiliano Gerina, a homosexual who donated sperm for Italiano to become pregnant. Under Florida law, a sperm donor for artificial insemination has no paternity rights. However, Gerina claimed that in the verbal agreement he entered into with the lesbian couple...

A Dallas judge has halted the scheduled Tuesday night execution of a Texas woman who would have been the first woman put to death in the U.S. in three years. The order from state District Judge Larry Mitchell moves the execution of Kimberly McCarthy, 51, to April 3. McCarthy faced lethal injection for the 1997 beating, stabbing and robbery of a 71-year-old neighbor in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas.

A federal appeals court has overturned President Obama’s controversial recess appointments from last year, arguing he abused his powers and acted when the Senate was not actually in a recess. The three-judge panel’s ruling is a major blow to Mr. Obama. The judges ruled that the appointments Mr. Obama made to the National Labor Relations Board are illegal, and the board no longer has a quorum to operate. But the ruling has even broader constitutional significance, with the judges arguing that the president’s recess appointment powers don’t apply to “intrasession” appointments — those made when Congress has left town for...

President Obama exceeded his constitutional authority when he named three members of the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was on a break last year, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that allowing the president to make such appointments as a way around Senate opposition “would wholly defeat the purpose of the Framers in the careful separation of powers structure” they created. The decision flatly rejected the administration’s rationale for appointing the board members, and jeopardizes the separate recess appointment of former Ohio attorney general...

White House press secretary Jay Carney on Friday blasted a court decision that nixed three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board as “novel and unprecedented,” but said that he did not expect any broader application of the ruling. “It’s one court, one case, one company,” Carney said. Carney said there has been “enormous frustration” at the White House with the Senate’s refusal to approve nominees. But the ruling Friday “contradicts 150 year of practice by Democratic and Republican administrations. … So we respectfully but strongly disagree with the ruling.” Carney declined to say if the administration planned to...

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco has a well-earned reputation as the hippiest, dippiest, most-reversed appellate court in these United States. It’s where the Pledge of Allegiance gets scrutinized for possible eradication, at least, the “under God” part. But every so often, the Court gets something right. On December 22, a unanimous Ninth Circuit panel reversed a federal district judge’s order to evict the Boy Scouts from their longtime camp and local headquarters in San Diego’s Balboa Park. The ruling came in a case filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 2001 on...

District of Columbia Attorney General Irvin Nathan issued a lengthy letter today explaining the decision not to prosecute David Gregory despite “despite the clarity of the violation of this important law,” despite rejecting NBC’s claims of a subjective misunderstanding of the law, and despite vowing vigorous enforcement of gun laws. -snip- t further undermines public confidence in such decisions to find out that Nathan knew Gregory and his wife, high-powered attorney Beth Wilkinson. Anne dug up the connection in which in 2011 Nathan and Wilkinson participated together in a charity mock trial for the Washington, D.C. Shakespeare Theatre Company (emphasis...

(CNSNews.com) – Europe’s highest court next week will hand down rulings in the cases of four British Christians who claim to have been discriminated in the workplace because of their religious beliefs. Two of the applicants, Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, said their rights were violated when employers barred them from wearing crosses visibly at work. They pointed to Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others...

(Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court has temporarily barred the U.S. government from requiring an Illinois company to obtain insurance coverage for contraceptives, as mandated under the 2010 healthcare overhaul, after the owners objected on religious grounds. More than 40 lawsuits are challenging a requirement in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that requires most for-profit companies to offer workers insurance coverage for contraceptive drugs and devices and other birth control methods. Friday's 2-1 order by a panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago in favor of Cyril and Jane Korte was the second...

In a surprising decision last week that drew little press attention, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, handed the Boy Scouts a victory over a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple. The Ninth Circuit is considered the most liberal appellate court in the land.

MOSCOW, Dec 25 (Reuters) - Two gunmen shot dead a ruling party official on Tuesday in Russia's North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting to subdue an Islamist insurgency, investigators said. Unknown assailants burst into Boris Zherukov's office in Nalchik, capital of the province of Kabardino-Balkaria, and shot him twice in the head, Russia's Investigative Committee said in a statement. Zherukov was head of President Vladimir Putin's ruling United Russia party faction in the local parliament. He was also rector of the local State Agricultural University. Insurgents fighting to carve an Islamic state out of a patchwork of mainly Muslim...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A judge on Monday gave a long disputed victory to a Republican in an upstate Senate race, strengthening a bipartisan coalition that will run the chamber beginning Jan. 1. The decision in the 46th district, pending an appeal, gives Republicans a working majority of 32 votes, including Democratic Sen.-elect Simcha Felder. The Brooklyn Democrat has said he will vote with the GOP.

A federal D.C. circuit court ruled late Tuesday, just a few days after arguments, that not only can Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey stay in court, but what the Obama administration has said about fixing the religious-freedom problem they and other religiously affiliated non-profits have with the HHS abortion-drug, contraception, sterilization mandate must become real policy, and that the Department of Health and Human Services must report to the D.C. court every 60 days until they fix the problem. This is a huge step toward some restoration of religious liberty as we’ve known it. (This particular court command, of course,...

A judge has tossed sexy Long Island-born TV news anchor Alycia Lane’s lawsuit against former employer CBS — and possibly crippled her suit against the love-struck co-anchor convicted of spying on her e-mails — after ruling she spun a yarn about a laptop she trashed. Philadelphia Judge Allan Tereshko wrote that Lane’s own testimony about the computer, which might have contained key evidence in her defamation suit against CBS and her former co-anchor Larry Mendte, “casts serious doubt upon . . . her credibility.”

CHARLOTTE, December 10, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – North Carolina women are free to choose abortion, but not pro-life license plates. A federal judge has ruled the state can only sell a “Choose Life” vanity plate if it also offers a pro-abortion alternative. U.S. District Judge James C. Fox stated that offering only one side of the argument “constitutes viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.” The state legislature passed a bill authorizing the pro-life message with dozens of other specialty plate options in September 2011. The ACLU of North Carolina won an injunction against the plates that December. “We would...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. – A federal judge has ruled it is unconstitutional for North Carolina to issue pro-life license plates unless the state offers similar plates supporting abortion rights.</p> <p>U.S. District Court Judge James C. Fox ruled on Friday that North Carolina cannot produce or distribute the “Choose Life” plate.</p>

Even though Obamacare was decided months ago, pundits are still dissecting the court's actions. CNN's top legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin and famed lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz sat down on Friday at New York's 92nd Street Y to debate why Chief Justice John Roberts used his deciding vote to pass President Barack Obama's controversial health care law. And, according to Dershowitz, Roberts did it just so he could side with Republicans from now on without getting called out for being too conservative. "Roberts is very political," Dershowitz said in the interview, posted by Above The Law. "And what he did...

By TIM TALLEY Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY November 20, 2012 (AP) A federal judge Monday rejected a request by Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. to block part of the new federal health care law that requires it to provide the morning-after and week-after birth control pills. In a 28-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton denied a request by Hobby Lobby to prevent the government from enforcing portions of the health care law that will require it to include contraceptives the company considers objectionable in its health insurance plan. The Oklahoma City-based arts and craft supply company and a sister...

AP story

October 26, 2012 Court: Texas Has the Right to De-Fund Planned Parenthood Steven Ertelt The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to grant an additional hearing to Planned Parenthood regarding Texas’ legislation to end taxpayer funding of abortion companies, including Planned Parenthood.The decision effectively ends the legal controversy surrounding the law and affirms Texas’ right to stop taxpayer dollars from flowing to abortion providers.Texas Gov. Rick Perry applauded the decision, saying, “Today’s ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women’s Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In...

We have some breaking news out of New York: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has ruled on Windsor v. the United States, a case challenging Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act, and found a federal definition of marriage as one man and one woman violates the U.S. Constitution. "[W]e conclude that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act violates equal protection and is therefore unconstitutional," they wrote. Our legal eagle Ari Ezra Waldman will have a full analysis soon.

U.S. 1st Amendment rights distinguish between speech that is simply offensive and speech deliberately tailored to put lives and property at immediate risk. In one of the most famous 1st Amendment cases in U.S. history, Schenck vs. United States, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. established that the right to free speech in the United States is not unlimited. "The most stringent protection," he wrote on behalf of a unanimous court, "would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." Holmes' test — that words are not protected if their nature and...

A US court on Friday shot down orders to slap graphic anti-tobacco messages on cigarette packs, saying the government overstepped its authority by trying to "browbeat" smokers into quitting. In line with campaigns in several other nations, the United States planned from September 22 to require images on cigarette packs including a man smoking through a hole in his throat and a body with chest staples on an autopsy table. In a 2-1 decision, the US Court of Appeals in Washington said that the images planned on cigarette packs were not necessarily false but they went beyond "pure attempts to...

A U.S. jury on Friday said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd has infringed some of Apple Inc's patents, and that all of those patents are valid. The verdict in the high-stakes trial between the two tech giants was still being read in a federal courtroom in San Jose, California, and not all of the key legal findings had been announced.

A U.S. jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages from Samsung Electronics, finding that the Korean company infringed on some of Apple's valid patents. As for the countersuit, the jury found Apple did not violate any of Samsung's wireless standards or feature patents. Apple shares hit an all-time high in after-hours trading. Click here for the latest after-hours quote. The jury found some Samsung phones infringed Apple design patents but said the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 did not infringe Apple design. The patents the jury found Samsung violated included those for the "bounce back," scroll, zoom and navigate features. The...

PHOENIX – Don't have a decent command of the English language? Then forget about running for public office in Arizona – or even being appointed to one. In a decision with statewide implications, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that candidates who are not proficient in English cannot even try to become an elected or appointed official. The justices said the requirement, which has existed since territorial days, is justified.

A federal judge this week refused to void the Tennessee Democratic primary for U.S. Senate won by an anti-gay candidate the party has disavowed. --snip-- The petition contended that the party committed fraud because it could have kept Clayton off the ballot by meeting an April deadline to tell the state he wasn't a bona fide Democrat under the party's by-laws. The lawsuit also claimed the state's alphabetical arrangement of candidates' names on the ballot creates an unfair advantage for some candidates. The petition noted Clayton's 2008 Senate race, in which he lost to former state Democratic Party chairman Bob...

A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday refused to grant an injunction on a new voter identification law that Democrats say could harm President Obama’s re-election chances by unfairly targeting minorities, college students and others in a key swing state.

HONOLULU — A federal court Wednesday upheld Hawaii’s definition of marriage as one man and one woman. The court rejected a lawsuit that sought to tear down the state’s law defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman and Hawaii’s constitutional amendment that gives the legislature the power to maintain the timeless definition. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys defended the law and the amendment on behalf of Hawaii Family Forum, which the court allowed to intervene in the case in April. “This ruling affirms that protecting and strengthening marriage as the union of one man and one woman...

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has cleared the way for the Tuesday evening execution of a Texas death row inmate whose lawyers say should be ineligible for the death penalty because of his low IQ.

A Louisiana fortune teller feels vindicated after a federal judge struck down a city ordinance that banned fortunetelling, palm reading and astrology within the city limits of Alexandria. A Louisiana fortune teller feels vindicated after a federal judge struck down a city ordinance that banned fortunetelling, palm reading and astrology within the city limits of Alexandria. U.S. District Judge Dee Drell’s ruling Wednesday coincides with a magistrate’s findings that Alexandria’s city ordinance prohibiting such practices was unconstitutional in that it infringed on the First Amendment right to free speech. The ordinance itself not only prohibited psychic or Tarot reading for...

GRAND FORKS, British Columbia - Christian owners of a bed and breakfast in British Columbia have been ordered to pay around $4,500 in damages after they refused to rent a room to a homosexual couple. Brian Thomas and Shaun Eadie had reserved a room at the Riverbend B&B in Grand Forks in June 2009, but owners Les and Susan Molnar cancelled the reservation after realizing they were homosexual. “To allow a gay couple to share a bed in my Christian home would violate my Christian beliefs and would cause me and my wife great distress,” Lee explained in tribunal documents....

Oral arguments for summary judgment will be heard tomorrow in a Hawaii lawsuit that not only challenges the state’s constitutional amendment preserving traditional marriage, but also asserts the new “civil unions” law doesn’t go far enough. According to court documents, Hawaii was poised to become the first state in the union to permit same-sex marriage back in 1996, when a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling found the state had no compelling interest to limit marriage to its traditional definition. But while a temporary stay on the ruling was in place, the voters of Hawaii passed a constitutional amendment giving the state...