A senior federal trial judge in Omaha on Monday struck down Nebraska’s ban on same-sex marriage, finding that it was a form of discrimination that failed a tougher constitutional standard. District Court Judge Joseph F. Bataillon put his ruling on hold for a week, to allow the state to seek a longer postponement from the… Read More
Feb 20 2015
A lawyer seeks the Court’s mercy
Reprinted from scotusblog.com In an anxious plea not to be given a career-threatening punishment by the Supreme Court, a Washington, D.C., attorney — speaking through a high-profile Court advocate — argued this week that a frankly flawed petition he filed at the Court was the result of a difficult client’s demand to be the primary… Read More
Feb 20 2015
Government to move quickly on immigration case
The Obama administration plans to move next week to get a delay of the federal judge’s ruling blocking the new deportation-delay policy, the White House told news reporters on Friday. The challenge will be filed no later than Monday, according to the president’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, as quoted by various media. It was not immediately clear… Read More
Feb 17 2015
Federal trial judge blocks immigrant benefits
In a sweeping ruling that the Obama administration will quickly challenge on appeal, a federal trial judge sitting in a courthouse along the Texas-Mexico border has blocked the government from enforcing its three-month-old policy of allowing more than four million undocumented immigrants to remain legally in the country and qualify for benefits. Firm opposition to… Read More
Feb 10 2015
“Fisher II” reaches the Court
Lawyers for Abigail Noel Fisher, the Texas woman who has waged a prolonged challenge to the use of race in selecting entering students for the University of Texas at Austin, filed a new case in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. It is a renewed complaint that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth… Read More
Feb 4 2015
Alabama seeks same-sex marriage delay
State officials in Alabama asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening to postpone same-sex marriages in the state, after lower trial and appeals courts refused any delay. At present, a federal trial judge’s ruling striking down the state’s same-sex marriage ban is due to go into effect on February 9. The state officials asked the Justices… Read More
Jan 30 2015
Same-sex marriage issue grows at appeals court
A federal judge in Atlanta on Thursday cleared the way for a same-sex marriage case in Georgia to move to a federal appeals court, joining cases already there from Alabama and Florida. The Georgia appeal should come before the case is decided in his trial court, U.S. District Judge William S. Duffey, Jr., ruled.
Jan 26 2015
Oklahoma takes next step on executions (UPDATED)
The state of Oklahoma will ask the Supreme Court on Monday to delay three executions by lethal drugs while the Justices weigh a new test case, but it will also seek the option of resuming executions if the officials put together a new drug protocol, l…
Jan 23 2015
Judge strikes down Alabama same-sex marriage ban (UPDATED)
UPDATE Monday 12:11 p.m. Judge Granade has delayed her ruling for fourteen days to allow the state to seek a longer delay from the Eleventh Circuit Court. ————— The still-lengthening list of court decisions nullifying state bans on same-sex marriage added another Deep South state on Friday as a federal judge in Mobile struck down Alabama’s laws against such unions. U.S…. Read More
Jan 15 2015
Oklahoma executions allowed to resume (UPDATED)
(UPDATED 9:14 p.m. Oklahoma completed the execution of Charles Frederick Warner less than an hour after the Supreme Court had acted.)
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Nearly nine months after a widely criticized execution that went seriously awry in …
