The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has said that the state of California has decided to postpone indefinitely the execution of condemned killer Michael Morales , initially delayed late Monday after two anesthesiologists refused to take part . Morales' death warrant had to be exercised by 11:59 PM Tuesday or state officials would have [...]

In Tuesday's environmental news, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in three cases that challenge the limits of the Clean Water Act (CWA) . The court heard consolidated arguments in Rapanos v. United States and Carabell v. US Army Corps of Engineers , challenges to the federal government's legal authority to regulate private land [...]

US District Judge James Spencer Tuesday denied a US Department of Justice request to hold additional hearings on the impact an impending shutdown of the BlackBerry wireless email network could have on government agency operations. A lawyer for plaintiff company NTP Inc. said that the order indicates that the judge seeks to end the case [...]

A lawyer representing Zacarias Moussaoui said Tuesday he would seek to compel the testimony of US Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) , recently subpoenaed by the defense as a witness to the extent of the government's knowledge of the identities of 9/11 hijackers before the terrorist attacks. Weldon last week requested that the subpoena be quashed [...]

The Oregon Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a controversial property rights compensation law, reversing a circuit court decision and declaring the law constitutional. The law, known as Measure 37 , requires the government to either provide compensation to landowners for reductions of property value caused by certain land use regulations or not to apply such [...]

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has said he will veto House Bill 1318 , a bill that would require voters to provide identification at the polls in order to vote. Noting that voter turnout in elections is currently dropping, he said the bill "places an unnecessary new burden on electors that will result in some losing [...]

The New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn could use the statute of limitations as a defense in two sexual abuse cases. In one case the plaintiff argued that he suffered abuse from 1963 to 1970 but it left him mentally incapable of bringing a suit before the [...]

The Serbian government on Tuesday denied earlier reports that Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic had been arrested and would be turned over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Srdjan Djuric, the head of the government's Office of Media Relations, said that the reports were false , calling the [...]

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari in four cases Tuesday. In Cunningham v. California, the Court will consider whether California's determinate sentencing law is invalid because judges are able to impose increased sentences based on their own findings of fact rather than those of the jury. In Global Crossing v. Metrophones, the Court will consider [...]

Three Ohio men have been indicted by a federal grand jury for planning terrorist attacks on US military overseas , according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. The men were recruited by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , who leads al Qaeda in Iraq, and were involved in recruiting other members starting in November 2004 to prepare for [...]