Articles

High court rejects request to reinstate murderer Baer’s death sentence

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request by Indiana’s attorney general’s office to reinstate the death sentence of a man convicted of killing a central Indiana woman and her 4-year-old daughter. Monday’s decision leaves in place a federal appeals court ruling that threw out Frederick Baer’s death sentence because he had ineffective legal counsel. He’ll now be resentenced by an Indiana court.

Read More

Supreme Court sends bar fees case back for further look

The U.S. Supreme Court is telling a lower court to take another look at a case challenging mandatory fees lawyers pay to a state bar association. The case sent back Monday involves a North Dakota attorney who sued after learning that bar fees were being used to oppose a ballot measure he supported. The justices said the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals should reconsider the case in light of a recent ruling about fees paid to unions, Janus v. AFSCME.

Read More

Pro-Kavanaugh group received millions from anonymous donors

After President Donald Trump announced Kavanaugh’s nomination in July, the Judicial Crisis Network declared that it was prepared to spend as much as $10 million or more in a pro-Kavanaugh advertising campaign. It set up confirmkavanaugh.com, calling Kavanaugh “a person of impeccable character, extraordinary qualifications, independence, and fairness.”

Read More

US Supreme Court pushes deadline on Lake Michigan beach case

The U.S. Supreme Court won’t decide until next year whether to consider arguments from residents of Chief Justice John Roberts’ Indiana hometown of Long Beach over ownership of the Lake Michigan community’s shoreline. The case could have a ripple effect for public and private property rights across the Great Lakes states.

Read More

Trump team turns over written answers to Mueller’s questions

President Donald Trump has provided the special counsel with written answers to questions about his knowledge of Russian interference in the 2016 election, his lawyers said Tuesday, avoiding, at least for now, a potentially risky sit-down with prosecutors. It’s the first time he has directly cooperated with the long investigation.

Read More

Supreme Court certifies 42 senior judges for 2019

The Indiana Supreme Court has certified or re-certified 42 judicial officers as senior judges for the coming year. The high court re-certified 33 senior judges and gave eight trial court judges and one magistrate received initial certification.

Read More

Ginsburg, 85, hospitalized after fracturing 3 ribs in fall

The Supreme Court says 85-year-old Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg fractured three ribs in a fall in her office at the court and is in the hospital. The court said the justice went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight after a  Wednesday evening fall.

Read More

SCOTUS rejects net neutrality appeal

The Supreme Court has ended the court fight over repealed Obama-era “net neutrality” rules that required internet providers to treat all online traffic equally. The court on Monday rejected appeals from the telecommunications industry seeking to throw out a lower court ruling in favor of the “net neutrality” rules. 

Read More

Justices weigh $8.5M settlement with $0 to 129M Google users

The Supreme Court struggled Wednesday over what to do about an $8.5 million class-action settlement involving Google and privacy concerns in which all the money went to lawyers and nonprofit groups, but nothing was paid to 129 million people who used Google to perform internet searches.

Read More

Indiana law professors support changes to judicial conduct rules

Although they concede that more needs to be done, two Indiana law professors are applauding the recommendations on how to handle sexual harassment complaints made against the federal judiciary. Professors Charles Geyh and Jennifer Drobac, offered their comments as part of the public hearing to consider the proposed changes to the Code of Conduct for U.S. Judges and the Rules for Judicial-Conduct and Judicial-Disability Proceedings.

Read More

Trump administration wants delay in census lawsuit trial

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to postpone a trial over the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The request submitted to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Monday says a federal judge in New York should not move forward with a Nov. 5 trial exploring whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross improperly decided the census should ask about citizenship for the first time since 1950.

Read More