The New York Court of Appeals on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against bond insurance company MBIA alleging breach of contract brought by several of the world’s largest financial institutions. The lawsuit challenged the break-up of MBIA into two separate lines of bond insurance. MBIA, historically the largest guarantee insurer of municipal bonds and other public [...]

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 8-1 in Ransom v. FIA Card Services, N.A. that debtors who apply for Chapter 13 bankruptcy cannot use a car payment as a deduction from their repayment plan if the debtor has paid off the automobile. The opinion was the first authored by Justice Elena Kagan , who [...]

The Log Cabin Republicans on Monday urged the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to resume proceedings in their lawsuit against the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy . The advocacy group filed a response to a motion to delay that was recently filed by the Obama Administration in US v. Log [...]

The trial of anti-Castro Cuban militant Luis Posada Carriles began Monday on charges of lying to federal immigration officials that could carry a sentence of up to 60 years in prison. He is charged before the District Court for the Western District of Texas with two counts of perjury and nine counts of making false [...]

A judge for the 331st Criminal District Court of Texas sentenced former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) to three years in prison and ten years of probation Monday following DeLay’s November conviction on money laundering and conspiracy charges. Judge Pat Priest sentenced DeLay to prison on the conspiracy charge and gave DeLay probation [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday urged President Barack Obama make greater efforts to close Guantanamo Bay despite congressional opposition. In the press release, issued on the eve of the facility’s ninth anniversary in operation , HRW recommended that Obama should escalate efforts to prosecute Guantanamo detainees in federal court or return and resettle them [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Matrixx v. Siracusano on a pharmaceutical company’s obligation under §10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and SEC Rule 10b-5 to disclose reports of patients’ adverse reactions when the number of incidents is statistically insignificant. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the [...]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday renewed his support for the UN-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) , which is investigating the 2005 murders of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 22 others. Ban met with current Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain Prime Minister, in New York to emphasize the important [...]

The US Supreme Court on Friday granted certiorari in seven cases. In Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Co. , the court will determine whether investor losses need to be proven by a preponderance of the evidence at the class certification stage prior to full discovery in order for the class action lawsuit to [...]

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeals on Monday ruled that refusal by provincial marriage commissioners to marry same-sex couples violates § 15(1) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms . The decision invalidates a proposed amendment to Saskatchewan’s Marriage Act of 1995 that would allow for marriage commissioners to refuse to solemnize same-sex marriages in service [...]