The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the state’s Medical Use of Marijuana Act (MUMA) does not prohibit private employers from firing an employee who fails a mandatory drug screening. The plaintiff, recorded as Jane Roe to protect her identity, argued that MUMA required her employer to exempt her from its drug test policy [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 6-3 in Sykes v. United States that fleeing after being ordered to stop is a violent felony within the meaning of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) . Delivering the opinion for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy analyzed the case by comparing the violence in running to the [...]
A Munich court on Thursday denied Spain’s request to extradite retired US autoworker and convicted Nazi guard John Demjanjuk to stand trial in Madrid. The Spanish National Court in January sought Demjanjuk’s extradition so he could stand trial on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity relating to his alleged involvement with the Flossenburg concentration [...]
Alabama Governor Robert Bentley on Thursday signed into law an immigration bill expanding restrictions on undocumented immigrants. The bill, passed by the Alabama legislature last week, includes measures comparable to those passed in Arizona last year. The bill permits police officers to detain a person stopped for a traffic violation if the officer has “reasonable [...]
The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled unanimously in Talk America Inc. v. Michigan Bell Telephone Co. that a state utility commission may require an incumbent carrier like Bell Telephone to provide connectivity to its network for a small, independent carrier, without hindrance. The Court agreed with the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) interpretation of the [...]
The US Supreme Court Thursday ruled in DePierre v. United States that the harsher sentences under a federal anti-drug statute for “cocaine base” applied to more than just “crack cocaine,” but to all forms of cocaine in its basic form. All the justices joined in the opinion written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor rejecting an argument [...]
The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled against Microsoft Thursday in Microsoft v. i4i Limited Partnership , holding that a patent will be invalidated only if the challenging party meets the “clear and convincing evidence” standard. The Supreme Court affirmed a US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling, which held that a challenger to [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay Thursday condemned reported violence by Syria against its own people, calling on it to allow UN investigators into the country . Pillay said that reports show the number killed since protests began last March has exceeded 1,100 with up to 10,000 in detention, noting that at least [...]
The Brazilian Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Wednesday that it would not extradite former Italian guerrilla Cesare Battisti back to Italy and said that Italy did not have standing to challenge the decision. The court upheld last year’s decision by former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva against extradition and ordered that Battisti be released [...]
The Iowa House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 54 – 37 in favor of a bill that would effectively ban abortions after 18 weeks of pregnancy, making it the most restrictive abortion law in the country. The Iowa House passed a late-term abortion ban in April , but the Senate decided not to vote on [...]
