Recent Updates

  • Lesotho's PM fails to show in court to face murder charge

    Lesotho's PM fails to show in court to face murder charge

    U.S. Court Watch 02/17/2020

    Lesotho’s prime minister failed to show up in court on Friday to be charged with murder in the killing of his estranged wife, and police said he might have gone to neighboring South Africa for an undisclosed ailment.Prime Minister Thomas Thaban...

  • US court dismisses suit by youths over climate change

    US court dismisses suit by youths over climate change

    U.S. Court Watch 01/17/2020

    A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people who claimed the U.S. government’s climate policies and reliance on fossil fuels harms them, jeopardizes their future and violates their constitutional rights, potentially ...

  • Lawyers: Immigration court system is ‘red tape gone crazy’

    Lawyers: Immigration court system is ‘red tape gone crazy’

    U.S. Court Watch 01/15/2020

    Tucked in a windowless room of Chicago’s immigration court, one of the nation’s largest legal advocacy groups for immigrants runs a free help desk. Their pace is dizzying. Most days, there’s a line outside the door, with some cases ...

  • Court: Washington drivers must use turn signals to turn

    Court: Washington drivers must use turn signals to turn

    U.S. Court Watch 12/29/2019

    The state Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that drivers must use their signal every time they turn or change lanes on a roadway.Thursday’s ruling reverses a Court of Appeals ruling that said a signal is required only when public safety is af...

  • Protests of Indian law grow despite efforts to contain them

    Protests of Indian law grow despite efforts to contain them

    U.S. Court Watch 12/18/2019

    From campuses along India’s Himalayan northern border to its southern Malabar Coast, a student-led protest movement against a new law that grants citizenship on the basis of religion spread nationwide on Wednesday despite efforts by the governm...

  • Court to hear resentencing bid in Arizona death penalty case

    Court to hear resentencing bid in Arizona death penalty case

    U.S. Court Watch 12/10/2019

    The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an appeal Wednesday by an Arizona death row inmate who is seeking a new sentencing trial, arguing the horrific physical abuse that he suffered as a child wasn't fully considered when he was first sentenced. The appeal...

  •  California court invalidates law requiring Trump tax returns

    California court invalidates law requiring Trump tax returns

    U.S. Court Watch 11/18/2019

    President Donald Trump does not have to disclose his tax returns to appear as a candidate on California’s primary ballot next spring, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.The law, the first of its kind in the nation and aimed squa...

  • Court’s Conservatives Seem to Back Trump on Immigration

    Court’s Conservatives Seem to Back Trump on Immigration

    U.S. Court Watch 11/13/2019

    The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seems prepared to allow the Trump administration to end a program that allows some immigrants to work legally in the United States and protects them from deportation.There did not appear to be any suppo...

  • Gunmaker asks US Supreme Court to hear Sandy Hook appeal

    Gunmaker asks US Supreme Court to hear Sandy Hook appeal

    U.S. Court Watch 08/05/2019

    The maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal Thursday of a state ruling against the company.Remington Arms, based in Madison, North Carolina, cited a much-debated 2005 federa...

  • Brazil's supreme court votes to make homophobia a crime

    Brazil's supreme court votes to make homophobia a crime

    U.S. Court Watch 06/14/2019

    Brazil's supreme court officially made homophobia and transphobia crimes similar to racism on Thursday, with the final justices casting their votes in a ruling that comes amid fears the country's far-right administration is seeking to roll back LGBT ...

  • Kenya's Judges Uphold Laws That Criminalize Gay Sex

    Kenya's Judges Uphold Laws That Criminalize Gay Sex

    U.S. Court Watch 05/26/2019

    Kenya's High Court has chosen to uphold colonial-era laws that criminalize gay sex, dashing the hopes of activists who believed the judges would overturn sections of the penal code as unconstitutional and inspire a sea change across the continent.Thr...

  • Supreme Court set for case on racial bias in jury selection

    Supreme Court set for case on racial bias in jury selection

    U.S. Court Watch 03/29/2019

    Curtis Flowers has been jailed in Mississippi for 22 years, even as prosecutors couldn't get a murder conviction against him to stick through five trials.Three convictions were tossed out, and two other juries couldn't reach unanimous verdicts.This w...