COVID may have seemed like the only thing that happened in 2020, but for Indiana’s legal community, the past year brought watershed developments that will be with us for years to come, many of which were touched directly by the pandemic. Here are the Top 10 non-coronavirus Indiana legal news stories as determined by consensus of the Indiana Lawyer editorial staff.
Read More
Thomas Kirsch II has been confirmed to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals on a 51-44 vote in the U.S. Senate. Kirsch succeeds Amy Coney Barrett after her confirmation to the United States Supreme Court.
Read More
The newest — and youngest — justice ascended to the nation’s highest court just shy of three years after her confirmation to the federal bench from the classrooms of her alma mater, the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Read More
Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic and mother of seven, has been a favorite of social conservatives. However, her confirmation is already inciting partisan fighting, coming just weeks before the Nov. 3 presidential election. Republican senators are preparing for a swift process with her hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee scheduled for Oct. 12 and possibly her nomination being sent to the Senate floor by late October.
Read MoreWhen Justice Amy Coney Barrett delivered her first Supreme Court majority opinion Thursday, ruling against an environmental group that had sought access to government records, it strayed from informal precedent that new justices’ first opinions be unanimous.
The Supreme Court on Thursday made it harder for longtime immigrants who have been convicted of a crime to avoid deportation. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion for a 5-3 conservative majority that ruled against a Mexican citizen who entered the U.S. illegally and has lived in the country for 25 years.
Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has delivered her first opinion, writing a 7-2 decision released Thursday in a case about the federal Freedom of Information Act, which Barrett explains makes “records available to the public upon request, unless those records fall within one of nine exemptions.”
The Supreme Court on Monday seemed likely to find that the judges who oversee patent disputes are not properly appointed, a case important to patent holders and inventors including major technology companies.
A coalition of former federal judges, including two from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, is urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Judge Merrick Garland as the U.S. Attorney General, describing him as having a “strong moral compass and abiding integrity.”
The United States Supreme Court is telling California that it can’t bar indoor church services because of the coronavirus pandemic, but it can keep for now a ban on singing and chanting indoors.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed cautious about siding with oil and gas companies in a case involving global warming.
On this, even President Donald Trump’s most fevered critics agree: He has left a deep imprint on the federal courts that will outlast his one term in office for decades to come.
Thomas Kirsch, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, will likely get one step closer to joining the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals today with the U.S. Senate scheduled to vote on the cloture motion for his nomination at 5:30 p.m.
The Senate Judiciary Committee held consideration of Thomas Kirsch’s nomination until its Dec. 10 meeting, putting the U.S. Attorney for the Northern Indiana District’s confirmation to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in a tight race against the clock.
Judge Joel Flaum of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals took senior status Monday, creating another vacancy on the appellate court that has welcomed four new judges and is preparing for a fifth since Donald Trump became president in 2017. Flaum has served on the federal appellate bench for 37 years.
The Supreme Court sounded skeptical Monday that President Donald Trump could categorically exclude people living in the country illegally from the population count used to allot seats among the states in the House of Representatives.
With coronavirus cases surging again nationwide, the Supreme Court last week barred New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by the virus.
California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Monday she will step down from her role as the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, giving up the powerful spot after public criticism of her bipartisan outreach and her handling of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings.
As many judicial nominees before him have done, Thomas Kirsch II told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee that he would apply the law as written but his explanations of how he would interpret statutes brought intense scrutiny from senators on both sides of aisle.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana Thomas Kirsch II is scheduled to appear before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday as he begins the confirmation process to fill the vacancy on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals created by the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on Thursday sounded an alarm about restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying they shouldn’t become a “recurring feature after the pandemic has passed.”
The Supreme Court seemed likely Tuesday to leave in place the bulk of the Affordable Care Act, including key protections for pre-existing health conditions and subsidized insurance premiums that affect tens of millions of Americans.
President-elect Joe Biden is championing the Obama administration’s signature health law as it goes before the Supreme Court in a case that could overturn it.
Abortion-rights groups are striving to preserve nationwide access to the procedure even as a reconfigured Supreme Court — with the addition of conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett — may be open to new restrictions.