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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from an online dating service that claimed it had the right to send unsolicited e-mails to thousands of University of Texas e-mail accounts. In 2003, the University of Texas blocked thousands of unsolicited e-mails sent to its users by White Buffalo Ventures, an Austin, Texas, start-up that specializes in establishing online-dating services for third-party customers. The site in question was LonghornSingles.com, which targets the university's vast student population. In February 2003, White Buffalo legally obtained a list of all of the university's "nonconfidential, nonexempt" e-mail addresses by filing a...

WASHINGTON, January 5, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - On Friday, January 6, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to decide whether to review a lower-court ruling that has blocked enforcement of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, a bill signed into law by President George W. Bush on November 5, 2003. The Court may announce its decision on whether to accept the case on January 6, or on Monday, January 9. In 2000, five justices of the Supreme Court, including soon-to-retire Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, ruled that the abortion right originally created in Roe v. Wade allows an abortionist to perform a...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed today to hear an appeal by a Georgia floor-covering company sued by current and former employees who allege the firm hired hundreds of illegal immigrants to suppress worker wages. The high court will focus on whether a company and its agents, in performing corporate duties, can be considered a racketeering enterprise under civil provisions of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The appeal was brought by Mohawk Industries Incorporated, a Georgia manufacturer of rugs and floor coverings. A trial court judge denied Mohawk's request to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the current...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court said Monday it would consider the constitutionality of a Texas congressional map engineered by Rep. Tom DeLay that helped Republicans gain seats in Congress. The 2003 boundaries helped Republicans win 21 of the state's 32 seats in Congress in the last election_ up from 15. They were approved amid a nasty battle between Republican leaders and Democrats and minority groups in Texas. The contentiousness also reached Washington, where the Justice Department approved the plan although staff lawyers concluded that it diluted minority voting rights. Because of historic discrimination against minority voters, Texas is required to...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court confronts a gay rights issue this week, in a case that asks whether law schools can bar military recruiters because of the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Each fall recruiters of all types jam law schools seeking top students in job fairs, receptions and interview sessions. Justices will decide whether universities that accept government money must accommodate the military even if the schools forbid the participation of recruiters from public agencies and private companies that have discriminatory policies. It is the first time that the court has dealt with a gay-rights related case since...

The future of military recruiting at Harvard Law School hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court prepares to hear oral arguments in the high-profile Solomon Amendment case Tuesday morning. In case you’ve tuned out three years of protests and press conferences on campus, here’s the issue in a nutshell: the Solomon Amendment, first passed by Congress in 1994, blocks federal funding for universities that limit military recruitment. It poses a dilemma for Harvard Law School, which requires all on-campus recruiters to sign a pledge saying they won’t discriminate against gays and lesbians. The military, which bars gays and lesbians...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will consider its first abortion rights case under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, with an unpredictable outcome because of the court's changing makeup. The stakes are significant in the dispute over a New Hampshire law requiring minors to tell a parent before ending a pregnancy, although the case does not challenge the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that said abortion is a fundamental constitutional right. The outcome is likely to signal where the high court is headed on an issue that has been emotional and divisive among the justices and around the country....

WASHINGTONThe Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with a New Hampshire law that requires a parent to be told before a daughter ends her pregnancy, with no hint the justices were ready for a dramatic retreat on abortion rights under their new chief. The court is dealing with its first abortion case in five years, as well as the first in the brief tenure of Chief Justice John Roberts. The case does not challenge the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that declared abortion a fundamental constitutional right, and the justices seemed to be seeking a compromise that would avoid breaking new ground....

Trio of Oregon cases before high courtTaking arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court carries high pricePETER WONGStatesman JournalNovember 25, 2005Oregon will have the rare distinction of having the U.S. Supreme Court hear three cases originating in the state within a year.------snip----------More than a month ago, in a case that has drawn wide attention, five lawyers from the state Department of Justice defended Oregon's assisted-suicide law against a challenge from the federal Department of Justice.------snip----------On Dec. 7, lawyers will argue for the state in a death-penalty case.------snip----------In the spring, lawyers will argue about the rights of foreigners in criminal cases that...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2005 – A case concerning colleges' right to receive federal funding but bar military recruiters from campuses because of disagreements over homosexual policy is scheduled to be argued before the Supreme Court this session. The 1996 "Solomon Amendment" provides for the government to deny federal funding to institutions of higher learning if they prevent ROTC or military recruitment on campus. In December, the court will hear a case arguing that the law impinges on the free speech rights of colleges and law schools. "The Solomon Amendment establishes that for military recruiting, which is an important public function,...

WASHINGTON - Newly installed Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday sharply questioned a lawyer arguing for preservation of Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, noting the federal government's tough regulation of addictive drugs. The 50-year-old Roberts, hearing his first major oral argument since succeeding William H. Rehnquist at the helm of the court, seemed skeptical of the Oregon law, and the outcome of this case was as unclear after the argument as before. At the outset, Roberts laid a barrage of questions on Oregon Senior Assistant Attorney General Robert Atkinson before he could finish his first sentence. "It's a tough case," noted...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly installed Chief Justice John Roberts on Wednesday sharply questioned a lawyer arguing for preservation of Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, noting the federal government's tough regulation of addictive drugs. The 50-year-old Roberts, hearing his first oral argument since succeeding William H. Rehnquist at the helm of the court, seemed skeptical of the Oregon law, and the outcome of this case was as unclear after the argument as before. At the outset, Roberts laid a barrage of questions on Oregon Senior Assistant Attorney General Robert Atkinson before he could finish his first sentence. "It's a tough case," signed...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court will revisit the emotionally charged issue of physician-assisted suicide in a test of the federal government's power to block doctors from helping terminally ill patients end their lives. Oregon is the only state that lets dying patients obtain lethal doses of medication from their doctors, although other states may pass laws of their own if the high court rules against the federal government. Voters in Oregon have twice endorsed doctor-assisted suicide, but the Bush administration has aggressively challenged the state law. The case, the first major one to come before the new chief justice, John...

WASHINGTON — The first highly controversial case of the new Supreme Court season was argued on Wednesday, complete with Americans on either side of the issue protesting on the marble steps outside.

"If one state can say it's legal for doctors to prescribe morphine to make people feel better, or to prescribe steroids for bodybuilding, doesn't that undermine the uniformity of the federal law and make enforcement impossible?" he asked

High Court to Hear Dispute on Worker Pay First Arguments Before New Chief Justice Will Be About Wages; Social Issues Will Follow By JESS BRAVIN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL October 3, 2005 WASHINGTON -- The first test of Chief Justice John Roberts's legal philosophy won't come on social issues -- such as abortion, school prayer or gay marriage -- that dominate today's judicial politics. Instead, the case argued when the Supreme Court term begins today will test the new chief justice's leanings on a high-priority issue for business. The case is something of a throwback to the...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court opens its term Monday with a young new leader, a veteran justice eager to retire and a calendar packed with contentious issues such as abortion, assisted suicide and capital punishment. For the first time in 33 years, William H. Rehnquist will not be on the court. The 80-year-old chief justice died Sept. 3. Every day since, the flags in front of the court have flown at half-staff. The Rehnquist court becomes the Roberts court following a brief tradition-rich ceremony for John Roberts, who learned about the inner workings of the place a quarter-century ago while...

Even without a change in membership, the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court term would be lively, with cases already on the docket about abortion, assisted suicide, military recruiters, campaign finance and claims of innocence on death row. But with the arrival of Chief Justice John Roberts and the soon-to-be-named replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the term that starts Monday could prove to be a decisive one for the direction of the court. "It's got new members and big cases, and the combination of those things will make it historic,'' said Michael Gerhardt, a constitutional law professor at the University...

THE U.S. SUPREME Court set a kind of record for leaving key issues unsettled in its 2004 rulings in three cases involving detentions in the "war on terror." The only part of the litigation eventually settled was the status of U.S.-born Yaser Esam Hamdi, captured as an enemy fighter in Afghanistan. He was allowed to rejoin his family in Saudi Arabia after giving up his American citizenship. No such luck so far for hundreds of other prisoners who seemed at the time to benefit from the high court's stance that "a state of war is not a blank check for...

WASHINGTON - Chief Justice John Roberts, meet party girl Anna Nicole Smith. While that might provide the most entertainment, life-and-death issues will captivate the Supreme Court when it convenes its 2005-2006 term on Monday. Justices will tackle the death penalty and DNA. They will weigh physician-assisted suicide and impediments to abortion. They will review law schools that resist Pentagon recruiting, and states that lure businesses with tax breaks. The court's challenges, moreover, will extend beyond the strict legal questions embodied in the 48 cases that justices have already agreed to hear. Several dozen additional cases will fill out the court's...