Legal

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that mifepristone, a medication used in the majority of abortions in the United States, can remain available, rejecting a challenge by antiabortion groups that sought to undo the Food and Drug Administration’s longstanding approval of the medication.

A strange puzzle piece sits between the worlds of mental health care and the criminal legal system.

A judge on Wednesday denied a request by North Idaho College Board of Trustee to reconsider an order forcing the college to reinstate its president.

An investigation by North Idaho College’s attorney alleges that the college’s president was hired after an agreement was made among three trustees outside of a public meeting in violation of Idaho public meeting law.

The bill that tried to mix stricter law enforcement with greater opportunities for treatment failed in the House of Representatives, with 45 "yes" votes and 52 "no" votes.

WASHINGTON — The nine Supreme Court justices in total are worth at least $24 million. Or it might be closer to $68 million. It’s impossible to get more specific than that.

WASHINGTON – The extended absence of the Senate’s oldest member has delayed the confirmation of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees, including a Spokane County judge, and resurfaced uncomfortable questions about when aging and ailing lawmakers should retire.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice issued a six-page ruling Thursday afternoon clarifying that his order last week permitting access to mifepristone in 17 states and the District of Columbia, based on rules approved by the Food and Drug Administration in January, was still in effect. Earlier Thursday, a panel of judges for the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, presiding over a case brought in Texas seeking to block access to the drug, restricted its use to within the first seven weeks of a pregnancy and prohibited its distribution through the mail. 

Each week, The Spokesman-Review examines one question from the Naturalization Test immigrants must pass to become United States citizens.

The 34 counts all relate to a $130,000 payment Trump's former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, made to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, after she threatened to publicly allege she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which the former president denies. Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal charges related to those payments and is expected to serve as a key witness in the case against Trump.

A Manhattan grand jury is hearing evidence about whether Donald Trump illegally falsified business records in connection with a hush-money payment his lawyer made to an adult-film actress during his 2016 presidential campaign.

"The Board’s majority has wrongfully locked its captain in the brig while steering NIC toward an iceberg," Judge Cynthia Meyer of Kootenai County District Court wrote in a preliminary injunction, ordering NIC to take Swayne off administrative leave for the duration of the lawsuit.

Gonzaga University School of Law won't participate this year in the U.S. News and World Report's annual ranking of law schools, a decision that will continue under current metrics, the program's dean Jacob Rooksby said Wednesday.

Should drug possession in Washington be a felony? Or should the crime be treated less seriously by making it a misdemeanor while funneling adequate funds to drug recovery efforts?

An appeals court decision that ruled three Stevens County commissioners were improperly removed from office in 2020 stands now that the state Supreme Court has declined to hear the case, settling a four-year dispute over how the commissioners spent homeless assistance funds.

Two conservation groups seeking to stop a housing and marina project at the mouth of a spawning stream for endangered bull trout filed a federal lawsuit this week against government agencies that have signed off on the development.

Each week, The Spokesman-Review examines one question from the Naturalization Test immigrants must pass to become United States citizens.

Former Lincoln County Sheriff Wade Magers protected his son from an investigation and, according to some witnesses who spoke with investigators, slowed him from going to the hospital after he was involved in a crash while driving under the influence.

The chief justice has been described as "the first among equals" on the Supreme Court, and that may have been no more evident than in Chief Justice John G. Roberts' opinion in Friday's ruling on abortion.