By MATT APUZZO Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Bush administration assured the Supreme Court last December that Guantanamo Bay prisoners who felt they were unfairly being detained could have their cases thoroughly reviewed by a federal appeals court. Now, it’s not so clear.
When the first case arrived at the appeals court, the Justice Department [...]

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By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws.
In a splintered 6-3 ruling, the court upheld Indiana’s strict photo ID requirement, which Democrats and civil rights groups said would deter poor, older [...]

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By: Todd Knode
The Supreme Court earlier this week ruled that executions by lethal injection are not a cruel an unusual punishment, which would be prohibited by the 8th Amendment, partly because it is currently the most humane way to execute a condemned criminal. The plurality opinion concluded that it may be cruel and unusual [...]

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By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) _ A federal judge ordered a public school system to stop allowing in-school Bible giveaways, saying the practice violates the First Amendment separation of church and state.
”Distribution of Bibles is a religious activity without a secular purpose” and amounts to school board promotion of Christianity, U.S. District [...]

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By PETE YOST Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.
The unanimous decision comes in a case from Portsmouth, Va., where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a [...]

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By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Dwayne Giles complains that his former girlfriend’s statements should not have been used against him at his murder trial because the woman couldn’t be cross-examined.
Her absence wasn’t a result of a scheduling conflict. She was dead. And Giles killed her.
Three California courts that have considered Giles’ claim [...]

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By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ U.S. executions are all but sure to resume soon after a nationwide halt, cleared Wednesday by a splintered Supreme Court that approved the most widely used method of lethal injection.
Virginia immediately lifted its moratorium; Oklahoma and Mississippi said they would seek execution dates for convicted murderers, and [...]

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By MARK SHERMAN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ The Supreme Court has refused to review a 30-year prison sentence for a teen who was 12 when he killed his grandparents in South Carolina.
Lawyers for Christopher Pittman wanted the justices to examine whether the long prison term for a child violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel [...]

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By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A federal judge has ordered Rep. Jim McDermott to pay House Minority Leader John Boehner more than $1 million in legal fees in a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call.
Chief Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered McDermott [...]

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The Supreme Court today is hearing a case that really should be the last of its kind.  The legal issue being disputed is quickly disappearing because of technology.  Part of the dispute in question is ancient, curse words, and part of the dispute is last century’s technology, television.  Several Hollywood stars dropped the “F-bomb” during [...]

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