4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling dismissing a defamation lawsuit filed by Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax after CBS News broadcast interviews with two women who accused him of sexual assault

A group has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower court decision that declared unconstitutional a Maryland veteran’s monument fashioned as a 40-foot-tall cross.

The Supreme Court seems likely to strike down a California law that mainly regulates anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. Both conservative and liberal justices voiced skepticism Tuesday about the law that requires the centers to tell clients about the availability of contraception, abortion and pre-natal care, at little or no cost. Centers that are unlicensed also must post a sign that...

A federal appeals court has found that President Donald Trump’s latest ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries is unconstitutional. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that it examined statements made by Trump and other administration officials, as well as the ban itself, and concluded it is “unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam.” The court upheld...

A sniper who randomly killed 10 people and terrorized the Washington, D.C., region more than 15 years ago is entitled to a new hearing to ask for a lighter sentence, his lawyer argued Tuesday to a federal appeals court.

Republicans in Virginia’s House began the session Wednesday with a 51-49 majority after winning a two-month recount battle in one district and staving off legal actions from voters in another.

The White House has lost another attempt to put a hold on a requirement that it allow transgender people to enlist in the military starting on Jan. 1.

Three federal appeals court judges who blocked President Donald Trump’s second travel ban earlier this year had some skeptical questions about his third and latest set of restrictions on travelers from six mostly Muslim nations during oral arguments on Wednesday. Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Ronald Gould, Richard Paez and Michael Hawkins heard arguments in Seattle on Hawaii’s...

A federal appeals court is being asked to decide if Baltimore’s prosecutor is immune from a lawsuit by five officers who claim she maliciously prosecuted them in the death of a black man fatally injured in police custody.

The Supreme Court has ruled the latest version of President Trump’s travel ban can go into effect while challenges are heard in lower court

It’s not a final ruling, but the Supreme Court is letting the Trump administration fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries. Challenges to the policy are winding through the federal courts, and the justices themselves ultimately are expected to rule on whether the ban is legal. It applies to travelers...

For most of the time Syrian refugee Mohammad Al Zayed has been in the United States, judges have been wrestling with the Trump administration’s efforts to impose travel restrictions that he says would keep him from seeing relatives who remain overseas. It’s taken an emotional toll — one that continues this week as two U.S. appeals courts take up the...

The Trump administration on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the latest travel ban to take full effect. A federal appeals court ruling last week allowed President Donald Trump’s newest version of the ban to partially take effect. That ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the administration to ban people from six mostly Muslim...

The Supreme Court is stepping into a free speech fight over California’s attempt to regulate anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers. The justices said Monday they will hear an appeal from centers that complained that a new state law forces them to provide information about abortion and other services. The Reproductive FACT Act, which was signed into law in October 2015 by...

The American Legion and other supporters of a cross-shaped war monument on a Maryland highway median just outside Washington have asked a federal appeals court to reconsider a ruling that found having the memorial on public land violates the U.S. Constitution.

A week after a three-judge panel declared a 40-foot cross memorializing veterans unconstitutional, Gov. Larry Hogan on Tuesday directed Maryland’s attorney general to support a legal challenge against the ruling.

A federal appeals court has found that a 40-foot-tall cross on a Maryland state highway median just outside Washington violates the U.S. Constitution.

After nine years of fits and starts, dismissals and reinstatements, a federal lawsuit filed by one-time inmates at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq against civilian interrogators who worked there is moving ahead. “We’re not dismissing this case. It’s going to go forward,” U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said at the conclusion of a hearing Friday in U.S. District...

The last day of the Supreme Court’s term was notable not only for what was announced but also for what wasn’t.
There had been speculation that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy could reveal his retirement from the court Monday. But the court recessed without any retirement announcement from Kennedy.

The Supreme Court enters its final week of work before a long summer hiatus with action expected on the Trump administration’s travel ban and a decision due in a separation of church and state case that arises from a Missouri church playground. The biggest news of all, though, would be if Justice Anthony Kennedy were to use the court’s last...