Latest United States federal courts Stories
By James Vicini WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court questioned on Wednesday whether disabled prisoners who suffer discrimination can sue states for damages for violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Reflecting the court's close split in recent years on the rights of states to be free from certain lawsuits, justices asked whether Congress in adopting the disabilities act in 1990 clearly revoked state sovereign immunity from lawsuits for damages. The case...
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, reeling from an array of political troubles, patched up a rift with conservatives by nominating Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court on Monday but set up a bruising battle with Democrats over the court's future. The choice of the conservative Alito drew quick praise from the right and condemnation from the left, which said a weakened Bush had placed a higher priority on healing a divided...
By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, reeling from an array of political troubles, patched up a rift with conservatives by nominating Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court on Monday but set up a bruising battle with Democrats over the court's future. The choice of the conservative Alito drew quick praise from the right and condemnation from the left, which said a weakened Bush had placed a higher priority on healing a divided...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will nominate U.S. appeals court judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to fill the seat of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a congressional aide told Reuters. The announcement is to be made early Monday at the White House. Alito, 55, is considered a conservative in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia. He would replace White House counsel Harriet Miers who withdrew her name from consideration last week under withering...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush will nominate on Monday U.S. federal appeals court judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, replacing retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, CNN reported. Alito, 55, is sometimes given the nickname "Scalito" -- a comparison to Scalia, who shares his Italian heritage as well as his reputation for conservatism and a strong intellect. He is a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite complaints that some sessions have not gone well, the White House said on Friday U.S. Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers will keep meeting with U.S. senators before her confirmation hearing next month. "She had meetings last week, this week and will have more next week," said spokesman Jim Dyke, denying a published report that the White House had ended her get-acquainted tour. These sessions have elicited several tepid reviews of Miers...
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court let stand on Monday a ruling that three unsuccessful white applicants cannot collect any damages from their lawsuit challenging the University of Washington Law School's use of race as a factor in admissions. Without comment or recorded dissent, the justices declined to review a U.S. appeals court ruling that upheld as legal the policy in effect in the mid-1990s when Katuria Smith, Angela Rock and Michael Pyle applied and were rejected....
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Roberts was installed on Monday as the nation's 17th chief justice in a special Supreme Court ceremony attended by President George W. Bush, family members and his high court colleagues. During the four-minute special sitting, Justice John Paul Stevens, the court's most senior member, again administered the judicial oath that Roberts already took last week at a White House ceremony after the Senate confirmed him by a 78-22 vote. "On behalf of all the members...
By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Friday completed consultations with the Senate on who should be his nominee to fill a second vacancy on the Supreme Court and was close to making an announcement, the White House said. Spokesman Scott McClellan left open the possibility that the announcement could come next week on Bush's choice to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the high court. Women and minorities were believed high on a short list of candidates Bush...
By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON (Reuters) - John Roberts, a 50-year-old conservative who told Congress judges should act like impartial umpires, seems certain to win Senate confirmation on Thursday to become the 17th chief justice of the United States. All 55 Senate Republicans and about half the chamber's other members -- 44 Democrats and one independent -- were expected to back Roberts, President George W. Bush's nominee to head the Supreme Court. A roll-call vote was to begin at 11:30...
