The Native Americans led by Amanda Blackhorse started their challenge nine years ago to nullify a total of five team-name trademarks and one related to its cheerleaders, the Redskinettes. Blackhorse’s attorney called the judge’s ruling “a huge victory” and a “watershed event.” However, he said the legal fight probably is not over. “The team has been fighting this case so hard...and scorching every square inch of earth that it's hard to imagine they will not appeal,” he said.   read more

Fallin’s actions prompted questions about whether she would refuse a court order to remove the monument. A gubernatorial spokesman said it was too early to answer that. “The Supreme Court did not give any leeway in their opinion," said ACLU's Ryan Kiesel. "The bipartisan, seven-member majority did not say remove the monument except if you look into your crystal ball and think the law might allow it at some point in the future and go ahead and keep it. The court said: Remove the monument.”   read more

Tribe chairwoman Cecile Hansen criticized the agency’s decision, saying “we have again been denied our rightful place in the history of Seattle.” The tribe’s existence goes back 8,000 years in the Puget Sound region. “Shame on the Bureau of Indian Affairs!” Hansen said in a statement. The decision could cost tribal members important benefits, like subsidized housing, education, health care and the opportunity to open a casino.   read more

Holder will make at least seven figures at Covington & Burling. In addition, it will be a kind of Justice Department reunion for him. His former enforcement chief, Lanny Breuer, decamped for the firm in 2013. Breuer’s company biography states that “he specializes in helping clients navigate financial fraud investigations, anti-corruption [and] money laundering investigations, securities enforcement actions, cybercrime . . .” Just the kinds of crimes that often weren’t pursued under Holder.   read more

“What this shows us is that, in the context of a growing crisis that we all recognize in criminal justice in this country, we have a system where incredible power and discretion is concentrated in the hands of one demographic group,” lead author Brenda Carter told the Times. In 14 states, all the elected prosecutors are white. The study also found that 66% of states that elect prosecutors have no blacks in these offices. Latinos are also grossly underrepresented.   read more

The complaint says police and legal officials engaged in a “stunning pattern” of evidence destruction, presumably to cover up the issuing of 850,000 bogus summonses resulting from the NYPD’s quota system. “It is simply not tenable that Commissioner Kelly and Chief Esposito did not — in the entire period of 2007 through the present — write or receive emails using terms” related to the word “summons,” wrote Suttons. NYPD is also accused of shredding crime statistics documents.   read more

Rand Paul got an “A” grade for his support of states to establish their own marijuana policies. He also backs decriminalization of small-quantity pot possession. Chris Christie earned an "F." He opposes legalization and the New Jersey medical marijuana law. He also said that he would restore federal prosecution of Colorado pot smokers. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton got a B-. She supports states that legalized pot, but hasn’t taken a position on decriminalization.   read more

Hood County residents Jim Cato and Joe Stapleton, who have been together 27 years, still can’t get a marriage license from Lang’s office. Lang's excuse? She says it will take three weeks to acquire the necessary forms for the licenses. When it was pointed out that more than 200 other Texas counties are issuing the licenses from forms readily available over the Internet, Lang stood firm.   read more

The case arose out of a 2009 complaint by Teleta Dashiell, who found that Maryland State Police Sgt. John Maiello, thinking he had hung up, had left a message on her voice mail that contained a racial slur. Dashiell complained to the State Police about the message and was later told that the incident had been investigated and action had been taken.   read more

At least 103 Florida murder and attempted murder cases have been reopened, often resulting in lighter sentences, because of bad wording in the jury instructions. Among the more than 100 cases affected by the jury instructions, dozens of murderers received new trials or the chance to make plea agreements. Curtis Krueger found that 31 of the defendants received shorter prison sentences   read more

The Army changed its PTSD treatment policies following Bales’ case, “which shed light on the use of dangerous stimulants by soldiers in the field.” Bales’ medical records revealed he had the steroid stanozolol in his body at the time of the killings, which is known to trigger outbursts of temper. An Army investigation showed Bales had a reputation among junior enlisted men as being “paranoid,” “bipolar,” “crazy” and “racist,” but was regarded as competent and “even-keeled” by superior officers.   read more

Less than a third of all Americans claim to own a gun, with the state of Alaska leading the way in having the highest rate of gun ownership. Research published in the medical journal Injury Prevention shows that nearly 62% of residents of Alaska owns guns. No other state in the country boasts a gun ownership rate of 60% or higher. The study also determined that gun ownership is highest in locations that exhibit a strong gun culture.   read more

The research revealed that most of the referrals didn’t lead to convictions because they were never tried in court. Prosecutors turned down 235 out of the 270 total hate crime referrals, or 87%, per TRAC. More than half of the rejected cases were due to insufficient evidence, lack of evidence of criminal intent, and weak or insufficient admissible evidence. A total of 7,242 people in the U.S. were victims of reported hate crime incidents in 2013, according to the FBI.   read more

Monsanto and Dow Chemical opposed the local measure, which voters approved last November. Both companies operate farms on the island that study GMO crops. The biotech industry spent more than $7 million to defeat the measure--the most expensive political campaign in the history of the state. Mollway’s ruling did not address the substance of the ban, only the legal question of county authority. Measure co-sponsor Mark Sheehan said they will appeal the decision.   read more

Cooper’s case is a class action involving residents from nine counties, making the litigation worth potentially millions of dollars in damages. Six houses were destroyed and 172 others were damaged when three quakes of 5.0 magnitude or greater struck the Prague area from November 5-8, 2011, according to the Oklahoma Emergency Management Agency. The oil companies argued that the Oklahoma Corporation Commission should handle the lawsuits, not the courts—a position the state Supreme Court rejected.   read more

On Tuesday, FISC Judge Michael W. Mosman rejected FreedomWorks’ challenge. Mosman also claimed that a previous ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which said the surveillance program was illegal, did not apply to the FISC, “setting up a potential conflict between the two courts,” according to The New York Times. “Second Circuit rulings are not binding” on the surveillance court, Mosman wrote, “and this court respectfully disagrees with that court’s analysis...”   read more