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Landmark rulings on abortion, birthright citizenship, voting rights, gun rights, religious liberty, and executive power
Pennsylvania lawmakers went on summer recess Sunday without enacting legislation that would replace the state’s unconstitutional mandatory life sentences for second-degree murder, leaving the fate of roughly 1,000 inmates uncertain and…
2026-07-15 · 3 MIN READAttorneys for the family of Nolan Wells, a Black teenager who went missing during a July Fourth boat trip off the Mississippi coast, said Wednesday they will work with the local district attorney's office to inspect his cellphone as the…
2026-07-15 · 3 MIN READSubaru of America is recalling more than 541,000 Crosstrek, Forester and Ascent SUVs in the U.S. because a certification label on the affected vehicles incorrectly states their gross axle weight rating, which could lead owners to…
2026-07-14 · 3 MIN READThe Hillsborough County school board voted to cap weighted grade point averages after a Steinbrenner High School student graduated with an 11.99 GPA, the highest in Florida history. The new policy takes effect with the next graduating…
2026-07-14 · 3 MIN READThe National Capital Planning Commission voted Thursday to approve preliminary site and building plans for President Donald Trump's proposed 250-foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery, advancing the project despite…
2026-07-10 · 3 MIN READAttorneys for Karmelo Anthony, the Texas teenager sentenced to 35 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet, filed a motion Tuesday seeking a new trial and the recusal of the presiding judge.
2026-07-08 · 3 MIN READMichael David Butler, 44, faces a manslaughter charge after the Tesla he was driving crashed into a home in Katy, Texas, on June 19, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila. Investigators say Butler manually pressed the accelerator, reaching 73…
2026-07-02 · 3 MIN READThe Texas State Board of Education voted 9-5 on June 26 to approve a statewide reading list that will require Bible passages for more than 5 million public school students.
2026-06-29 · 3 MIN READA Utah judge on Friday found a prosecutor in civil contempt for speaking to the media about the case against the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, but declined to take the death penalty off the table as the defense…
2026-06-26 · 3 MIN READThe U.S. Supreme Court's decision striking down Hawaii's restrictions on carrying firearms on private property drew praise Friday from gun rights groups who called it a step toward dismantling similar laws nationwide, while legal experts…
2026-06-26 · 6 MIN READPrinceton University professor Eddie Glaude Jr. argues in his new book that the United States, as it approaches its 250th birthday, must choose between being a white republic or a beacon of freedom — and that Fourth of July celebrations…
2026-06-24 · 4 MIN READA military judge sentenced Army Sgt. Quornelius Radford to life in prison with the possibility of parole Tuesday for a shooting last August that wounded five people at Fort Stewart, Georgia.
2026-06-23 · 3 MIN READA bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) returned to Independence Hall on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, where archivists displayed the original journals of the Second Continental…
2026-07-02 · 3 MIN READThe Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a Louisiana prison inmate cannot sue the guards who forcibly shaved his dreadlocks in violation of his Rastafarian faith, limiting the remedies available under a federal religious freedom law that…
2026-06-23 · 3 MIN READ
A Utah judge on Monday denied a defense motion to compel the in-person testimony of a key witness in the murder case against Tyler Robinson, the 23-year-old accused of killing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in 2025.
2026-06-22 · 3 MIN READA new public square in Montgomery, Alabama, transforms Rosa Parks’s 1956 booking number into a monument that memorializes Black resistance to racial injustice and warns against the erasure of civil rights history, according to the Equal…
2026-06-19 · 3 MIN READA 21-year-old man has been charged with a hate crime and arson after setting a cross on fire in Chicago's Grant Park on June 9, court records show. Merlin Lu admitted responsibility but said the act was a protest against President Donald…
2026-06-18 · 3 MIN READFORT STEWART, Ga. — An Army sergeant was found guilty of attempted murder Thursday in shootings last summer that wounded five people at a base in southeast Georgia.
2026-06-18 · 3 MIN READAn 18-year-old Mississippi man who graduated from Loyola University New Orleans law school with highest honors in May said he intends to pursue litigation against social media companies over claims their products are designed to be…
2026-06-17 · 3 MIN READA person is in custody in an investigation of a large cross set on fire in Grant Park in Chicago, police said Tuesday. The burning cross was discovered June 9 in the park where Barack Obama delivered his acceptance speech after being…
2026-06-16 · 3 MIN READA hearing in Luigi Mangione's state murder case was postponed Tuesday after prosecutors acknowledged a paperwork error, according to court officials. Mangione is expected to appear Wednesday for the rescheduled hearing.
2026-06-16 · 3 MIN READPaper, the traditional gift for marking a couple’s first year of marriage, also is a great choice for 250th anniversaries — especially when filling a time capsule celebrating American independence. The America250 commission last week…
2026-06-15 · 3 MIN READAs the United States prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, Princeton historian Eddie Glaude Jr. says he feels "rageful" and argues the country must confront its failure to deliver on its founding principles. Glaude's new book,…
2026-06-15 · 3 MIN READNew York has enacted a first-of-its-kind law requiring 3D printers sold for home or business use to include technology that blocks them from manufacturing firearms, according to the Associated Press. The measure aims to curb the growing…
2026-06-13 · 3 MIN READA Louisiana jury has awarded $1.1 billion in damages to Pamela Lockridge, who sued over childhood sexual abuse committed by her late stepfather in the 1960s and 1970s. The verdict in Bossier Parish was made possible under Louisiana’s…
2026-06-12 · 3 MIN READOrlando and St. Petersburg, Fla., on Friday commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting, one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. The attack killed 49 people and injured more than 50 at the gay nightclub…
2026-06-12 · 3 MIN READThe New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday reversed the second-degree murder conviction of Adam Montgomery, the man found guilty of killing his 5-year-old daughter Harmony Montgomery in 2019. The court ruled that combining the murder…
2026-06-11 · 3 MIN READA group of former Colombian high court justices and constitutional scholars questioned the presidential candidacy of attorney Abelardo de la Espriella on Wednesday, warning that the U.S. citizenship he obtained through naturalization could…
2026-06-11 · 3 MIN READA federal appeals court ruled that Alabama's nitrogen hypoxia execution method poses a substantial risk of serious harm, blocking the scheduled execution of death row inmate Jeffery James Lee. The state may still execute Lee using lethal…
2026-06-11 · 3 MIN READSocial media companies including Meta, Google, Snapchat, and TikTok face a wave of lawsuits in the coming months over claims that their platforms harm children, with trials set to begin in cases brought by school districts, states, and…
2026-06-11 · 3 MIN READA Texas jury on Tuesday found Karmelo Anthony guilty of murder in the April 2025 stabbing death of Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet and sentenced him to 35 years in prison. The racially polarising trial drew national attention…
2026-06-10 · 3 MIN READA Collin County, Texas, jury on Tuesday found Karmelo Anthony, 19, guilty of murder in the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf during a high school track meet in Frisco last April. The one-week trial drew national attention amid…
2026-06-09 · 5 MIN READA federal appeals court ruled Monday that Alabama's use of nitrogen gas for executions requires further study on whether it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, with the state set to carry out a nitrogen gas…
2026-06-09 · 3 MIN READGordon S. Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian whose scholarship fundamentally reinterpreted the American Revolution as a radical social and political transformation, died Sunday after being struck by a car in a supermarket parking lot…
2026-06-08 · 3 MIN READA remark by India's Supreme Court Chief Justice calling many young people "parasites" and "cockroaches" has ignited a satirical political movement that is giving voice to millions of frustrated Indian youth. The Cockroach Janta Party, born…
2026-06-07 · 4 MIN READActor and television personality Mario Lopez will host the first-ever Presidential 1776 Award national finals, a civics competition for high school students, airing June 30 on CBS. The event, presented by the U.S. Department of Education…
2026-06-05 · 3 MIN READMichelle Obama told the SXSW London audience on Tuesday that she has never met a white man who admitted feeling impostor syndrome, a form of self-doubt she said disproportionately affects women and minorities in elite spaces.
2026-06-02 · 3 MIN READOn June 2, 1946, Italian voters chose to replace the monarchy with a republic in a national referendum, ending the House of Savoy's rule. The date also marks the Confederate surrender of the Civil War in 1865, the signing of the Indian…
2026-06-02 · 3 MIN READThe Louisiana Supreme Court voted 4-3 on Monday to approve the elimination of the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court office, ending a legal path for Calvin Duncan, a New Orleans exoneree who won a landmark election to the post. The…
2026-06-01 · 3 MIN READA federal judge on Monday postponed the civil trial over the 2024 collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge after a flurry of last-minute settlements resolved most remaining claims, including all pending lawsuits over the deaths of…
2026-06-01 · 3 MIN READThe Supreme Court on Thursday sided with a Black death row inmate from Mississippi who argued that racial discrimination tainted the selection of the jury that convicted him, in a 5-4 ruling that faulted a process in which 11 of the 12…
2026-05-28 · 3 MIN READA federal judge in Baton Rouge ruled he cannot order Louisiana to improve dangerously harsh working conditions for prisoners forced to labor in extreme heat at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, citing a recent appellate court…
2026-05-28 · 3 MIN READBall State University will pay $225,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by Suzanne Swierc, a former employee who was fired after posting a critical comment about conservative activist Charlie Kirk on her private Facebook page, the…
2026-05-27 · 3 MIN READMemorial Day, observed on the last Monday in May, was built from Civil War-era mourning practices but has shifted over time into a broader remembrance that many Americans also associate with travel and sales. A Texas Iraq War veteran,…
2026-05-25 · 3 MIN READThe Scripps National Spelling Bee begins Tuesday and runs through Thursday night in Washington, where the nation’s top young spellers compete in preliminaries, quarterfinals and semifinals before the finals. This year’s 98th bee is set to…
2026-05-25 · 3 MIN READA proposed $7.25 billion settlement of thousands of lawsuits alleging Bayer failed to warn that Roundup weedkiller can cause cancer faces possible delays after an attorney asked to move the case to federal court. The dispute centers on…
2026-05-23 · 4 MIN READThe U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Alabama’s appeal seeking permission to execute an inmate found by lower courts to be intellectually disabled. The justices’ action on Thursday leaves in place rulings favorable to Joseph Clifton Smith, who…
2026-05-22 · 3 MIN READA proposed $7.25 billion settlement of lawsuits over Roundup cancer claims in Missouri could be delayed after an attorney asked to move the case to federal court. The dispute could affect deadlines for people to opt out of the settlement,…
2026-05-22 · 3 MIN READA Tennessee judge set a $1 million bond for white livestreamer Dalton Eatherly, who is charged with attempted murder after shooting Black man Joshua Fox outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville on May 13. The case has…
2026-05-22 · 3 MIN READA divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed Alabama’s appeal to execute death-row inmate Joseph Clifton Smith, whom lower courts found to be intellectually disabled, leaving in place the rulings that block the state from carrying…
2026-05-21 · 3 MIN READThe U.S. Supreme Court dismissed Alabama’s appeal on Thursday in the case of a death-row inmate found by lower courts to have intellectual disability. The court’s action left in place lower-court rulings barring the state from executing…
2026-05-21 · 3 MIN READA federal judge on Wednesday refused to postpone a June 1 civil trial over claims stemming from the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, rejecting requests from companies involved in the disaster. U.S. District Judge James…
2026-05-21 · 3 MIN READA Florida man convicted of fatally stabbing his cousin’s girlfriend and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter was executed Thursday evening, state prison officials said. Richard Knight, 47, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. after a three-drug…
2026-05-21 · 3 MIN READA Tennessee judge set bond at $1 million for a white livestreamer charged in the May 13 shooting of a Black man outside the Montgomery County Courthouse in Clarksville. The case, involving a creator who has promoted racial slurs online,…
2026-05-21 · 3 MIN READA Tennessee judge on Thursday set a $1 million bond for Dalton Eatherly, the white livestreamer known as “Chud the Builder,” who faces an attempted murder charge for the May 13 shooting of Joshua Fox, a Black man, outside the Montgomery…
2026-05-20 · 3 MIN READU.S. District Judge James Bredar on Wednesday refused to delay a civil trial scheduled to begin June 1 for lawsuits stemming from the deadly 2024 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The ruling keeps the case on course…
2026-05-20 · 3 MIN READA white livestreamer known as “Chud the Builder” was ordered held on $1 million bond Thursday after a Tennessee judge set the amount, following his arrest on attempted murder and other charges in the May 13 shooting of a Black man outside…
2026-05-20 · 4 MIN READA lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court accuses the state of maintaining school assignments that keep Black and Latino students concentrated in high-poverty, low-opportunity districts. The plaintiffs say the practice of assigning…
2026-05-20 · 3 MIN READA federal judge in Baltimore refused to postpone a civil trial over claims stemming from the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, rejecting a request by companies involved in the crash. U.S. District Judge James Bredar said the trial…
2026-05-20 · 3 MIN READAlex Murdaugh has filed a federal lawsuit against the former Colleton County clerk of court whose conduct during his 2023 murder trial led the South Carolina Supreme Court to unanimously overturn his convictions and life sentence for the…
2026-05-19 · 3 MIN READNEW YORK — A gun and notebook that prosecutors say link Luigi Mangione to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson can be used as evidence at his murder trial, a judge ruled Monday, rejecting a defense argument that they were…
2026-05-19 · 3 MIN READAlex Murdaugh has filed a federal lawsuit against former Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill, claiming Hill’s conduct during his 2023 double-murder trial violated his right to a fair trial. The South Carolina Supreme Court…
2026-05-19 · 3 MIN READA judge ruled Monday that prosecutors in Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial can use a gun and a notebook they say link him to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The ruling by Judge Gregory Carro allows the evidence while…
2026-05-19 · 3 MIN READLawyers for Tyler Robinson, the man accused of killing conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, asked a Utah judge on Tuesday to seal some evidence and keep reporters and the public out of parts of a key upcoming hearing—a preliminary…
2026-05-18 · 3 MIN READA judge ruled Monday that prosecutors can use a gun and a notebook they say link Luigi Mangione to the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as evidence at Mangione’s state murder trial, after rejecting a defense challenge over…
2026-05-18 · 3 MIN READUtah prosecutors plan a preliminary hearing in July where they intend to present forensic analysis, surveillance video, witness statements and other evidence in the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Lawyers for Tyler Robinson…
2026-05-18 · 3 MIN READThe Supreme Court appeared likely on Tuesday to strike down Hawaii's law restricting who can carry guns into stores, malls, and hotels, marking the justices' latest gun-rights case since their landmark 2022 decision expanding Second…
2026-05-18 · 3 MIN READA Hong Kong court is hearing final arguments Monday in the national security trial of two former organizers of the large Tiananmen Square crackdown vigils, with prosecutors seeking convictions under a Beijing-imposed law. Chow Hang-tung…
2026-05-17 · 3 MIN READEight Republican governors have announced partnerships to establish Turning Point USA chapters in every public high school in their states, an effort they describe as countering the suppression of conservative voices in education. The push…
2026-05-17 · 3 MIN READCornelius Smith Jr. pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the November 2021 killing of Memphis rapper Young Dolph, the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office announced. Under the plea agreement, Smith, 36, was sentenced to 20…
2026-05-16 · 3 MIN READUnder federal law and the statutes of most U.S. states, antique firearms and their replicas are exempt from modern gun regulations, allowing even convicted felons in many jurisdictions to legally acquire and fire weapons dating to the…
2026-05-16 · 3 MIN READVirginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed legislation Thursday banning the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic firearms, drawing immediate lawsuits from the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights organizations. The…
2026-05-16 · 4 MIN READA Tennessee man pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder in the 2021 shooting death of rapper Young Dolph at a Memphis bakery, ending a yearslong case. Cornelius Smith Jr., 36, was sentenced to 20 years in prison under a plea…
2026-05-16 · 3 MIN READVermont voters will decide this fall whether to amend the state constitution to add an equal protection provision, after the Legislature approved the measure this week. The proposal, PR.4, would require a statewide referendum on Nov. 3…
2026-05-16 · 3 MIN READVirginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a law banning the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic firearms, setting off immediate lawsuits by gun-rights groups. The measure takes effect July 1 and makes it a misdemeanor, punishable…
2026-05-16 · 3 MIN READA Tennessee man known online as “Chud the Builder” was held on a $1.25 million preliminary bond on attempted murder and other charges after a shooting outside the Montgomery County Courthouse, authorities said. Prosecutors sought to hold…
2026-05-16 · 3 MIN READWith many antique and replica guns treated differently under federal and state law, a flintlock musket like the Brown Bess used by British troops in 1776 can fall outside what statutes call a “firearm” — even as it can fire lethal…
2026-05-16 · 3 MIN READThe man accused of firing at least 70 rounds from an assault-style weapon into traffic on a busy Cambridge roadway pleaded not guilty Thursday, as new details emerged about his mental health history and a parole officer’s urgent warning…
2026-05-15 · 3 MIN READTexas executed Edward Busby Jr. on Thursday evening for the 2004 abduction and suffocation death of retired professor Laura Lee Crane, after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay of execution over his intellectual disability claims. Busby,…
2026-05-15 · 3 MIN READA federal panel approved a 250-foot arch after deciding its own height law probably doesn't apply to it.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that the government cannot automatically bar all users of illegal drugs from owning guns, striking down a federal law as applied to a Texas man who used marijuana.
The Supreme Court is expected to release at least one ruling today as the term draws to a close, with several high-stakes decisions still pending — including President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship and his push to end temporary protected status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants.
Chief Judge Melanie L. Cradle of the Connecticut Appellate Court was nominated Monday by Gov. Ned Lamont to the state Supreme Court, positioning her to become the first Black woman to serve on Connecticut's highest court.
Attorneys for the man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk asked a Utah judge on Friday to block prosecutors from seeking the death penalty, arguing that prosecutors' public statements about a bullet fragment have tainted the case.
The Supreme Court's conservative supermajority is increasingly relying on originalism—the legal philosophy that the Constitution's meaning should not evolve over time—to resolve modern disputes, producing arguments over the drinking habits of the Founding Fathers, Civil War voting practices, and 18th-century customs searches.
The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Federal Communications Commission's authority to levy fines through in-house proceedings, ruling 8-1 against wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon in a case that tested the constitutional right to a jury trial in agency enforcement actions.
The Supreme Court's 2025-26 term has produced major decisions affecting President Trump's trade policies and the Voting Rights Act, with dozens more rulings expected before the justices break for summer in early July, according to a Wall Street Journal summary of the term's most notable cases.
A federal judge in Montgomery, Alabama, ruled Thursday that execution by nitrogen hypoxia does not violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, the first full trial to test the constitutionality of a method that has already been used to put eight men to death. The ruling clears the way for Alabama and Louisiana to continue using nitrogen gas for capital punishment and removes a legal hurdle for Jeffery Lee, the death row inmate who brought the challenge, as he faces execution on June 11.
A South Carolina jury heard opening statements Wednesday in the murder trial of Chikei Rick Chow, 61, the store owner who fatally shot 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton in the back during a foot chase on May 28, 2023, in Columbia, over an alleged theft of four bottles of water.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee opened its preliminary rounds Tuesday in Washington for the first time in 15 years, moving from a suburban Maryland convention center to historic Constitution Hall. Spellers and their families offered mixed reviews of the new venue, praising its cultural significance while navigating tightened security, shuttle-bus logistics, and the unexpected proximity of a White House fencing crew preparing for a June 14 UFC event.
A federal judge in Miami allowed Timothy Hudson to remain free after a hearing in a case accusing him of sexually assaulting and killing his 18-year-old stepsister aboard a Carnival Cruise ship. The judge did not issue a final decision and said he needed to review detention logistics with the U.S. Marshals Service.
Memorial Day, observed this year on May 25, is officially a day to honor and mourn the U.S. military service members who died, with a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m., according to the Congressional Research Service. Its origins trace to Civil War-era Decoration Day ceremonies that grew out of efforts to mark graves and remember the dead, the Associated Press reports.
Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit by a man jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post about conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Larry Bushart, a retired Perry County police officer, said his First Amendment rights were vindicated after felony charges were dropped in October.
A Tennessee man jailed for more than a month over Facebook memes about the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk has reached a $835,000 settlement with Perry County and law enforcement officials. Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old retired police officer, spent 37 days in jail before authorities dropped a felony charge, according to court filings described in the settlement announcement.
Perry County, Tennessee, officials will pay $835,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by Larry Bushart, a retired police officer who was jailed for 37 days over a Facebook post about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Bushart, 61, was arrested in September 2025 and charged with a felony before prosecutors dropped the case in October, after spending more than a month behind bars that cost him his job and caused him to miss his wedding anniversary and the birth of his granddaughter.
Larry Bushart, a retired Perry County, Tennessee, police officer, reached a $835,000 settlement after being jailed for more than a month over Facebook posts about conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Federal court filings said Bushart was behind bars for 37 days before authorities dropped a felony charge in October.
Richard Glossip walked out of an Oklahoma City jail Thursday, free for the first time in nearly three decades after a judge granted him a $500,000 bond while prosecutors prepare to try him again for a 1997 killing. Glossip, 61, had been on Oklahoma’s death row for most of those years, surviving three scheduled execution dates and three “last meals” before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction in February 2025, ruling that the state’s star witness had been allowed to lie on the stand.
Richard Glossip, who came within moments of execution three times, walked out of an Oklahoma jail Thursday after posting $500,000 bond, released while awaiting retrial for a 1997 murder that put him on the brink of lethal injection. His release came nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court threw out his conviction, ruling prosecutors violated his right to a fair trial by allowing false testimony from a key witness.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged Americans to approach the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding not with pageantry but by exercising their free speech rights, calling the U.S. Constitution a shared bedrock in a deeply divided country.
The Lower Merion School District board told parents this week it will not allow students to opt out of using school-issued devices, rebuffing a petition signed by more than 600 residents who say ubiquitous screens are harming their children's ability to focus.
The Ohio Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide whether Cuyahoga County violated the state constitution by seizing homes over small tax debts and keeping the surplus equity — a practice a class-action lawsuit calls widespread and unconscionable.
A federal jury has awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old global health worker who died in the 2019 crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Ethiopia, resolving one of the last remaining wrongful death lawsuits tied to the disaster that killed all 157 people aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.
Tyler Brown, accused of wounding two drivers after firing at least 70 rounds from an assault-style weapon on a busy street near Boston, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Cambridge District Court by video from a hospital bed, prosecutors said. The 46-year-old did not speak during the brief hearing as Judge David Frank ordered him held in custody pending a May 21 hearing.
Texas executed Edward Busby Jr. on Thursday evening for the 2004 killing of Laura Lee Crane, a retired college professor, after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a stay tied to Busby’s claim of intellectual disability.
Richard Glossip, a former Oklahoma death-row inmate, was released from jail Thursday after posting bond as he awaits retrial for a 1997 murder that put him on the brink of execution three times. Judge Natalie Mai set bond at $500,000 and ordered electronic monitoring, limits on travel and witness contact, and restrictions on alcohol and drug use.
Parents in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, are pressing a school district to allow families to opt their children out of classroom technology, arguing that screens are distracting and can encourage behavior such as gaming or watching videos during class. At a meeting Monday night, board members said the district was not considering opt-outs as it reviews technology policies.
A federal jury in Chicago awarded $49.5 million to the family of Samya Stumo, a 24-year-old global nonprofit worker killed in the 2019 crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. The Wednesday verdict resolves one of the last remaining wrongful-death lawsuits tied to the disaster, which killed all 157 people aboard the Boeing 737 Max jet.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged Americans to mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence by standing for their beliefs and relying on the Constitution as a shared foundation. Speaking at a judicial conference near Miami on May 14, Thomas said Americans can disagree on many issues but still need “something in common” to sustain the country.
The Ohio Supreme Court on May 14 agreed to hear a challenge brought by three former homeowners who say Cuyahoga County took the “surplus equity” after foreclosing on their properties for unpaid property taxes. The plaintiffs’ class action does not contest the foreclosures themselves, but instead argues that counties win title to houses worth more than the tax debts and do not compensate the displaced owners. The case could shape how property tax enforcement works in Ohio ahead of an election year.
The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously overturned the murder convictions and life sentence of disgraced former lawyer Alex Murdaugh, ruling that a court clerk’s improper comments to jurors deprived him of a fair trial. Murdaugh, once a prominent figure in the state’s legal establishment, remains in federal prison for stealing millions of dollars from clients, and prosecutors said they intend to retry him in the June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife and son.
The South Carolina Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously overturned Alex Murdaugh’s murder convictions, ruling that the court clerk’s improper comments to jurors about his testimony denied him a fair trial. Prosecutors said they will retry the disgraced lawyer, who is currently serving time for multiple financial crimes. Murdaugh’s defense team, which has long cited a lack of physical evidence, welcomed the chance for a new trial.
Dalton Eatherly, 28, who livestreams racially derogatory confrontations under the handle “Chud the Builder,” was charged with attempted murder following a shooting outside a Clarksville, Tennessee, courthouse on Wednesday, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said.
The city of Austin has tentatively agreed to pay $35 million to settle claims with three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused in the 1991 rape and murder of four girls at an “I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt” store, officials said Tuesday. A Travis County judge declared the men innocent in February after new DNA evidence pointed to a deceased suspect, closing one of the most prominent wrongful conviction cases in Texas history.
Prosecutors plan to retry Alex Murdaugh in the killings of his wife and son after South Carolina’s Supreme Court overturned his murder convictions, citing improper comments made by the trial court clerk to jurors. The court found the clerk, Becky Hill, “egregiously attacked” Murdaugh’s credibility, though Murdaugh will remain imprisoned as prosecutors prepare for another trial.
Austin will pay $35 million to three men and the family of a fourth who were wrongly accused in the 1991 rape and murder of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop, under a tentative settlement reached Tuesday. A judge declared the four men innocent in February after investigators concluded a suspect who died in 1999 committed the crimes. The settlement still needs approval from the Austin City Council.
Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, 41, was among the dancers in black outfits during the Feb. 9, 2025, halftime show but deviated from his role when he displayed a flag bearing the phrase 'Sudan and Free Gaza' atop a prop car, then jumped off the stage and ran from security, according to Louisiana State Police. Chief Judge Juana Marine-Lombard found him guilty only of resisting an officer after a bench trial.
A performer who disrupted Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance was found guilty Monday of resisting an officer, after police said he ran across the field at the Caesars Superdome with a Sudanese flag reading “Sudan and Free Gaza.” The case in New Orleans ended with the performer convicted only of the misdemeanor resisting charge, with sentencing set for June 1.
In the lead-up to the United States’ 250th anniversary, the America at 250 initiative is rolling out a new quiz focused on sports history, inviting players to test what they know about U.S. sporting moments and figures. The quiz, highlighted by AP and attributed to Holly Meyer, asks participants to answer questions and see how they score.
Authorities completed a search of a property in Arroyo Grande, California, tied to the man convicted of killing college student Kristin Smart and did not find her remains, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday.
ABC filed with the FCC this week saying the Trump administration’s actions could chill constitutionally protected speech tied to the daytime talk show “The View” and hinder open political debate. The network’s filing, made public Friday, argues the show has long qualified for an exemption from FCC equal-time rules for political candidates.
Authorities in California did not find the remains of Kristin Smart, a 19-year-old college student who disappeared in 1996, after finishing a search of a home tied to her convicted killer, officials said May 10. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said the search targeted the Central Coast property of Susan Flores in Arroyo Grande, more than 150 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Faith leaders and Louisiana and local officials on Saturday paid tribute at a funeral for eight children killed in a mass shooting last month in Shreveport. The service at Summer Grove Baptist Church included prayers, remembrances for each child, and remarks from state and city leaders. Police say the children were killed in an April 19 attack that also wounded multiple people, and an investigation remains ongoing.
Eight children killed in an April 19 mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, were laid to rest Saturday at Summer Grove Baptist Church, as hundreds of mourners filled the sanctuary and faith leaders, politicians, and a survivor of gun violence offered tributes and prayers.
A Utah judge on Friday rejected a defense request to prohibit cameras during the high-profile murder prosecution of the man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, ruling that public access to court proceedings outweighs concerns that media coverage could prejudice potential jurors.
Cameras will not be banned from the Utah murder case involving a man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a judge ruled Friday. Judge Tony Graf said requests from news stations would continue to be evaluated case by case, after defense lawyers argued that camera access could bias jurors and interfere with a fair trial.
Clarence Thomas reached a milestone on Thursday, becoming the second-longest serving justice in U.S. history, the Associated Press reported. The tenure puts him behind only William O. Douglas, and AP said there is no sign Thomas plans to retire soon.
As the Declaration of Independence approaches its 250th anniversary, history and civics teachers say they face increased scrutiny over how to teach the nation’s founding ideals and their contradictions. Some educators use activities that force students to question who the Declaration’s “Created Equal” promise was originally for and who it serves now, amid classroom debates tied to immigration enforcement, race and slavery, and pressure over “patriotic education.”
A former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy was found guilty of reckless homicide in the 2020 killing of Casey Goodson Jr., a Black man who entered his grandmother’s home in Columbus with sandwiches. Jurors in the second trial said they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the more serious murder count, and a judge declared a mistrial on that charge.
Handguns could be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service for the first time in nearly 100 years if a proposed rule change takes effect, according to the U.S. Postal Service and the Justice Department. Democratic state attorneys general in about two dozen states sent a letter opposing the change, saying it could undermine state gun-safety laws and make it harder to investigate gun crimes. The proposal would expand mailing to concealable firearms such as pistols and revolvers, while the Postal Service said it is reviewing public comments before making final changes.
Authorities searched a home in Arroyo Grande, California, connected to a man convicted in the 1996 killing of Kristin Smart after a warrant served Wednesday. San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson said Friday that evidence suggests human remains were present on the property, though he said investigators cannot yet confirm whether they are Smart’s.
Chief Justice John Roberts told a gathering of judges and lawyers from the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Hershey, Pennsylvania, that the United States Supreme Court does not function as a political institution. He said the Court’s decisions, even when unpopular, are grounded in the Constitution rather than partisan policy goals. Roberts made the remarks as public confidence in the high court remains low following a recent decision that weakened a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday reversed a Rankin County judge’s decision that deputies bore no blame for the 2021 death of Damien Cameron, sending the civil case back for further proceedings. The appeals court said there are disputed facts over whether deputies’ use of force was objectively reasonable and whether qualified immunity applies.
San Luis Obispo County deputies served a search warrant Wednesday at the Arroyo Grande home of Susan Flores, mother of Paul Flores, the man convicted of killing 19‑year‑old college student Kristin Smart in 1996. The warrant is part of a renewed investigation into Smart’s disappearance, whose remains have never been found and who was declared legally dead in 2002. Authorities said the search aims to locate her remains and bring closure to her family.
A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the murder retrial of a former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy in Ohio charged in the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr. Prosecutors say Jason Meade shot Goodson, who is Black, five times in the back as he tried to enter his grandmother’s house in December 2020.
Scientists took soil samples Thursday outside a home connected to Paul Flores, convicted in 2022 of killing Kristin Smart, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s office served a search warrant on the home of Susan Flores in Arroyo Grande, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.
The U.S. Justice Department said it found the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, illegally considered race in admissions. The department’s finding comes as the Trump administration seeks to scrutinize colleges’ student-selection processes after a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action in admissions.
A jury began deliberating Wednesday in the murder retrial of former Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy Jason Meade, who is charged in the December 2020 shooting death of Black man Casey Goodson Jr. Prosecutors say Meade shot Goodson five times in the back as Goodson tried to enter his grandmother’s house. The first trial ended in a mistrial more than two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the Supreme Court is not made up of “political actors,” urging criticism of the court to focus on rulings rather than personal attacks. He spoke Wednesday to a conference of judges and lawyers from the 3rd U.S. Circuit in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Scientists specializing in human decomposition and soil took samples Thursday outside a home connected to Paul Flores, who was convicted of killing Kristin Smart in 1996. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office served a search warrant Wednesday on the home of Susan Flores in Arroyo Grande, about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
Authorities served a search warrant Wednesday at a home connected to Paul Flores, the man convicted in the 1996 killing of Kristin Smart, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said. The search in Arroyo Grande, on California’s central coast, is linked to the ongoing effort to find Smart’s remains, which have never been located.
A jury in Fort Worth, Texas, on Tuesday sentenced Tanner Horner, 34, to death after he pleaded guilty to capital murder in the 2022 killing of 7-year-old Athena Strand. Horner took the child from her home while delivering a Christmas gift, according to testimony and evidence presented in court.
Connecticut’s Senate on Monday passed a bill that sets the state’s first homeschooling regulations, voting 22-14 shortly before midnight after a debate that split largely along party lines. The measure heads next to Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont for his signature.
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Tuesday that retired Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour will be Canada’s next governor general. Carney said King Charles III approved the appointment on his recommendation, making Arbour the Crown’s representative in Canada.
The Southern Baptist Convention’s membership fell 3% in 2025 to 12.3 million, its lowest level since 1973, according to results released Tuesday by Lifeway Research. At the same time, the denomination reported nearly 4% higher weekly worship attendance and a 5% increase in baptisms.
The Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed a Rankin County judge’s ruling that deputies were not to blame for the 2021 death of Damien Cameron, and sent the civil case back for further proceedings. In its Tuesday ruling, the appeals court said there are “genuine issues of material fact” about whether deputies’ use of force was objectively reasonable and whether they should receive qualified immunity.
The U.S. Postal Service will release eight stamps to mark Route 66’s centennial, featuring photos created by David J. Schwartz from 42 trips along the road. The stamps will highlight scenes in each state the “Mother Road” passes through, and USPS unveiled the designs Tuesday in Springfield, Illinois.
As the U.S. approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, the long-running debate over whether the nation’s founders intended a Christian republic is being amplified by recent political and advocacy efforts. A new push tied to the Trump administration’s “America Prays” event and remarks from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is drawing opposition from groups that say the idea would conflict with the Constitution’s separation of church and state.
A Maine judge has ruled that an 18-year-old man charged with murder in the killing of a paddleboarder is competent to stand trial, a step prosecutors need if they are to pursue an adult case. The judge ruled this week that Deven Young understands the proceedings and can consult with his attorney. Young is scheduled to return to court May 7.
Nearly four years after their arrests, a judge moved the criminal case against Epic Charter Schools founders David Chaney and Ben Harris forward, ruling prosecutors presented enough evidence for most charges to proceed. Oklahoma County Special Judge Jason Glidewell dismissed one count of embezzlement against both men and one computer-fraud count against Chaney, finding probable cause for the remaining charges. A formal arraignment is scheduled for June 24.
A Ugandan judge sentenced Christopher Okello to death after rejecting his insanity plea for the April 2 machete killings of four children at a nursery school outside Kampala, court heard Thursday. The judge said Okello “failed to adduce any evidence to support” his claim he was mentally unwell when he committed the crimes.
James Broadnax, a North Texas man who denied being the shooter in a 2008 robbery and murder, was executed Thursday evening in Huntsville, Texas, after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt the execution. Prosecutors said Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Cummings, fatally shot two men outside a music studio in Garland.
Less than two years after her 6-year-old son was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, Nicole Hockley helped launch a nationwide student program that teaches peers to spot warning signs and report concerns to an anonymous tip system or a trusted adult. The program, “Say Something,” has been presented to thousands of students, and nearly 395,000 tips have been sent in since it began in a Columbus, Ohio, church.
San Francisco and Oakland have settled a two-year legal fight that will let Oakland use “San Francisco” in its airport name, with restrictions on how the words are displayed. The settlement announced April 28 ends litigation sparked in 2024 after Oakland changed its airport name, prompting San Francisco to argue it violated trademark rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared likely to grant Cisco’s bid to shut down a lawsuit brought by Falun Gong over alleged U.S.-based technology used to persecute the spiritual movement in China. Justices questioned how broadly the court should rule on Cisco’s liability and whether lower courts have allowed too many similar cases to proceed. A decision is expected late June.
Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court ruled April 28 that “cast vote records” from the 2020 presidential election in Lycoming County are public records. The decision allows access to spreadsheets of raw ballot data tied to each ballot, while the court said the ruling preserves the state constitution’s requirement that votes remain secret.
The Connecticut House has passed a bill that would ban the sale of handguns that can be easily converted into machine guns with a thumb-sized device, a measure supporters say targets Glock-style “switches.” Gun dealers and firearms advocates say the proposal is unconstitutional and has already pushed some customers to buy Glocks before a possible ban, while the governor says the change is needed to update gun safety laws.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on whether state courts can proceed with thousands of lawsuits accusing Bayer, which makes Roundup, of failing to warn that its weedkiller could cause cancer. Justices pressed lawyers on how federal pesticide regulation affects state law claims, and the court is expected to decide the case by the end of June.
A judge scheduled the trial of Timothy Hudson for June 1 in Miami on charges including first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the November death of his 18-year-old stepsister, Anna Kepner, on a Carnival Cruise ship, according to a court order. Hudson, 16, previously faced juvenile charges before the case was transferred to adult court, and he entered a written plea of not guilty last week, the order said.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared inclined to allow police to use geofence warrants that collect cellphone location history to identify suspects near crime scenes, according to questions from justices during nearly two hours of arguments. The case involves Okello Chatrie, who pleaded guilty to robbing a bank in a Richmond, Virginia, suburb, and whose identification was tied to such a warrant after police said he evaded them.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld federal racketeering convictions of imprisoned former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and ex-lobbyist Matt Borges in a long-running $60 million bribery scheme. With their last legal option exhausted, Householder and Borges remain convicted after the high court declined to hear Householder’s and Borges’ appeals.
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a case involving “geofence” warrants, a method that uses a location-based search to identify suspects and then gather cellphone location history. The justices will decide whether the warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s limits on unreasonable searches. The case comes as the court considers how constitutional rules apply to digital data collection that the nation’s founders did not face.
South Dakota’s Supreme Court has ruled that Marsy’s Law can cover police officers, allowing some officers’ names and other identifying information to be redacted from future court records in a criminal case. The justices said what should be withheld will depend on the circumstances and the interests that courts must balance.
Virginia Commonwealth University plans a memorial and burial site for dozens of people whose remains were recovered after workers found bones in a well on the school’s medical campus in 1994. The board of visitors voted to fund what VCU calls the East Marshall Street Well Project, with construction expected to begin in summer 2027.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a Texas requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted in public school classrooms, rejecting arguments from parents and other groups that the rule violates students’ or families’ rights. The decision, handed down Tuesday, comes amid a broader wave of state laws requiring or expanding religious materials in public classrooms.
Court rulings are bolstering state mandates to display the Ten Commandments in U.S. public schools as supporters press for a larger role for religion in classrooms. On Tuesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower-court ruling that had blocked about a dozen Texas districts from hanging the posters.
The Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for a veteran wounded by a suicide bomb in Afghanistan to sue a government contractor for whom the attacker worked when he built the explosive. The court ruled 6-3 in favor of former Army Spc. Winston Hencely after determining the company allegedly failed to supervise the Afghan employee who constructed the vest.
A federal appeals court upheld a life prison sentence for Akayed Ullah, convicted for a 2017 suicide bombing attempt in a pedestrian tunnel beneath Times Square in New York. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Ullah’s conviction for providing material support to the Islamic State group. The court left other convictions in place and rejected the idea that Islamic State directed Ullah because, the panel said, he acted entirely independently.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that Texas can require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, rejecting arguments that the policy amounts to religious indoctrination. The 9-8 decision reverses a lower court ruling that had blocked roughly a dozen Texas school districts. The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups said they plan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
A man whose firearm was used in a Louisiana rampage that killed eight children told investigators he believed Shamar Elkins stole the assault-style gun from his truck weeks before the killings, according to court documents. Federal charges accuse Charles Ford of being a felon in possession of a firearm and making a false statement to federal agents.
President Donald Trump joined a weeklong Bible-reading marathon on Tuesday, reading a passage from 2 Chronicles in a livestream that was part of an America 250-themed effort tied to a “return to the spiritual foundation” of the United States. The scriptural verse—“If my people, which are called by my name…”—has been promoted for decades at National Day of Prayer events and is often used to argue for a Christian nation.
Beth Moore, the longtime Bible teacher who left the Southern Baptist Convention more than five years ago, said she is starting to wind down Living Proof Ministries and will stop hosting major public events. In interviews, Moore described leaving the SBC as an experience that left her questioning where she would “belong again,” while also saying she continues to be drawn to discipleship and teaching the Bible with others.
The U.S. Supreme Court appeared skeptical Tuesday of limiting federal regulators’ power in a telecommunications data-privacy dispute that involves Verizon and AT&T. The companies are challenging a Federal Communications Commission process that led to penalties totaling more than $100 million after the FCC found they sold customers’ location data without proper safeguards. A ruling is expected by late June.
Timothy Hudson, charged as an adult with killing his 18-year-old stepsister Anna Kepner on a Carnival Cruise ship, pleaded not guilty in Miami federal court and waived his appearance at a Wednesday arraignment, his defense attorney said. Prosecutors are seeking to keep him jailed while the case proceeds, an issue the court has not resolved.
Chadwick Scott Willacy, 58, was executed in Florida on Tuesday evening for the 1990 killing of Marlys Sather, after authorities said he set her on fire following a burglary. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal without comment hours before the lethal injection.
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case from two Colorado Catholic preschools challenging their exclusion from the state's taxpayer-funded universal preschool program because they refuse to admit children from LGBTQ+ families. The case, brought by St. Mary Catholic Parish and the Archdiocese of Denver, marks the latest religious-liberty dispute before the conservative-majority court, with backing from the Trump administration. The schools argue Colorado violates their constitutional rights to operate according to their faith, while the state says religious schools are welcome to participate if they comply with nondiscrimination laws.
A man killed eight children—seven of his own and a nephew—and shot two women before dying after a police pursuit Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the nation's deadliest mass shooting in two years. The violence erupted before dawn at two homes in the city of 180,000 residents in northwestern Louisiana, authorities said. The shooter, identified as Shamar Elkins, died after fleeing during a police pursuit, though it was unclear whether he was killed by officers or from a self-inflicted gunshot, Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith said.
More than 60 bills named after conservative activist Charlie Kirk have been proposed in over 20 states, according to an Associated Press analysis. The measures—ranging from campus free-speech protections to requirements that public schools teach about religion's positive historical impact—come after Kirk's assassination at a Utah university in 2025. Republicans who have advanced the bills cite Kirk's ideology and legacy; Democrats have objected both to the legislation's content and to naming state laws after a partisan figure.
Defense attorneys have asked to bar cameras from Tyler Robinson’s Utah courtroom as the case proceeds in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Prosecutors, in a court filing, argued that allowing cameras would improve transparency and help address misinformation and “distorted narratives” about the case. The trial date has not been set.
The defense team for Tyler Robinson, accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, pressed a Utah judge Friday to ban cameras from his courtroom proceedings. Robinson's attorneys argue that live broadcasts are fueling media sensationalism and depicting the 23-year-old as a "monster," making a fair trial impossible.
Tyler Robinson’s defense pushed to bar courtroom cameras in the Utah case accusing the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, arguing media coverage could bias jurors. Prosecutors, in a court filing, urged cameras be allowed and said transparency could counter “distorted narratives” about the case. The court had not set a trial date as of the filing.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday set a June 11 execution date for Jeffery James Lee, who was convicted of killing two people during a 1998 pawn shop robbery. The execution would use nitrogen gas, a method Alabama began using in 2024, and it is scheduled while Lee pursues a federal lawsuit challenging the procedure’s humaneness.
A New York jury found Wednesday that entertainment giant Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary maintained a harmful monopoly over major concert venues, delivering a significant legal defeat to the company that dominates live entertainment ticketing in the United States. The jury, which deliberated for four days, found that Ticketmaster's anticompetitive practices caused concertgoers in 22 states to pay an extra $1.72 per ticket.
Massachusetts’ highest court heard arguments in a lawsuit that says Meta designed Facebook and Instagram features to be addictive for young users, a case brought by state Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
Two U.S. families went before Italy’s highest court Tuesday to challenge a year-old law that limits Italian citizenship-by-descent to people whose Italian ancestors qualify under the rules set by Giorgia Meloni’s government. Attorneys argued the Cassation Court should narrow the law so it applies only to people born after it took effect, potentially affecting descendants in the United States and parts of Latin America.
A retired judge’s 763-page inquiry into the 2024 Taylor Swift-themed stabbing attack in Southport found the killing of three girls and injuries to others “could and should have been prevented,” according to a report released Monday. The report said parents and state agencies repeatedly missed opportunities to intervene as Axel Rudakubana’s fixation on violence escalated, and it includes 67 recommendations aimed at preventing future atrocities. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government would make “fundamental changes” in response.
Texas’ highest criminal court overturned the death sentence of Clarence Curtis Jordan, who had been on death row for nearly half a century, according to a Thursday ruling. Jordan, 70, was convicted in 1978 of murdering Joe L. Williams, a Houston grocer, and was later found incompetent for execution. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the death sentence and sent the case back to Harris County for a new punishment proceeding, though the Harris County district attorney said Friday it would not seek resentencing.
New York City-area jurors finished their first day of deliberations Friday without reaching a verdict in an antitrust case accusing Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster unit of monopolizing ticketing for live events. The jury in Manhattan federal court asked the judge to review certain testimony and later sought additional trial testimony, with deliberations set to resume Monday, according to the Associated Press.
Federal appeals court judges questioned whether Sean “Diddy” Combs received too long a prison term after his conviction on prostitution-related charges, during oral arguments in New York on Thursday. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did not rule immediately. Combs is challenging both his conviction and his four-year, two-month sentence.
New York City — Closing arguments wrapped up Thursday in a Manhattan federal antitrust trial brought by 34 states accusing Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster unit of monopolizing the live concert and raising prices, with jurors set to begin deliberations Friday. In the last presentations, an attorney for the states argued Live Nation violated antitrust laws, while Live Nation’s lawyer said the case failed to prove monopoly conduct and that competition remains strong.
A Wyoming judge sentenced Cody Roberts, 44, to 18 months of probation for hitting a wolf with a snowmobile, taping the wounded animal’s mouth shut, bringing it into a rural bar and then killing it, according to court proceedings. District Judge Richard Lavery imposed a $1,000 fine and ordered Roberts not drink alcohol, enter a bar or liquor store, or hunt or fish while on probation.
An Army sergeant accused of shooting and wounding five co-workers at Fort Stewart, Georgia, last summer will face a court-martial June 15 after pleading guilty to some charges, according to reporting. The sergeant, Sgt. Quornelius Radford, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and domestic violence, and the judge scheduled him for trial this summer on remaining charges of attempted murder.
The former FedEx driver Tanner Horner pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing 7-year-old Athena Strand after making a delivery at her Texas home, telling authorities he accidentally struck her and then strangled her, according to court proceedings in Wise County. Prosecutors said Horner’s account was false and that jurors would review video and audio from the day Athena was killed before deciding whether he gets the death penalty or life in prison.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito fell ill at a Philadelphia event last month and was treated for dehydration before returning home to suburban Washington, the court’s spokeswoman said Friday. Patricia McCabe said the justice did not require an overnight hospital stay and was back on the bench the following Monday.
The North Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday threw out longstanding litigation over education funding, siding with Republicans who argued judges overstepped. In a 4-3 decision, the justices set aside a 2022 ruling that had let a lower court order taxpayer money to address education inequities.
The Vermont Labor Relations Board has ordered Gov. Phil Scott’s administration to rescind a requirement that state employees return to their physical offices three days per week, according to the board’s Wednesday decision. The board said the administration refused to bargain in good faith and interfered with employees’ exercise of rights by requiring employees to work in person.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared poised to reject President Donald Trump’s restrictions on birthright citizenship, as justices questioned whether his order violates the Constitution and federal law. The dispute centers on whether children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. A decision is expected by early summer.
The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that former county clerk Tina Peters, convicted in an election fraud scheme, must be resentenced because a judge improperly punished protected statements. The court upheld her conviction but said the sentencing judge should not have considered her continued promotion of election fraud conspiracies when he imposed her 2024 prison term.
LA PLATA, Md. (AP) — A judge ordered a quadruple amputee professional cornhole player held without bail as he faces murder charges after his attorney said the shooting of a passenger in his Tesla was self-defense, according to court testimony. Dayton James Webber, 27, appeared Wednesday by videoconference for a bail review in Charles County District Court, after prosecutors said he was charged with first- and second-degree murder in the March 22 death of Bradrick Michael Wells.
A Queens jury convicted Guy Rivera of aggravated manslaughter for the 2024 shooting death of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller during a traffic stop, but acquitted him of murder. Rivera, 36, was convicted after roughly three weeks of trial that ended with about eight hours of jury deliberations, according to the Associated Press.
Luigi Mangione’s state and federal trials in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson were both postponed, with the state case pushed to September and the federal case set to begin in late October. New York State Supreme Court Judge Gregory Carro rescheduled the state trial from June 8 to Sept. 8, while federal Judge Margaret Garnett moved jury selection to Oct. 5 and said opening statements and testimony in the federal case will begin on Oct. 26.
A jury in Utica, N.Y., convicted former corrections officer Jonah Levi of manslaughter in the fatal beating of inmate Messiah Nantwi on March 1, 2025, Associated Press reported April 1. The jury also found Levi guilty of gang assault and conspiracy, and acquitted him of second-degree murder.
President Donald Trump took a front-row seat in the public seating area at the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to watch oral arguments over an executive order challenging birthright citizenship, according to the Associated Press. He sat silently with hands in his lap as the justices questioned his administration’s lawyer, and he left during the opposing party’s arguments.
President Donald Trump said he plans to attend Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on his bid to limit birthright citizenship. The White House schedule sent to reporters included a stop at the court, where justices will hear Trump’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that struck down an executive order restricting citizenship for some children born in the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday in an appeal by Terry Pitchford, a Black man on Mississippi’s death row who says racial bias tainted the jury that convicted him. Justices questioned whether his lawyers objected adequately during jury selection and whether the Mississippi Supreme Court reasonably handled his claims. The case bears similarities to Curtis Flowers, whose death sentence was overturned by the high court in 2019.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday is hearing arguments over whether President Donald Trump’s executive order can restrict birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to people the order says are in the country illegally or temporarily. The case, which comes from New Hampshire, asks the justices to interpret the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and an 86-year-old federal law that has long been read to grant citizenship to most U.S.-born children. For an Argentine immigrant mother in Florida, the dispute is personal: she obtained a passport for her son after his birth, but her lawyers helped her speak anonymously about what the order could mean for his status.
The defense for Tyler Robinson, accused in the Sept. 10 shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, asked a judge to delay a preliminary hearing scheduled for May, saying more time is needed to review evidence and a forensic bullet analysis that could affect the case. Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty and are working toward presenting enough evidence to proceed to trial.
Spain’s Catholic bishops and the Spanish government signed paperwork Monday for a new state-involved system to compensate victims of clergy sexual abuse, including cases where offenders have died or crimes are too old to be prosecuted. The deal, effective April 15, creates a one-year window for claims and puts the ombudsman in a final decision role. Archbishop Luis Argüello said the text will not set out compensation amounts in advance, while Justice Minister Félix Bolaños said the process would evaluate cases individually.
A California appeals court ruled that the West Contra Costa Unified School District violated state law by not doing enough to hire qualified teachers for every classroom. The decision reverses a 2024 ruling that accepted the district’s argument that compliance was “impossible” because of a teacher shortage.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in the Trump administration’s appeal of a ruling blocking an executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to someone in the country illegally or temporarily. Federal courts have repeatedly blocked the order, and the hearing centers on how to read the Citizenship Clause in the 14th Amendment.
President Donald Trump plans to attend Wednesday’s U.S. Supreme Court hearing on his bid to limit birthright citizenship, the White House schedule shows. The case asks the court to revive an executive order that said children born to parents in the U.S. illegally or temporarily are not citizens.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal by a Black death row inmate from Mississippi, setting oral arguments for Tuesday. The case, involving Terry Pitchford’s 2004 conviction and death sentence, centers on claims that prosecutors dismissed Black jurors in a discriminatory way during jury selection.
Lawyers for Tyler Robinson, charged with the Sept. 10 shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus, have asked a judge to delay a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. The defense says it needs more time to review a large volume of material and points to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ballistics analysis they argue cannot conclusively match a bullet fragment to a rifle found near the scene, according to court filings.
Five men involved in a fatal shooting at a sweet 16 party in Alabama were sentenced Friday to five years in prison after taking plea deals, according to the Associated Press. The plea agreements drew criticism from some victims’ family members as details of the Aug. 2023 attack in Dadeville came through the case.
A suburban Detroit school district has agreed to provide First Amendment training to staff to resolve a lawsuit brought by a Palestinian teenager who said a teacher humiliated her after she refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, according to a court filing.
In the wake of U.S. jury verdicts finding social media companies liable for harms to children, AP takes a look at how other countries are limiting young people’s online activities. The U.S. has no federal regulation that, critics say, meaningfully addresses those harms.
Rex Heuermann, charged in Long Island’s Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to change his plea to guilty at a court hearing scheduled for April 8, according to two people familiar with his plans who spoke to The Associated Press anonymously because the plea had not yet been entered. He is 62 and has been in custody since his arrest in July 2023.
A Colorado woman whose son died after buying drugs through social media said two verdicts against Meta and YouTube this week show a path to holding companies responsible for harms to children. Kimberly Osterman, speaking Thursday in her home in Colorado, said the rulings validate her push for stronger guardrails as Congress considers the Kids Online Safety Act.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a rule that automatically sent people convicted of second-degree murder to life without parole. The court said the mandatory penalty violates the state constitution’s ban on cruel punishment when it is imposed without closely examining a defendant’s specific role and culpability. In Derek Lee’s case, the decision orders resentencing and pauses the ruling for four months while the Legislature considers possible remedies.
The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily halted the scheduled execution of former police officer James Aren Duckett, convicted of raping and murdering an 11-year-old girl, according to court actions reported by the Associated Press. The stay came after the court ordered the state to address the status of Duckett’s pending DNA testing by Friday afternoon.
Two landmark jury verdicts in New Mexico and California have found Meta and YouTube liable in lawsuits brought by officials and individuals who say popular social media and video platforms harm children’s mental health. The awards total $381 million, but both Meta and Google say they plan to appeal, and legal experts say it is unclear how much the rulings will change platform design.
A quadruple amputee professional cornhole player accused of fatally shooting a man in Maryland waived his right to an extradition hearing while appearing by video from a Virginia jail, according to court coverage. Dayton James Webber, 27, said he was trying to return to Maryland as he was transferred to face charges there, where prosecutors have said he will be charged with first-degree murder.
A Colorado mother whose son died after buying fentanyl-laced pills through social media said this week’s jury verdicts against Meta and YouTube open the door for companies to be held responsible for harms to children. Kimberly Osterman said the verdicts support holding platforms accountable for how they are designed and marketed to young users.
The man accused in Long Island’s Gilgo Beach serial killings is expected to change his plea to guilty at his next court appearance, according to two people familiar with the decision. Rex Heuermann, 62, is scheduled to be back in court on April 8, prosecutors say DNA evidence, cellphone data and other material connect him to seven victims.
A New Mexico jury on Tuesday found Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and safety through its social media platforms, and concluded the company violated state law. The nearly seven-week trial ended with jurors awarding penalties that prosecutors said were far less than the amount they sought.
Georgia could become the first state to require daily weapons‑detection checks for every student entering a public school. The Senate voted to approve an amended version of a bill sponsored by Republican House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration on March 25, sending the measure to the House and then to Governor Brian Kemp for signature or veto.
A jury in New Mexico found Meta platforms harmful to children’s mental health and imposed a $375 million penalty, the first verdict in this year’s wave of child safety lawsuits targeting social media companies. The decision came after a nearly seven-week trial over allegations that Meta violated state consumer protection law and engaged in misleading and “unconscionable” practices related to child sexual exploitation and mental health harms.
As the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether states can count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day, several election officials and voting-rights advocates say shifting mail ballot deadlines could disrupt how November midterm elections are run. Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said his office is preparing for a potential change this June, including figuring out how to inform voters on short notice.
Georgia lawmakers advanced a bill that would require weapons-detection systems in public schools, with the goal of checking students every school day. The bill is aimed at preventing copycat gun violence after the 2024 Apalachee High School shooting that killed four people. Its amended version cleared a Georgia Senate committee, setting up votes in the final days of the 2026 legislative session.
A New Mexico jury found Tuesday that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and safety and violated state law, issuing a verdict that signals a widening willingness to pursue tech companies for harms to minors. The decision caps nearly seven weeks of trial, though a May phase will determine whether Meta’s platforms created a public nuisance and what programs the company would fund.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A New Mexico jury on Tuesday found Meta’s social media platforms violate state consumer protection law and imposed a $375 million penalty tied to harms alleged to children’s mental health. The decision is the first jury verdict in a set of U.S. child-safety lawsuits targeting social media companies, and it could shape how other trials argue issues such as accountability under consumer protection laws. Meta said it disagrees and plans to appeal.
The Supreme Court sounded skeptical Monday of state laws that allow election officials to count some mail ballots arriving after Election Day, a target of President Donald Trump. The justices heard arguments in a case from Mississippi that asks whether federal law sets a single Election Day deadline that requires ballots to be both cast and received.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to revive a lawsuit by Texas-based citizen journalist Priscilla Villarreal, known online as “La Gordiloca,” over her arrest in a case that drew national attention. The justices left in place a divided ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals holding that Villarreal could not sue police officers and other officials over her arrest for seeking and obtaining nonpublic police information.
The U.S. Census Bureau said dozens of postal carriers in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and Huntsville, Alabama, will help administer in-person questions in a spring test for the 2030 head count. Starting in June, the carriers will ask residents who do not respond online about race, ethnicity and household relationships, according to new details released March 23.
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on whether ballots in federal elections must be received by Election Day, a dispute that Alaska officials and voting-rights lawyers say could affect thousands of rural voters in the state. Alaska counts ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received within 10 days, or 15 days for overseas voters. If the court limits the practice nationwide, Alaska’s geography and reliance on air service could make deadlines harder to meet.
Italy’s two-day referendum on judicial reform is drawing a close, high-stakes political fight for Premier Giorgia Meloni, with the “No” camp gaining late momentum. The ballot, which began Sunday, has become a broader judgment on her leadership at home and abroad. After 12 hours of voting on the first day, Italy’s Interior Ministry said turnout topped 38%—the highest such level recorded at the same point in any two-day referendum.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday revived a lawsuit by evangelical Christian Gabriel Olivier, who says Mississippi authorities violated his First Amendment rights when he was arrested for refusing to move his preaching. The unanimous ruling clears the way for Olivier to seek a future court order stopping enforcement of a Brandon, Mississippi, ordinance restricting him to a designated “protest zone,” even though he was convicted of violating the law.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Monday in a dispute over whether states can count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day. A case challenging Mississippi’s five-day grace period has raised questions for 14 states that allow some post–Election Day deliveries to be received and counted. Election officials and voting-rights groups warn a ruling against the grace periods could force rapid changes ahead of the November midterm elections.
Texas accepted several Islamic private schools into its statewide school voucher program after federal judges extended application deadlines and ordered the state to consider the schools’ requests. The decision came amid two consolidated lawsuits brought by Muslim parents and Islamic school operators over alleged religious discrimination in the program’s admissions process.
Jurors in Santa Fe, New Mexico are weighing allegations that Meta Platforms Inc. violated the state’s consumer protection laws by allegedly failing to disclose risks its platforms pose for children, including mental health harms and sexual exploitation. The New Mexico case, filed by Attorney General Raúl Torrez, reached the sixth week and is set for closing arguments next week.
Nebraska is one of a handful of states that allows legal in-person sports betting but bars online gambling. A growing number of Nebraskans are now using prediction markets accessed through apps—where companies say users are “trading” rather than “betting”—to wager on sports and other outcomes.
A jury in Alabama convicted Ibraheem Yazeed of murder in the 2019 death of college student Aniah Blanchard, whose disappearance drew national attention. Jurors found him guilty of murder and felony murder but spared him a possible death sentence.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Karen Goodwin against the city of Bristol, Tennessee, and police officers and paramedics over the 2017 death of her son, Austin Hunter Turner, following a seizure. The judge ruled the case was filed after the statute of limitations expired. Goodwin’s attorney said the family will appeal.
A Black pastor arrested in 2022 while watering a neighbor’s flowers had a charge dismissed, but a lawsuit over the stop-and-identify law continued. On March 17, 2026, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled police can demand to see identification during a stop if officers are dissatisfied with a person’s verbal answers. The ruling came in the case of Michael Jennings, whose police encounter began after a neighbor called 911.
A federal judge in Arkansas has struck down a state law requiring the Ten Commandments be prominently displayed in public school classrooms and libraries. The ruling, issued Monday, targets the 2025 Arkansas mandate after a lawsuit by seven families challenged the requirement on constitutional grounds.
A Live Nation ticketing employee testified Tuesday at the company’s antitrust trial that private messages where he called some customers “so stupid” and joked about “robbing them blind” were “very immature and unacceptable.” The messages were introduced by state attorneys alleging Live Nation and Ticketmaster suppressed competition and drove up prices.
A federal judge ordered Texas to extend the application deadline for private school vouchers to March 31 after the state excluded Islamic schools from the program. The deadline extension came Tuesday in response to a lawsuit filed earlier this month by Muslim parents and Islamic private schools challenging the exclusion as discriminatory. The state’s voucher program is administered by Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who said Islamic schools were blocked over alleged ties to foreign terrorist organizations.
More than 30 states will resume their antitrust trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster on Monday in New York after talks this week failed to expand a tentative settlement reached with the U.S. Justice Department. Seven states—Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota—said they were joining that Justice Department deal, according to lawyers.
Minnesota lawmakers are considering bills that would largely outlaw reverse location warrants—sometimes called geofence warrants—that let law enforcement obtain data about devices present near a crime scene. The proposals come as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs the constitutionality of similar warrants, which critics say can capture information about thousands of people beyond any suspect.
A jury convicted former New York state trooper Christopher Baldner of manslaughter Friday at his second trial in a high-speed chase that led to the death of 11-year-old Monica Goods. Prosecutors said Baldner rammed the SUV after a traffic stop in December 2020 on the New York State Thruway. Baldner faces sentencing June 2 after jurors acquitted him last November of murder and reckless endangerment charges.
In Atlanta, young adults have been lining up outside 2819 Church, where pastor Philip Anthony Mitchell’s sermons and worship have helped drive attendance from fewer than 200 weekly visitors in 2023 to about 6,000 now. Some arrive as early as 5:30 a.m. for Sunday worship at the nondenominational, theologically conservative church, which has expanded to a new building after outgrowing a charter school.
A federal judge in Alabama dismissed a wrongful death and excessive force lawsuit brought by the family of a man who died after police used a Taser multiple times in Mobile in 2023. U.S. District Judge Kristi K. DuBose ordered the body-camera footage unsealed after the case was dismissed, according to court records. Lawyers for the family said they plan to appeal.
A Utah judge denied parts of an effort by defense attorneys for Tyler Robinson to limit public access to court documents in the killing case involving conservative activist Charlie Kirk, while leaving open the possibility of closing portions of an upcoming hearing. Judge Tony Graf said he would continue balancing the factors in deciding what can be closed as Robinson’s case heads toward an April hearing on whether cameras and recording devices should be allowed.
Closing arguments began Thursday in a landmark Los Angeles trial over whether Meta and YouTube should be liable for harms that a plaintiff says were caused by early social media use. After a month of testimony from addiction experts, therapists, engineers and executives including Mark Zuckerberg, a 12-person jury heard closing statements and is expected to begin deliberations Friday morning.
Incendiary internal messages in which a Live Nation employee mocked customers as “so stupid” and said the company was “robbing them blind, baby” were made public as 24-plus states and the U.S. government weigh whether to keep litigating their antitrust case against Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The messages, shared in a filing released in Manhattan federal court, were highlighted after a week of testimony and after federal authorities announced a settlement that could alter the trial’s future.
Guatemala’s newly selected Constitutional Court will need to regain public confidence in a justice system that many Guatemalans see as serving the interests of a few, experts said March 12. The court, whose decisions cannot be appealed, will be seated in April after President Bernardo Arévalo announced two of its magistrates on Wednesday.
An Army sergeant accused of shooting and wounding five co-workers at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia last summer is seeking to plead guilty to reduced charges in a military court, Army prosecutors said March 12. The Army Office of Special Trial Counsel said the change is set to be considered by a military judge during a March 31 hearing.
Utah is moving toward a law that would expand the state’s gambling prohibition to cover certain wagers in sports, aiming to limit prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket. Gov. Spencer Cox said he will sign the legislation and warned it would place “a casino in the pocket of every single American,” a stance that has put Utah at odds with the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Kalshi has already sued to block enforcement.
A federal jury in Mississippi acquitted former engineer James Michael Fisher of making false statements and obstructing justice in the criminal investigation of a 2017 military plane crash that killed all 16 service members aboard, according to court testimony summarized by The Associated Press. Fisher was tried in Greenville, Mississippi, after an eight-day trial.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Charles "Sonny" Burton, a 75-year-old inmate who was scheduled to be executed by nitrogen gas later that week, even though he had left the building before his accomplice fired the shot that killed a customer during a 1991 robbery. Ivey reduced Burton's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole, marking only the second time the Republican governor has granted clemency to a death row inmate since taking office in 2017.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Charles "Sonny" Burton, 75, to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Tuesday, two days before he was scheduled to be executed for a 1991 robbery murder in which he did not fire the fatal shot. Burton had been convicted of capital murder in the shooting death of Doug Battle at a Talladega auto parts store; a co-defendant, Derrick DeBruce, fired the weapon. DeBruce's death sentence was later reduced to life on appeal, and he died in prison.
A federal jury in Missouri awarded $667,000 in damages Monday to a group of Muslim men who alleged they were pepper-sprayed by correctional officers while praying. The verdict was reached in a lawsuit filed in eastern Missouri U.S. District Court that also alleged the men were denied religious rights, placed in solitary confinement after praying, and then denied access to basic hygiene while being sprayed.
Charles "Sonny" Burton, 75, is scheduled to be executed by nitrogen gas in Alabama on March 12 for the 1991 killing of Doug Battle — a death caused not by Burton but by a co-conspirator who fired the fatal shot after the robbery. The man who pulled the trigger, Derrick DeBruce, had his death sentence vacated by a federal court, was resentenced to life imprisonment, and died in prison. Burton, held at Alabama's Holman Correctional Facility, was convicted of capital murder under the state's felony-murder statute and has maintained for more than 30 years that he was not inside the store when the shooting occurred and did not know anyone had been hurt until the group had left the scene.
The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the state's authority to close Boca Chica Beach for SpaceX rocket launches, with justices pressing both sides on where constitutional limits on public beach access begin and end. Environmental and indigenous groups sued the Texas General Land Office and Cameron County over a 2013 state law permitting some counties to temporarily bar the public from Gulf Coast beaches during space flight activities. The case tests the scope of the Texas Constitution's Open Beaches Amendment, which grants the public an "unrestricted right" to use public beaches.
Cleveland police said Wednesday they were working to identify two young half-sisters whose bodies were found buried inside suitcases on the city’s east side. The bodies were recovered Monday in the Collinwood neighborhood after a tip from a dog walker, police said.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced questions in New Mexico’s civil trial about what the company learned from internal research and how it responded to concerns about young users’ experiences on Facebook and Instagram. Prosecutors played deposition material recorded last year as they alleged Meta violated state consumer protection laws by failing to disclose risks related to addiction and child sexual exploitation.
A Wyoming man who hit a wolf with a snowmobile, taped its mouth shut, and displayed the wounded animal in a rural bar before killing it pleaded guilty Thursday to felony animal cruelty, with the sentencing judge saying he would review the plea agreement before deciding whether to accept it. Cody Roberts, 44, appeared in Pinedale before District Judge Richard Lavery and told the court, "I sincerely regret my actions and apologize to the community and my family."
A Georgia jury convicted Colin Gray after prosecutors said he gave his teenage son access to a gun and ammunition despite knowing the boy’s mental health had deteriorated. The case is the latest in a growing line of prosecutions that seek to hold parents criminally responsible when children are accused of gun violence.
A jury in Georgia convicted Colin Gray, the father of a teenage suspect accused in the Sept. 2024 killings at Apalachee High School, of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, according to a verdict read March 3.
The U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 signaled skepticism of a federal law that bars people who use marijuana from owning guns, as justices questioned how the government links the drug use to dangerousness. The case centers on whether Congress may impose a lifetime firearms ban on a Texas man after prosecutors said he used marijuana while possessing a handgun.
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson Sr.’s flag-draped casket was brought into the South Carolina Capitol in Columbia on Monday, where he became the second Black person to lie in state at the building. Thousands waited as the Capitol opened to the public for people to view him, after which Jackson’s family said he would continue memorial events in Chicago.
The U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 declined to review an appeals court ruling that Alabama prosecutors violated Michael Sockwell’s rights by intentionally rejecting potential Black jurors. The decision clears the way for the Alabama inmate, on death row since 1990, to seek a new trial.
For Black people living with Tourette syndrome, a vocal tic that manifested as a racial slur during the British Academy Film and Television Arts Awards has left them with complicated feelings—mixing frustration at racism and ableism with anger at how the incident was handled by broadcasters. The slur was shouted during the ceremony as Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the first award of the night, prompting widespread outrage and renewed debate about Tourette syndrome. (AP)
A South Carolina man who authorities said was high on methamphetamine and had not slept for days was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to killing five people in a home in Spartanburg County, prosecutors said. James Douglas Drayton, 28, admitted the October 2022 killings, with prosecutors not seeking the death penalty, according to Solicitor Barry Barnette.
Jacksonville on Feb. 27 unveiled a replica of a civil-rights marker to be installed outside Mount Ararat Missionary Baptist Church, part of the city’s inclusion on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. The marker highlights Mount Ararat’s link to a March 1961 visit by Martin Luther King Jr., and the city plans to place more than three dozen markers across Jacksonville in the coming months.
Former MLB pitcher Daniel Serafini was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for a 2021 shooting of his wife’s parents during a burglary at their Lake Tahoe-area home, Placer County authorities said.
A 20-year-old woman identified in court documents as KGM testified Thursday in a Los Angeles courtroom that social media was “all day long” for her as a child and that her early use contributed to depression and suicidal thoughts. The testimony came as the jury hears evidence in a landmark trial selected as a bellwether for thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies.
Vermont’s towns are asking state lawmakers to adjust how the state handles public-records requests, after officials say a growing share of requests come from out-of-state companies that sell public information. Colchester deputy town manager Renae Marshall said the volume is straining towns’ limited time to respond under the Vermont Public Records Act.
A New York state judge convicted Brooklyn resident Skiboky Stora of hate crime-related charges for a March 2024 assault on a woman in Manhattan and for other attacks prosecutors described as anti-female, anti-white and antisemitic. Stora, 42, represented himself during a weekslong trial, and his sentencing is scheduled for April 14.
A West Virginia woman was sentenced to up to life in prison Wednesday for the April 2024 death of her teenage daughter, whose severely emaciated body was found at their home and whose case drew scrutiny of the state’s child welfare system. Prosecutors said the 14-year-old daughter had an eating disorder and that her mother, Julie Miller, did not seek medical care for at least four years.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Americans cannot sue the Postal Service over missing or undelivered mail, even if employees intentionally refuse to deliver it. The 5-4 decision upheld a federal shield for the agency from a lawsuit brought by a Texas landlord who alleged her mail was deliberately withheld for years.
A Montana judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the state’s TikTok ban, saying the case became moot after the law’s ownership trigger was met. The ban, which began as the first statewide attempt to bar TikTok in the U.S., was paused in 2023 and later blocked again by the same judge before it could take effect.
A New York state court judge on Wednesday convicted Brooklyn resident Skiboky Stora of hate crime charges tied to a random punch on a woman walking in Manhattan in March 2024, and to other attacks and harassment. Prosecutors said Stora, who represented himself during the trial, committed a series of assaults and targeted incidents between 2023 and 2024. Stora was remanded into custody and sentencing is scheduled for April 14, according to court proceedings reported by The Associated Press.
A Texas grand jury declined to indict former NBA player Patrick Beverley in an assault case, court records show. Beverley, who was arrested in Fort Bend County in November, had been accused by his sister of grabbing her by the neck, slamming her against a wall and punching her.
A coalition of Wisconsin school districts, teachers’ unions and parents filed a lawsuit against the GOP-led state Legislature, arguing the Legislature is failing to fund public schools adequately. The case was filed Monday in Eau Claire County Circuit Court and asks the court to adopt a new school finance system unless lawmakers and Gov. Tony Evers enact one first.
The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear arguments in a case brought by Boulder, Colorado, accusing Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil of deceiving the public about fossil fuels' role in climate change. The ruling marks the court's first major engagement with lawsuits seeking to hold the energy industry financially liable for climate-related damage including wildfires, rising sea levels and severe storms.
The body of Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., a civil rights leader who died last week, will lie in state Monday at the South Carolina Statehouse, Gov. Henry McMaster announced. Jackson, 84, died Feb. 17 after battling a rare neurological disorder that impaired his movement and speech.
A white family suing Kamehameha Schools over its Native Hawaiian admissions policy is seeking to keep their identities hidden throughout the lawsuit, citing online death threats and fears that public identification could damage their careers and educational prospects. The request comes as the case has generated intense backlash, with threats of violence directed at the lead attorney and the nonprofit organization backing the suit.
Criminal investigators seeking suspects in difficult cases are asking Google to reveal who searched for specific information online, a practice known as reverse keyword warrants that Pennsylvania's highest court upheld in late 2025 in a rape investigation. The technique identifies internet addresses where searches were made for particular terms—such as a street address where a crime occurred or phrases like "pipe bomb"—in a specific time window, then works backward to find suspects. While law enforcement has used the method to investigate bombings in Texas, the assassination of a Brazilian politician, and a fatal arson in Colorado, privacy advocates warn it turns innocent people into suspects by exposing their personal search histories.
A U.S. appeals court Friday cleared the way for Louisiana to require poster-sized displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, voting 12-6 to lift a lower court's 2024 block on the law. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it did not have enough factual information about how schools would implement the requirement to determine constitutional issues before allowing it to take effect. The court noted that details remained unclear, including how prominently schools would display the religious text, whether teachers would reference it during lessons, or whether other historical documents would accompany it.
A New York jury convicted Randy Santos of first-degree murder in the 2019 killings of four men sleeping on Chinatown sidewalks, rejecting his insanity defense. Prosecutors said Santos knowingly and purposefully attacked the victims with a metal bar, while his lawyers argued schizophrenia drove delusions that prevented criminal responsibility. Sentencing is set for April 16.
Zambia’s former President Edgar Lungu died June 5, 2025, but his remains have remained unburied for more than eight months, according to the Associated Press. The dispute centers on competing wishes between Lungu’s family and his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, over whether Hichilema should attend or be involved in the burial. Courts in Zambia have repeatedly sided with authorities seeking to carry out funeral plans.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge said a spring fraud trial for Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz accused of colluding with sports bettors to rig bets will likely be postponed until October. The men pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Brooklyn federal court to a rewritten indictment. Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto left a May 4 trial date in place for now but indicated she would likely move it to the fall.
The State Law Enforcement Division said a man has been charged with murder after a marijuana deal inside a dorm room at South Carolina State University led to a shooting that killed two people and hurt another, officials said. The suspect, identified as 18-year-old Khamanti Lytrel Kennedy, was arraigned in Orangeburg County and denied bond, according to court records. The university said it has tightened security measures and is seeking additional funding for upgrades.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who died Tuesday at 84, helped push widespread use of the term “African American” as a way to reclaim cultural identity. In the late 1980s, he and NAACP members and other movement leaders urged people to replace “colored” and “blacks” with wording they said better reflected the community’s ancestral roots.
California regulators said Tuesday they will not suspend Tesla’s license to sell vehicles in the state for 30 days, after determining the company stopped misleading drivers about the safety of its cars. The decision follows an administrative law judge’s finding that Tesla misled consumers through its use of the terms “Autopilot” and “Full Self-Driving.”
Rio de Janeiro’s Sambadrome hosted a parade Sunday honoring Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but opposition figures and legal analysts said the tribute could create election-season legal exposure. Lula attended despite warnings that his appearance could be challenged in Brazil’s electoral court ahead of the October vote.
A judge in Santa Clara County declared a mistrial Friday in the case of five current and former Stanford University students charged after pro-Palestinian protests in 2024 that involved barricading themselves inside the university president and provost executive offices. The jury convicted the defendants on vandalism and conspiracy to trespass charges before falling into a deadlock after five days of deliberations.
A shooting at a South Carolina State University residence complex killed two people and wounded a third late Thursday, prompting an eight-hour lockdown that ended Friday morning, authorities said. The university canceled classes through Monday, postponed its men’s basketball game, and made counselors available.
PORT ORANGE, Fla., (AP) — A dispute over a rule during a pickleball game at a central Florida country club led to a brawl in which one player hit his opponent in the face with a paddle and then punched him on the ground, authorities said. A 63-year-old man was charged with two counts of felony battery on a person 65 or older, and his 51-year-old wife was charged with a felony count for the same alleged offense. Court documents say the argument began over where players were allowed to take shots on the court.
Oklahoma executed Kendrick Simpson on Thursday, carrying out the state’s first death sentence of 2026 for a 2006 drive-by shooting that prosecutors said killed two men. Simpson, 45, was pronounced dead at 10:19 CST after a three-drug lethal-injection protocol at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, prison officials said.
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a U.S. Marine and his wife will keep an Afghan orphan they brought home despite a U.S. government plan to reunite her with relatives in Afghanistan. The decision is likely to end a yearslong legal fight over whether the adoption orders were void.
Two teenagers were charged as adults in Indiana and Mississippi for allegedly plotting to stage a school shooting at a central Indiana high school, including an alleged plan involving a video of the school’s layout sent over social media. Authorities said one defendant is from Shelbyville’s Morristown High School and the other is from Corinth, Mississippi, and that the case was built from online communications and a probable cause affidavit.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday that Georgia-based Mean Arms will pay $1.75 million to survivors and victims’ families in the 2022 Buffalo supermarket shooting and will stop selling the gun accessory in New York. James said the company’s product—designed to lock a rifle magazine—could be removed by the attacker, with instructions provided on the packaging.
Opening statements in a landmark trial began Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, where jurors are weighing claims that Meta and Google’s YouTube deliberately addict children and harm their mental health. The case is part of a broader wave of litigation seeking accountability for youth harms linked to social media use.
Jurors in Los Angeles got their first look Tuesday at dueling arguments in a landmark social media case aimed at holding Meta and YouTube responsible for alleged addiction-related harms to children. In opening statements, plaintiff’s attorney Mark Lanier compared the platforms to “addicting the brains of children,” while Meta and YouTube lawyers pushed back on the addiction claims and argued KGM’s watch time on YouTube Shorts was limited.
Alex Murdaugh’s lawyers urged the South Carolina Supreme Court to overturn his two murder convictions and life prison sentence, arguing the trial judge blocked evidence they said was unfair and biased jurors. Murdaugh, who remains incarcerated, continued to deny killing his wife and younger son as the justices heard arguments in Columbia, South Carolina.
Alex Murdaugh, serving two murder convictions and a life sentence in South Carolina, again denied killing his wife and son as his attorneys argued before the state Supreme Court. His lawyers asked the justices to overturn the convictions, citing alleged trial errors including evidence of past theft and claims about comments by the court clerk who later pleaded guilty to obstruction and perjury.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu filed a lawsuit against two websites that distribute instructions for 3D-printed “ghost guns,” alleging the sites provide access to illegal, untraceable firearms. The suit names Gatalog Foundation Inc. and CTRLPEW LLC and was filed in San Francisco Superior Court.
Children accompanying parents to polling stations in Lisbon were allowed to cast votes in Portugal’s presidential election Sunday, but their ballots listed popular fictional characters rather than the official runoff candidates. Parents described the exercise as a way to teach their children about civic participation.
ATLANTA (AP) — Jury selection began Monday in the trial of Colin Gray, the father of a teenager accused of killing two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School in September 2024. Prosecutors say Gray gave his son access to a gun and ammunition after warnings about the boy’s threat to others. Prosecutors allege the shootings were carefully planned, and Gray’s trial is expected to begin after several weeks of jury selection.
Meta is on trial in New Mexico over allegations that it failed to protect children from sexual exploitation on social media, and that it prioritized growth and engagement over youth safety. Prosecutors said the company misrepresented what it knew about risks to children as the trial opened Monday in Santa Fe.
Alabama approved legislation Thursday adding rape and sexual torture of a child under 12 to the narrow list of crimes that could draw a death sentence, joining other Republican-led states seeking to revive capital punishment for child rape. The state’s lawmakers cited the need to protect children and set up a potential court challenge, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that such penalties would violate the Constitution.
Alabama has scheduled a March execution for Charles “Sonny” Burton, a 75-year-old man sentenced to death for a fatal 1991 shooting during a robbery at an auto parts store in Talladega, according to Gov. Kay Ivey and court records. Ivey set the execution for March 12 using nitrogen gas, despite clemency requests from Burton’s supporters and his attorney, who said he did not shoot the victim.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that writings left by the person who killed six people in the 2023 Covenant school shooting in Nashville can be made available to the public. The court overturned much of a 2024 decision that had sided with Covenant parents seeking to keep the journals, suicide note and memoir out of public view.
The U.S. government asked a federal judge to dismiss a negligence lawsuit filed by survivors and relatives of victims of the Oct. 2023 Lewiston mass shooting, arguing the court lacks authority and that the legal claims cannot proceed. The families allege Army officials failed to intervene despite warning signs about the shooter, Robert Card, an Army reservist who died by suicide two days after the shootings.
Denver authorities said Wednesday that the parents of a 16-year-old boy who opened fire at Evergreen High School in Colorado and later died by suicide will not face gun charges. Investigators said they looked into whether the parents could be charged for allowing access to a Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolver kept in a locked gun safe, but found insufficient evidence. The sheriff’s office also said it could not collect DNA evidence linking the parents to the gun after investigators obtained a court order to collect samples.
Hawaiʻi lawmakers are poised to approve a $600,000 settlement for Alvin Jardine, who spent more than 20 years in prison for a rape he did not commit, but died Dec. 27 before any payment arrived. State Sen. Karl Rhoads, a sponsor of the 2016 wrongful-conviction compensation law, said the state’s delay was “a horrible human tragedy.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has authorized an execution date for Charles “Sonny” Burton, a 75-year-old man convicted in a 1991 robbery in which another participant, Derrick DeBruce, shot and killed a store customer, Doug Battle, the Associated Press reported. Alabama’s Supreme Court approved the use of nitrogen gas. Burton’s lawyers and the victim’s daughter and some jurors from the 1992 trial are urging clemency, saying Burton did not pull the trigger.
Two years after a former UCLA gynecologist was convicted of sex abuse and sentenced to 11 years in prison, a California appeals court overturned the conviction over a jury-management error that judges said violated the defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The panel said a note from the jury’s foreperson raised concerns about the English proficiency of an alternate juror, but the trial judge did not share that information with prosecutors or defense attorneys.
Graphic videos of Charlie Kirk’s killing on a Utah college campus have gone viral, prompting defense attorneys in the Tyler Robinson murder case to object to showing the footage in court and seek restrictions on cameras and stills. Legal experts say media exposure can “bias” potential jurors. A judge is set to rule on a defense request to disqualify prosecutors later this month.
Vermont is considering whether to create a locked facility for defendants found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity who do not meet clinical criteria for psychiatric hospitalization. Advocates and lawmakers say the current system leaves some accused people without a durable case resolution, while critics question whether the proposed approach could turn competency-restoration into prolonged incarceration.
Authorities in Louisiana said they arrested two teenagers in the weekend shootings at a small-town parade that left a 6-year-old child and four others wounded. The arrests were announced Sunday by the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff’s Office.
A husband on trial in Virginia for killing his wife and another man testified that prosecutors’ account was incorrect, saying he shot Joseph Ryan instead of stabbing his wife. Brendan Banfield, who is accused in the 2023 deaths of Christine Banfield and Ryan, told the court he tried to de-escalate and did not want to shoot Ryan.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — TikTok agreed to settle a landmark lawsuit over allegations that social media platforms deliberately addict and harm children just before trial was set to begin, plaintiff attorneys confirmed. Jury selection starts this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube, with executives including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expected to testify.
In Athens, Georgia, a judge heard testimony Friday from a DNA expert retained by Jose Ibarra’s attorneys as Ibarra seeks a new trial after his conviction in the killing of nursing student Laken Riley. Ruth Ballard testified that she could not rule out the possibility that Ibarra’s DNA was transferred to evidence, and she acknowledged she had not finished a complete review of the case. Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard did not rule immediately, giving attorneys another month to file legal arguments.
A King County jury has ordered the city of Seattle to pay more than $30 million to the family of Antonio Mays Jr., 16, after finding the city negligent in its emergency response to his fatal shooting in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest zone in June 2020. The verdict included $4 million for Mays’ estate and $26 million for his father, Antonio Mays Sr., according to a report by The Seattle Times and the Associated Press.
A Texas man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend was executed Wednesday, becoming the first person put to death in the United States in 2026. Charles Victor Thompson, 55, received a lethal injection at a state penitentiary in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CST.
Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pardoned ex-Sgt. Wesley Gonzalez Shifflett on Jan. 15 in the fatal 2023 shooting of an unarmed man accused of stealing sunglasses at a mall. The pardon, issued days before Youngkin's term ended, comes amid a nationwide debate over legal protections for law enforcement and when use of deadly force is justified.
Luigi Mangione’s federal murder trial in the 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson will begin with jury selection on Sept. 8, a federal judge said. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett said the rest of the schedule depends on whether she allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty.
From January 2020 through November 2025, Omaha has granted mayoral pardons to more than 60 residents convicted of municipal violations. Lincoln has pardoned two. The disparity reflects fundamentally different thresholds and philosophies in how Nebraska's two largest cities offer formal forgiveness for past mistakes and a path forward for residents whose criminal histories have limited employment and housing opportunities.
Christie’s will hold an auction in New York on Friday, “We the People: America at 250,” featuring rare political texts and historic objects tied to the United States’ 250th anniversary. Among the highlights are a 1776 broadside printing of the Declaration of Independence and a draft of the Constitution edited by Rufus King, both with estimates in the millions.
The U.S. Supreme Court appeared likely Tuesday to strike down Hawaii’s restrictions on carrying guns into places such as stores and hotels, in a case testing how far states may limit Second Amendment rights. Justices questioned whether Hawaii could enforce the rules without undermining speech rights on private property, and the Trump administration backed the challenge.
An 18-year-old North Carolina man plans to plead guilty to a 2022 mass shooting in Raleigh that left five people dead, his attorneys said Tuesday. Austin Thompson, who was 15 when he shot and stabbed his 16-year-old brother and four neighbors on October 13, 2022, filed notice of his intended plea in Wake County court. A hearing ahead of his scheduled February 2 trial was set for Wednesday.
The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a challenge to Hawaii's rule that firearms may not be carried on privately owned, publicly accessible property — including stores, hotels, beaches, and bars — unless the owner explicitly permits it. Three Maui residents who sued the state in 2023 argue the default prohibition violates their Second Amendment right to carry firearms for self-defense. The case is the first significant gun-carry dispute before the high court since its 2022 ruling that sharply expanded public carry rights nationwide.
Hawaii’s gun laws are set to face U.S. Supreme Court scrutiny Tuesday, as the court considers a narrow question about carrying firearms on private property open to the public. The case centers on whether Hawaii can prohibit guns on locations such as stores and hotels unless the owner explicitly allows it. The challenge was brought by Maui residents, and the state has argued for enforcing the restrictions.
The Supreme Court agreed to decide the constitutionality of “geofence” search warrants that collect cellphone location history, a tool used to identify people near crime scenes. The case grew out of a Virginia robbery investigation in which police obtained location data from Google to help arrest Okello Chatrie.
A Davidson County chancellor ruled Friday that Tennessee prison officials must allow journalists to observe lethal injection executions from the moment condemned inmates are restrained on a gurney through the official pronouncement of death, granting a temporary injunction sought by a coalition of news organizations that argued the state's restrictive viewing protocols violated constitutional press-access rights.
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up the constitutionality of geofence warrants — broad search orders that compel technology companies to produce the location history of every cellphone user within a defined geographic area during a specific time period. The justices' decision to hear the case sets the stage for a ruling on the Fourth Amendment limits of a surveillance technique that law enforcement agencies have adopted as a routine investigative tool.
Tyler Robinson's defense attorneys asked a Utah judge Friday to remove the Utah County prosecutors pursuing a death-penalty case against their client, arguing that a deputy county attorney's family connection to the scene of Charlie Kirk's killing creates a conflict of interest the office cannot cure from within. Robinson, 22, is charged with aggravated murder in the Sept. 10 shooting of Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. He has not yet entered a plea.
A Tennessee man pleaded guilty Friday to hacking the U.S. Supreme Court's electronic filing system on 25 separate days in 2023, using stolen credentials to access and publicize personal records belonging to another user. Nicholas Moore, 24, of Springfield, Tennessee, admitted in federal court that he also breached computer systems at AmeriCorps and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A jury found Antoine Watson, 24, guilty Thursday of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, who was killed in a 2021 attack in San Francisco. The jury did not find Watson guilty of murder but also convicted him on assault charges. The killing helped spark a national movement against anti-Asian American violence. Ratanapakdee's family says the attack was motivated by race, though prosecutors declined to file hate crime charges. Jurors will reconvene January 26 to hear arguments on aggravating factors before sentencing is determined.
The U.S. Postal Service unveiled a Muhammad Ali commemorative Forever Stamp in the champion's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on Thursday, with 22 million stamps going on sale the same day. The stamp features a 1974 Associated Press photograph of Ali holding his gloves in a fighting stance, his last name in bold black and red lettering. Friends and family of the late champion gathered for the ceremony, hosted by broadcaster Bob Costas.
An Ohio jury on Wednesday convicted an 83-year-old man of murder in the fatal shooting of an Uber driver he wrongly believed was working with scammers who had threatened him — a case in which the driver was herself an unwitting victim of the same scheme. William J. Brock, of South Charleston, shot and killed Lo-Letha Toland-Hall, 61, six times when she arrived at his home between Dayton and Columbus in March 2024. Toland-Hall, of Dublin, a Columbus suburb, had been sent to Brock's address by the same scammers who had called Brock demanding $12,000 in supposed bond money for a relative, investigators said.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Wednesday that Montana police acted lawfully when they entered a man's home without a warrant after a reported suicide threat, finding the officers' conduct 'objectively reasonable' under existing constitutional standards. The case stemmed from a 2021 incident in which William Case was shot and wounded after officers entered his home without a warrant and an officer fired when Case emerged from a closet holding an object that appeared to be a gun.
Colorado’s appeals court on Wednesday questioned whether a judge can factor a former Mesa County clerk’s election-conspiracy statements into a prison sentence for a data breach of election equipment. Prosecutors defended comments by District Court Judge Matthew Barrett during sentencing, while Peters’ lawyers argued sentencing errors and highlighted Trump’s pardon.
Georgia's state Senate gave final passage Tuesday to legislation that would void a Savannah ordinance requiring gun owners to secure firearms in locked vehicles, sending the measure to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature or veto. The bill also adds the word storage to existing state law that bars cities and counties from regulating firearm possession and carry, closing a gap Savannah officials had used to justify the local rule.
Licking County commissioners and state lawmakers honored Avery Russell, a 12-year-old dog-attack survivor from Blacklick, and Licking County Chief Dog Warden Larry Williams at a ceremony Jan. 8 in Newark, Ohio, marking the December passage of Avery's Law — a bipartisan measure Gov. Mike DeWine signed Dec. 19 that gives Ohio's county dog wardens significantly stronger tools to address dangerous animals. The law takes effect March 18 and imposes criminal penalties on owners whose dogs attack without provocation, grants wardens authority to seize an animal immediately after an attack, and mandates euthanization — following due process — when a dog kills or seriously injures a person.
Three high-profile Texas death row inmates face pivotal appellate hearings in 2026, including a January 21 en banc argument before all 17 judges of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, as Texas records a second consecutive year without leading the nation in annual executions. Robert Roberson, David Wood, and Brittany Holberg each secured stays or reversals in 2025 after their original convictions were called into question. Texas remains the national overall leader in executions, but the state's annual totals have declined gradually over the past decade.
Ron DeSantis named Adam Tanenbaum, a judge on Florida’s First District Court of Appeal, to the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. Tanenbaum, who spoke at Seminole High School in the St. Petersburg area, pledged to follow “originalism” and said judges should not fear correcting what he called an erroneous interpretation of text.
Daricka M. Moore, 24, pleaded not guilty Monday in Clay County Circuit Court to 11 criminal charges — including capital murder — stemming from the killings of six people during a Friday night rampage through a rural stretch of northeastern Mississippi. The victims included Moore's father, brother, uncle, a 7-year-old cousin, a church pastor, and the pastor's brother, killed at three separate locations. Because Moore was charged with capital murder, he is ineligible for bail under Mississippi state law.
A federal judge in New York said Monday she will hold a short hearing within two weeks to examine the police procedures that allowed officers to search Luigi Mangione's backpack when he was arrested in connection with the December 2024 killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. U.S. District Judge Margaret Garnett said the hearing will call a single witness — an Altoona, Pennsylvania police officer — and will focus narrowly on what protocols were in place when Mangione was taken into custody.
Muhammad Ali is being honored with a commemorative U.S. postage stamp, the U.S. Postal Service announced. A first-day-of-issue ceremony for the “Muhammad Ali Forever Stamp” is planned for Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky, where people can buy stamps featuring a black-and-white Associated Press photo of Ali from 1974.
Eighteen Buddhist monks in saffron and ocher robes are walking single file across the American South, drawing thousands of onlookers to churchyards, city halls and town squares along a 2,300-mile route from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. Led by the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, who makes the trek barefoot, the group has attracted large crowds across six states since setting out on Oct. 26, 2025. On Saturday, thousands gathered at the South Carolina State House in Columbia, where Mayor Daniel Rickenmann issued the monks a formal proclamation.
Muhammad Ali will be honored for the first time with a commemorative U.S. postage stamp, the U.S. Postal Service said. A first-day-of-issue ceremony for the “Muhammad Ali Forever Stamp” is planned for Thursday in Louisville, Kentucky, his birthplace.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal from Cisco Systems seeking to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the company's technology helped Chinese authorities identify, track, detain, and torture members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement. The justices will hear arguments in the spring and are expected to issue a ruling by early summer. The Trump administration had urged the court to accept the case on Cisco's behalf.
A Wisconsin teen who pleaded guilty in the killing of a prison guard during a fistfight is asking a jury not to send him to prison, arguing he was mentally ill and not responsible for his actions. Javarius Hurd, 17, entered a guilty plea to second-degree reckless homicide and is slated for a February trial on whether he should be sentenced to prison or committed to a mental institution.
A Wisconsin man accused of killing his parents to help fund a plan to assassinate President Donald Trump pleaded guilty in Waukesha County Circuit Court, agreeing to two mandatory life sentences. Nikita Casap, 18, entered the plea Thursday as prosecutors dropped seven other charges in a deal.
A judge on Tuesday granted a request by Charles Williams, who was 15 when he opened fire with his father’s revolver at Santana High School in San Diego in 2001, allowing his case to be resentenced. The ruling sends the matter to juvenile court and could lead to his immediate release after 23 years in prison, though prosecutors said they will appeal.
Pamela Smart, who has spent more than three decades imprisoned for orchestrating her husband's murder, filed a habeas corpus petition Monday arguing constitutional violations denied her a fair trial — including prosecutors' alleged use of inaccurate transcripts that attributed key words to recordings where those words were not audible.
The city of Southfield, Michigan, has agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of Timesha Beauchamp, a 20-year-old woman with cerebral palsy who was declared dead by paramedics at her home in August 2020, only to be found gasping for air when a funeral home worker unzipped her body bag hours later. Beauchamp was rushed to a hospital but never recovered. She died two months after the incident.
A two-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that California's law barring open carry of firearms in counties with populations above 200,000 violates the Second Amendment, a decision that drew swift condemnation from state officials and renewed debate over how courts should apply a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that expanded gun rights. The panel found the restriction amounts to a ban covering the areas where roughly 95 percent of California's residents live.
A federal appeals panel ruled Friday that California’s law prohibiting open carry of firearms in more populated counties is unconstitutional. The decision was issued by two judges on a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Sacramento, California.
Chief Justice John Roberts told U.S. judges in his annual letter that the Constitution remains “firm and unshaken,” writing, “True then; true now.” The message comes as the Supreme Court prepares for major cases in 2026 and as legal fights have followed President Donald Trump’s allies’ pushback against rulings affecting the administration.
A Utah judge has ordered the release of a transcript from a closed-door hearing in October that addressed whether a man charged with killing Charlie Kirk should be shackled during court proceedings, according to court filings and a transcript released Monday. State District Judge Tony Graf said the public release supports transparency in the judicial system.
A Fulton County judge ordered a temporary pause of a planned Georgia execution for Stacey Humphreys, saying questions about the state’s clemency process must be addressed before his Dec. 17 sentence can proceed. Humphreys’ lawyers argued that two parole board members have conflicts that could taint their role in deciding his clemency request.
An Oklahoma man was charged with first-degree manslaughter after a stray bullet from his yard fatally struck his neighbor, Sandra Phelps, who was sitting on her front porch holding a child on Christmas Day. Cody Wayne Adams, 33, told deputies he had bought a .45‑caliber handgun as a Christmas present and was shooting at a can in his yard when the bullet travelled roughly half a mile and hit Phelps. He was booked, released on a $100,000 bond and ordered not to contact the victim’s family, with a court appearance set for Feb. 25.
A Utah judge on Monday ordered the release of a transcript from a closed-door hearing in October on whether the man charged with killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk must appear in court shackled. State District Judge Tony Graf said public transparency is “foundational” to the judicial system before ordering the release of details from the Oct. 24 hearing.
KENNESAW, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge on Monday ordered a temporary pause to a December execution of Stacey Humphreys after finding that questions about the state’s clemency process must be addressed before the death sentence could be carried out. Humphreys had been scheduled for execution Dec. 17, but the procedure was already put on hold as the legal fight over his clemency hearing continued.
