In a significant ruling today, a federal appeals court overturned a conviction of Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden’s driver, obtained through a military commission. Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a George W. Bush appointee seen as a possible conservative Supreme Court justice, wrote in a ruling for a three-judge panel of the DC Circuit Court that Hamdan [...]

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has delivered one of the last remaining blows to voter suppression efforts across the country. And this one cements the near-clean sweep for voting rights advocates in litigation. Today, the Sixth Circuit ruled that Ohio, a pivotal state in the Presidential race, must count all provisional ballots where voters [...]

For the fourth time this week, a federal court has struck down a policy put forward by Republicans that would either constrict voting rights or dilute the power of minority votes. We had the voter ID law in Texas, the redistricting maps in Texas, the restrictions on voter registration in Florida, and now the restoration [...]

The latest in a string of rulings limiting the GOP’s war on voting has come down. A federal court has unanimously stopped Texas from instituting a voter ID law. While this would seem contradictory to the Supreme Court’s upholding of voter ID for Indiana in 2009, this case is different because it follows the Justice [...]

A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court, voting 2-1 on partisan lines, has struck down the EPA’s “good neighbor” air pollution rule, which attempted to protect Eastern states from upwind pollution from Midwest and Southern states via tougher pollution laws. A federal appeals court Tuesday struck down a key Obama administration air pollution rule [...]

Arizona’s stringent abortion law, which includes a ban on all abortions beyond 20 weeks of pregnancy, was upheld by a federal judge yesterday, setting up a potential showdown at the Supreme Court that could further chip away at Roe v. Wade. The Arizona law will now take effect tomorrow, as scheduled. U.S. District Judge James [...]

A three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston has affirmed a ruling declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, bringing the case one step closer to an ultimate resolution at the Supreme Court. In an opinion written by Judge Mike Boudin, a George H.W. Bush appointee and former deputy assistant Attorney [...]

A federal appeals court panel declined to stay a ruling on donor disclosure for so-called “electioneering” advertising, which could lead to the largest independent expenditure campaigns in America having to reveal their donor networks for the 2012 cycle. Conservative groups wanted to stay the ruling pending appeal, which won’t be heard until September. In a [...]

An unusually blunt ruling from two conservative federal judges, if applied at the Supreme Court level, would make virtually all regulation on businesses or financial firms unconstitutional. DC Circuit Court members David Sentelle (a Reagan appointee) and Janice Rogers Brown (an appointee of George W. Bush) wrote a concurring opinion in a case about regulation [...]

A federal appeals court judge on the Fifth Circuit pretty much freaked out yesterday during a trial with a member of the Justice Department, pouncing on President Obama’s comments about the Supreme Court’s health care case and badgering counsel on whether judicial review exists: In the escalating battle between the administration and the judiciary, a [...]

Bad news for bank accountability. A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals said today that the SEC would “have a strong likelihood of success” in getting a ruling of District Court Judge Jed Rakoff overturned. That ruling refused to allow a settlement in an SEC mortgage backed securities case against Citigroup to [...]