Topics: Landmark Court Cases - 79 results

  Would allowing students on college campuses to carry guns save lives? Lawyers.com reporter Greg Presto explores this issue from the University of Maryland, College Park. Currently, the university bans concealed weapons on campus, a public land. But Maryland state law allows guns to be carried on public land. This means the university rule could be overturned. Greg interviews David Burnett, spokesperson of Students for Concealed Carry. Last year this group convinced the Colorado Supreme Court to rule that students …

  From the Lawyers.com newsroom, Editor-in-Chief Larry Bodine explains how a D.C. appellate court is jeopardizing workplace rights. In Noel Canning v. NLRB, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that President Obama’s three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board were unconstitutional. The court vacated an unfair labor practice ruling, on the grounds that the NLRB lacked a legitimate quorum when it issued its decision. The National Labor Relations Board protects worker’s rights. As one …

A Supreme Court case over a lawsuit brought by agribusiness giant Monsanto against a farmer for the use of patented seeds could have deep intellectual property ramifications for the nation’s burgeoning biotechnology sector. At question is whether the patent Monsanto holds over their “Roundup Ready” soy seeds extends to the self-replicated progeny of those seeds. The high court will hear arguments in Bowman v. Monsanto sometime during the current term. Normally, purchasers of Monsanto’s famous soy seeds, which are genetically …

For the second time this year, a federal appeals court has deemed that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. Today the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the 1996 law barring federal recognition of same-sex marriages is in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees equal protection under the law. In June the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit in Boston handed down a similar ruling in a separate …

A gunshot victim will be allowed to sue the manufacturer and distributor of the pistol that was used to shoot him, a New York appeals court ruled last week. The decision marks the first time such a lawsuit has been permitted since a 2005 federal law granted broad legal immunities to the firearm industry. Daniel Williams was  a high school basketball star in Buffalo with dreams of going on to play at a Division 1 college. The dream turned to nightmare …