Gay marriage legislation has moved forward over the past week from coast to coast, a sign of a changing tide. In California, a federal appeals court struck down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, declaring it unconstitutional. Read full article > >

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Gay marriage wave shows major shift

An appeals court ruled on Monday that Alberto Contador, a three-time winner of the Tour de France, used a performance-enhancing drug when he won the race in 2010.

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Alberto Contador Found Guilty of Doping

A US army appeals court rejects a request for the officer overseeing the hearing of army analyst Bradley Manning, accused of leaking secrets, to withdraw.

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Bias rejected in Wikileaks case

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Thursday that it will challenge a federal judge’s rejection of the agency’s $285 million fraud settlement with Citigroup. The agency is asking an appeals court to overturn the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff in Manhattan. In rejecting the deal, Rakoff argued that the penalty amounted to mere pocket change for Citigroup and that he had no basis to assess whether it was appropriate because the firm neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing. Read full article > >

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SEC to appeal federal judge’s rejection of Citigroup deal

RICHMOND — A Virginia appeals court declared Thomas Haynesworth an innocent man Tuesday, clearing his name and acknowledging that he spent 27 years behind bars for rapes he did not commit. It is the first time the state has issued a “writ of actual innocence” in a rape case without the certainty of DNA evidence. Haynesworth , 46, was supported by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II (R) and two state prosecutors — all of whom concluded that he was mistakenly identified by a rape victim as he walked to a Richmond market for sweet potatoes and bread one February afternoon in 1984. Read full article > >

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Thomas Haynesworth fully exonerated by Va. appeals court

President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law got a boost on Tuesday when an appeals court agreed with a lower court that dismissed a challenge and found the law’s minimum coverage requirement was constitutional.

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Appeals Court Backs Health Care Law

Henry Skinner is scheduled to die Wednesday in the killings of three. He claims DNA analysis will prove his innocence. It’s up to a Texas appeals court to decide.

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With execution clock ticking, supporters push for DNA test

Veteran newsmaker Janet Jackson’s right breast is back — eight years later ! A federal appeals court Wednesday tossed out — again — the $550,000 fine that the Federal Communications Commission slapped on CBS stations in 2004, after the network aired a half-second of Janet Jackson’s right nipple during that year’s Super Bowl halftime show. Read full article > >

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Court tosses out FCC’s fine on CBS stations for Janet Jackson episode

People with eating disorders like anorexia are fighting insurers to pay for stays in residential treatment centers, an issue that is being considered by an appeals court in California.

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Ruling Offers Hope to Eating Disorder Sufferers

PHOENIX — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage can be returned to a Missouri prison facility where he will undergo more treatment to try to make him mentally fit to stand trial. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a request by Jared Lee Loughner’s attorneys to keep him in Tucson. Loughner’s lawyers want him to stay in Arizona while they appeal a lower court’s ruling that extends their mentally ill client’s stay at a Springfield, Mo., prison by another four months. Read full article > >

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Appeals court OKs Tucson shooting rampage suspect’s return to Missouri facility for treatment

An Italian appeals court overturned the homicide convictions of the American Amanda Knox and a co-defendant on Monday and ordered them freed, ending a sensationally lurid trial.

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Amanda Knox Freed After Appeal in Italian Court

A group of plaintiffs hoping to mount a challenge to U.S. surveillance law secured a major victory Wednesday when a federal appeals court upheld their standing to sue the government. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ 6-6 decision allows a group of American lawyers, human rights activists and journalists to challenge the constitutionality of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as amended by Congress in 2008 . Read full article > >

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Court allows challenge of U.S. surveillance law

In a surprise move, a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court based in Virginia has tossed out one of the most prominent challenges to the health reform law. This is the first appeals court to throw out a case for lack of standing after a lower court had ruled on the merits. It leaves the Affordable Care Act with an even scorecard in the courts, with one appeals court ruling in favor of the health-care law’s constitutionality and one against it. Both cases have centered on the law’s individual mandate, which requires nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance beginning in 2014. Read full article > >

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Appeals court rejects Va. challenge to federal health-care law

Appeals court throws out 2009 law.

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Same-Sex Couples to Get Benefits

SAN DIEGO — The man accused in the Arizona shooting rampage kept himself awake for 50 hours straight after an appeals court stopped forced medication. He walked in circles until he developed sores and then declined antibiotics to treat an infected foot. Already thin, he stopped eating and shed nine pounds. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns described Jared Lee Loughner’s behavior to explain his refusal to overrule prison doctors who decided to resume forced medication July 18. The drugging, he said, “seems entirely appropriate and reasonable to me.” Read full article > >

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Judge allows prison to drug Arizona shooting suspect as details emerge on fragile mental state