Articles

Senate panel OKs ban on second-trimester abortion procedure

An Indiana Senate panel is backing legislation that would largely ban a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure while a potential challenge to another Indiana abortion restriction remains pending before justices of the United States Supreme Court.

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Waiting for the final Mueller report and what happens next

America is waiting for special counsel Robert Mueller’s report. But anyone looking for a grand narrative on President Donald Trump, Russian election interference and all the juicy details uncovered over the past 22 months could end up disappointed.

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Justice Thomas talks at court arguments, 1st time in 3 years

The Supreme Court was about to adjourn for the day when the Georgia baritone politely inquired of the lawyer at the lectern. Justice Clarence Thomas was breaking a three-year silence at high court arguments with a couple of questions in a case about racial discrimination in the South.

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Justices reject B&B owner who denied room to gay couple

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday left in place Hawaii court rulings that found a bed and breakfast owner violated the state’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to rent a room to a lesbian couple. The justices rejected an appeal from Aloha Bed & Breakfast owner Phyllis Young, who argued she should be allowed to turn away gay couples because of her religious beliefs.

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Supreme Court set for case on racial bias in jury selection

Curtis Flowers has been jailed in Mississippi for 22 years, even as prosecutors couldn’t get a murder conviction against him to stick through five trials. This week, the Supreme Court will consider whether his conviction and death sentence in a sixth trial should stand or be overturned for a familiar reason: because prosecutors improperly kept African-Americans off the jury.

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Justices: Admission of warrantless cell location data was harmless

Even though law enforcement conducted a warrantless Fourth Amendment search when they accessed of a man’s cellphone location data, the admission of the data does not warrant a new trial because any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled Friday, upholding a man’s four convictions in a case heard on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Indiana leads 20-state coalition’s whistleblower brief

A scheme to award a multi-million-dollar no-bid subcontract to provide security in Iraq during the cleanup of munitions has put the spotlight on the federal False Claims Act and raised concerns among states, including Indiana, that a narrower interpretation of the long-standing statute could impact their ability to recover in whistleblower complaints.

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