Recent Updates
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Man denies kidnapping charge in alleged murder-for-hire plot
Court Watch 06/03/2022A Colorado man pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court in Vermont to kidnapping a man who was later found shot to death in a snowbank in 2018 in what prosecutors allege is a murder-for-hire case stemming from a financial dispute. Federal prosecu...
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Gangs control who eats at Mississippi jail, monitor says
Court Watch 02/23/2022Gangs inside a Mississippi jail often determine whether other inmates receive meals, a court-appointed monitor testified in a federal court hearing. Elizabeth Simpson testified Tuesday that staffing shortages are so severe at Hinds County’s Ray...
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Democrats sue to overturn new Kansas congressional districts
Court Watch 02/16/2022Democrats sued Kansas officials on Monday over a Republican redistricting law that costs the state’s only Democrat in Congress some of the territory in her Kansas City-area district that she carries by wide margins in elections. A team of attor...
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Moats named to temporary seat on West Virginia Supreme Court
Court Watch 02/07/2022A circuit judge has been appointed to a temporary seat on the West Virginia Supreme Court after the resignation of Justice Evan Jenkins. Chief Justice John Hutchison on Monday appointed Alan D. Moats to the high court. Moats has served in the judicia...
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Court: Mask rule OK at Iowa schools with disabled students
Court Watch 01/29/2022A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the state of Iowa to enforce a law that prevents local schools from imposing mask mandates, except for schools attended by students whose disabilities make them more vulnerable to severe illness if they get ...
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Judge sides with Alaska attorney who alleged wrongful firing
Court Watch 01/21/2022A U.S. judge sided Thursday with an attorney who alleged she was wrongly fired by the state of Alaska over political opinions expressed on a personal blog. U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled that Elizabeth Bakalar’s December 2018 firi...
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Judge sides with Alaska attorney who alleged wrongful firing
Court Watch 01/21/2022A U.S. judge sided Thursday with an attorney who alleged she was wrongly fired by the state of Alaska over political opinions expressed on a personal blog. U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled that Elizabeth Bakalar’s December 2018 firi...
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Some Michigan counties pause jury trials amid COVID surge
Court Watch 01/18/2022Jury trials have been paused in some western Michigan counties due to a surge in coronavirus cases, court officials said Monday. Chief Judge Mark Trusock said all jury trials in Kent County 17th Circuit Court, based in Grand Rapids, were on hold unti...
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Partisan letters cost long-serving Alaska magistrate his job
Court Watch 01/11/2022The longest serving magistrate in Alaska is no longer on the bench after writing letters to the editor critical of the Republican party. Former Seward Magistrate George Peck wrote four letters to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News, the latest in ...
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Cobb County jury trials paused as COVID-19 spreads
Court Watch 01/05/2022As COVID-19 cases continue rising across the state of Georgia, the court system in one of its counties has decided to pause jury trials. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Robert D. Leonard issued an order Monday to cancel trial jurors through Jan. 21,...
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Judges send Tyson workers’ virus lawsuit back to state court
Court Watch 01/01/2022A federal appeals court has ruled that Tyson Foods can’t claim it was operating under the direction of the federal government when it tried to keep its processing plants open as the coronavirus spread rapidly within them during the early days o...
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Supreme Court rejects appeal over press access in Wisconsin
Court Watch 12/13/2021The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from a conservative think tank over Gov. Tony Evers’ decision to exclude the group’s writers from press briefings. The justices acted without comment Monday, leaving in place lower court rulings th...