US Supreme Court

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Convicts Win Right to Sue for DNA Testing

Supreme Court rules in favor of Texas death row inmate

(Newser) - Convicts can use a federal civil rights law to seek DNA testing of evidence, the Supreme Court decided yesterday. The court ruled in favor of Texas death row inmate Hank Skinner, who was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of his girlfriend and her two sons. Skinner—who was...

Marine's Dad: Court Has No 'Common Sense'
Dead Marine's Dad on Court: A Goat Has More Sense
westboro ruling
Mar 3, 2011 2:33 PM CST

Dead Marine's Dad on Court: A Goat Has More Sense

Westboro ruling insults troops, says Albert Snyder

(Newser) - The father of the dead Marine whose lawsuit was at the center of the Supreme Court's ruling on Westboro Baptist Church's right to protest funerals remains understandably ticked off at the "nut-job church," reports the York Dispatch . “We can no longer bury our dead in this country...

Gloating Westboro Vows to Quadruple Protests

Anti-gay extremists hail Supreme Court decision

(Newser) - The Westboro Baptist Church reacted to its Supreme Court victory yesterday with its usual amount of tact and good grace. Gloating leaders of the Kansas-based extremist church vowed to quadruple the number of protests at military funerals now that the court has ruled such demonstrations are protected under the First...

Supreme Court: Westboro Protests Protected

Pickets might be 'outrageous,' but covered by 1st Amendment

(Newser) - John Roberts' Supreme Court ruled 8-1 today that the controversial Westboro Baptist Church pickets outside military funerals might be "outrageous," but they're also protected under the First Amendment. The ruling upholds a reversal of a lower court's $5 million award to a dead Marine's father, who sued Westboro...

Supreme Court Judges Need Ethics Code: Professors

They ask Congress to clarify when justices should recuse themselves

(Newser) - More than 100 law professors want Congress to write a code of ethics for the Supreme Court to spell out for the first time when justices should recuse themselves from cases. The effort follows appearances by Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia at political events sponsored by the billionaire conservative...

Clarence Thomas: 5 Years Without a Peep

Justice's silence mystifies court observers

(Newser) - It is a strange anniversary coming up for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—on Feb. 22, it will have been five years since the justice has spoken during a court argument. The other justices average between six questions or remarks a case (Alito) and 25 (Scalia), and no other justice...

ObamaCare Ruling Keeps All Eyes on Anthony Kennedy
ObamaCare Ruling Keeps All Eyes on Anthony Kennedy
ezra klein
Feb 1, 2011 12:20 PM CST

ObamaCare Ruling Keeps All Eyes on Anthony Kennedy

Ezra Klein: Court's ruling will likely arrive in heat of 2012 campaign

(Newser) - Instead of ObamaCare, maybe the nickname for health care reform should be KennedyCare. As in Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court swing vote who could very well decide whether the legislation lives or dies when it makes it to the Supreme Court. After yesterday's ruling by a federal judge in Florida...

Lotto Winner Can Sue Cops Who Shot Him: High Court

Excessive force trial to move forward

(Newser) - The US Supreme Court ruled that a trial for two sheriff's deputies who shot a man at his Florida home should go forward, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Robert Swofford seemed to be a pretty lucky guy—he'd won $60 million in the Florida lottery two years before a tracking...

'State Secrets' Privilege Hits Supreme Court

Critics say government abuses privilege aimed at national security

(Newser) - The Supreme Court this week will, for the first time in decades, hear a case questioning aspects of the government’s oft-used “state secrets” privilege, USA Today reports. The federal government has used the argument frequently since 9/11, such as in cases of warrantless surveillance and prisoner interrogation; it...

Cops Bust Wrong Pot Party, End Up in Supreme Court

Accidental drug bust has odd consequences

(Newser) - The Supreme Court will today hear the strange case of an accidental drug bust. Police were chasing a suspect through an apartment building in Lexington, Ky., and heard him slam a door somewhere in a hallway—that contained two closed doors. Unsure which was the correct one, they smelled pot...

Plan in Iowa to Impeach Judges Is Dangerous
Plan in Iowa to Impeach
Judges Is Dangerous
OPINION
Jan 7, 2011 1:24 PM CST

Plan in Iowa to Impeach Judges Is Dangerous

Op-ed: Activists angry over same-sex ruling are going too far

(Newser) - Throughout US history, “no matter how controversial the case, no state or federal judge has been impeached for an opinion issued from the bench,” writes Bert Brandenburg in the Washington Post . But now, activists in Iowa want to impeach the justices who voted to allow same-sex marriage in...

Fight Brewing Over 'Anchor Baby' Citizenship

States plan to introduce different birth certificates for children of illegals

(Newser) - The biggest immigration battle of 2011 is likely to focus on how exactly an American is defined. A coalition of lawmakers from Arizona and about a dozen other states is fighting to deny citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants . They want to take the "anchor babies" issue all...

Scalia: Constitution Doesn't Prohibit Sex Discrimination

Supreme Court justice raises ire with 14th Amendment interpretation

(Newser) - The 14th Amendment's equal protection clause doesn't prohibit discrimination against women and gays, according to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. "Nobody ever thought that's what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that" when the amendment was proposed in 1868, the Reagan appointee tells California Lawyer. "If the current...

Kagan, Sotomayor Breathe New Wind Into Liberals' Sails

'Passionate' Sotomayor, bridge-building Kagan aren't shy during oral arguments

(Newser) - It's a bit like Mean Girls: Supreme Court Edition: After decades of the conservative tongue-lashings of Antonin Scalia dominating oral arguments as liberal justices sat on their hands, new kids Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan are unabashedly adding their voices to the melee. "Slow down from the rhetoric,"...

Gay-Marriage Ban Returns to Court in California

Prop. 8 case could set stage for Supreme Court battle

(Newser) - California’s ban on gay marriage gets another day in court: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments related to August's ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional today, likely moving the issue closer to the Supreme Court, the Wall Street Journal reports. There won’t be new evidence...

Supreme Court Takes New Campaign-Finance Brouhaha

Arizona law seeks to level playing field

(Newser) - In a potential revisit to Citizens United, the Supreme Court will take on an Arizona law that tries to level the playing field in campaign spending, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Arizona's Citizens Clean Elections Act provides state funding for candidates who agree to a certain spending limit—and more...

Justice Stevens Explains Shift on Death Penalty

Former supporter cites racism, politics, judicial activism

(Newser) - Former Supreme Court justice John Paul Stevens is making clear for the first time why he switched course on the death penalty in 2008, calling it unconstitutional, the New York Times reports. Writing in the New York Review of Books, Stevens, who supported capital punishment in 1976, reveals his revised...

Supreme Court Turns Down First ObamaCare Challenge

Kagan may not recuse herself from cases involving health reform

(Newser) - The Supreme Court has turned down the first preliminary challenge to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The decision to reject an appeal from a former Republican state lawmaker in California was no surprise because a federal appeals court has yet to consider the case. The high court almost never...

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear 'Citizens United' for Nonprofits

Won't consider looser donation rules on PACs

(Newser) - The Supreme Court today declined without comment a case that sought to extend Citizens United's lax spending rules to nonprofits, the Christian Science Monitor reports. SpeechNow.org, a conservative advocacy group, had sued the Federal Election Commission in an attempt to loosen restrictions on political action committees, which it likens...

Dems Slam 'Front Groups'—Then Use Them

Nonprofits' secret donors help fund negative ads

(Newser) - Democrats have hammered Republican “front groups” for paying for negative ads with secret cash—but they themselves are employing a similar maneuver, using money from nonprofits who don’t release their donors’ names to fund their own advertising, reports MSNBC . Dems are thus following Republicans’ lead in using a...

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