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Congress has unconstitutionally required Americans to get health insurance. That was the conclusion reached by Virginia federal judge Henry Hudson after he examined the constitutionality of one of the bigger provisions of Obamacare. The insurance mandate, which required most Americans to buy health insurance or pay a penalty by 2014, was challenged in hopes that the court would stop implementation of the law until it could be reviewed by a higher court....

Wedding bells are ahead now that 90s icons Jenny McCarthy and Donnie Wahlberg are engaged. McCarthy, a TV host and former Playboy model, and Wahlberg, an actor and member of New Kids on the Block, announced their engagement on “The View,” according to E! News. After the engagement was announced, “The View” host Barbara Walters offered up her New York City apartment as a potential wedding venue. Now that the celebrity duo is heading down the aisle, here are three legal tips for their pending nuptials....

Outkast’s Big Boi was arrested in Miami. According to authorities, Big Boi had drugs on him - his own little small haul, including MDMA powder, ecstasy pills and Viagra. Big Boi is half of the popular rap duo Outkast. He also has appeared in several films and has released his own album. Big Boi’s arrest also came at an awkward time for the rapper. He was disembarking from a cruise, likely high off his latest vacation, when he was stopped by drug sniffing canines that had likely gotten a whiff of his contraband, reports MTV....

Virginia’s highest court has ruled that a state law prohibiting the mass sending of unsolicited emails (“spam”) is an overly broad restriction on free speech, a decision that overturns the criminal conviction of a North Carolina man once known as one of the country’s most notorious spammers. In 2004, Jeremy Jaynes was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison based on charges that, on three separate occasions, he sent more than 10,000 unsolicted emails to America Online subscribers over a 24-hour period, a violation of the “unsolicited bulk email” provision of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act....

The USS Cole was refueling in Yemen in October of 2000 when two al-Qaeda suicide bombers blew a hole in its hull. The attack killed 17 sailors and injured another 39. Fifteen of the injured sailors and three of their spouses filed a federal lawsuit against Sudan in 2010, claiming the country helped facilitate the bombing by lending material support to al-Qaeda. The victims won the case, and now a federal appeals court in New York is ordering three banks to turn over Sudanese funds to satisfy the judgment....

Lindsay Lohan reportedly fired her longtime lawyer, Shawn Holley, on Monday, in a series of unfortunate events. But the very next day, Lohan had apparently reneged on the firing, telling friends that she wanted Holley back, reports the Los Angeles Times. What’s going on? The plea deal would have allowed LiLo to partake in “lockdown rehab.” Lohan was facing jail time for allegedly lying to the police when she was in a car crash on the Pacific Coast Highway last June....

Disneyland’s Segway policy must balance the rights of disabled visitors with the theme park’s safety concerns, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit overruled a lower court that found Disneyland’s Segway ban complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Associated Press reports. While Disneyland doesn’t allow Segways, it does offer wheelchairs and scooters for disabled guests, pursuant to federal law, Disney’s lawyers argued....

Jonathan Hoffman, 17, died Friday in the upscale Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield Township. His grandmother, Sandra Layne, is accused of shooting him 8 times in the chest, including while he was on the phone with emergency services. Layne has since been arraigned on murder charges and is being held without bond. Her attorneys are claiming that she was afraid of her grandson and that she shot him “because she felt she had no choice....

Don’t declare the pennies on your eyes unless the IRS sends you something in writing. Scam artists are getting colder and bolder these days. Last year, a massive call center in India was shut down after it was discovered that scammers working in the center were scamming Americans out of thousands of dollars by pretending to be IRS agents. My advice for those who get phone calls from anyone claiming to be an IRS agent: just hang up....

The federal government has received a court order that halts the operation of a large international “spam” ring responsible for sending billions of unsolicited – and illegal – emails peddling prescription medications, weight loss pills, and herbal male-enhancement pills. In a Press Release issued Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a U.S. district court judge has issued an order that prevents the largest “spam gang” in the world from operating, and effectively freezes its assets....

Labor unions filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a Michigan law banning compulsory union membership for private sector employees is unconstitutional. The right-to-work law, which goes into effect in late March, contains provisions that go “well beyond” the limits of federal law, said Andrew Nickelhoff, an attorney for the Michigan AFL-CIO, one of the unions that filed the lawsuit. For example, the Michigan law allows for a $500 civil fine and the possibility of criminal liability for violators, which is not done under the National Labor Relations Act, Nickelhoff told Reuters....

While Oklahoma used to execute people at a relatively high rate compared with the rest of the country, the state took a three-year break after a series of mishaps occurred in its death chambers. Now, as the state looks for more fool-proof ways to put people to death, the legislature has approved Nitrogen as it’s go-to killing cocktail. But while the gas may simplify the execution procedure, critics argue its use is unprecedented, and the legislation was pushed through with little medical research to support it....

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) announced today a voluntary product recall to repair Roman shades and roll up blinds. The CPSC has received reports of 5 deaths and 16 near strangulations due to the cords on these window coverings. About five million Roman shades and about three million roll-up blinds are sold each year. In fact, just last August we discussed another Roman shades recall following a strangulation death....

Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed that the Obama administration deliberately killed four U.S. citizens in drone strikes abroad. The U.S. intentionally killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical Muslim cleric who was killed in a drone strike in September 2011 in Yemen, according to the attached letter to Congressional leaders, first obtained and reported by The New York Times. Holder’s letter says that the United States had killed three other Americans: Samir Khan, who was killed in the same 2011 strike; al-Awlaki’s son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, who was also killed in Yemen; and Jude Mohammed, who was killed in a strike in Pakistan....

In a bid to make Utah more like Europe, lawmakers in the state have passed two changes to the state’s alcohol laws. One eases the “Zion Curtain” restriction and the other lowers the blood-alcohol content (BAC) requirement for being convicted for a DUI from 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent. The pair of new laws are expected to be signed into law by Utah’s Governor, Gary Herbert, who has stated his support....

A female student diversity officer at the University of London has been charged with making racially motivated malicious communications after she tweeted using the hashtag #killallwhitemen. Bahar Mustafa, who works in the Students’ Union of Goldsmiths, allegedly used the hashtag on her since-deleted Twitter account. Mustafa had sparked a controversy by asking straight white men not to attend an event for black and ethnic minority students in April. She’s now facing a possible six months in jail for the tweets....

Singer Anita Baker was very lucky on Friday, as she avoided what could have been a jail sentence for contempt of court. In laymen’s terms: Baker could have gone to jail for failing to follow a judges’ orders. Anita Baker’s divorce battle with her ex-husband, Walter Bridgforth, began in 2008. As part of the bitter legal battle, the parties were to determine how, exactly, to split the royalties earned by Baker on songs written by her, during their marriage, and thus marital property divided in the couple’s divorce documents....

Quit-smoking drug Chantix’s side effects may be more dangerous than originally thought. A new study has been released that finds individuals using Chantix are eight times more likely to be linked with depressive thoughts or suicidal behavior. This is in comparison with other smoking-cessation drugs such as nicotine patches. This isn’t the first time studies - or warnings - have been issued about Chantix’s possible mental side effects. In 2009, the FDA put a black-box warning on the drug....

A controversial Illinois gun law has been struck down. A federal appeals court ruled that the Illinois law that sought to prohibit people from carrying guns in public violated the Second Amendment. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called the Illinois state law “arbitrary” and “unconstitutional.” In a 2-1 decision, the court reasoned that the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms could not rationally have meant that people could only have the right to bear arms in their own home, reports Reuters....

Tyler Clementi, then a freshman at Rutgers University in New Jersey, committed suicide last September. Investigators believe that the primary instigator for these crimes was Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi. Hate crimes, invasion of privacy, and other charges have all been levied against Ravi. Ravi reportedly secretly used a webcam operated in another Rutgers University student’s room to tape Clementi, who is gay, kissing another man and streaming the video online....