- After court rules, California gay marriage fight may go on - June 18 2013 22:11
By Peter Henderson SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The fight over legalizing gay marriage in the most populous U.S. state may go back to the ballot box in 2014 with California voters asked once again to settle the matter even after the Supreme Court's expected ruling this month on the issue. Experts believe the top court is unlikely to proclaim a national right to same-sex marriage in its decisions. The court is set to rule on a challenge to California's ban on same-sex marriage and on a provision of federal law denying certain benefits for married same-sex couples. ... - Ark. AG seeks to uphold verdict against J&J - June 18 2013 17:22
Arkansas' attorney general filed a brief Tuesday backed by his counterparts in 35 other states asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to uphold a $1.2 billion fine levied against Johnson & Johnson and a subsidiary ... - Argentine court throws out key part of judicial reform law - June 18 2013 15:04
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Argentina's Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a key part of a judicial reform law championed by President Cristina Fernandez that would have mandated the election of members of the board that chooses federal judges. The reform - which Fernandez said was needed to "democratize the judiciary" - passed Congress last month and has been a lightning rod for criticism of the president as talk swirls of a possible bid by her supporters to seek a constitutional change to allow her to seek a third term. ... - Justices won't take abortion-doctor killer's case - June 18 2013 14:27
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a petition to review the case of an anti-abortion extremist who claims his constitutional rights were violated during the state and federal trials that sent him to prison for life for the sniper-style slaying of an abortion provider. - Supreme Court won't hear NY anti-abortionist case - June 18 2013 12:06
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has decided not to take up a petition from anti-abortion extremist James Charles Kopp, who is serving a life sentence for the 1998 sniper-style slaying of an abortion doctor in upstate New York. - US Supreme Court Set To Hear Mt. Holly Redevelopment-Discrimination Case - June 18 2013 11:51
- GOP Congressman Wants to Ban Abortion to Save Masturbating Fetuses - June 18 2013 07:26
In a preview of the many pronouncements to come on the floor of Congress as the House debates a legislative ban on all abortions after 20 weeks, allow us to introduce you to Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas), who believes that abortion should be banned earlier than the Supreme Court says it should because, in part, he knows fetuses feel pain. He knows this because he says he's seen male fetuses begin masturbating in the womb around 15 weeks into a pregnancy.
- Television Cameras in the Supreme Court? - June 18 2013 06:19
Calling for the Supreme Court to be more transparent is one of Washington's broken records. - Special Report: For top U.S. lawyers, case in Guam is rare prize - June 18 2013 04:01
By Joan Biskupic HAGATNA, Guam (Reuters) - Steven Levin lives alone on a boat docked off the coast of the Pacific island of Guam, about as far away from the U.S. mainland as an American resident can get. He has no wife or kids, no job, no phone or Internet service. But last year, the itinerant 64-year-old had something of great value to elite lawyers half a world away: a case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court. ... - Is the momentum for gay marriage real, or just media hype? - June 18 2013 04:00
Some time in the next week, either on Thursday or Monday, the Supreme Court is expected to hand down two big rulings on same-sex marriage. Around the time the high-court justices were hearing the high-profile cases in March, the media was dedicating a lot of ink and pixels to the subject — and the coverage wasn't evenly divided between supporters and opponents of gay marriage, according to a new study from Pew. - Support for gay marriage high in developed nations: poll - June 18 2013 03:05
By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Most adults in developed countries favor gay marriage or some type of legal recognition for same-sex couples and think they should be able to adopt children, according to an international poll released on Tuesday. With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to rule on gay marriage this month and France's recent decision to legalize same-sex unions, an Ipsos poll for Reuters showed that 52 percent of people in 16 nations favor full marriage equality for gays and 21 percent support legal recognition but not marriage. ... - The Unmentionable Injustice - June 18 2013 00:00
In the weeks before the Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of Obamacare, the country trembled with anticipation. No such eagerness is evident now — yet the court is again poised to rattle our world. The case of Fisher v. Texas could upend the system of racial preferences in use throughout American higher education. - Analysis: Companies may turn to courts on U.S. natural gas export push - June 17 2013 22:59
By Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. companies hoping to export natural gas are frustrated by lengthy delays and rule changes as they await U.S. Department of Energy approval of their applications and may turn to the courts to speed up the process. Both the slow pace of decisions on applications to ship U.S. liquefied natural gas abroad and the process for making those decisions could be challenged, legal sources say. Potential strategies could be laid out during a House of Representatives panel on Tuesday, which will focus on the current impediments to U.S. LNG exports. ... - Lawyer Cliff Sloan faces tough assignment: Closing Guantanamo - June 17 2013 18:09
By Steve Holland and Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cliff Sloan has represented Jon Bon Jovi's band in legal matters and argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Now, he has perhaps his toughest assignment: Helping to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Washington attorney was named on Monday as the State Department's Guantanamo Bay envoy, a central player in President Barack Obama's renewed push to make good on a 2008 campaign promise to shut the installation where the United States holds terrorism suspects. ... - Supreme Court: For right to remain silent, a suspect must speak - June 17 2013 17:57
Prosecutors can use a suspect’s silence during informal police questioning as evidence of guilt at a subsequent trial, the US Supreme Court said on Monday.