Supreme Court sides with officer tactics in high-speed police chases
(05/01/07)
WASHINGTON -- Police may use tactics that put fleeing suspects at risk of death to end high-speed car chases, the Supreme Court said Monday in ruling against a Georgia teenager who was paralyzed after his car was run off the road. In a case that turned in part on a video of the chase in suburban Atlanta, the court said it is reasonable for law enforcement officers to try to stop a fleeing motorist to prevent harm to bystanders or other drivers...
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U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court takes up global warming for the first time
(11/30/06)WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court stepped carefully into the national debate over global warming Wednesday, asking how much harm would occur if the Environmental Protection Agency continues its refusal to regulate greenhouse gases from new vehicles. In the first case about global warming to reach the high court, a lawyer for 12 states and 13 environmental groups pressed the justices to make the government act, saying the country faces grave environmental harm...
Department of Justice asks high court not to block access to phone records
(11/26/06) WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department on Saturday asked the Supreme Court to refrain from stepping into another First Amendment battle featuring federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald and The New York Times. The case involves a leak probe by Fitzgerald to track down the confidential sources of Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon for stories in 2001. ...
Justice Scalia says courts shouldn't take on politically charged questions
(10/16/06) WASHINGTON -- Justice Antonin Scalia on Sunday defended some of his Supreme Court opinions, arguing that nothing in the Constitution supports abortion rights and the use of race in school admissions. Scalia, a leading conservative voice on the high court, sparred in a one-hour televised debate with American Civil Liberties Union president Nadine Strossen. He said unelected judges have no place deciding politically charged questions when the Constitution is silent on those issues...
Most of Texas redistricting plan upheld
(06/29/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld most of the pro-Republican Texas congressional map engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and freed all states to draw new political boundaries as often as they want. The court, however, said that part of the new Texas map failed to protect minority voting rights, a small victory for Democratic and minority groups who accused Republicans of an unconstitutional power grab in drawing boundaries that booted four Democrats from office.. ...
Supreme Court takes up possible key ruling on 'greenhouse' gases
(06/27/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court plunged on Monday into the acrimonious debate over global warming and whether the government should regulate "greenhouse" gases, especially carbon dioxide from cars. The ruling could be one of the court's most important ever on the environment...
Supreme Court saves some best cases for last
(06/25/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court has had divisive rulings this year on the environment, police power and whistleblowers, and the justices are not even through with their hardest cases. The high court is on a tight deadline to finish before July, when justices begin a three-month break...
Supreme Court upholds no-knock police search
(06/16/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court made it easier Thursday for police to barge into homes and seize evidence without knocking or waiting, a sign of the court's new conservatism with Samuel Alito on board. The court, on a 5-4 vote, said judges cannot throw out evidence collected by police who have search warrants but do not properly announce their arrival...
Supreme Court shows new caution on capital punishment
(06/13/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court made it easier Monday for death row inmates to contest the lethal injections used across the country for executions and to get DNA evidence before judges in a pair of rulings that hinted at fresh caution on capital punishment...
High court to consider appeal on last-minute challenges to injection executions
(04/24/06) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Convicted cop killer Clarence Hill was already strapped to a gurney with IV tubes running into his arms to deliver the lethal injection. The executioner was ready for the order to start the flow of drugs, and witnesses, including both his family and relatives of the slain police officer, were waiting...
Supreme Court limits police searches without warrants in fractured ruling
(03/23/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police cannot search a home when one resident invites them in but another tells them to go away, provoking a strong objection from the new chief justice about the possible impact on battered women...
Supreme Court justice to speak at Southeast
(03/11/06) U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is scheduled to speak at Southeast Missouri State University's Show Me Center on May 3. He's tentatively scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. following a private reception, said Art Wallhausen, associate to the president at Southeast...
Colleges must accept military recruiters, Supreme Court rules
(03/07/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that the government can force colleges to open their campuses to military recruiters despite university objections to the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. Justices rejected a free-speech challenge from law schools and professors who claimed they should not have to associate with military recruiters or promote their campus appearances...
High court may intervene in drug funding fight
(03/05/06) WASHINGTON -- Fifteen states are urging the Supreme Court to take the unusual step of immediately intervening to resolve a dispute between states and the federal government over the costly new Medicare prescription drug program. ...
Justices debate defendants' rights to blame others
(02/23/06) WASHINGTON -- President Bush's two Supreme Court appointees waded into the nuances of the death penalty Wednesday, showing a difference in style on one of the perennial controversies confronting the high court. How Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito vote in the case out of South Carolina could determine the limits states can impose on defendants who try to blame someone else during death penalty trials...
Supreme Court says it will consider federal ban on partial-birth abortions
(02/22/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Tuesday it would consider reinstating a federal ban on what opponents call partial-birth abortion, pulling the contentious issue back to the high court on conservative Justice Samuel Alito's first day. Alito could well be the tie-breaking vote when the court decides if doctors can be barred from performing the abortion procedure...
Alito wins Supreme Court confirmation after Senate fight
(02/01/06) WASHINGTON -- Samuel Alito took his place on the Supreme Court Tuesday after winning Senate confirmation, a personal triumph for the son of an Italian immigrant and a political milestone in President Bush's campaign to give the judiciary a more conservative cast...
Senate moves Alito closer to confirmation
(01/31/06) WASHINGTON -- The Senate on Monday all but guaranteed Samuel Alito's confirmation as the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice, shutting down a last-minute attempt by liberals to block the conservative judge's nomination with a filibuster. Republican and Democratic senators, on a 72-25 vote, agreed to end their debate, setting up a vote this morning on Alito's confirmation to replace retiring moderate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor...
U.S. Supreme Court rejects BlackBerry patent appeal
(01/24/06) WASHINGTON -- Millions of BlackBerry users can now turn their attention back to a Richmond, Va., federal court where the fate of the popular wireless e-mail device may be decided. After the Supreme Court chose on Monday not to intervene in the case, the resolution of the long-running battle over patents for the handheld device is up to U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer...
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor breaks 4-4 tie in what may be her last vote
(01/24/06) WASHINGTON -- In possibly her last day on the bench, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor broke a 4-4 tie Monday as she had so many times before -- and left a host of thorny issues for her successor. Justices are about halfway through a historic term, with a new chief justice and the delayed retirement of its first woman member. The Senate could vote on replacing O'Connor with Samuel Alito as early as this week...
Alito heads into judiciary committee vote with first victory assured
(01/24/06) WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito heads into the first vote of his high court candidacy with victory assured today in a Senate committee, but Democratic opponents are still working to dampen his support in the full Senate. The GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee is expected to advance the nomination of Alito -- President Bush's pick to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- on the strength of its 10 Republican senators. There are eight Democrats on the panel...
Demonstrators mark anniversary of Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling
(01/23/06) ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Thousands of pro-life supporters massed outside Minnesota's Capitol on Sunday in one of several protests nationwide on the 33rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling, amid heightened hopes and fears over what a new face on the Supreme Court will mean for the decision establishing abortion rights...
McCaskill says she would oppose Alito for Supreme Court
(01/21/06) WASHINGTON -- Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Claire McCaskill came out against Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito on Friday, saying he is not a moderate like Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whose seat he would fill. "His comments during his confirmation hearing and his record indicate that he is not someone who would defend civil rights and that he would side in favor of big business over the consumer and presidential power over individual rights," McCaskill said in a written statement...
High Court: Doctors can't be punished for assisted suicide
(01/18/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked the Bush administration's attempt to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die, protecting Oregon's one-of-a-kind assisted-suicide law. It was the first loss for Chief Justice John Roberts, who joined the court's most conservative members -- Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas -- in a long but restrained dissent...
Alito appears to be headed for confirmation
(01/13/06) WASHINGTON -- Samuel Alito coasted toward probable confirmation as the 110th Supreme Court justice Thursday, with the only question after 18 hours of grueling Senate interrogation being how many Democrats would support him. Alito said nothing to undermine his solid support by the Senate's majority Republicans during three days of aggressive questioning by Democrats who challenged his credibility, judicial philosophy and independence...
Alito says he would approach abortion with open mind as high court justice
(01/11/06) WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said Tuesday he would deal with the issue of abortion with an open mind as a justice, though he defended his 1991 judicial vote saying women seeking abortions must notify their husbands. In the second day of Senate hearings, Alito also said no president or court is above the law -- even in time of war -- as he addressed questions on presidential powers. ...
Samuel Alito pounded by Democrats as hearings open, says he would follow law as Supreme Court justice
(01/10/06) WASHINGTON -- Democrats are on the attack, and Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is on notice. Alito absorbed hours of criticism from Senate Democrats at close quarters Monday, then pledged at his confirmation hearings to do what the law requires "in every single case" if approved for the Supreme Court...
Senators talk tough on eve of contentious hearings for Alito
(01/09/06) WASHINGTON -- Senate Democrats on Sunday promised a drawn-out confirmation and perhaps a filibuster for Samuel Alito if the Supreme Court nominee evades or refuses to answer their questions on abortion, presidential war powers and other issues at this week's confirmation hearings...
Government can move Jose Padilla to Florida to face charges
(01/05/06) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to let the military transfer accused "enemy combatant" and former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla to Miami to face criminal charges in at least a temporary victory for the Bush administration. The justices overruled a lower court, which had attempted to block the transfer as part of a rebuke to the White House...
Top court sides with feds in delinquent loans case
(12/08/05) WASHINGTON -- America's seniors and disabled cannot escape debts from old student loans, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, freeing the government to pursue Social Security benefits as part of an effort to collect billions in delinquent loans. The Bush administration had argued that the ability to withhold Social Security benefits is an important tool in the pursuit of $5.7 billion in student loan debt that is more than 10 years old. Overall, outstanding loans total about $33 billion...
High court takes on job transfers in sexual harassment cases
(12/06/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to decide whether an employer may be liable for financial damages if it transfers an employee who has complained of discrimination to a more difficult job. At issue is what constitutes "materially adverse" changes in employment...
High court wrestles with parental notification law for abortion
(12/01/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with a New Hampshire law that requires a parent to be told before a daughter ends her pregnancy, with no hint the justices were ready for a dramatic retreat on abortion rights under their new chief...
Conservatives, liberals trying to discern Samuel Alito's leanings
(11/27/05) WASHINGTON -- His mother may know best, but conservatives do not share her certainty that Samuel Alito would overturn abortion rights. Alito's independent streak is complicating what might otherwise be an easy call as people on both sides of the abortion divide try to figure out his likely course if he were confirmed by the Senate for the Supreme Court...
Never-enforced abortion law goes before Supreme Court
(11/27/05) CONCORD, N.H. -- To some, a never-enforced New Hampshire law requiring parental notification before a minor has an abortion is a backward step for women's rights. To others, it protects parents' right to know if their child is having an abortion. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider those arguments Wednesday as it begins to weigh whether to reinstate a law that requires parental notification 48 hours before an abortion can be performed on a woman under the age of 18...
Alito boasts of his work against abortion during Reagan years
(11/15/05) WASHINGTON -- Twenty years ago, Samuel Alito was just trying to catch the eye of Reagan administration officials looking to fill a political slot in the Justice Department. But the young conservative's boast about being "particularly proud" of his work helping to argue that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" may now make it more difficult for him in his quest to join the Supreme Court...
Abortion front and center for high court nominations
(11/13/05) WASHINGTON -- Abortion was the first question out of the box at John Roberts' Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Hand-wringing over the same issue was rife during Harriet Miers' short-lived nomination to the court. Now abortion again is central to the debate over Samuel Alito, the latest nominee for the high court...
Democrat avoids filibuster pledge against Supreme Court nominee
(11/08/05) WASHINGTON -- A veteran Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee says he doubts his party will try to block a final vote on President Bush's nomination of conservative jurist Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Alito, a federal appellate judge, should get a simple up-or-down majority vote on his appointment, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."...
Supreme Court steps into military trials dispute
(11/08/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider a challenge to the Bush administration's military tribunals for foreign terror suspects, a major test of the government's wartime powers. Justices will decide whether Osama bin Laden's former driver can be tried for war crimes before military officers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba...
Battles likely if high court reverses Roe v. Wade
(11/06/05) NEW YORK -- Undoubtedly, there would be tumult -- likely roiling every statehouse in the nation. Beyond that, little is certain about what would unfold if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the divisive 1973 decision establishing a woman's right to have an abortion...
Confirmation hearings set for January
(11/04/05) WASHINGTON -- The Republican-controlled Senate will begin hearings Jan. 9 on Judge Samuel Alito's appointment to the Supreme Court, leaders of the Judiciary Committee announced Thursday, a bipartisan repudiation of President Bush's call for a final confirmation vote before year's end...
Alito could bring abrupt shift to top court
(11/04/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court's middle ground is disappearing. If Samuel Alito is confirmed, he could almost immediately begin shifting the court onto more conservative footing as it considers contentious social issues like abortion, religion and capital punishment...
Road to Supreme Court getting smoother for Judge Samuel Alito
(11/03/05) WASHINGTON -- The 14 centrists who averted a Senate breakdown over judicial nominees last spring are showing signs of splintering on the president's latest Supreme Court nominee. That is weakening the hand of Democrats opposed to Judge Samuel Alito and enhancing his prospects for confirmation...
Bush picks Alito for High Court
(11/01/05) WASHINGTON -- President Bush nominated veteran judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court Monday, seeking to shift the judiciary to the right and mollify conservatives who derailed his previous pick. Ready-to-rumble Democrats said Alito may curb abortion rights and be "too radical for the American people."...
Republicans urge Bush to nominate a solid conservative for high court
(10/31/05) WASHINGTON -- President Bush neared a decision on a new nominee for the Supreme Court as Republican lawmakers suggested Sunday he should pick a solid conservative with a track record as a judge. But the Senate's top Democrat raised the possibility of "a lot of problems" if Bush settles on federal appeals judge Samuel Alito to succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor...
Top court nominee withdraws name
(10/28/05) WASHINGTON -- In a striking defeat for President Bush, White House counsel Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday after three weeks of brutal criticism from fellow conservatives. The Senate's top Republican predicted a replacement candidate within days...
Miers' campaign gains little ground
(10/23/05) WASHINGTON -- Behind closed doors, the former senator trying to smooth the way for confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers appealed for patience. She is qualified, said Dan Coats, asking that those in the audience wait for hearings before making up their mind...
Bill would blunt Supreme Court's ruling on seizure of property
(10/20/05) WASHINGTON -- Reacting to a Supreme Court ruling, the Senate on Wednesday moved to bar some federal funds from projects where people's homes are seized for private development. An amendment to the transportation, treasury and housing spending bill would prevent any money in the bill from being spent on projects that seek to use the power of eminent domain to build shopping malls or other commercial developments...
Miers indicated she supported the banning of most abortions
(10/19/05) WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers pledged support in 1989 for a constitutional amendment banning abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother, according to material given to the Senate on Tuesday. As a candidate for the Dallas city council, Miers also signaled support for the overall agenda of Texans United for Life -- agreeing she would support legislation restricting abortions if the Supreme Court ruled that states could ban abortions and would participate in "pro-life rallies and special events.". ...
Inmate has right to abortion, says Supreme Court
(10/18/05) Supreme Court rejects appeal by the governor, saying inmate has right to travel to abortion clinic with taxpayer dollars. WASHINGTON -- Missouri officials must let a pregnant inmate have an abortion, the Supreme Court said Monday, rejecting an appeal by anti-abortion Gov. Matt Blunt...
Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers to face vigorous questions about abortion, privacy rights
(10/10/05) WASHINGTON -- As doubts grow about her abortion views, Harriet Miers will face vigorous questioning on privacy rights and her qualifications for the Supreme Court, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said President Bush's pick to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor must show she can handle complicated legal issues and has not cut deals with the White House to overturn Roe v. Wade...
Conservatives still worried about next nominee
(10/06/05) WASHINGTON -- Not satisfied with President Bush's word, conservative senators and others questioned Wednesday whether Harriet Miers was the best Supreme Court nominee a self-proclaimed conservative Republican president could find. "I guess they thought we'd all just say 'Whoopee!' but that's not the way it works around here anymore," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. He insisted there were many potential nominees more qualified than Miers...
High court clashes over assisted suicide
(10/06/05) WASHINGTON -- New Chief Justice John Roberts stepped forward Wednesday as an aggressive defender of federal authority to block doctor-assisted suicide, as the Supreme Court clashed over an Oregon law that lets doctors help terminally ill patients end their lives...
Bush picks lawyer loyalist for justice
(10/04/05) WASHINGTON -- President Bush once called her a pit bull in size six shoes. Now he wants to call her Madame Justice. Bush named White House counsel Harriet Miers to a Supreme Court in transition Monday, turning to a longtime loyalist without experience as a judge or publicly known views on abortion to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor...
Roberts sworn in as chief justice
(09/30/05) WASHINGTON -- John G. Roberts Jr., a conservative protege of the late William H. Rehnquist, succeeded him Thursday and became the nation's youngest chief justice in two centuries, winning support from more than three-fourths of the Senate after promising he would be no ideologue...
Supreme Court will hear case involving suicide law
(09/29/05) Supporters say the law offers terminally ill patients a humane way to end their suffering. PORTLAND, Ore. -- Julie McMurchie and her four siblings watched as their 68-year-old mother, Peggy Sutherland, lifted a lethal dose of barbiturates to her lips...
Bush administration sets up Supreme Court showdown on abortion
(09/27/05) WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is asking the Supreme Court to reinstate a national ban on a type of late-term abortion, a case that could thrust the president's first court picks into an early tie-breaking role on a divisive and emotional issue...
O'Connor prepares for final days on Supreme Court
(09/20/05) WASHINGTON -- Her legacy not yet sealed, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is getting an unexpected final chance to select fights for the Supreme Court to take on and to influence colleagues in abortion, capital punishment and assisted suicide cases. O'Connor's delayed retirement leaves in place -- at least for a couple of months -- a power broker, popular and respected among the other justices...
Bush turns his attention to filling second Supreme Court vacancy
(09/18/05) WASHINGTON -- With chief justice-nominee John Roberts cruising toward confirmation, President Bush is turning his attention to a second vacancy on the nine-member Supreme Court. The president extended invitations Friday to key Senate leaders to meet at the White House next week to discuss the seat held by retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor...
Roberts rebuffs Democrats' questions during hearing
(09/14/05) WASHINGTON -- Chief justice nominee John Roberts repeatedly refused to answer questions about abortion and other contentious issues at his confirmation hearing Tuesday, telling frustrated Democrats he would not discuss matters that could come before the Supreme Court...
Roberts says he'll serve 'without fear or favor'
(09/13/05) Senators express fears and support for Bush's chief justice nominee. WASHINGTON -- John Roberts opened the first Supreme Court confirmation hearing in 11 years Monday by portraying himself as a humble, non-political judge who would interpret the law "without fear or favor" if he becomes the 17th chief justice of the United States...
Specter says he won't ask directly if Roberts will overturn Roe
(09/12/05) WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he will not ask Supreme Court chief justice nominee John Roberts whether he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., did say he planned to ask Roberts, the president's pick to succeed the late William H. Rehnquist as chief justice, whether there is a right to privacy in the Constitution...
Rehnquist given final farewell in funeral service, Arlington burial
(09/08/05) WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was buried Wednesday as President Bush led the nation in bidding farewell to the man who orchestrated a dramatic states rights power shift in a third of a century on the Supreme Court and settled the acrimonious 2000 election in Bush's favor...
Bush chooses Roberts for chief justice
(09/06/05) The President did not expect to name a replacement candidate for O'Connor this week. WASHINGTON -- Seven weeks after he was nominated to the Supreme Court, John Roberts returned to the White House on Monday for a big promotion -- to be chief justice of the United States and leader of an often-divided Supreme Court...
Chief of Supreme Court dies at home
(09/04/05) William H. Rehnquist's death leaves President Bush his second court opening within four months. WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist died Saturday evening at his home in suburban Virginia, said Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. A statement from the spokeswoman said he was surrounded by his three children when he died in Arlington...
Rehnquist's second hospital visit restarts speculation on possible retirement
(08/06/05) CRAWFORD, Texas -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's second trip to the hospital in less than a month raises new questions about whether his battle with cancer will force him to leave the bench -- and who will fill his seat if he steps down. Already, President Bush's decision to nominate John Roberts to the Supreme Court has been scrutinized for clues into the type of candidate he'd pick if he got a chance to name a chief justice...
Chief justice treated for fever again
(08/05/05) WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was hospitalized briefly with a fever on Thursday, the second emergency treatment for the 80-year-old ailing justice in two months. Rehnquist was treated and released from Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., the same hospital where he spent two nights for observation and tests in July, also after running a fever...
U.S. Supreme Court fight contrasts with state system
(08/01/05) There is little public scrutiny in the selection of Missouri Supreme Court judges. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- While attending a luncheon in Kansas City in May, Missouri Supreme Court Judge Mary Rhodes Russell had the honor of sharing a table with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. During their conversation, Russell said the veteran member of the nation's highest court touted the virtues of Missouri's nonpartisan system of choosing judges and urged Russell to ensure it is preserved...
Parties prepare their stances on nominee
(07/21/05) Conservatives purchase ads supporting Roberts, pro-choice group stages demonstration. WASHINGTON -- John Roberts clerked at the Supreme Court for William H. Rehnquist, the current chief justice, and has argued cases there many times. Now he's asking the Senate to send him back for a new job, one that comes with a wardrobe -- justice...
Bush chooses Roberts for Supreme Court
(07/20/05) Democrat says Roberts has "suitable" legal credentials but warns of inquiry. WASHINGTON -- President Bush named federal appeals judge John G. Roberts Jr. on Tuesday to fill the first Supreme Court vacancy in a decade, delighting Republicans and unsettling Democrats by picking a young jurist of impeccably conservative credentials...
Bush gives clues about Supreme Court choice
(07/17/05) WASHINGTON -- President Bush gave the nation several clues Saturday about the person he will nominate for a seat on the Supreme Court, except for the most important one -- a name. In his weekly radio address, Bush said his eventual nominee will be a "fair-minded individual who represents the mainstream of American law and American values."...
Rehnquist decision to stay could quicken Bush on Supreme Court nomination
(07/16/05) WASHINGTON -- William H. Rehnquist's plan to stay on as chief justice clears the way for President Bush to make a swift decision to replace retiring Sandra Day O'Connor. Liberals and conservatives have different ideas about whom that might boost, but they agree Bush will try to move the court to the right...
Bush considers candidates for Supreme Court court
(07/06/05) WASHINGTON -- President Bush has had more than four years to think about what he wants in a Supreme Court justice and he has revealed a few clues about his ideal candidate and how he'll make the selection. Since Bush's first campaign for president, court watchers have been talking about how he could have the opportunity to shape the aging court. But Bush has been tightlipped when asked for specifics about whom he would pick...
Presidents aren't always happy with the justices they pick
(07/05/05) WASHINGTON -- Dwight D. Eisenhower called his Supreme Court appointments the "biggest damn fool mistake I ever made." Richard Nixon unwittingly named the future liberal author of Roe v. Wade. George H.W. Bush's choice now evokes a GOP grumble, "No more Souters!"...
Judges worry about waning respect for courts
(07/03/05) The outgoing state chief justice said he doesn't believe activist judges exist. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Latin inscription on the facade of the Missouri Supreme Court Building translates into English as "To speak the law but not to make it." New state Chief Justice Michael Wolff said that simple doctrine on the role of the judiciary and the limits of its authority is one judges take to heart...
Bush to fill high court spot quickly
(07/02/05) WASHINGTON -- When Sandra Day O'Connor graduated from Stanford Law School a half-century ago, women weren't always welcome in top legal jobs. The self-described "cowgirl from Arizona" eventually lassoed one, though -- first female justice on the Supreme Court...
Mixed rulings on religious displays issue
(06/28/05) Supreme Court says some Ten Commandments displays OK, some not. WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court gave government officials a mixed message about Ten Commandments displays on public property: You can put them up, just don't be too religious about it...
Missouri display of commandments protected by ruling
(06/28/05) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Nearly 47 years to the day after the Missouri Fraternal Order of Eagles erected a Ten Commandments monument on the state Capitol grounds, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued a ruling that likely protects it from potential constitutional challenges...
Supreme Court: Cities can take private homes
(06/24/05) A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights...
Court rejects death sentence, citing poor legal counsel
(06/21/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday threw out yet another sentence for a death row inmate, issuing a warning to state courts in a 17-year-old Pennsylvania case that shoddy defense work wouldn't be tolerated. The justices have been particularly active in death penalty issues this session, making it unlawful to execute juveniles, scolding prosecutors for stacking a jury on racial lines and ruling it was unconstitutional to force defendants to appear before juries in chains during a trial's penalty phase.. ...
Court strikes medical use of marijuana
(06/07/05) However, the Supreme Court ruling does not stop California's law or similar ones in nine other states. WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court's elderly members have dealt with cancer, chronic back pain and other ailments. They've also lost spouses, children and friends to illness...
Supreme Court overturns Arthur Andersen conviction
(06/01/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court threw out the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents, ruling unanimously Tuesday that the jury instructions were too broad. The decision was a defeat for the Bush administration, which had declared prosecution of white-collar criminals a high priority following accounting scandals at major corporations. ...
Marijuana, Ten Commandments questions await Supreme Court
(05/11/05) WASHINGTON -- Highly anticipated decisions on medical marijuana, Ten Commandments displays and Internet sharing of movies and music are still to come in the final weeks of the Supreme Court term. And then there's perhaps the biggest story of all -- whether the court gets its first opening in a decade...
High court considers case where spouses disagree on allowing police searches
(04/19/05) WASHINGTON -- Scott Randolph didn't want police to search his home after officers showed up to answer his wife's domestic disturbance call. Mrs. Randolph had no such reservations. She not only let them in -- but led officers to evidence later used to charge Randolph with drug possession...
High court rules creditors can't touch people's IRAs
(04/05/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court gave bankrupt Americans another layer of financial protection Monday, ruling that creditors cannot seize their Individual Retirement Accounts. The unanimous decision shields a nest egg relied upon by millions of people. The justices said IRAs should join pensions, 401(k)s, Social Security and other benefits tied to age, illness or disability that are afforded protection under federal bankruptcy law...
Court widens older workers' rights at jobs
(03/31/05) WASHINGTON -- When the Supreme Court tackles issues relating to age, it speaks with considerable firsthand knowledge. Justice John Paul Stevens, at 84 the court's oldest member, wrote Wednesday's decision making it easier for workers 40 and over to file age discrimination lawsuits. A conflicting minority opinion was offered by 75-year-old Justice Sandra Day O'Connor...
Supreme Court rejects Schiavo case
(03/31/05) PINELLAS PARK, Fla. -- The U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene in the Terri Schiavo case for the sixth time late Wednesday, taking less than two hours to reject her parents' request that the feeding tube for their brain-damaged daughter be reinserted...
High court expands Title IX sex-discrimination protections
(03/30/05) WASHINGTON -- Coach Roderick Jackson recalls the warnings from colleagues when he began complaining that the boys high school basketball team got better treatment than his girls team. "You better hush your mouth," they said. Jackson wouldn't let up, shooting off letters and requesting meetings with Birmingham, Ala., school officials. His efforts didn't have the desired result: He was fired in May 2001...
Ailing Rehnquist returns to bench after 5-month medical absence
(03/22/05) WASHINGTON -- Ailing Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was back Monday where many thought he'd never be: on the Supreme Court bench hearing arguments. Rehnquist, who had not sat for any cases since being diagnosed with thyroid cancer in October, looked frail and was slightly hoarse with a high-pitched voice. But he ran the court much as he did before the illness, asking questions and keeping lawyers on time...
Supreme Court takes up case of Ten Commandments display
(03/03/05) WASHINGTON -- With demonstrators shouting religious slogans outside, Supreme Court justices questioned, argued and fretted Wednesday over whether Ten Commandments displays on government property cross the line of separation between church and state...
High court puts end to juvenile executions
(03/02/05) When a Cape Girardeau County jury recommended the death sentence for Christopher Simmons in 1994, it is doubtful jurors contemplated the possibility that their verdict would lead to a nationwide abolition of capital punishment for underage offenders...
High drama, conflict await Supreme Court this spring
(02/18/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court returns next week for the second half of its term with some of the biggest issues yet to be decided: the juvenile death penalty, Ten Commandments displays and the future of its ailing leader. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, has been working mainly from home since October, when he announced he had thyroid cancer. Since then, his only public appearance was to swear in President Bush last month...
Confusion, backlogs result from ruling on sentencing
(01/28/05) WASHINGTON -- Thousands of criminals are filing for reduced sentences. Backlogged courts are asking lawyers to slow down their appeals. Judges say they're confused about what to do. Two weeks after the Supreme Court threw out mandatory sentencing guidelines, federal courts are just beginning to grapple with the consequences. And judges say it may take months, if not years, to sort through thousands of appeals and piece together a new sentencing system...
Justices- Dog searches are fine
(01/25/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police can have dogs check out motorists' vehicles for drugs even if officers have no particular reason to suspect illegal activity. The 6-2 opinion, written by Justice John Paul Stevens, stipulates police dogs may sniff only the outside of a car after a motorist is lawfully stopped for a traffic violation, such as speeding or failing to stop at a stop sign...
Top court rejects appeal in right-to-die case
(01/25/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused on Monday to step in and keep a severely brain-damaged woman hooked to a feeding tube, all but ending a long-running right-to-die battle pitting her husband against her parents. It was the second time the Supreme Court dodged the politically charged case from Florida, where Republican Gov. Jeb Bush successfully lobbied the legislature to pass a law to keep 41-year-old Terri Schiavo on life support...
Supreme Court sidesteps Guantanamo detainees case
(01/19/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court prolonged the legal limbo of hundreds of terror suspects in a U.S. military prison in Cuba, refusing on Tuesday to consider whether the government's plan for military trials unfairly denies them basic legal rights. So far only a handful of the 550 detainees from about 40 countries have been charged with war crimes. More are expected once courts sort out how they may be tried...
Supreme Court orders change in federal sentencing guidelines
(01/13/05) A splintered Supreme Court threw the nation's federal sentencing system into turmoil Wednesday, ruling that the way judges have been sentencing some 60,000 defendants a year is unconstitutional. In ordering changes, the court found 5-4 that judges have been improperly adding time to some criminals' prison stays. The high court stopped short of scrapping the nearly two-decade-old guideline system, intended to make sure sentences do not vary widely from courtroom to courtroom...
2005 shaping up as hectic year for Supreme Court
(01/09/05) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court returns Monday with an ailing leader, pressure to rule quickly on the constitutionality of federal prison sentences and a slew of contentious issues to decide, from medical marijuana to Ten Commandment displays. The most immediate concern is the health of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in October...
Rehnquist returns to Supreme Court
(01/06/05) WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist is back at work part time at the Supreme Court, but there is no word that he is ready to return to the bench. Rehnquist missed about 25 court arguments in November and December while receiving chemotherapy and radiation...
Court - Police officer's sex videos are not free speech
(12/07/04) WASHINGTON -- The naked truth, the Supreme Court says, is that the Constitution's free speech guarantee doesn't protect a police officer who used the Internet to sell videotapes of himself stripping off his uniform and pretending to write tickets...
Coming events could hint at status of ailing justice
(11/22/04) WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's health is shrouded in mystery, the extent of his thyroid cancer a closely guarded secret. But several coming events could give the public an idea about the seriousness of his condition. Since announcing his illness in a statement on Oct. 25, the 80-year-old Rehnquist has run the nation's highest court from his home in suburban Virginia...
Justices consider whether police can use canines
(11/11/04) WASHINGTON -- Driving 6 mph over the speed limit got Roy Caballes pulled over. But what happened next landed him at the Supreme Court, which considered Wednesday when police can use drug-sniffing dogs. Caballes was wearing a suit and driving a new Mercury when he was stopped on an Illinois freeway in November 1998. It looked like he would get off with a warning until Krott the drug dog showed up and sniffed out $250,000 worth of marijuana in Caballes' trunk...
High Court considers rights of older workers
(11/04/04) WASHINGTON -- Note to lawyers: It's probably best not to bring up the infirmities of the elderly when arguing an age discrimination case before the white-haired members of the Supreme Court. Attorney Glen Nager tried it and got a cold reception Wednesday as justices debated standards for on-the-job age discrimination lawsuits. The stakes in the case are huge for businesses, because a loss in the case would open them up to more lawsuits when layoffs or other cutbacks hurt older workers...
Supreme Court debates use of segregation in prisons
(11/03/04) The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court took up a racial segregation case Tuesday that asks if black California inmates are being unconstitutionally bunked together for months at a time, in the name of keeping prisons safe. The Bush administration has sided with a black convicted killer who claims he has been humiliated by forced prison segregation...
Chief justice hospitalized for thyroid cancer
(10/26/04) WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the leading conservative figure on the Supreme Court for a generation, has thyroid cancer but will continue working while receiving treatment. Rehnquist, 80, underwent a tracheotomy at Bethesda Naval Hospital in suburban Maryland on Saturday. While no details about his condition were released, a statement issued by the court said he is expected to be back at work next week when justices resume hearing cases...
Supreme Court tackles issue of juvenile executions
(10/14/04) From staff and wire reports WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday struggled to assess the morality and propriety of states' executing murderers who killed at age 16 or 17 -- the ultimate punishment carried out in few places outside the United States...
Supreme Court to consider Ten Commandments case
(10/13/04) From staff and wire reports WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will consider whether the Ten Commandments may be displayed on government property, ending a 25-year silence on a church-state issue that has prompted bitter legal fights around the country...
Supreme Court wades into dispute over unsettled prison sentence
(10/05/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court appeared poised Monday to alter the system used for sentencing 64,000 federal criminal defendants a year, but justices clashed over whether changes would create greater inequity. Judges, not juries, consider factors that can add years to defendants' prison sentences, under the government's 17-year-old system which has been challenged as unconstitutional...
Supreme Court will determine when cities may seize private land
(09/29/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide when local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will to make way for projects like shopping malls and hotel complexes that produce more tax revenue. The court already has given governments broad power to take private property through eminent domain, provided the owner is given "just compensation." This often involves blighted neighborhoods residents are eager to leave. ...
Court agrees to revisit sentencing rules in fall session
(08/03/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court agreed Monday to settle whether long-standing federal rules for sentencing criminals violate the Constitution, a question that has thrown federal courthouses into disarray this summer. The high court said it will hear two cases suggested by the Bush administration. The Justice Department had rushed the appeals just weeks after the court ruled major portions of a state sentencing system unconstitutional...
Ousted Alabama judge appeals to top court
(08/03/04) MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Roy Moore is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to reclaim his job as Alabama's chief justice, saying he was ousted for "professing a belief in God" when he refused a federal order to move his Ten Commandments monument. In a legal brief, Moore's attorneys argued that a state judicial ethics panel imposed an "unconstitutional religious test" on Moore when it expelled him. ...
Justices took on big issues, ducked others
(07/02/04) WASHINGTON -- The just-completed Supreme Court session will be remembered for landmark decisions limiting the president's wartime powers, but the justices passed on opportunities to do much more. More than two years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Supreme Court confronted hard questions about the balance of security and liberty in a changed and dangerous world, and came out mostly on the side of liberty...
Supreme Court blocks law shielding children from Internet porn
(06/30/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court blocked a law meant to shield Web-surfing children from dirty pictures and online come-ons, ruling Tuesday that the law also would cramp the free speech rights of adults to see and buy what they want on the Internet. Technology such as filtering software may better protect children from unsavory material than such laws, the court said in a 5-4 ruling...
Court says U.S. can't hold terror suspects in legal limbo
(06/29/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the war on terrorism does not give the government a "blank check" to hold a U.S. citizen and foreign-born terror suspects in legal limbo, a forceful denunciation of Bush administration tactics since the Sept. 11 attacks...
Summary of Monday's actions by the Supreme Court
(06/29/04) The Supreme Court also took these actions Monday: Ruled that intentional police questioning of a criminal suspect twice is usually improper if the first interrogation is done without warning the suspect of his right to remain silent. Declined to consider whether a landmark disability law requires that disabled moviegoers get better seats than the front-row seating they're often given in new stadium-seating theaters; critics say the front row seats force the disabled to awkwardly crane their necks.. ...
Court overturns pledge case
(06/15/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday allowed millions of schoolchildren to keep affirming loyalty to one nation "under God" but dodged the underlying question of whether the Pledge of Allegiance is an unconstitutional blending of church and state...
Court lets inmate pursue appeal on lethal injection
(05/25/04) The Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled for the first time Monday that a death row inmate can pursue a last-ditch claim that lethal injection is unconstitutionally cruel. In a rare unanimous decision on a capital punishment case, justices sided with a convicted Alabama killer who claims his veins are so damaged from drug abuse that executioners might have to cut deeply into his flesh to administer the deadly drugs...
Court rules for disabled in test of ADA
(05/18/04) WASHINGTON -- Disabled people can sue if states ignore a landmark civil rights law that protects their rights, a divided Supreme Court ruled Monday in the case of a paraplegic man who crawled up the steps of a small-town courthouse because there was no elevator for his wheelchair...
High court sidesteps case of man who cursed police
(05/04/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, sidestepping a dispute over cussing, refused Monday to consider whether a Montana man's foul language to a law enforcement officer was free speech protected by the Constitution. The man, Malachi Robinson, was walking down the street about midnight four years ago when he called the Missoula county deputy in a nearby squad car a "[expletive] pig." The deputy got out and confronted Robinson, who uttered another expletive at the officer...
Sikeston, Notre Dame reach title game
(05/04/04) Notre Dame Regional High School used some late heroics to pull out a wild 8-7 victory over Jackson in the SEMO Conference baseball tournament semifinals Monday night at Capaha Park. Lee Essner hit a one-out, two-run hit over the left fielder's head off Jackson reliever Kyle Brown in the bottom of the seventh to win the game. Essner, who also had a win in the quarterfinal, picked up the win by fanning the Indians in order in the top of the seventh...
Supreme Court hears battle over terror war detainees
(04/29/04) WASHINGTON -- The war on terrorism gives the government power to seize Americans and hold them without charges for as long as it takes to ensure they are not a danger to the nation, the Bush administration told the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Attorneys for two men detained by the government argued in reply that fighting terrorists cannot mean a president has unchecked authority to snatch U.S. citizens and hold them without a chance to plead their case...
Court hesitant about releasing Cheney's task force records
(04/28/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court appeared troubled Tuesday by the prospect of letting the public have a look into private White House policy meetings, a hopeful sign for the Bush administration's aggressive defense of secrecy in the case of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force...
High court won't hear case of banned prayers at military school
(04/27/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Monday it will not consider reinstating mealtime prayers at a state-funded military college, turning aside an appeal from officials who wanted to preserve the tradition. Justice Antonin Scalia blasted his colleagues for refusing to hear the case, arguing that it raised important church-state and other questions. ...
Supreme Court keeps Clarett out of this weekend's draft
(04/23/04) WASHINGTON -- Maurice Clarett's bid to enter this weekend's NFL draft was turned down by the Supreme Court on Thursday, delaying his attempt to bypass the league's eligibility rule. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg rejected his first request, saying she saw no reason to overturn a lower court's stay preventing the former Ohio State running back from being taken in the draft...
Bush anti-terror tactics go to court
(04/21/04) WASHINGTON -- The government can't throw out prisoners' constitutional rights to make their case in court just because the country faces new threats in the war on terrorism, an attorney for foreign-born detainees argued Tuesday in the Supreme Court's first case arising from the Sept. 11 attacks...
100 death sentences hinge on high court
(04/20/04) WASHINGTON -- A case considered by the Supreme Court Monday could overturn death sentences of more than 100 inmates, the most far-reaching capital punishment issue this term in a follow-up to a 2002 ruling that made juries, not judges, final arbiters of the death penalty...
High court prepares for its first cases on terrorism
(04/18/04) WASHINGTON -- A few days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia crowded into a chapel in Rome for a Mass honoring the dead. The next week, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wept as she stood at the site of the fallen World Trade Center towers...
Supreme Court to hear workplace harassment lawsuit
(03/28/04) McCONNELLSBURG, Pa. -- Nancy Drew Suders spent just five months as a state police dispatcher before quitting over what she said was a continual stream of lewd and offensive comments by her supervisors. Now her lawsuit against the state police is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments Wednesday on whether she can sue even though she didn't take advantage of a state police system for handling sexual harassment complaints...
High court considers rights of father in pledge lawsuit
(03/25/04) On the same day the Supreme Court wrangled over whether a California father had the right to challenge the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance on behalf of his daughter, some residents in Southeast Missouri stood behind the phrase that was inserted into the pledge in 1954...
Supreme Court will decide if refusal to give ID is punishable
(03/23/04) WASHINGTON -- Do you have to tell the police your name? Depending on how the Supreme Court rules, the answer could be the difference between arrest and freedom. The justices heard arguments Monday in a first-of-its kind case that asks whether people can be punished for refusing to identify themselves...
Family dispute could derail Supreme Court case on Pledge
(03/23/04) SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The historic challenge to the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance might never have reached the Supreme Court if not for a collision of faith between two parents -- one an atheist, the other a born-again Christian. Normally, the personal sagas of the parties in a Supreme Court case are just a footnote to the constitutional principles. But the clash between the parents threatens to derail the entire case, which will be heard by the high court on Wednesday...
High court won't hear appeal from Boy Scouts
(03/09/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear an appeal from the Boy Scouts over what the organization says is discrimination because of its policy against hiring gays. The case revisited the gay rights fight surrounding the high court's ruling four years ago that the Boy Scouts have the right to ban openly homosexual scout leaders. This time, the question was whether states may treat the Scouts differently from other organizations because of that policy...
Top court blocks execution
(02/25/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, acting on a case that has become a cause celebre among capital punishment opponents, overturned the death sentence of a long-serving Texas inmate who claimed prosecutors played dirty and withheld evidence at his trial...
Big battles over terrorism, security await Supreme Court
(02/01/04) WASHINGTON -- Sometimes the work of the Supreme Court befits the court's image as a stolid place. Quiet, plodding, even boring. Not this year. With the justices on their midwinter break and about half the term behind them, they already have signed off on a vast rewrite of the laws that govern money in politics. ...
High court considers banning execution of juvenile killers
(01/27/04) WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, the latest step in the court's reexamination of capital punishment in America. The high court could ban the practice, as four justices have urged, or it could reaffirm earlier rulings that allowed states to decide for themselves whether to make 16- and 17-year-olds eligible for execution...
High court's sodomy ruling cited in Utah polygomy ban challenge
(01/27/04) SALT LAKE CITY -- When the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Texas' law against sodomy last year, at least one justice foresaw the likes of Brian Barnard. Justice Antonin Scalia warned that the ruling would unleash a wave of challenges to state laws against "bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity."...
Supreme Court clashes over new frontier in death row appeals
(01/23/04) WASHINGTON -- Five times this month, the vote of one Supreme Court justice would have stopped the execution of a convicted killer who claimed it was unconstitutionally cruel to use chemicals to carry out a death sentence. The executions went forward, even though four of the nine high court justices wanted to grant at least a temporary reprieve. The 5-4 votes, all announced without comment by any of the justices, are the latest illustration of the deep rift on the court over capital punishment...
High court says EPA can overrule state
(01/22/04) The AssociatedPress WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the federal Environmental Protection Agency can override state officials and order some anti-pollution measures that may be more costly. The 5-4 decision, a victory for environmentalists, found the EPA did not go too far when it overruled a decision by Alaska regulators, who wanted to let the operators of a zinc and lead mine use cheaper anti-pollution technology for power generation...
High court upholds police roadblocks
(01/14/04)
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police may set up roadblocks to collect tips about crimes, rejecting concerns that authorities might use the checkpoints to fish for unrelated suspicious activity. The 6-3 decision allows officers to block traffic and ask motorists for help in solving crimes. Critics complained auth-orities might misuse the power... |