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3 days ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
BOSTON (CN) — A man believed that a romantic rival was about to shoot him as he was getting a pedicure, so he shot first — but he accidentally killed a salon employee instead. On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Supreme Court tried to figure out the proper punishment. Kenneth Santana-Rodriguez claims that he isn’t guilty of anything since he acted in self-defense, or at most he should be tried for involuntary manslaughter. But the state wants to charge him with second-degree murder.
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4 days ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
A class action on behalf of the state’s fetuses doesn’t pass legal muster, a three-judge panel ruled. NEW YORK (CN) — A challenge to a New York law that permits abortion at any stage of pregnancy was rejected by the Second Circuit on Tuesday, with the court holding that a social worker can’t bring a class-action lawsuit on behalf of all the viable fetuses in the state.
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3 weeks ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
ALBANY, N.Y. (CN) — Facing a staggering $98 billion unfunded liability for retiree health benefits — by far the largest of any city in the country — New York City’s lawyers asked the state’s high court on Thursday to approve a plan to reduce its expenses, despite the objections of retirees who claim they were promised that their benefits would never change.
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4 weeks ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
BOSTON (CN) — A ban on protests within a 200-foot “buffer zone” around the courthouse where the Karen Read murder trial is taking place might violate the First Amendment, the First Circuit held Friday. The state trial judge in the Read case, Beverly Cannone, ordered the buffer zone to prevent protesters from intimidating jurors and witnesses and making so much noise as to disrupt the proceedings.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
BOSTON (CN) — The ongoing turf struggle between federal immigration authorities and state officials took a new twist in the Massachusetts Supreme Court Wednesday, with the state asking justices to allow it to prosecute an accused child rapist even though ICE wants to deport him to Haiti. Cory Alvarez was indicted on rape charges in May 2024, and a judge freed him before trial on $500 bail plus house arrest and GPS monitoring.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
The judges seemed sympathetic to the claims of the baseball legend’s children, but unsure if they brought them in the right forum. BOSTON (CN) — The adult children of baseball legend Roberto Clemente told a First Circuit panel Tuesday that the government of Puerto Rico misappropriated their father’s legacy to extort money from citizens during a financial crisis, tarnishing his popularity in the process.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
BOSTON (CN) — A ban on demonstrations within a 200-foot “buffer zone” around the courthouse where the Karen Read murder trial is taking place is unconstitutional, one of the country’s most colorful First Amendment lawyers told the First Circuit Monday, and the judges seemed sympathetic at oral arguments but uncertain how to remedy the problem.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
BOSTON (CN) — A Massachusetts law banning assault weapons has been left in place by the First Circuit, despite a challenge under the Second Amendment. The appeals court upheld the denial of a preliminary injunction against the law in a 36-page ruling released late on Thursday. Assault weapons are currently banned in 10 states — California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington — as well as the District of Columbia.
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1 month ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
What does “drunk driving” mean in a world of driverless cars, recreational vehicles and remote ignition? The justices struggled to bring DUI law into the 21st century. BOSTON (CN) — A man who had a few beers with a friend in a parked vehicle on a camping trip told the Massachusetts Supreme Court on Friday that it was ridiculous for police to have arrested him for “drunk driving,” since he wasn’t driving. But the justices weren’t so sure.
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2 months ago | 
courthousenews.com | Thomas Harrison
BOSTON (CN) — A New Hampshire law designed to prevent public school students from being taught “woke” ideas went before the First Circuit Tuesday, with a three-judge panel firing tough questions at both sides during oral argument. The law, enacted in June 2021, prohibits teaching children that members of a specific social group are inherently inferior to another group or are inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive.
