U.S. DISTRICT COURT

A federal court on Monday decided to dismiss two lawsuits brought by Richard Wershe Jr., formerly known as White Boy Rick, who sued Detroit and federal law enforcement for their alleged roles in his 32-year imprisonment.

The Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents has been indicted on federal felony charges.

A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation that would require the National Archives to screen documents leaving the White House for classified material.

A jury has found two Native Hawaiian men guilty of a hate crime for the 2014 beating of a white man.

A 22-year-old man who authorities say identified as an involuntary celibate and plotted to kill women at an unnamed Ohio university has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of attempting a hate crime.

A planned New York City concert by would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr. has been canceled even as Hinckley was freed from federal court oversight.

A federal court panel has decided not to delay Ohio's May 3 primary, for now.

A federal judge has asserted it is “more likely than not” that former President Donald Trump committed crimes in his attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 election.

A bipartisan group of two dozen former South Carolina federal prosecutors are offering their “wholehearted support” for Judge Michelle Childs’ nomination to an appellate court.

A judge has ruled that Kobe Bryant’s widow must turn over her therapy records to Los Angeles County in her lawsuit claiming she suffered emotional distress after first responders shared photos from the site of the helicopter crash that killed the basketball star and his teenage daughter.

A surge of COVID-19 cases is prompting federal courts to impose new restrictions and requirements for mask-wearing and vaccinations.

Automaker FCA US has been fined $30 million after admitting that it paid off leaders of the United Auto Workers to try to win concessions in negotiations covering thousands of factory workers.

Former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is being returned to federal prison after federal authorities denied him home confinement.

A judge overseeing a sweeping lawsuit about homelessness in Los Angeles has ordered the city and county to find shelter for all unhoused residents of Skid Row within 180 days.

The Supreme Court is declining to take up the case of the former New York Assembly Speaker, who is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence after being convicted in a corruption case. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up the case of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence after being convicted in a corruption case. Two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said they would have heard Silver's case. Silver has been serving time at the federal prison in Otisville, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from New York City. Silver's lawyers had asked the court to consider allowing him to serve his sentence at home because of the risk of contracting COVID-19 and dying in prison.

The Supreme Court is declining to take up the case of the former New York Assembly Speaker, who is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence after being convicted in a corruption case. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is declining to take up the case of former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is serving a 6 1/2-year prison sentence after being convicted in a corruption case. Once one of the three most powerful state officials, Silver was ousted as speaker in 2015 and was convicted later that year. The developers then referred certain tax business to a law firm that paid Silver fees. Two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, said they would have heard Silver's case.

DETROIT – A man who was recently released from prison two years early is accused of shooting his fiancée and her mother on Detroit’s west side. The 49-year-old man is accused of shooting his fiancée and her 64-year-old mother after the mother attempted to break up the altercation and called the police. However, a judge recently authorized Segars’ compassionate release from prison amid the coronavirus pandemic and due to medical reasons. The judge said he agreed to release the man from prison early due to a clean disciplinary record behind bars. Her mother was recently released from the hospital, officials say.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis said the government had to post a public notice within three days — including on its website and the websites of all other relevant government agencies — that new DACA applications were being accepted. Garaufis also ordered the government to put together a status report on the DACA program by Jan. 4. “Every time the outgoing administration tried to use young immigrants as political scapegoats, they defiled the values of our nation. The Trump administration had announced the end of the program in 2017, leading to the legal challenges that wound up in front of the Supreme Court. For the second time, a court has ordered the administration to resume processing DACA applications.

DETROIT – A judge on Wednesday refused to block Michigan’s ban on indoor dining amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Maloney turned down a request for an injunction with a week left in the three-week indoor dining ban. Whitmer said about chance of Michigan’s stricter COVID-19 rules extending past 3 weeksThe Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association and some restaurants sued the state health director. They said they can safely provide indoor dining and were being treated unfairly when compared to other businesses. The judge said he might ask the Michigan Supreme Court for guidance on that point.

The motion in Washington's federal court does not detail the newly disclosed evidence but says it concerns a key government witness who testified under the pseudonym Ali Majrisi at Khattala's 2017 trial. Khattala was captured in 2014 and put on trial for an attack that became a divisive political flashpoint during the tenure of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A jury convicted Khattala of multiple terrorism-related charges but found him not guilty of murder. Prosecutors accused Khattala of heading an extremist militia and directing the attack but acknowledged that they lacked evidence of him firing any weapons. The motion for a new trial comes just before the three-year anniversary of the guilty verdict, the deadline under federal rules of criminal procedure for such a request.

Former Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan. Smith was scheduled for a plea hearing in federal court on Friday. Smith said he had told three people -- two assistant prosecutors and a friend -- to lie about the use of campaign funds. He is also facing charges of embezzlement and racketeering for his spending of $600,000 from an obscure Macomb County forfeiture fund. READ: Former Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith charged in state, federal investigationsREAD: Ex-Macomb County prosecutor Eric Smith faces up to 21 months in jail following guilty pleaREAD: Former Macomb County prosecutor Eric Smith pleads guilty to obstruction of justice

As part of the settlement in the lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, ICE will also pay $100,000 to be split among the three activists and Migrant Justice, an advocacy group representing immigrant farmworkers in Vermont. “ICE tried to terrorize us by going after our leaders,” said plaintiff Victor Diaz, a member of Migrant Justice, at a rally outside the federal courthouse on Wednesday. Afterward, Thelma Gomez, of Migrant Justice, said what happened was a clear example of what happens when the people rise up to defend their rights. Before the arrest, she said, ICE tried to enter her email account and used a confidential informant to spy on the group’s members and gather information about them. At the time of the settlement, the agency commissioner said she was pleased her department was able to work with Migrant Justice on an agreement.

The U.S. District Court for Eastern Michigan has launched an online help desk to offer the public and lawyers quick access to live assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clerk’s Office and Jury staff can answer questions through the help desk’s chat icon. The icon is located in the lower right corner of the court’s website. Chat is available from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, except on holidays.

SANTA FE, N.M. – A federal judge has turned down an initial request to ease pandemic-related occupancy limits for in-person instruction at private schools in New Mexico, in a setback for a lawsuit supported by the U.S. Justice Department. Plaintiffs say the health order unfairly limits in-person learning at private schools to 25% of maximum room capacity, while public schools can apply to reopen under separate guidelines at 50%. To date, only a portion of elementary schools have been cleared to restart in-person instruction. Private schools in New Mexico enroll about 22,000 students — or nearly 7% of school-aged children. Michelle Lujan Grisham argued at a court hearing in September that private schools already occupy a privileged position with minimal state oversight.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at her home in Washington, on Sept. 18, 2020, the Supreme Court announced. ___HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE SUPREME COURT VACANCY— President Donald Trump says he expects to announce his pick for the Supreme Court on Friday or Saturday. — Kamala Harris is poised to become a leading figure in the Democratic opposition to Trump’s Supreme Court pick. — The body of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in repose at the Supreme Court this week. ___Follow AP’s Supreme Court coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/ruth-bader-ginsburg___7:40 p.m.A Republican senator in a tough reelection race will consider President Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON The U.S. District Court judge who oversaw the criminal case of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn has requested a full appeals court review after a three-judge panel ordered him to dismiss it. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan made the highly unusual the request Thursday. A three-judge panel last month ordered Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn, following the Justice Department's extraordinary decision to drop the prosecution. He appointed a retired federal judge to argue against the Justice Departments position and to consider whether Flynn could be held in criminal contempt for perjury. Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump nominee who was joined by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, wrote in the opinion dismissing the case that Sullivan had overstepped by second-guessing the Justice Departments decision.

The decision cannot be undone, the material is already in the state and the federal government has sovereign immunity, meaning the state cant force the federal government to act, the motion contends. The Department of Energy routinely and safely transports nuclear materials into and out of Nevada and stores classified amounts of plutonium in Nevada, it added. The Energy Department disclosed last January that the plutonium had been taken in late 2018 to a specialized facility at the vast Nevada National Security Site, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. The Energy Department says it plans to eventually move the plutonium to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. Outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry in April promised to send no more plutonium to Nevada and to remove the amount already delivered by 2027.

BOSTON, MA – A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. They say border officers must now demonstrate individualized suspicion of contraband before they can search a traveler's electronic device. The number of electronic device searches at U.S. ports of entry has increased significantly, the ACLU said. During that same period of time, it conducted 40,913 border searches of electronic devices, representing less than .01 percent of arriving international travelers. "The court said today that suspicionless searches at the border of cell phones and laptops violate the Fourth Amendment," Rossman said.

In a court filing, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman said he believed the Aug. 27 hearing would help shed light on the conclusion of the case against Epstein. The New York City medical examiner determined Epstein died by suicide while in jail on Aug.10. The judge added that Epstein's alleged victims may speak at the hearing, along with their lawyers, prosecutors and Epstein's defense team. Prosecutors file motion to dismiss indictmentEpstein had been charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. Prosecutors had said hours after Epstein died that their office would continue to pursue an investigation of any of his alleged accomplices, and they hinted at that effort Monday.

Twenty-eight-year-old Demetrius Eugene Woodson was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo. (WDIV)GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A federal judge in Michigan has sentenced a man to two years in prison for swapping fake diamonds for real ones at jewelry stores in several states. Twenty-eight-year-old Demetrius Eugene Woodson was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Kalamazoo. Woodson had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S. He and a co-defendant took part in the scheme involving jewelry stores in Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and New Jersey.

CNNWASHINGTON - The U.S. federal government announced Thursday that it would resume capital punishment after nearly two decades. After a 2-decade lapse in federal capital punishment, AG Bill Barr has ordered the Bureau of Prisons to schedule executions for 5 death-row inmates convicted of murdering children. Daniel Lewis Lee, a member of a white supremacist group, murdered a family of three, including an eight-year-old girl. On March 16, 2004, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas found Bourgeois guilty of multiple offenses, including murder, and he was sentenced to death. Honkens execution is scheduled to occur on Jan. 15, 2020.

1997: U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch formally imposes a death sentence on an unrepentant Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing. A federal jury had found him guilty of conspiracy to commit the attack and for the deaths of eight federal law agents and sentenced him to death in June 1997. He would be executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Hide Caption