States

PETA asserts First Amendment right to receive communications from NIH monkeys

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asserting a First Amendment right to receive communications from macaque monkeys held in a government research lab.

Mar 10, 2025 8:57 AM CDT

Judge reduces Adnan Syed’s sentence, allowing him to stay out of prison

Adnan Syed, the subject of the Serial podcast, will be allowed to remain free after a Baltimore judge on Thursday agreed to effectively reduce his sentence to the time he had already spent in prison.

Mar 7, 2025 10:45 AM CST

Furious bar candidates square off with State Bar of California in wake of flubbed exam

Testimonies from examinees detailed delayed start times, rude proctors, technical glitches, grammatical and factual errors in the questions, rampant cheating, and a host of distractions—including proctors arguing and fellow test-takers screaming out of frustration.

Mar 6, 2025 3:36 PM CST

Parade shooter signed his trial waiver ‘Donald Trump;’ will it make a difference?

An Illinois man accused of killing seven people and wounding 48 others at a 2022 Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago pleaded guilty to all charges Monday, but he did not sign his name to a trial waiver.

Mar 6, 2025 12:25 PM CST

DC Circuit allows federal watchdog’s removal pending expedited appeal; US argued he had gone ‘rogue’

Updated: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Wednesday allowed the Trump administration to remove the leader of the Office of Special Counsel when it granted an emergency government request to stay a federal judge’s order pending appeal.

Mar 6, 2025 11:15 AM CST

Ex-Wisconsin justice who led election review should be compelled to sit for deposition in ethics case, motion says

A former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice should be compelled to sit for a deposition before a disciplinary review board, a lawyer for the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation argued in a Feb. 28 motion.

Mar 6, 2025 10:00 AM CST

BigLaw attorneys who are ‘frequent practitioners’ in federal district can’t be admitted pro hac vice, judge says

Two Baker & Hostetler lawyers won’t be able to represent a compounding pharmacy in a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, at least for now, after a federal judge in the Northern District of Texas denied their application to appear pro hac vice.

Mar 5, 2025 3:45 PM CST

Missouri judge suspended for ‘grossly untimely performance of his duties’ while deflecting blame

Updated: A Missouri judge has been suspended for a year without pay for taking years to issue some rulings while falsely telling judicial regulators and attorneys that he had delivered judgments to court clerks in unresolved cases.

Mar 5, 2025 9:23 AM CST

Supreme Court strikes down EPA rules on discharge of water pollution

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down rules regulating the discharge of water pollution, narrowing the landmark Clean Water Act in an unusual case that pitted one of the nation’s greenest cities—San Francisco—against the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mar 4, 2025 4:55 PM CST

Nearly 30 legal entities may leave Utah’s regulatory sandbox program after state tightens rules

At least 27 law firms and businesses may be leaving a Utah program that permits nontraditional legal services providers to operate in the state, including firms operated by nonlawyers, according to a published report.

Mar 4, 2025 1:45 PM CST

Lawyer accused of ghosting client had listed Irish pub as his address, ethics referee says

A Miami lawyer has been disbarred after an uncontested referee’s report found that he filed a notice of appearance while suspended, abandoned a client, and listed an Irish pub as his address with the Florida Bar.

Mar 4, 2025 11:08 AM CST

Justice Thomas argues college bias-response teams may chill speech in dissent to cert denial

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a First Amendment challenge to Indiana University's use of bias-response teams.

Mar 4, 2025 9:45 AM CST

Big Four accounting company gets Arizona approval to operate firm, plans to use AI to transform legal services

KPMG has become the first Big Four accounting company to own a law firm in the United States after Arizona approved its participation in the state’s alternative business structure program.

Mar 4, 2025 9:27 AM CST

As fallout rains down, California considers return to in-person bar exam

Updated: The flurry of finger-pointing and attempts at rectifying the fallout from the disastrous February administration of California’s new bar exam continues, as the State Bar of California considers returning to an in-person administration for the July exam, scrutinizes its vendor’s failed performance for possible breach of contract, and faces a potential audit.

Mar 4, 2025 9:02 AM CST

Federal judge sanctions 3 LGBTQ rights lawyers for ‘malignant practice’ of ‘judge shopping’

A federal judge in Alabama has sanctioned three lawyers for trying to get their cases challenging an Alabama transgender law assigned to a judge deemed more hospitable to their arguments.

Mar 3, 2025 9:44 AM CST