US v. Philip Morris, United States District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit, August 17, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Matthew Lee v. Ruth Ann Minner, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, August 16, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Thursday sided with several states and the federal government when it found that energy company Cinergy Corp. should have gone through a federal permit process prior to increasing their pollutant output after modernizing their facilities. The case was originally filed under the Clinton administration in [...]

US Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Thursday that the confessions of three Rwandan rebels charged with killing two American tourists in Uganda were achieved through torture and coercion and ruled that the confessions are inadmissible in court. The rebels, who according to experts displayed [...]

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the tobacco industry is liable for civil racketeering charges filed against the industry by the DOJ in 1999. Federal prosecutors filed suit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) , claiming that tobacco companies conspired to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. During the case, [...]

A New Jersey state court on Thursday vacated a November verdict finding Merck not liable for the heart attack of Frederick Humeston, who suffered a heart attack in September 2001 after taking Merck's painkiller Vioxx for less than 18 months. The New Jersey Superior Court judge who presided over the trial vacated the verdict after [...]

The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday struck down as unconstitutional a state voting law that lists the election candidate of the winning party in the preceding state general election first on the ballot. The New Hampshire voting statute provides: "he first column shall contain the names of the candidates of the party which received [...]

President Bush on Thursday signed into law the Pension Protection Act of 2006 , which he called the "most sweeping reform" of US pension law since the enactment of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in 1974. The bill, passed by the Senate in August and by the House of Representatives in July, is [...]

A federal jury sitting in Raleigh, North Carolina on Thursday found David Passaro guilty of abusing a detainee in Afghanistan . The jury convicted Passaro on three misdemeanor counts of simple assault and one felony count of assault resulting in bodily injury, after prosecutors charged him with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon [...]

Delaware must make their public documents available to residents of other states, according to a ruling handed down Wednesday by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Delaware's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as written prevents non-residents from accessing Delaware public records, but the federal appeals court ruled that the statute violates the [...]