US President Barack Obama sent legislation to Congress on Monday that would give the president the ability to force Congress to vote on a repeal of spending provisions once they have been signed into law. Under the Reduce Unnecessary Spending Act of 2010, the president would have 45 days after signing spending legislation into law [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled unanimously in Hardt v. Reliance Standard Life Insurance Co. that fee claimants filing lawsuits under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) are not required to be a "prevailing party" in order to be eligible for an attorney's fees award under 29 USC s. 1132(g)(1) . The fee-shifting [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 7-1 in United States v. Marcus that the lower court had misapplied precedent interpreting plain error in an alleged ex post facto violation. The court held that the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had erred in its interpretation of two criteria in finding that a [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled unanimously in United States v. O'Brien that the question of whether a firearm is a machine gun must be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt and is not a sentencing factor to be considered by the judge by a preponderance of the evidence. The court held [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled unanimously in American Needle v. NFL that the National Football League (NFL) and its member teams are not a single entity that is exempt from rule of reason claims under Section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act . The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled unanimously in Lewis v. City of Chicago that a plaintiff who fails to file a timely challenge against the adoption of a discriminatory employment practice can later file a disparate impact claim challenging the application of the practice. The question was whether a plaintiff seeking to bring a [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in five cases. In Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America , the court granted a limited petition to decide whether a federal minimum safety standard , which authorizes automobile manufacturers to install a lap-only seat belt at the inboard seating positions of a vehicle, preempts a state [...]

Australian Defense Minister John Faulkner and Attorney General Robert McClelland announced Monday that the government will establish a new military court as part of a restructuring of the federal court system. The Military Court of Australia will be administered by the Federal Court of Australia and will have jurisdiction over Australian Defense Force (ADF) personnel [...]

The FBI on Monday released preliminary annual crime statistics for 2009, which indicated a drop in violent crime for the third year in a row. The FBI's Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report disclosed that violent crime in the nation decreased 5.5 percent, and property crime declined 4.9 percent, when compared with data from 2008. According [...]

BP is balking at an US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) order issued Thursday directing it to find an alternative dispersant to address the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The agency Saturday released BP's response to the directive ordering the oil company to find a "less toxic and more effective dispersant" to [...]