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Virginia does not violate the U.S. Constitution when it bars out-of-state residents from accessing state records through its Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled. In a unanimous opinion (PDF), the court said it was rejecting the “sweeping claim” that the statute violates the privileges…

As the Tampa Bay Times earlier told the story, a disabled Florida woman living on a $508-a-month government check had essentially done the best she could for her beloved 14-year-old dog, Harley. But those who charged, convicted and sentenced Tammy Brown in a felony animal cruelty case saw a different…

Ordinarily, Judy Clarke has little to say about her work on high-profile death-penalty cases. But at a Friday conference, she said it was a privilege to defend clients such as Susan Smith, who drowned her children, Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski and Jared Loughner, who killed a federal judge while killing and…

FBI agents arrested a new suspect on Saturday in the case of the ricin-laced letters sent to President Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge. James Everett Dutschke, 41, of Tupelo, was accused after charges were dropped against a prior suspect, Paul Kevin Curtis, report…

Country singer George Jones, who died on Friday at the age of 81, was apparently a fan of Justice Clarence Thomas. And the feeling, it seems, was mutual. NPR explains. During a 2010 interview with the network, Jones offered a tour of his basement where he showed off…

Justice Stephen G. Breyer is expected to be released from MedStar Georgetown University Hospital early this week after undergoing surgery on Saturday for a broken shoulder. Breyer, 74, injured his shoulder after falling from his bike near the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., report CNN,

About 96 percent of the BigLaw lawyers seeking help from psychotherapist Will Meyerhofer are seeking a way out. Then there are the 4 percent who like BigLaw practice. “I don’t want to exaggerate the phenomenon,” Meyerhofer writes at the People’s Therapist, “but there are folks who actually…

Text messages may be “a novel approach to client solicitation,” but they aren’t barred under traditional ethics rules, according to the Ohio Supreme Court's ethics board. In an April 5 opinion (PDF), the board said lawyers may solicit clients by text messages as long as they follow telemarketing…

Corrected: Business owners dealing with the aftermath of the Boston marathon bombings will be facing legal issues ranging from insurance coverage to compensation for injured employees. More than 400 businesses were forced to close during the bombing investigation and a handful suffered property damage, according to the

Maria watched the expensive car roll into her small town in Honduras. Two well-dressed men stepped out of the vehicle. They walked toward Maria, 15, and two friends who were with her. The men said they were recruiting people to work in a textile factory in the United States. It…

A federal judge in Oregon has found that a suburban Portland jail's policy of allowing inmates to receive only postcards is unconstitutional, because it violates the First Amendment rights of both those who send and those who receive mail. While the ruling applies only to the Columbia County Jail, it…

Nearly 200 lawyers have signed a "Friends of Rosemary" petition seeking to keep a Texas district attorney in office after she completes a 45-day sentence for driving while intoxicated. A spokeswoman for the group said during a Thursday press conference that Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg does not plan to…

The fine print in contracts for renting a bank safe-deposit box explain that valuables placed in them by customers, unlike ordinary checking and savings accounts, aren't covered by the FDIC insurance. But a lot of people may not understand that. Among those who learned this information the hard way was…

An elderly Palm Beach, Fla., widow with a high school education got "effectively five seconds" of probation from a federal judge in an offshore tax-evasion case after paying a $21.6 million penalty and back taxes. Mary Estelle Curran, 79, had inherited $43 million in Swiss bank accounts from her husband,…

A newly unsealed 2004 indictment accuses a Georgetown law grad of conspiracy to commit espionage by recruiting a woman to spy for the Cuban Intelligence Service. Marta Rita Velazquez, 55, remains free in Sweden, report Reuters, the Washington Post and a press…

An artist to who altered copyrighted photos of Jamaican Rastafarians to create collages and paintings generating $10 million in sales has largely won a battle before a federal appeals court. The New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that 25 of 30 artworks by artist Richard Prince were…

A retired State Department employee has been indicted on two charges of first-degree murder based on accusations he fatally shot two teens who broke into his home. Prosecutors announced the charges against Byron Smith, 64, of Little Falls, Minn., on Thursday, report the Associated Press, the

Jane Kelly won confirmation to the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, just 83 days after her nomination. Kelly was approved faster than any other of President Obama’s circuit nominees, The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times reports.…

Author Gilbert King says he thought a friend was joking in a text message that read, “Dude. Pulitzer.” It turned out the friend was serious, report the New York Times and the Orlando Sentinel. King wasn’t even aware that his publisher had nominated…

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ruled on behalf of a couple who claimed they had retained all rights to natural gas derived from Marcellus Shale on their property, despite an 1881 deed giving another party partial rights to minerals in the land. The decision (PDF) issued on Wednesday…