Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Texas is preparing to carry out its second execution of the week Thursday, putting to death a Dallas man who fatally shot his two daughters while their mother listened on the phone. If his pending appeals are denied, John Battaglia, 62, will be the third person to be executed in Texas in 2018.
One of two Wisconsin girls who tried to kill a classmate to win favor with fictional horror character Slender Man is being sentenced for her role in the attack. Attorneys for a former Dallas accountant condemned for fatally shooting his two young daughters while their mother listened helplessly on the phone hoped a federal court would keep him from being put to death.
In a victory for privacy rights at the border, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit today ruled that forensic searches of electronic devices carried out by border agents without any suspicion that the traveler has committed a crime violate the U.S. Constitution. The ruling in U.S. v.
A federal judge in California blocked President Trump's planned phaseout of the Obama-era DACA deportation amnesty in a ruling late Tuesday that could upend the negotiations on Capitol Hill over "Dreamers" future. Judge William Alsup, a Clinton appointee to the bench, ruled the DACA program legal - the first court to do so - and said the administration illegally cut corners in canceling it.
As far as court battles go, 2017 was a busy year on the voting rights front in Texas - and 2018 will likely be no different. After years of litigation, Texas and its legal foes - minority and civil rights groups and voters of color - begin the year waiting on the courts to rule on the fate of the state's embattled political maps and voter identification requirements.
Mr. Trump faced more than 100 judicial vacancies when he entered the Oval Office, including one on the U.S. Supreme Court. You might not know it from the sea of negative press coverage involving the White House, but President Donald Trump can tout some significant accomplishes as 2017 draws to a close.
It was a weekday afternoon and John R. Milligan was hopeful he would find time to fly his drone before daylight was exhausted. Fun with drones is among the fruits of retirement for the former judge.
Sen. Kennedy cited concerns with the nomination process leading to Duncan's selection and the paperwork submitted to Congress regarding the nomination as prompting his hesitation. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said he will support 5th Circuit Court of Appeals nominee Kyle Duncan, amid mounting criticism of Kennedy's hesitation from conservatives in his home state and Washington.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana plans to back President Trump's judicial nominee for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, said The Advocate, a Baton Rouge newspaper, on Thursday. Mr. Kennedy had expressed frustration earlier in the week with Kyle Duncan, who the president tapped to fill a vacancy on Louisiana's federal bench.
Don Willett testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on nominations on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017. Willett has been nominated to be United States Circuit Judge For The Fifth Circuit.
A federal district judge handed a victory to abortion rights groups Wednesday when he struck down part of a Texas law curbing access to the most common second-trimester abortion procedure, called dilation and evacuation. In a decision that will be appealed before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Lee Yeakel said the provision imposes an "undue burden" on women seeking second-trimester abortions in the state.
One of President Donald Trump 's judicial nominees, Don Willett, said Wednesday he was just kidding that time he compared gay people's constitutional right to marriage with a right to marry bacon. Willett, nominated for a lifetime seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, told the Senate Judiciary Committee he wasn't mocking same-sex marriage when he tweeted in April 2015 that he "could support recognizing a constitutional right to marry bacon" - a day after the Supreme Court heard arguments in the landmark marriage equality case.
Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett, one of President Donald Trump's nominees to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, appeared Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Senate Democrats grilled him over statements made on his popular Twitter feed. Willett appeared with James Ho of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, another nominee to the 5th Circuit, the New Orleans-based federal appeals court.
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to halt the scheduled execution of a Mexican citizen on death row in Texas for the slaying of his 16-year-old cousin. The high court rejected appeals from 47-year-old Ruben Ramirez Cardenas to stop his punishment for the February 1997 abduction and killing of Mayra Laguna.
An order last week by the Ohio Court of Claims prompted the township meeting in which Trustee Melanie Leneghan was the lone dissenter. Judge Patrick M. McGrath ruled that the township "presents no valid explanation for its failure to either comply with the court's entry of March 29, 2017, or seek a stay," following a ruling last month by the Fifth District Court of Appeals upholding the lower court decision.
Attorneys say in written arguments to the U.S. Supreme Court that the Confederate battle emblem on the Mississippi flag is "an official endorsement of white supremacy" and lower courts were wrong to block a lawsuit challenging the flag. The arguments were made in papers filed Friday by lawyers for Carlos Moore, an African-American attorney who sued the state in 2016 seeking to have the flag declared an unconstitutional relic of slavery.
A gay rights group is getting another chance to challenge a Mississippi law that lets government workers and private business people cite their own religious beliefs to refuse services to LGBT people. Legal experts say it's the broadest religious-objections law enacted by any state since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015.
Houston State District Court Judge Steven Kirkland has announced his candidacy for a seat on the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court, making him the first openly gay candidate to run for the state's highest civil court. Kirkland, a Democrat, is seeking Place 2 on the court, which is currently held by Justice Don Willett.
A Mississippi law enabling sweeping anti-LGBT discrimination in the name of "religious freedom" took effect Tuesday as a result of a federal appeals court decision throwing out a legal challenge to the statute. The law, House Bill 1523, was signed by Gov. Phil Bryant last year in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide.