Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund filed an appeal Wednesday regarding a court decision that restricts a North Carolina county from opening public meetings with prayers calling on the name of a deity. In the case, Joyner v. Forsyth County, federal judge James A. Beaty ruled on January 28 that Forsyth County’s invocation policy is [...]
The United States Supreme Court ruled Monday that excessive force claims must be decided based on the nature of the force rather than the extent of the injury. The Wilkins v. Gaddy [docket] ruling says a defendant need not “show significant injury in order to state an excessive force claim.” The decision reinstates a North [...]
Former U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr is leaving his post as dean of Pepperdine University Law School to become president of Baylor University, both schools announced Monday. Starr, who has been dean of the law school for five years, made national attention when he investigated President Clinton during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals. He [...]
An Oklahoma County judge ruled a 2009 law that would ban abortions on the basis of the fetus’s gender and require women seeking abortions to fill out a survey is unconstitutional. District Judge Daniel L. Owens said Friday that House Bill 1595 by Sen. Todd Lamb (R), and Rep. Daniel Sullivan (R), covers too many [...]
The Obama administration announced Thursday it will pay out $1.25 billion settlement in order to resolve a decade long dispute by black farmers who say the Department of Agriculture discriminated against them in loan programs. “This is a very historic, emotional day for black farmers,” said John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers [...]
A South Carolina lawmaker has introduced legislation that would mandate gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state. Four-term Republican, Mike Pitts, introduced the bill earlier this month that would outlaw what he calls “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina. “If [...]
A Haitian judge decided today to release eight of the ten American missionaries, who have been held since Jan. 30 on accusations of kidnapping 33 children. “I am extremely disturbed that two of the missionaries are being left behind,” says Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, which has lobbied the Haitian government on behalf [...]
For nearly a decade, the American Civil Liberties Union has been trying to silence an Ohio judge from expressing his legal philosophy. The ACLU finds it wrong that Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese of Ohio display a small poster that compares moral absolutes with moral relativism. Judge DeWeese’s poster has on the left hand side [...]
During last week’s midyear meeting, the American Bar Association House of Delegated narrowly passed Resolution 10A that would “examine” the way law schools and law firms are ranked. The ABA specifically called attention to the methodology behind U.S. News Best Law Schools and upcoming U.S. News Best Law Firms. The resolution adopted by the ABA reads, “Resolved, that the American [...]
The GOP gubernatorial front-runner Wednesday said he would help amend the Illinois Constitution to ban same-sex marriages if he were elected. Sen. Bill Brady is the most conservative of the candidates and leads his rival Kirk Dillard by roughly 400 votes, a full week after the Republican primary. “I’m trying to give the government back [...]
