The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in four cases Friday in addition to the Maryland cross case. In Smith v. Berryhill the court will answer the question of “whether the Appeals Council’s decision to reject a disability claim on the ground that the claimant’s appeal was untimely is a ‘final decision’ subject to judicial review under [...]

The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the trial over the 2020 census inclusion of a citizenship question to proceed, over the objection of the Trump administration. The court issued a brief order rejecting the request of the Trump administration to stay the trial. The trial is set to start Monday in the US District [...]

US Chief Justice Roberts denied an application Friday to stay a climate change lawsuit against the government. This reverses a temporary hold of the case, Juliana v. US, ordered by Roberts last month. The government sought to stay the lawsuit until review of a petition for a writ of mandamus ordering the lawsuit dismissed. The government [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Maryland, on Friday allowed discovery to proceed in a case against President Donald Trump under the constitution’s emoluments clause, denying two motions by Trump. Trump’s legal team filed two motions in late September hoping to halt the case: a motion for an interlocutory appeal [...]

The US District Court for the Eastern District of California declared California’s SB 50 to be unconstitutional on Thursday because it regulated the federal government’s right to sell federal property in violation of intergovernmental immunity.  The judge wrote that under the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity “a state law is invalid if it ‘regulates the United States directly or discriminates [...]

The US Supreme Court agreed Friday to review a decision of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on a 93-year-old World War I Memorial that has been the subject of a separation-of-church-and-state controversy since 2012. The “Peace Cross” is a 40-foot-tall Latin Cross built in 1925 in Bladensburg, Maryland, to honor 49 [...]

A federal judge ruled Friday that the “exact match” requirement for voter identification in Georgia will not apply to Tuesday’s midterm election as it “places a severe burden” on prospective votes. US District Court Judge Eleanor Ross for the Northern District of Georgia imposed the emergency injunction to this specific issue, arising from a lawsuit [...]

Chief Judge Daniel Hovland of the US District Court for the District of North Dakota on Thursday rejected a request by Spirit Lake Sioux Tribe to prevent the enforcement of a voter address rule requiring a residential street address in order to vote. The challengers sought to enjoin the enforcement of the North Dakota Century [...]

Abraham Edgardo Ortega, the former executive director of financial planning at Petróleo de Venezuela, SA pleaded guilty Wednesday in US federal court to conspiring to commit money laundering. In a hearing in a Florida district court, Ortega admitted to accepting over $17 million worth of bribes as payment for allowing a ring of former Venezuelan officials and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered on Wednesday that boards of elections in Ohio must count 2018 midterm votes from certain Ohio residents who were previously purged from state voter rolls. In Ohio, voters who fail to cast a ballot for two years will have notices repeatedly sent to them. If they [...]