Liberty Elementary celebrates vibrant Hispanic culture

Liberty Elementary School students wave the flags of different Latin American countries at the annual Hispanic Heritage Month presentation Friday. The girl second in line is waving the Puerto Rican flag, and students performed a dance in honor of the U.S. territory slowly recovering from widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.

How to Win Justice Kennedy’s Vote

Jeffrey Toobin : "The secret to advocacy before the contemporary Supreme Court is no secret: it's all about pandering to Justice Anthony Kennedy. With the other eight Justices evenly split between liberals and conservatives, lawyers in controversial cases spend most of their energy indulging the idiosyncratic passions of the rangy Californian who sits beside the Chief Justice."

Trump administration expands exemptions on contraceptive mandate

The Trump administration Oct. 6 issued interim rules expanding the exemption to the contraceptive mandate for religious employers, such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, who object on moral grounds to covering contraceptive and abortion-inducing drugs and devices in their employee health insurance. The contraceptive mandate was put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services under the Affordable Care Act.

New delay in Miss. law on objection to gay marriage

New court action has created a slight delay for a Mississippi law that, barring an intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court, will let government workers and business people cite their own religious objections to refuse services to gay couples. Opponents asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday to keep blocking the law, which has been on hold more than a year.

D.C. weighs gun law appeal, with fate of restrictions nationwide in the balance

D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine, center, will decide this week whether the District will appeal a federal court's ruling against one of its gun laws to the Supreme Court. D.C. officials say they will decide this week whether to ask the Supreme Court to review a ruling striking down the city's restrictions on carrying concealed guns - a choice that could determine the fate of similar laws in cities such as New York and Los Angeles and that is being closely watched by national gun-control activists.

Leftover Indian farmer settlement money plan left alone

One of the two men who objected to the arrangement said he plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and attorneys for the second man said they're considering it. The money is left over from a $680 million fund approved by President Barack Obama's administration in 2011 to settle claims by Native American farmers who said they were denied loans for decades because of government discrimination.

Supreme Court takes up key case about partisan redistricting

The Supreme Court is taking up a case about political maps in Wisconsin that could affect elections across the country. The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in a dispute between Democratic voters and Wisconsin Republicans who drew maps that have entrenched their control of the legislature in a state that is otherwise closely divided between the parties.

Sungaila in Law360 on New U.S. Supreme Court Term

Restored to a full bench, the U.S. Supreme Court is wasting no time jumping into the middle of several potentially game-changing cases, and this month's slate of oral arguments promises a series of high-profile clashes between some of the top appellate heavyweights around, Law360 reported in a preview of the high court's new term. Emerging as the clear headliner is Gill v.