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Without comment, the Supreme Court unanimously voted to deny a request by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli asking the Court to expedite the health care appeal and skip over the 4th Circuit. While the ruling itself wasn’t surprising to those involved in health care litigation, it does provide some insight into what will happen next year when the case is likely to be back in front of the Court. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli then began a media campaign and filed a request urging the Supreme Court to resolve the health care appeal as soon as possible, reports UPI....

Kanye West has succeeded again in unintentionally creating controversy. His most recent casting call for the 4th season of his television program, Yeezy, was blatantly discriminatory, and according to legal experts, illegal, too. Not surprisingly, the internet reacted with righteous indignation and furious anger. In the casting call, West explicitly states “MULTIRACIAL WOMEN ONLY.” This isn’t the mythical reverse racism some allege it to be; it is just plain old, regular, insidious racism, and it’s very likely illegal....

Model Kate Upton is none too pleased that old photos of her are featured in a new Victoria’s Secret catalogue after they dissed her look in the past as “too obvious.” The reprised Kate Upton Victoria’s Secret photos were used without the 20-year-old model’s permission, The New York Post reports. A source close to Upton claims “The pictures are from 2011. Kate’s not currently contracted to work with Victoria’s Secret, and they didn’t contact her before they used these images,” The Post reports....

Banks have ramped up overdraft fees to an unprecedented level over the past 10 years. Now Congress may step in to require consent to overdraft “protection,” and hopefully ban some of the shady tactics banks have used to push people into the red. According to the Washington Post, between 1999 and 2009, bank revenue from overdraft fees went from around $18 billion to about $38.5 billion. And larger banks who have received taxpayer bailouts… they rely most heavily on revenue from overdraft fees....

Alleged murderer Elliot Morales is being charged with a hate crime after he taunted and fatally shot a gay Brooklyn resident on Saturday. The victim, Mark Carson, and his friend were walking through lower Manhattan when, unprompted, Morales and others hurled anti-gay slurs at the two, police said. Morales then shot Carson “point-blank in the face,” reports USA Today. Any senseless murder is heinous and tragic, but what exactly makes this an alleged hate crime?...

In what reporters are calling the largest mass dismissal of criminal convictions in history, the state of Massachusetts is poised to reverse over 21,000 drug convictions as a result of the 2012- 2013 drug lab scandal. While it has been over three years since the main lab chemist pleaded guilty, the state has finally succumbed to pressures from groups like the ACLU requesting to reexamine all convictions related to the drug lab scandal....

In the best of worlds we would not discuss rape kits because there would be no need for such things. But according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RANIN) there are more than a quarter million sexual assaults a year in the US, and every 107 seconds someone is sexually assaulted. Nearly half of the victims are reportedly under 18. That means we do need rape kits and we should know something about this tool of forensic evidence....

Hip Hop Mogul Jay-Z has filed a lawsuit against Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, claiming he stole the name of his 40/40 Club chain sports bar lounges. Jay-Z filed a lawsuit $5 million accusing Ortiz of naming his club in the Dominican Republic after his celebrity 40/40 club in New York. The lawsuit claims the night club Ortiz opened in the Dominican Republic infringes on Jay’s 40/40 club concept, MTV reports....

According to the S.F. Chronicle, San Francisco Mayor, Gavin Newsom loves his iPhone. Regardless, Newsom is calling for a city-wide requirement that retailers provide information on cell phone radiation levels to consumers. The jury is still out on whether or not the available scientific information shows that radiation from cell phones poses a health risk. Newsom seems most interested in making the information available to the public, and permitting them to make their own decisions....

Fans flocking to the Super Bowl will be gearing up for tailgating and touchdowns. For some, though, Sunday’s big game is also the Super Bowl of Child Prostitution. Texas police have assigned extra agents this week to keep watch for a different kind of out-of-town visitor: pimps selling children for sex. As America’s largest sporting event, the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers will make Dallas a magnet for business of all kinds....

Winter driving brings many unique challenges. As a result, you should consider tuning up your car for the winter season to minimize your chance of accident and injury. Even if you live in a warm climate, there may be seasonal changes in the weather that you will have to deal with like more rain and slick roads. And if you live in a cooler climate, you may have already dealt with snow, sleet, and having to put chains on your tires....

We’ve said it before that parents should be careful on social media during child custody disputes. Apparently, Tyrese Gibson doesn’t read our blogs. The Fast and Furious franchise star had been a constant presence on Instagram throughout his battle with ex-wife Norma Gibson over custody of their daughter Shayla. A couple weeks ago, Tyrese thanked Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith for giving him $5 million to stay off social media, appropriately posting the thank you on the ‘Gram....

The line for acceptable behavior when it comes to child pornography just got blurrier in New York. The state’s highest court just ruled that viewing child porn online isn’t a crime, the Associated Press reports. The decision came down in a hearing for James D. Kent. In 2007 a virus scan of Kent’s computer uncovered child porn. Kent, 65, a former professor of public administration at Marist College, was subsequently convicted of 134 counts of possessing child porn and two counts of procuring it....

Voice and puppeteer of Sesame Street’s beloved Elmo, Kevin Clash, has been accused of having sex with an underage boy. Clash has been placed on a leave of absence from the children’s show. In the meantime, he has denied the underage sex claims and his accuser has reportedly lawyered up. The 23-year-old accuser says that he and Clash began a sexual relationship seven years ago, reports The Baltimore Sun. At the time, the unidentified accuser said he was 16-years-old and that Clash was 45....

Florida State Attorney Angela Corey announced on Thursday that George Zimmerman had been arrested and would be charged with second degree murder. During that press conference, a reporter asked her about the possible implications of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law. In response, she explained that the law provides Zimmerman with an “affirmative defense,” and that if it was raised, it would be dealt with in court. She further vowed to fight the “affirmative defense....

Proving an intent to kill is required in most murder charges, and it involves the specific intent to end a human life. So what counts as intent to kill, and how do prosecutors prove it in court? Intent to kill, also referred to in many states as malice aforethought, does not have to be actually expressed by the killer. It can be implied by his or her actions. For example, shooting a victim with a firearm can certainly be indicative of an intent to kill, but it isn’t necessarily the end of the story....

The holidays were fun and you had a good time … until you got charged with DUI. Now you are looking at a new year full of difficult choices, most notably whether to take a plea or go to trial. The good news is that you decide. The bad news is that trial is a dice roll, and even if you are found not guilty, you will still have to go through the stressful experience....

Do legal consumers use Yelp, the consumer review website best known for reviewing restaurants, to help them choose an attorney? A San Diego law firm apparently seems to think so. Enough so that it allegedly used its staff and five fellow attorneys to write fake, beaming reviews of its bankruptcy practice. Yelp has sued the McMillan Law Group for violating Yelp’s terms of service and eroding its value to consumers in a damning complaint (attached below)....

Cindy Lee Garcia, the actress who appears in the controversial film the “Innocence of Muslims,” is suing to disassociate herself from the film. Garcia has brought lawsuits against the filmmaker, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, and YouTube for distributing the film’s 14-minute trailer, reports the Huffington Post. But Los Angeles Judge Luis Lavin rejected the takedown request Thursday, in part because the man behind the film was not served with a copy of the lawsuit, the Associated Press reports....

Before the next big show hits your TV screens, it’s shopped to advertisers in “upfronts,” lavish previews featuring network stars and musical numbers, hosted at venues like Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. And long before a single episode of that show hits the airwaves, a whole team goes to work on its scenery and backdrops. Who puts on these extravagant unveilings? Who do the networks call to design the latest sets and reality TV backgrounds?...