The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday in Paroline v. United States that a victim of child pornography may be entitled to restitution under 18 USC § 2259 but only to the extent the defendant’s offense proximately caused the victim’s losses. Doyle Paroline was convicted of possessing child pornography, including two childhood images of “Amy” [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in White v. Woodall that because the Supreme Court of Kentucky’s rejection of Robert Keith Woodall’s Fifth Amendment claim was not objectively unreasonable, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit erred in granting the writ of habeas corpus. The case arose after Woodall pleaded guilty to capital [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases Tuesday. In Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus the court heard arguments on whether an Ohio law that imposes penalties for making knowingly false statements about political candidates violates the right to free speech. The Ohio law makes it a criminal offense to make knowingly [...]

The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday stayed the execution of two death row prisoners who have challenged the legality of the state’s lethal injection drugs. The stay comes just one day before one of the inmates, Clayton Lockett, was to be executed and one week before Charles Warner was scheduled to die. A joint request [...]

Gay rights group Lambda Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging Georgia’s ban on same-sex marriage. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of a widow and three same-sex couples . The widow, who married her spouse in New York last year, is seeking to [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Tuesday in Navarette v. California that the traffic stop in this particular case was permissible under the Fourth Amendment because the officer had reasonable suspicion that the driver was intoxicated. In 2008 police officers stopped Lorenzo Prado Navarette based on a 911 tip that the driver ran her [...]

Judge Anna Nekryach of the Babushkinsky district court on Tuesday found opposition leader Alexei Navalny guilty of slander. A Moscow City Duma Deputy, Aleksei Lisovenko filed the lawsuit after Navalny allegedly posed about Lisovenko on his Twitter account , calling the deputy a drug addict. Nekryach found that the comment constituted slander and ordered Navalny [...]

A Saudi Arabian court on Monday sentenced three people to death for their roles in attacks on expatriate resident compounds in Riyadh in May 2003, bringing the total death sentences to eight. Another 77 people have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to 35 years by the court, which was created to handle [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-2 Tuesday in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action that the judiciary lacks the authority to overturn a Michigan voter initiative that amended the state’s constitution to prohibit race- and sex-based discrimination or preferential treatment in public university admissions decisions. The case concerns Proposal 2 , a 2006 Michigan [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is expanding its criteria for recommending clemency to federal prisoners convicted of certain drug crimes. Holder’s announcement recapped the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA) that President Barack Obama signed into law in 2010, which addresses sentencing disparities for people convicted of crimes involving [...]