Supreme Court News

The US Supreme Court has refused to take up the case of a Georgia death-row inmate who says the courts have denied him an opportunity to prove his innocence even after seven of nine trial witnesses changed their testimony.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court of the United States. Just after 10 o'clock. John Roberts was working his usual shift. Chief justice of the United States. Three years on the job. His reputation? Incisive questioner. Good writer. Fast. Funny.

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices appeared reluctant Tuesday to expand protections of a landmark voting rights law in a case from North Carolina.

ATLANTA - The Supreme Court cleared the way Tuesday for a Georgia man to be put to death for killing a police officer, despite calls from his supporters to reconsider the case because seven of nine key witnesses against him have recanted their testimony.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A convicted rapist and murderer was put to death in Ohio Tuesday after failing to convince courts he would suffer unduly during lethal injection because he was overweight.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a Georgia death row inmate who says he is innocent of murder and who sought a new trial or a hearing to examine recently discovered evidence.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court is meeting to issue orders and hear arguments in cases about voting rights and warrantless home searches.

CINCINNATI - Lawyers for an Ohio death row inmate who unsuccessfully argued that his obesity prevents humane lethal injection filed an appeal Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, planned for next week.

HARTFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Connecticut's highest court on Friday unexpectedly struck down a ban on gay and lesbian marriage, making the New England state the third in the nation to allow full-fledged marriage for same-sex couples.

NEW YORK (AFP) - Connecticut on Friday became the third US state to legalize gay marriage, following a contested ruling by the northeastern state's supreme court.

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices regularly confront cases involving companies they own shares in or that employ a family member. The decision is easy — the justices have a conflict of interest that forces them to play no role in the case.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court appeared divided Wednesday over how to resolve a long-running dispute over whether environmental laws may be used to limit the Navy's use of sonar to protect whales.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Supreme Court began hearing arguments Wednesday into whether national security trumps the well-being of whales off the coast of California.

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court justices indicated Wednesday they would side with a longtime government worker who claims she was fired in retaliation after she cooperated with a sexual harassment investigation.

WASHINGTON - If William Kennedy had updated all his financial paperwork in accordance with his divorce decree, chances are his daughter would not have been at the Supreme Court on Tuesday fighting for the $402,000 she thinks should be hers.

Washington - The US Supreme Court is set to hear a case this week that will provide important practical advice to workers asked to participate in an internal company investigation of alleged sexual harassment by a senior manager.

PHOENIX - An anti-abortion group has won a long legal fight to force Arizona to issue "choose life" license plates, and the proposed new plates could be available to the group's members within several months.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal by EchoStar Communications Corp. against a judgment ordering it to pay nearly 74 million dollars to TiVo Inc. for patent infringement.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal for a new trial for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted in the 1981 killing of a Philadelphia police officer.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court picked up Monday where it left off last term, signaling support for efforts to block lawsuits against tobacco companies over deceptive marketing of "light" cigarettes.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Lawyers for the biggest US tobacco maker went before the Supreme Court on Monday to argue that Washington is to blame if anyone felt tricked into thinking that light cigarettes are less dangerous than regular smokes.

MOBILE, Ala. - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from an Alabama man who was sentenced to five years in prison when a judge wrongly thought the law required him to serve time.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court seemed closely divided as it heard arguments on Monday over whether tobacco firms can be sued under state law for deceptive advertising of "light" cigarettes, a case that could affect some 40 suits around the country seeking billions of dollars.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Supreme Court Monday refused to hear arguments for a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther accused of killing a police officer who has become an icon for anti-capital punishment campaigners.

The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear cases in which:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US Supreme Court Monday did not rule on whether it would hear arguments in the case of an African-American granted an 11th hour stay of execution for the murder of a white police officer.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Monday refused to consider a murder case in which a jury foreman read passages of the Bible to hold-out jurors who subsequently voted to impose the death penalty.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has rejected a plea by a convicted murderer to require that jury verdicts be unanimous in all criminal cases.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has rejected for the third time an appeal by anti-abortion activists to undo a multimillion-dollar verdict for their use of "wanted" posters to identify abortion clinic doctors.