The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a female death row inmate who said fetal alcohol syndrome should have been considered by the state court that reviewed her sentence.
The beautifully ornate Catholic church in the nation's capital has seen its share of history and controversy.
A century ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes described Supreme Court deliberations among his colleagues as "nine scorpions in a bottle," fiercely protective of their own agendas and power bases.
The Supreme Court nomination of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor gained even more momentum Wednesday as two more Republican senators announced their support for the country's first Hispanic high-court pick.
The full Senate began deliberations Tuesday afternoon on the nomination of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
Two key Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced their opposition to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Friday, a further sign the party's conservative base is uniting against President Obama's first high court pick.
Questions surrounding Judge Sonia Sotomayor's past speeches generated more controversy in the final day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings Thursday, as Democrats again called her a mainstream jurist and Republicans portrayed her as a liberal activist likely to legislate from the bench.
So what does the U.S. Supreme Court gain and lose by exchanging Justice David Souter for Sonia Sotomayor?
Many have noted Judge Sonia Sotomayor's personal story -- from being raised by a single mother in a public housing project in the Bronx to top honors at Princeton and Yale and now, potentially the Supreme Court -- will give her a perspective that other justices lack.
It is likely that Judge Sotomayor will face some questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week about her 2001 "wise Latina" remark.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from a female death row inmate who said fetal alcohol syndrome should have been considered by the state court that reviewed her sentence.
The beautifully ornate Catholic church in the nation's capital has seen its share of history and controversy.
A century ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes described Supreme Court deliberations among his colleagues as "nine scorpions in a bottle," fiercely protective of their own agendas and power bases.
The Supreme Court nomination of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor gained even more momentum Wednesday as two more Republican senators announced their support for the country's first Hispanic high-court pick.
The full Senate began deliberations Tuesday afternoon on the nomination of federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to become the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice.
Two key Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee announced their opposition to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Friday, a further sign the party's conservative base is uniting against President Obama's first high court pick.
Questions surrounding Judge Sonia Sotomayor's past speeches generated more controversy in the final day of her Supreme Court confirmation hearings Thursday, as Democrats again called her a mainstream jurist and Republicans portrayed her as a liberal activist likely to legislate from the bench.
So what does the U.S. Supreme Court gain and lose by exchanging Justice David Souter for Sonia Sotomayor?
Many have noted Judge Sonia Sotomayor's personal story -- from being raised by a single mother in a public housing project in the Bronx to top honors at Princeton and Yale and now, potentially the Supreme Court -- will give her a perspective that other justices lack.
It is likely that Judge Sotomayor will face some questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week about her 2001 "wise Latina" remark.
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor said Monday that her hotly disputed judicial philosophy is, in fact, quite simple: Remain faithful to the law.
If Sonia Sotomayor fulfills her long-held dream to sit on the Supreme Court, she would have the prestige of joining the highest court in the land, lifetime job security and a public forum as the first Hispanic on that bench.
Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been given the American Bar Association's highest rating for "professional qualification," a political boost less than a week before her confirmation hearings begin in the Senate.
Newly released documents from Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's service on the board of a Puerto Rican civil rights organization show the group opposed Robert Bork's nomination to the high court more than two decades ago.
The U.S. Supreme Court sided Monday with white firefighters in a workplace discrimination lawsuit, a divisive case over the role race should play in job advancement.
Monday, in the much anticipated New Haven, Connecticut, firefighters' case, the Supreme Court reversed an opinion joined by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee.
The U.S. Supreme Court delayed a decision on whether to accept an appeal from a Georgia death row inmate who has gained international support for his claims of innocence in the the murder of a Savannah police officer two decades ago.
An English-language immersion class failed Miriam Flores, her mother contended.
The Supreme Court compromised Monday in a major voting rights case, finding that a powerful enforcement tool in the landmark Voting Rights Act was being applied too broadly.
A convicted rapist seeking to prove his innocence with a new DNA test lost his appeal Thursday at the Supreme Court.
Five Cubans convicted in 2001 of spying for the Castro regime had their appeal tossed out Monday by the Supreme Court.
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are asking Judge Sonia Sotomayor for more information about her lengthy legal career that includes almost two decades on the federal bench.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor Wednesday to blast Democrats for setting a start date on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing.
A former Army captain who was dismissed under a federal law dealing with gays and lesbians in the military lost his appeal Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Obama administration is turning to the Supreme Court as it seeks to block public release of photos apparently depicting abuse of suspected terrorists and foreign soldiers in U.S. custody.
The longest-serving Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee told CNN Radio on Thursday that, barring any surprises, Sonia Sotomayor is headed for a Supreme Court confirmation.
With the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, President Obama has hit the trifecta: As a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton and an editor of the Yale Law Journal, Judge Sotomayor clearly has the intellectual chops to handle the work of the high court.
Business advocates started scrambling on Tuesday to figure out whether Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be good or bad for companies.
President Obama on Tuesday nominated federal appellate Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.
With President Obama's nomination Tuesday, a federal appellate judge could become the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice and the third woman to serve on the high court.
President Obama: Thank you. Thank you.
Hispanic groups want history to be made with a Latino or Latina justice when President Obama makes his selection to fill the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy.
The White House is quietly expanding its list of Hispanic candidates for the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy, sources close to the selection process tell CNN.
The Constitution gives the president the exclusive power to nominate members of the Supreme Court. But it does not guarantee the political process will run smoothly for him or his nominee.
Decades-old time off given women for pregnancy leave cannot be counted when deciding pension eligibility, the Supreme Court decided Monday.
Onetime top Bush administration officials received a break from the Supreme Court on Monday.
The search for a Supreme Court nominee has been trimmed to about half a dozen candidates by top White House officials, and an announcement may come by month's end, two sources close to the selection process tell CNN.
Though no one would ever pigeonhole U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter as having been a pro-business judge, the announcement this month that he'll be stepping down in June has some top appellate advocates for the business community expressing some separation anxiety.
Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling has asked the Supreme Court to overturn his 2006 conviction for insider trading, his attorney told CNN.
With the retirement of Justice David Souter, President Obama has the opportunity to bring a special kind of diversity to the Supreme Court: the diversity of broad and varied governmental experience.
The case of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" on national television -- and subsequent fines against CBS -- will be re-examined at the order of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court will decide whether it is cruel and unusual punishment for young criminal offenders to be sentenced to life in prison with parole.
A process that started months ago among White House lawyers to compile a list of possible Supreme Court picks has accelerated with word Justice David Souter plans to step down from the bench in June.
David who? was the initial reaction of Americans to a little-known judge from New Hampshire named in 1990 to sit on the nation's highest court. Even the nominee didn't know what to think when President George H.W. Bush called him with the news, telling supporters, "I was in a state of virtual shock."
In Washington and throughout the nation's legal system, speculation took off Friday over who may join the Supreme Court after the retirement of Justice David Souter.
"This is an important case," says a court spokesman; Madonna may attend the closed-door hearing
The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday federal regulators have the authority to clamp down on the broadcast TV networks that air isolated cases of profanity, known as "fleeting expletives."
At 33, Joe Sullivan is serving a life term without the possibility of parole in a Florida prison while confined to a wheelchair.
The case of a 13-year-old Arizona girl strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain-reliever will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this week.
The Supreme Court has let stand the conviction of former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was sent to death row for gunning down a Philadelphia police officer 28 years ago.
The Supreme Court has passed up a chance to examine how far states can go to restrict unsolicited e-mails in efforts to block spammers from bombarding computer users.
The star of the show did not appear -- and the film in question was not shown -- but Hillary Clinton's big-screen moment was all the talk Tuesday at the Supreme Court.
President Obama took the first step Tuesday in what could be a legacy-making effort to restock the federal courts with more progressives, naming an Indiana political veteran as his first judicial nominee.
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted the Obama administration's request to dismiss the appeal of an accused enemy combatant held on U.S. soil.
A Zimbabwe Supreme Court judge ruled Thursday that the state can further appeal a decision that would release a top opposition politician on bail.
A Vermont musician who lost an arm to gangrene after being given a common prescription medication won the right to collect nearly $7 million when the Supreme Court ruled in her favor Wednesday.
A small religious group has lost its fight before the Supreme Court to erect a granite monument in a Utah park next to an existing Ten Commandments display.
A United Nations court has found that the United States violated an international treaty and the court's own order when a Mexican national was executed last year in a Texas prison.
The Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its June ruling banning capital punishment for child rapists, rejecting Louisiana officials' argument that a "significant error" led to its conclusion that there is a "national consensus" against executing non-murderers.
Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin, whose death penalty conviction in the rape and murder of two teen girls sparked international controversy, was put to death in Texas on Tuesday night, prison officials said.
The arrest of Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic is an important step in the reconciliation process in the Balkans, Christiane Amanpour, CNN senior international correspondent, says.
It looked like the makings of a perfect storm of animosity in the last week of the Supreme Court's current term, before it wrapped up for the summer recess Thursday.
Despite two dramatic 5-4 decisions, the court is actually starting to move beyond its predictable ideological split
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a sweeping ban on handguns in the nation's capital violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that child rapists cannot be executed, concluding that capital punishment for crimes against individuals can be applied only to murderers.
Suspected terrorists and foreign fighters held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to challenge their detention in federal court, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
Most of the Supreme Court justices piled up a lot frequent flyer miles in 2007, jetting to such exotic locales as Austria, India and Hawaii, according to financial disclosure reports released Friday.
The Supreme Court on Monday backed Indiana's law requiring voters to show photo identification, despite concerns thousands of elderly, poor and minority voters could be locked out of their right to cast ballots.
The Supreme Court has concluded Texas can execute a Mexican man sentenced to death for murder, ending an unusual capital appeal that pitted President Bush against his home state in a dispute over federal authority, local sovereignty and foreign treaties.
The Supreme Court dealt a blow Tuesday to investors seeking to recover damages from alleged corporate fraud, a potentially huge liability case being closely watched by owners of stock, the business community and government regulators.
The Supreme Court began the term last October with renewed calls for unanimity from the chief justice, but it ended the session Thursday with the latest in a series of two dozen closely divided rulings.
One Supreme Court justice says his fellow conservatives are "too dismissive" of government efforts to ensure racial diversity in schools. Another more liberal member says those on the right did "serious violence" to a high school student's free speech rights.
The Supreme Court strikes a blow against race-based integration, but the decision suggests it may not be fatal
Back in 1900, writer Finley Peter Dunne quoted Mr. Dooley, his fictional Irish bartender, as saying, "The Supreme Court follows the election returns."
A bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday issued what is likely to be a landmark opinion -- ruling that race cannot be a factor in the assignment of children to public schools.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down public school choice plans in Seattle, Washington, and Louisville, Kentucky. The court ruled the two cases relied on an unconstitutional use of racial criteria, reflecting the deep legal and social rift over the issues of race, affirmative action and education.
The Supreme Court on Monday swept aside part of a campaign finance law dealing with "issue ads."
The Supreme Court once again split 5-4 on an important death penalty case on Monday, with a majority of conservative justices rejecting an Arizona killer's claims his legal team did not do enough to keep him off death row.
In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a nearly $80 million punitive damages ruling against Philip Morris.
Splitting 5-4, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a nearly $80 million punitive damages ruling against Philip Morris.
More than 50 years after the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in public schools, the justices struggled over one controversial outgrowth of that decision Monday.
A U.S.-based human rights advocacy group plans to file a criminal lawsuit against several top Bush Administration officials today in a German court, prosecuting them for allegedly authorizing war crimes in the context of the War on Terror. So is this serious, or is it just a stunt?
The graphic details of a disputed abortion procedure filled the Supreme Court on Wednesday as justices voiced concern with a federal ban on that operation.
Sandra Day O'Connor noticed a disturbing development as her last day on the Supreme Court neared. Over her final years on the bench, more people were talking about "activist judges," an issue she said that appeared to be "erupting all over the country."
The buttons were 2 to 4 inches around, showing a man killed in a shooting, and were worn by his family at the murder trial of the accused shooter.
See Chief Justice John Roberts dressed as Groucho Marx. See Roberts cook Mickey Mouse waffles for his wife and children.
Abortion and race: The two most divisive social issues of recent decades will get high-profile hearings this fall before the U.S. Supreme Court.
With the Supreme Court beginning a new term, legal observers say the man to watch is Justice Anthony Kennedy, who holds the swing vote.
In just five months, Justice Samuel Alito has lived out two lifelong dreams. He sits on the highest court in the land, and last month took the mound to throw out the first pitch at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday strongly limited the power of the Bush administration to conduct military tribunals for suspected terrorists imprisoned at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Supreme Court upheld Kansas' death penalty law Monday with a 5-4 decision that offers further proof of how deeply at odds the justices remain over the issue.
The Supreme Court Monday agreed to consider an appeal by the largest U.S. telephone carriers seeking the dismissal of a class-action antitrust suit against them.
A sharply divided Supreme Court limited the reach of federal regulators to block private development that might affect water quality, in an important property rights dispute that exposed deep divisions among the justices.
Ruling in an important property rights dispute, a divided U.S. Supreme Court limited the reach of federal regulators to block private development that might affect water quality.
Two death row inmates won separate victories in the Supreme Court Monday -- one hoping to prove he did not commit a 1985 Tennessee murder, the other seeking to show that lethal injection methods used in Florida are cruel and unusual punishment.
In a pair of cases that could reignite disputes over race and public education, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide what role affirmative action should play in assigning students to competitive spots in elementary and secondary schools.
A divided Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that government workers who blow the whistle on alleged illegal conduct do not deserve First Amendment protection that would automatically shield them from discipline from their bosses.
The bipartisan "Gang of 14" senators met Wednesday on two of President Bush's judicial nominees, with members reserving judgment on one candidate and asking for a new hearing on the other.
Actress and model Anna Nicole Smith can add another line to her colorful resume: a winner in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court expressed concern Wednesday that the chemical cocktail used to execute Florida inmates could cause "excruciating pain" in violation of the Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
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