Recent Updates
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Michigan court blocks 2-week absentee ballot extension
Court Watch 10/18/2020Absentee ballots must arrive by Election Day to be counted, the Michigan Court of Appeals said Friday, blocking a 14-day extension that had been ordered by a lower court and embraced by key Democratic officials in a battleground state. Any changes mu...
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Supreme Court to review Arizona ‘ballot harvesting’ law
Court Watch 10/01/2020The Supreme Court said Friday it will review a 2016 Arizona law that bars anyone but a family member or caregiver from returning another person’s early ballot. The law itself, however, remains in effect through the presidential election and unt...
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Lawyer: Case of Black inmate set to die reveals racial bias
Court Watch 09/23/2020The lawyer for the first Black inmate scheduled to die this year as part of the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions says race played a central role in landing her client on death row for slaying a young white Iowa couple and...
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High court front-runner hailed by right, feared by left
Court Watch 09/20/2020A front-runner to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a federal appellate judge who has established herself as a reliable conservative on hot-button legal issues from abortion to gun control.Amy Coney Ba...
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Appeals court keeps Flynn case alive, won’t order dismissal
Court Watch 09/01/2020A federal appeals court in Washington declined Monday to order the dismissal of the Michael Flynn prosecution, permitting a judge to scrutinize the Justice Department’s request to dismiss its case against President Donald Trump’s fo...
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UN-backed court to issue verdicts in Lebanon’s Hariri case
Court Watch 08/16/2020More than 15 years after the truck bomb assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in Beirut, a U.N.-backed tribunal in the Netherlands is announcing verdicts this week in the trial of four members of the militant group Hezbollah al...
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New Jersey's top court: Defendant must share phone passcodes
Court Watch 08/12/2020The Supreme Court of New Jersey ruled a defendant must turn over the passcodes for his two phones in response to a search warrant, opening the way for law enforcement to compel other defendants in the state to do the same.The court's majority decisio...
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Town court in southern Nevada closes due to coronavirus
Court Watch 07/07/2020A town court in southern Nevada was closed Tuesday after officials said several workers were exposed to a person who tested positive for the new coronavirus.The two judges in the Nye County community of Pahrump issued an order saying all staff member...
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LGBT activists see hard work ahead despite Supreme Court win
Court Watch 06/16/2020LGBT-rights activists are elated by a major Supreme Court victory on job discrimination, and hope the decision will spur action against other biases faced by their community despite Trump administration efforts to slow or reverse advances.In most sta...
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Black Lives Matter rallies start in Australia amid court ban
Court Watch 06/05/2020The first of several Black Lives Matter protests across Australia on Saturday got underway against a backdrop of possible clashes between demonstrators and police in Sydney, after a court sided with police that the gathering posed too much risk for s...
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Blind justice: No visual cues in high court phone cases
Court Watch 05/08/2020On the evening before he was to argue a case before the Supreme Court years ago, Jeffrey Fisher broke his glasses. That left the very nearsighted lawyer with an unappealing choice. He could wear contacts and clearly see the justices but not his notes...
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Kansas' high court rules for governor on religious services
Court Watch 04/12/2020The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Saturday that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it tried to overturn the Democratic governor’s executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people durin...