NATIONAL
April 25, 2004 | Richard A. Serrano and David G. savage, Times Staff Writers
It's turkey season in Mississippi, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was tramping through the countryside here this month in pursuit of the big birds. His hunting partners, as usual, included Charles W. Pickering Sr., the federal judge who President Bush recently elevated to the U.S. court of appeals; and his son, Rep. Charles W. "Chip" Pickering, a four-term Republican member of Congress. For turkey hunters, this country is unrivaled.
NATIONAL
June 12, 2007 | David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
The Supreme Court agreed for the first time Monday to reconsider the long prison terms meted out to the mostly black defendants who are convicted of selling crack cocaine. At least 25,000 defendants per year are sent to federal prison on crack cocaine charges, and their prison terms are usually 50% longer than those for dealers selling powder cocaine.
NATIONAL
May 3, 2003 | David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
A Los Angeles lawyer's solitary probe into the "mysterious death" nearly 10 years ago of former White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster has forced the U.S. Supreme Court to confront a recurring dispute in the aftermath of a tragedy. What is the proper line between the public's right to know and the right to privacy of the families who lost a loved one? Lawyer Allan J. Favish says the public cannot know the truth about the Foster case unless it has all the facts.
NATIONAL
October 11, 2006 | Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writer
The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand lower court rulings that require W.R. Grace & Co. to pay a $54.5-million federal bill for asbestos cleanup in a Montana mining town described by federal regulators as one of the nation's most contaminated Superfund sites. The court rejected Grace's appeal of a decision in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency, which sued Grace five years ago to recover the cleanup costs at a vermiculite mine in the town of Libby.
NATIONAL
August 4, 2005 | Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer
Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. worked behind the scenes for gay rights activists, and his legal expertise helped them persuade the Supreme Court to issue a landmark 1996 ruling protecting people from discrimination because of their sexual orientation. Then a lawyer specializing in appellate work, the conservative Roberts helped represent the gay rights activists as part of his law firm's pro bono work.
NATIONAL
July 13, 2008 | David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
In 1985, President Reagan's attorney general, Edwin Meese III, criticized the Supreme Court's decisions and called on the justices to decide cases based on the "original intent" of the Constitution. The justices were wrong to rely on contemporary views of liberty and equality, Meese said; instead, they should rely on the understanding of those concepts in the late 18th century, when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written.