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Free practice of religion and free speech. Our First Amendment protections are a little bit stronger after two of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. and Elonis v. United States. Here is what you need to know about these decisions: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc. Seven years ago, 17-year-old Samantha Elauf applied for a job with Abercrombie & Fitch....

“Teen Mom 2” star Jennelle Evans has been sentenced to probation and community service after she was found guilty of a misdemeanor for fighting in public. North Carolina resident Evans was arrested and charged along with two other girls, Brittany Maggard and Brittany Truett, WWAY-TV reports. Last April, the three girls took part in a fight that occurred outside a home. The altercation was caught on film, and eventually became a viral when it was posted onto the Internet, according to WWAY-TV....

In a story that demonstrates the viciousness that underlies girl-on-girl bullying, a Juvenile Court judge has sentenced a 12-year-old Seattle girl to 6 months of probation and 20 hours of community service for Facebook cyberstalking classmate Leslie Cote. Cote, who has given the media permission to use her name to raise awareness of cyberstalking, was reportedly the subject of vulgar messages and wall posts. Convicted of felony computer trespassing and cyberstalking, the 12-year-old defendant, along with a friend, accessed Cote’s Facebook account where they repeatedly posted lewd photos and called her a “slut,” reports The Seattle Times....

If there’s one piece of criminal procedure that’s overplayed in crime dramas, it’s the police lineup. Sure, it’s a real part of criminal investigation, but it’s not the drama-filled, nail-biting process that Hollywood makes it look like. OK, maybe that’s not true if you’re one of the people in the lineup, waiting to see if you’re identified as “the guy who did it.” That’s especially true if you didn’t do it....

Results of Whitney Houston’s autopsy, performed Sunday, are pending toxicology tests, according to UPI. While an autopsy was not unexpected after Houston’s death, a recent report finds autopsies in general are increasingly rare. Today, only 5% of U.S. hospital deaths result in autopsies, according to a report by NPR, PBS’ Frontline and ProPublica. That’s down from about 50% of all hospital deaths half a century ago. So what factors determine who gets an autopsy?...

We’re always worried about what can end up on our permanent record, and criminal conviction once doomed college and job applicants. But that could be slowly changing. Some states are encouraging employers who hire felons, and some schools are no longer including criminal conviction questions on their applications. Now the Obama administration is asking colleges to put off asking applicants about their criminal records until schools have made their admissions decisions....

Deadliest Catch is ending with three popular stars jumping ship. Cast members and ship captains Sig Hansen, Jonathan Hillstrand, and Andy Hillstrand are leaving the show after the Discovery channel filed suit against the Hillstrand brothers for breach of contract seeking over $3 million in damages. Sig Hansen is quoted in People, “We have been through a lot over the past year and unfortunately given the current situation with Discovery we are unable to continue participating in Deadliest Catch....

The 86th Annual Academy Awards are almost here. As people scramble to bet on the “Best Picture” winner, it’s clear who the real winner is: the law. Legal issues play a central role in a surprising number of this year’s “Best Picture” Oscar nominees. Here are seven of the “Best Picture” contenders and the real-life legal issues they portray on screen: Legal issues make for great storytelling. If you have a brilliant idea for a screenplay with a saucy legal plotline, you’ll want to copyright your script and consult an entertainment lawyer before you tell us all about it on Facebook....

Whether it’s the ability to hop online under an avatar or fake name or an imagined distinction between the internet and IRL, quite a few folks are surprised when their online crimes come with offline consequences. Cybercrime continues to evolve and grow, and as technology advances the opportunities for cybercriminals to strike will only increase. So what are the most common internet crimes right now, and where is internet crime headed in the future?...

Maybe it was just about time for him to face the music - and legal action. Adam Lambert is battling a new lawsuit: a company is alleging that the American Idol runner-up was ineligible for the Fox talent competition because he was already under an operating agreement with a recording company at the time. This would violate American Idol’s rules. The suit originates from a music company called Colwel Platinum Entertainment....

An Arizona law denying bail to certain undocumented immigrants was struck down on Wednesday by a federal appeals court, finding the law to be an unconstitutional violation of due process. This isn’t the first time that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reviewed Proposition 100, a 2006 Arizona ballot measure that denied bail to undocumented immigrants charged with “serious” crimes. The Los Angeles Times reported that the appellate court upheld the law in a 2-1 decision last year, but the full panel wanted to rehear the case....

The city of Cleveland and the Department of Justice (DOJ) reached an agreement Tuesday that will implement broad policing reforms focused on reducing the use of force and racial bias. The agreement follows a DOJ investigation in December that found the Cleveland Division of Police (CDP) “engages in a pattern or practice of the use of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” Cleveland has been one of the focal points of recent discussions and protests regarding police violence following the shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and the acquittal of Officer Michael Brelo, who fired 49 shots at an unarmed couple following a police chase in 2012, killing them both....

Going off to college can often be an overwhelming and scary experience for many young adults. For most freshman, it will be their first time living on their own, and often, college students spend a vast majority of their time on campus. College students are likely to see, and maybe even have encounters with, campus police. After all, the institutions have a duty to keep their students safe, and providing actual police officers or, minimally, security guards is usually necessary to do so....

Disbarred Fort Lauderdale, Fla. lawyer Scott Rothstein pleaded guilty to felony Ponzi scheme charges today, admitting that for approximately five years, he engaged in approximately $1.2 billion dollars of fraudulent and bogus investment schemes. According to the plea agreement (you can read it below), Rothstein admitted that he engaged in a criminal racketeering scheme to use his position as a lawyer and law firm Rothstein Roenfeldt and Adler, P.A.’s (‘RRA’) purported success “and his standing in the community to lure potential investors in order to convince them to” invest in non-existent sexual harassment and whistleblower cases....

Today, Eli Lilly & Co. (Lilly) pled guilty to illegally marketing the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa and agreed to pay $1.42 billion to settle a suit filed by federal prosecutors in a Pennsylvania federal court. As reported by the AP, Lilly has already spent roughly $1.2 billion to resolve over 32,000 Zypreza related claims. Like many previous Zyprexa lawsuits, today’s case centered on Lilly’s marketing of Zyprexa. Zyprexa is FDA approved for use treating adults suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder....

The Texas A&M off-campus shooting shows how signing up for school text alerts is a good call for students heading back to school, along with their parents or guardians. As police in College Station, Texas, responded to reports of a shooting near campus Monday, they issued emergency alerts by email, text message, Twitter, and other means. National news media like CNN kept referring to those official alerts as they covered the emergency – an example of how vital school text alerts have become....

Producers of “The Price Is Right” will be paying a very nice price after losing a maternity lawsuit to former model Brandi Cochran. A jury last week found the show’s producers guilty of discriminating against Cochran during her pregnancy, Reuters reports. In her lawsuit, she claimed they’d made negative comments about her body and then dismissed her when she experienced complications after her pregnancy. The jury awarded her $776,000 in compensatory damages....

Trader Joe’s issued a peanut butter recall after the product was linked to 29 cases of Salmonella-related illness in 18 states. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the grocery store’s Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter is likely the source of the outbreak, reports The Associated Press. The FDA and CDC are still investigating whether any other items sold at Trader Joe’s could also be contaminated....

Crime rates in the first half of 2007 dropped nationwide for the first time in two years, according to the Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, released Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI finds that overall, law enforcement agencies nationwide reported a decrease of 1.8 percent in the number of violent crimes in the first half of 2007 when compared with figures reported for the first six months of 2006....

Flour seems about as basic as an ingredient gets, and it’s hard to believe that it can make you sick (unless you’re allergic to gluten, of course). But yesterday General Mills recalled 10 million pounds of flour linked to an E. coli outbreak that has affected 38 people in 20 states since last December, according to USA Today. To be clear, no one has confirmed that General Mills brand flour is specifically problematic....