Recent Updates
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Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman returns to court in drug case
Legal Events 05/05/2017Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is returning to a Brooklyn courtroom Friday, a day after a judge rejected his request to be allowed in the general inmate population. The 59-year-old defendant famous for twice escaping from prison in Mexic...
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Top Kansas Court to Revisit Death Penalty in Wichita Murders
Headline Legal News 05/04/2017The Kansas Supreme Court is considering for a second time whether to spare two brothers from being executed for four murders in what became known as "the Wichita massacre" after earlier rulings in the men's favor sparked a political backlash. The jus...
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Supreme Court says cities can sue banks under anti-bias law
National News 05/03/2017The Supreme Court ruled Monday that cities may sue banks under the federal anti-discrimination in housing law, but said those lawsuits must tie claims about predatory lending practices among minority customers directly to declines in property taxes. ...
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Trump 'absolutely' considered breaking up 9th Circuit Court
Legal Events 05/03/2017President Donald Trump, still chafing over rulings blocking his travel ban early this year, says he's considered breaking up the West Coast-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Asked during a White House interview by the Washington Examiner if he'd th...
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Court: Gay couple's suit against Kentucky clerk can proceed
Legal Events 05/02/2017A federal appeals court says a gay couple's lawsuit seeking damages from a Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue them a marriage license can proceed. The ruling revives an issue that pulled the state into the center of a national debate over sam...
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Judge W. Brent Powell Appointed to Missouri Supreme Court
National News 05/01/2017Jackson County Circuit Judge W. Brent Powell was appointed Tuesday to the Missouri Supreme Court, marking the first high-profile judicial selection by new Republican Gov. Eric Greitens. Powell will replace former Judge Richard Teitelman, who died in ...
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Not guilty pleas entered for accused in Canada polygamy case
Legal Events 04/29/2017The trial of two Canadian men from a fundamentalist sect that allows men to have multiple wives opened Tuesday with not guilty pleas being entered on charges of practicing polygamy. Winston Blackmore and James Oler each face one count of polygamy. Bo...
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Conservatives fault Arkansas court for halting executions
Headline Legal News 04/28/2017Arkansas' attempt to carry out its first execution in nearly 12 years wasn't thwarted by the type of liberal activist judge Republicans regularly bemoan here, but instead by a state Supreme Court that's been the focus of expensive campaigns by conser...
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Trump repeats criticism of court that halted 1st travel ban
Legal Events 04/27/2017President Donald Trump is once again taking aim at a federal appeals court district that covers Western states, saying he is considering breaking up a circuit that is a longtime target of Republicans and is where his first travel ban was halted. Yet ...
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Court document: Hawaii mother’s body parts found in freezer
Legal Events 04/26/2017A Hawaii man accused of killing his mother months ago stuffed her dismembered body parts in seven plastic bags in the kitchen freezer of the Waikiki apartment they shared, according to court documents made public Monday. Yu Wei Gong has been charged ...
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Court blocks planned executions, prompting state challenge
Headline Legal News 04/25/2017On the eve of what Arkansas officials hoped will be the state's first executions in more than a decade, they faced off with death-row inmates in multiple legal battles over whether these lethal injections would take place as scheduled. At the heart o...
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4th Arkansas inmate executed in 8 days lurches on gurney
National News 04/23/2017Arkansas executed its fourth inmate in eight days Thursday night, wrapping up an accelerated schedule with a lethal injection that left the prisoner lurching and convulsing 20 times before he died. Kenneth Williams, 38, was pronounced dead at 11:05 p...