Tag Archives: Supreme Court

The Boy Scouts of America affirmed their policies barring LGBT youth and leaders from the organization by kicking a young man in California out of his troop because he came out as gay. Ryan Andresen looked like a model Scout. The high school senior had been a member of the organization since he was six years old, and had climbed the ranks and earned all the merit badges he needed to reach the level of Eagle Scout, the group’s highest …

The United States Supreme Court Wednesday heard opinions about how race is used as a factor in admissions at a Texas university, in a case that has the potential to ban affirmative action from the college application process. In Fisher v. University of Texas, the court will decide whether Abigail Fisher was improperly denied admission to the Austin-based school because she is white. The court has a recent precedent to consider: The justices ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003 …

Colorado, Oregon and Washington voters will have their say this November about whether their states should legalize marijuana for adult recreational use. Although the Oregon proposal is not polling well, the Colorado and Washington proposals have consistently polled above 50 percent for several weeks. At the 41st annual NORML national conference, activists working with the state campaigns shared their strategies, explained the effects on public opinion and revealed their concerns about the federal response in the event that one or …

Voters can gain some wisdom as to how President Barack Obama’s second term or Mitt Romney’s first could affect consumer law by looking at what type of U.S. Supreme Court justice each would appoint to any upcoming vacancies. Four of the sitting Supreme Court justices are more than 70 years old, and three will be over 80 by the time the next presidential term ends in January 2017. Currently, the court has five justices considered conservative, and four considered liberal. With …

Eyewitness Identifications Lead to Wrongful Convictions Convicting a defendant based on eyewitness testimony was once a sure thing for prosecutors. But recent evidence has shown eyewitness accounts to be extremely untrustworthy. An attorney for the Innocence Project says nearly 75 percent of the exonerations achieved by the group involved eyewitness accounts of the crime. Find Out More…   Police Don’t Need a Warrant to Track Your Cell Phone The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled police do not need …