A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has rejected a 7-year-old ban in New Jersey on the use of local roads by large rigs travelling interstate because it violates the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution. The emergency regulation, originally adopted in 1999 , prohibited double-trailer trucks and many [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Holmes v. South Carolina , a case in which it will decide whether state courts can preclude defendants from presenting evidence that inculpates others for their crimes in capital trials. Holmes, who allegedly beat, robbed, raped, and murdered 86-year-old Mary Stewart, attempted to present evidence that [...]

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced Wednesday that one of the five NTP patents that a court found was infringed upon by Research In Motion's (RIM) , manufacturer of the BlackBerry wireless device, has been found invalid on final review . NTP successfully sued RIM in November of 2002 on claims that the [...]

New Jersey is launching legal actions in federal and state court to keep a company from the United Arab Emirates from taking over US port operations in the state, Gov. Jon Corzine said Tuesday. Corzine said the New Jersey attorney general will file a complaint in federal district court while the Port Authority of New [...]

Pennsylvania's Dover Area School District has agreed to pay $1 million in plaintiff's attorneys' fees after a federal district court found that the school district's inclusion of intelligent design theory in its high school biology curriculum was unconstitutional. In Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District , US District Judge John E. Jones ruled that teaching [...]

The government of South Korea is seriously considering abandoning capital punishment, according to officials at the country's Justice Ministry on Wednesday. Earlier this week the ministry ordered a study to determine how abolishing the death penalty – which has not been used since 1997 – would effect the crime rate. South Korea has been considered [...]

New Haitian president Rene Preval said Wednesday that ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide has a legal right to re-enter the country. In his first news conference since his victory in the February 2 election, President Preval invoked Article 41 of the Haitian Constitution: "No person of Haitian nationality may be deported or forced to leave the [...]

A Rhode Island jury Wednesday found three former lead paint manufacturers responsible for creating a public nuisance that had contaminated thousands of homes and continues to poison children. The jury found Sherwin Williams, NL Industries Inc. , and Millennium Holdings all accountable, but cleared a fourth company, Atlantic Richfield . The jury finding, said to [...]

EU justice and interior ministers meeting in Brussels Tuesday approved a controversial data retention directive passed by the European Parliament in December designed to track down terrorists, paedophiles, and criminal gangs and calling for EU member states to store citizens' phone call and internet service data for 6 to 24 months without stipulating a maximum [...]

Trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday in El Paso, TX for Sgt. Alan J. Driver, a reservist accused of abusing prisoners at Bagram Control Point in Afghanistan . He is the last soldier in a group of 11 from the Cincinnati-based 377th Military Police Company to go up for trial in connection with the alleged [...]