Recent Updates

  • Despite rhetoric, GOP has supported packing state courts

    Despite rhetoric, GOP has supported packing state courts

    Top Stories & Analysis 10/20/2020

    Republican claims that Democrats would expand the U.S. Supreme Court to undercut the conservative majority if they win the presidency and control of Congress has a familiar ring. It's a tactic the GOP already has employed in recent years with state s...

  • Senate Judiciary sets vote on Barrett, Dems decry ‘sham’

    Senate Judiciary sets vote on Barrett, Dems decry ‘sham’

    Courts and the Judiciary 10/17/2020

    The Senate Judiciary Committee set Oct. 22 for its vote to advance Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court on Thursday as Democrats threw pointed objections but were unable to stop the Republicans’ drive to confirm President Donald Trump&...

  • High court nominee served as ‘handmaid’ in religious group

    High court nominee served as ‘handmaid’ in religious group

    Courts and the Judiciary 10/09/2020

    Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served as a “handmaid,” the term then used for high-ranking female leaders in the People of Praise religious community, an old directory for the group’s members shows.Barrett has thus far refu...

  • 2 justices slam court’s 2015 decision in gay marriage case

    2 justices slam court’s 2015 decision in gay marriage case

    Courts and the Judiciary 10/06/2020

    The Supreme Court, already poised to take a significant turn to the right, opened its new term Monday with a jolt from two conservative justices who raised new criticism of the court’s embrace of same-sex marriage.The justices returned from the...

  • High Court Won't Take up Ex-Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis' Case

    High Court Won't Take up Ex-Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis' Case

    Courts and the Judiciary 10/05/2020

    The Supreme Court is leaving in place a decision that allowed a lawsuit to move forward against a Kentucky clerk who was jailed in 2015 after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.The high court said Monday it would not take the cas...

  • Trump taps ‘eminently qualified’ Barrett for Supreme Court

    Trump taps ‘eminently qualified’ Barrett for Supreme Court

    Courts and the Judiciary 09/29/2020

    President Donald Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court on Saturday, capping a dramatic reshaping of the federal judiciary that will resonate for a generation and that he hopes will provide a needed boost to his reelection effor...

  • Ginsburg makes history at Capitol amid replacement turmoil

    Ginsburg makes history at Capitol amid replacement turmoil

    Courts and the Judiciary 09/26/2020

    Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg  lay in state Friday at the U.S. Capitol as the first woman ever so honored, making history again as she had throughout her extraordinary life while an intensifying election-year battle swirled over her ...

  • Supreme Court to stick with arguments via telephone, for now

    Supreme Court to stick with arguments via telephone, for now

    Courts and the Judiciary 09/17/2020

    The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will start its new term next month the way it ended the last one, with arguments by telephone because of the coronavirus pandemic and live audio available to the public.With 87-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ...

  •  Grandson of Harding and lover wants president’s body exhumed

    Grandson of Harding and lover wants president’s body exhumed

    Top Stories & Analysis 09/13/2020

    The grandson of U.S. President Warren G. Harding and his lover, Nan Britton, went to court in an effort to get the Republican’s remains exhumed from the presidential memorial where they have lain since 1927. James Blaesing told an Ohio court th...

  • Trump announces new list of potential Supreme Court picks

    Trump announces new list of potential Supreme Court picks

    Law Journals 09/11/2020

    U.S. President Donald Trump announced at the White House on Wednesday a new list of 20 more candidates he would consider nominating to the Supreme Court, which is widely seen as his latest effort to bolster support among conservative voters in the No...

  • Alaska court rules police need aerial surveillance warrants

    Alaska court rules police need aerial surveillance warrants

    Courts and the Judiciary 09/09/2020

    The Alaska Court of Appeals has ruled law enforcement officers cannot use cameras and drones for aerial searches of property without a warrant.The court acknowledged police have a legal right to fly over property, but the use of observational technol...

  • Alaska Supreme Court rules bonding plan is unconstitutional

    Alaska Supreme Court rules bonding plan is unconstitutional

    Judiciary News 09/05/2020

    The Alaska Supreme Court on Friday rejected as unconstitutional former Gov. Bill Walker’s proposal to use bonding to pay Alaska’s oil and gas tax credit obligations. The court, in a written ruling, said the plan, which was approved by the...