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Almost 10 years ago, in 2009, a bipartisan Congress passed the Tobacco Control Act, requiring graphic health warnings on all cigarette packs and ads. Have you seen them? Undoubtedly not, since the FDA never created the necessary guidelines. In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani set a deadline of September 26, 2018 for the FDA to “provide to this court an expedited schedule for the completion of outstanding studies, the publication of the proposed graphic warnings rule for public comment, review of public comments, and issuance of final graphic warnings rule in accordance with the Tobacco Control Act....

A federal court dismissed the ‘Sister Wives’ and their husband’s challenge to a Utah statute that bars polygamy, finding their claim moot for a few reasons. The court noted that the four wives and one husband sought relief for a possible future harm, not one happening now. The family was unlikely to experience the harm for which it sought relief, according to CBS News, as Utah is not prosecuting the polygamists and the family now lives in Nevada....

The Department of Education last week issued guidance to public schools on protecting the civil rights of transgender students. For schools, this is about more than just making students feel safe. Their federal funding depends on compliance with the law. The new guidance is intended to make it clear to public school educators that transgender students cannot be discriminated against and that schools don’t decide gender identity. In other words, public schools must respect the gender self-identification of students, and that applies to bathroom use too....

You might want to hold onto your luggage. We all know how much of a hassle it is to find checked bags that are lost, mishandled, damage or stolen. Investigators at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix continue to sort through piles of stolen bags. They now face the challenge of matching the recovered property with victims after a couple was accused of stealing more than 1,000 pieces of luggage from unsuspecting travelers....

Michigan can’t block the opening of an off-reservation Indian casino because of a tribe’s sovereign immunity, the Supreme Court has ruled. A divided Court ruled 5-4 that the state could not block the Bay Mills Indian Community’s casino about 90 miles south of its reservation. Michigan and 16 other states had urged the Court to allow the casino to be shuttered. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the Court that the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act only allows a state to bring lawsuits challenging casinos operating on Indian lands....

Self defense is a tricky legal concept, and it becomes even more nuanced when individuals assert self-defense claims against law enforcement officers or police dogs, especially if the officer or K-9 is killed. Generally, law enforcement officers and police dogs have similar rights when it comes to suspects and arrestees fighting back, but these rights vary from state to state. It should be noted that harming a police dog is almost sure to inflame, and provoke, officers, causing them to overreact and shoot to kill....

The details vary from state to state but, generally speaking, passing laws are created to keep drivers safe. Tickets remind us that even on the open road, there are rules and you must stay in line with the law. You can pass on the right in some states but only under very specific conditions. Passing on the right lane is only ever allowed when it does not endanger other drivers and the way is visible....

James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, died in 2006, but a legal battle over his estate has been going on ever since. Brown’s will left his entire estate to a charitable trust, leaving nothing to the woman he married in 2001, Tommie Rae Hynie. After Brown’s death, Hynie contested his will, claiming that she had been married to Brown at the time. In a 46-page decision (!), a South Carolina judge agreed, potentially entitling Hynie to a portion of Brown’s estate – even though she was never mentioned in Brown’s will....

Actress Sandra Bullock’s husband Jesse James is fuming over his ex wife Janine Lindemulder’s interview on Good Morning America. Jesse James (who stars on the show Monster Garage) wanted to let everyone know that porn star Janine Lindemulder’s comments about his wife were simply not true. Lindemulder claimed that Bullock was trying to take away her daughter. People Magazine quotes Jesse Jammes’ attorney Marilyn Slifman as saying that her remarks were “inaccurate and unfortunate....

Jared Loughner’s mental incompetency has delayed his trial for the Tucson shootings that claimed the lives of 6 people, and injured another 13. The 9th Circuit had previously ruled that the forced medication must be temporarily halted. Loughner had been forcibly medicated at the facility in Springfield, Missouri, reports The Arizona Republic. There are two methods to forcible medication. If Loughner was being medicated in an effort to restore him to competency, then a full hearing should have been held....

Judge Richard Posner is famous in the legal world for issuing philosophical court opinions. This time, Posner has pontificated about long prison terms that end up being “de facto life sentences.” Poser serves on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which recently considered the appeal of David Michael Craig. Craig challenged his sentence which included a 30-year sentence and three concurrent 20-year sentences, to be served after the first 30 years....

Over 20 years after O.J. Simpson was acquitted for the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and friend Ron Goldman, the Los Angeles Police Department announced it had “recovered an item with possible evidentiary value related to the Brown/Goldman double homicide.” (The fact that this announcement was made on Twitter, while a dramatized miniseries on the trial airs on television, demonstrates just how far removed we are from1995.) While the discovery of a knife supposedly recovered from Simpson’s former estate has piqued even more interest in the case – after all, the murder weapon was never found – for now it only raises more questions about the police investigation, and offers little in the way of answers....

Exchanging a tattoo for sex with a 15-year-old girl has put Walter Meyerle in criminal court in suburban Bucks County, outside Philadelphia, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. And then, after Meyerle was arraigned on March 16, more tattoo-for-sex transactions with minors allegedly involving Meyerle emerged. Way, way more. After Meyerle was arraigned on March 16, 13 additional minors and two adults came forward to complain of multiple and repeated tattoo-for-sex trades....

O.J. Simpson is looking to get his conviction from a 2007 hotel room heist overturned as his lawyers gave arguments before the Nevada Supreme Court. His defense team argued that O.J. Simpson’s conviction for a robbery and kidnapping was flawed because of procedural errors in his 2008 trial, the Associated Press reports. The defense team is seeking to reverse his conviction on 12 counts of armed robbery and other related offenses in connection with a Las Vegas hotel room confrontation over sports memorabilia....

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi have been arrested in Canada on a US warrant that was issued after the couple failed to appear in a Santa Barbara court on felony vandalism charges. Quaid, known for playing quirky roles like “Cousin Eddie” in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” told a Canadian court that he and his wife are seeking asylum from “the murderers of Hollywood,” reports The Washington Post. For those of you who need a brief refresher: the couple was arrested for squatting in a guest house they previously owned....

A state judge has vacated a $322 million Mississippi asbestos verdict –& the largest single-plaintiff asbestos award in history. The ruling comes just two months after defense attorneys asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to disqualify Judge Eddie Bowen from the case. Soon after the jury announced its award, defendants Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. and Union Carbide learned that Bowen’s parents had previously sued them over asbestos-related matters. This connection probably should have disqualified Bowen from the start....

At least 23 people in 14 states have been diagnosed with salmonellosis from the same strain of Salmonella that was found in recently recalled Malt-O-Meal cereals, according to a Press Release from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On April 5, Malt-O-Meal announced that it was recalling its unsweetened “Puffed Rice” and “Puffed Wheat” cereals with “Best If Used By” dates between April 8, 2008 (coded as “APR0808”) and March 18, 2009 (coded as “MAR1809”), after routine testing found salmonella contamination in cereal produced in late March....

Homeowners can no longer void their second mortgage in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In a win for banks, the Supreme Court ruled in Bank of America, N.A. v, Caulkett, by a unanimous decision, that struggling homeowners cannot cancel their second mortgage in bankruptcy even when the value of their home is less than their first mortgage. Here is what you need to know: Section 506 of the Bankruptcy Code Section 506(d) of the Bankruptcy Code states, “to the extent that a lien secures a claim against the debtor that is not an allowed secured claim, such lien is void....

Unable to secure a stay of execution before Tuesday, Texas death row inmate Cary Kerr became the state’s first inmate to be executed using a new sedative, pentobarbital. The shocking part of this story isn’t that Cary Kerr was executed–after all, Texas executes more prisoners than any other state. No, it’s that, in the United States, pentobarbital is most prominently used in veterinary medicine. Texas’ use of pentobarbital is a response to a nation-wide shortage of the original death penalty drug, sodium thiopental....

Getting sentenced to probation, or getting paroled, can be quite the relief for individuals convicted of a crime. Unfortunately, for some probationers and parolees, their assigned probation officer, or parole officer, can often make life miserable. While probation officers are supposed to stick to just the court ordered monitoring, horror stories of corruption abound. Whether it’s a probationer being coerced into sex, or a parolee being bribed to avoid a false report of a parole violation, the formerly incarcerated often don’t know who to turn to for help, or what proof they need to show....