Supreme Court

Polls show that frustration with Washington has never been higher — and who could argue? Most Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. Most lawmakers openly concede that nothing will get done before the November elections. The leaders of both parties are already trading threats over the possibility of a national debt default next year. Barack Obama got elected by promising to change the tone in Washington, but clearly he's failed, as George W. Bush did before him. That should be a clue that the partisan animosity consuming the political system doesn't originate in the White House.

Police in Papua New Guinea blockaded Parliament on Friday, a day after Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's government leveled sedition charges against the country's chief justice. The apparently competing tactics come days after the Supreme Court ruled that O'Neill's ousted predecessor, Sir Michael Somare, is the rightful ruler of the South Pacific island nation, and a month before the beginning of national elections. O'Neill had sought to reconvene Parliament to consider the Supreme Court ruling but most lawmakers are away campaigning.

THE FIRST three words of the preamble of our Constitution are "We the People. " Two years ago today the US Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission upended that promising vision. Corporations — which do not have mouths, minds, or consciences — won a "free speech" right to spend unlimited money to influence elections. The court cast aside a century of law intended to prevent the biggest, richest corporations from controlling our elections and government.

CONCORD, N.H. — The ­Executive Council approved Wednesday the governor's nomination of a veteran appellate lawyer to the state ­Supreme Court. The council voted 4 to 1 to appoint James Bassett to the court. Bassett, 55, has argued many appeals to the Supreme Court in his 27 years with the law firm of Orr & Reno. He specializes in complex litigation, legal ethics, and First Amendment law. It was ­Bassett who secured the ruling permitting cameras at most state court proceedings.

WASHINGTON -- People convicted of crimes overseas can own guns in the United States, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday. In a 5-to-3 decision, the court ruled in favor of Gary Sherwood Small of Pennsylvania. The court reasoned that US law, which prohibits felons who have been convicted in "any court" from owning guns, applies only to domestic crimes. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for the majority, said interpreting the law broadly to apply to foreign convictions would be unfair to defendants because procedural protections are often less applied in international courts.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court upheld the right of disabled people to sue state governments that fail to provide ramps, elevators, or other forms of access to their courthouses yesterday -- a clear but limited victory for the disability rights movement that blunts a trend at the court in favor of states' rights. By a vote of 5-to-4, the court ruled that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), adopted by Congress in 1990 and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, provides a proper basis for a federal lawsuit in which paraplegics George Lane and Beverly Jones...

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court yesterday asked the Bush administration to explain the secrecy surrounding the detention of one of the immigrants arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks. The administration has refused to release the names and other details of hundreds of foreigners rounded up after the attacks, arguing that a blanket secrecy policy is needed to protect national security. One of those immigrants, known only as M.K.B., challenged his detention. But even that has been shrouded in secrecy.

WASHINGTON -- Lawyers for a Guantanamo detainee asked the Supreme Court yesterday to consider blocking military tribunals for terror suspects and to overturn what they called an extreme ruling by the new court nominee, John G. Roberts Jr. Roberts was on a three-judge federal appeals court panel that ruled last month against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who once was a driver for Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda leader. Hamdan's lawyers told justices that the court had given the White House authority "to circumvent the federal courts and time-tested limits on the executive.

NEWARK - Almost everyone can agree that what happened to Albert Florence in 2005 sounds shocking. A New Jersey state trooper pulled their car over as Florence and his family were on their way to his mother-in-law's to celebrate their new home. He was handcuffed and arrested in front of his distraught pregnant wife and young son. He spent seven days in jail because of a warrant that said, mistakenly, that he was wanted for failure to pay a court fine. In fact, he carried proof that the fine had been paid years earlier.

Brazil's Supreme Court is opening an investigation into corruption allegations against Brazil's sports minister. Several people have accused Orlando Silva of involvement in kickback schemes related to social programs financed by his ministry. The accusations could cost him his post, as well as his ability to steward the country through soccer's 2014 World Cup. On Tuesday, Supreme Court Judge Carmen Rocha asked the ministry and federal accounting bodies to turn over any relevant information.

The Supreme Judicial Court sided with Regis College Tuesday in its long-running battle with the town of Weston over the college's plans to build a retirement community. Regis wants to build a 362-unit luxury retirement community and seeks zoning protection under the so-called Dover Amendment, which bestows exemptions for educational facilities. Weston has argued that the proposal is primarily a housing development and therefore not eligible for the zoning exemption. The college says its Regis East project would be an educational facility,...

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear the appeal of a former graduate student who was sued by the recording industry on charges of illegally downloading music, letting stand a $675,000 judgment against him for violation of copyright laws. It was the first time the high court was asked to weigh in on whether the use of peer-to-peer networks constitutes a violation of copyright laws, and whether the application of those laws in deciding civil penalties is appropriate. But the trials for the defendant, Joel Tenenbaum, are far from over.

May 21 (Bloomberg) -- The US Supreme Court will consider whether lawyers and civil rights activists can pursue a challenge to a federal law allowing government surveillance of international phone calls and Internet communications. The justices today agreed to hear the government's bid to throw out the lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, representing Amnesty International and a group of lawyers, international rights activists, journalists and other plaintiffs. The groups asked a New York federal court to rule that 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence...

Cancer patient Kathy Watson voted Republican in 2008 and believes the government has no right telling Americans to get health insurance. Nonetheless, she says she'd be dead if it weren't for President Barack Obama's health care law. Now the Florida small businesswoman is worried the Supreme Court will strike down her lifeline. Under the law, Watson and nearly 62,000 other "uninsurable" patients are getting coverage through a little-known program for people who have been turned away by insurance companies because of pre-existing medical conditions.

The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday rejected a challenge to Omaha's 2.5 percent dining tax on all restaurants within city limits. The appeal came from two Omaha restaurants and restaurant owner Anthony Fucinaro Jr., who sued to stop the tax, saying it amounts to a sales tax that the city does not have the authority to enact without a referendum. Even if found to be an occupation tax, the restaurants argued it violates limitations in the Nebraska Liquor Control Act on the amount of occupation tax for liquor license holders.

A charity that takes care of more than 1,000 retired racehorses told a court Monday that its herd is doing well, its finances are sound and that a lawsuit by New York's attorney general should be dismissed. The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation filed court papers that included statements from veterinarians and managers at the 25 farms around the U.S. that board its horses, saying the animals are healthy. It also said its audited financial statement shows total net assets of almost $7.8 million at the end of 2010.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is closing its iconic front entrance beneath the words “Equal Justice Under Law.’’ Beginning today, visitors no longer will ascend the wide marble steps to enter the 75-year-old building. They will be directed to a central screening facility to the side of and beneath the central steps that was built to improve the court’s security as part of a $122 million renovation. Two justices, Stephen G. Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, called the change unfortunate and unjustified.

Vermont's newest Supreme Court justice is to take the oath of office this week. Gov. Peter Shumlin plans to administer the oath to lawyer and long-time gay rights advocate Beth Robinson in a ceremony at the Supreme Court on Monday. Shumlin last month nominated the 46-year-old Robinson to the seat on the five-member court being vacated by the retiring Associate Justice Denise Johnson. Robinson was on the legal team that represented three same-sex couples at the center of the landmark state Supreme Court decision in 1999 that led to passage of Vermont's...