Afternoon Briefs: Retired lawyer liable for son’s death; SCOTUS rejects homelessness case

93-year-old retired lawyer is found liable for son’s shooting death

On Friday, jurors in San Diego found a 93-year-old retired lawyer liable for $9.5 million in damages for killing his…

Dec 16, 2019 4:42 PM CST

Chemerinsky: Weighty matters load the Supreme Court’s next term

The U.S. Supreme Court justices return from their summer recess Monday to a calendar filled with potential blockbuster cases. Typically, about half the docket is set before the justices’ recess at the end of June, with the remaining cases taken between the beginning of October and the middle of January. But just based on what already is on the docket, this term could be filled with cases of great significance.

Oct 3, 2019 6:00 AM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Client convicted of tax attorney’s murder; 4th Circuit says Sessions was wrong

Client convicted of murdering his tax attorney

A former city council member in Cedar Lake, Indiana, was convicted of murder Wednesday for the fatal shooting of his tax attorney. Jurors…

Aug 29, 2019 4:38 PM CDT

Afternoon Briefs: Woman fined $100K for dirty pool and tall grass; county bar sued for pregnancy bias

• A Florida woman who was fined $100,000 for a dirty pool and overgrown grass is facing a lawsuit by the city of Dunedin. The woman, Kristi Allen, had moved…

Aug 9, 2019 4:27 PM CDT

Habitual drunkard law is struck down by full appeals court in closely divided opinion

An en banc appeals court has struck down Virginia’s habitual drunkard law in a closely divided opinion.

The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law is…

Jul 17, 2019 4:10 PM CDT

ABA supports use of traditional insanity defense in death-row inmate’s petition

In an amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, the ABA said it supports Kansas death-row inmate James Kraig Kahler’s petition to reverse the Kansas Supreme Court…

Jun 10, 2019 12:44 PM CDT

Alabama inmate is executed after a divided Supreme Court denies stay

An Alabama inmate who sought to die by nitrogen hypoxia was executed by lethal injection Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court once again rejected a stay request.

May 31, 2019 9:15 AM CDT

Solitary confinement conditions violated death-row inmates’ Eighth Amendment rights, 4th Circuit rules

Updated: A federal appeals court has ruled that the conditions of death-row solitary confinement that once existed in Virginia prisons violated the Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

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May 6, 2019 11:00 AM CDT

Federal judge sides with female inmates who filed class action suit over widespread sleep deprivation

No more 2:30 a.m. pill calls, 4 a.m. breakfasts or noisy overnight maintenance in jails in one San Francisco Bay Area county, a federal judge ruled Monday.

In a preliminary…

Apr 24, 2019 12:32 PM CDT

Full 9th Circuit won’t review decision barring prosecution of homeless for sleeping on public property

A federal appeals court has left undisturbed a decision holding that homeless people can’t be prosecuted for sleeping on public property unless alternative shelter is available.

Apr 5, 2019 9:18 AM CDT

Alabama men’s prisons are so unsafe they likely violate the Eighth Amendment, DOJ says

Understaffed and overcrowded men’s prisons in Alabama fail to protect prisoners from prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse and violence and fail to provide safe and sanitary conditions, according to a Department of…

Apr 4, 2019 9:27 AM CDT

Decision striking down part of sex offender law is ‘the talk of the prison,’ lawyer says

A federal judge in Chicago has found that it is unconstitutional for Illinois to hold sex offenders in prison after their release date when they are so impoverished that they…

Apr 3, 2019 12:41 PM CDT

SCOTUS majority focuses on execution delays in ruling against inmate with rare condition

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion Monday when a divided Supreme Court rejected a Missouri inmate’s claim that his rare medical condition would make execution by lethal injection a constitutional violation.

Apr 1, 2019 2:05 PM CDT

Denying sex reassignment surgery to inmate isn’t cruel and unusual, 5th Circuit rules

A blanket ban on sex reassignment surgery for prison inmates isn’t cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Apr 1, 2019 9:14 AM CDT