Prior cases whose principles are used by judges to decide cases are called

In a pivotal moment in the double murder trial against Alex Murdaugh , a South Carolina judge ruled Monday that he would allow the jury to hear evidence of financial crimes allegedly perpetrated by the once-powerful lawyer . Circuit Court Judge Clifton Newman made the decision after several witnesses, including Murdaugh's former law firm colleagues and banking associates, testified without the jury present so that he could decide on the relevance of the allegations. Murdaugh, 54, is accused of fatally shooting his wife, Margaret, 52, and their youngest son, Paul, 22, on the evening of June 7, 2021. State prosecutors contend the murders were committed to cover up a slew of financial misdeeds by Murdaugh, who they say stole about $8.5 million from more than a dozen victims and sought to garner sympathy ahead of being publicly exposed. "I find that the jury is entitled to consider whether the apparent desperation of Mr. Murdaugh because of his dire financial situation … [Read more...] about Judge allows Alex Murdaugh’s alleged financial crimes into evidence at murder trial, a pivotal win for the prosecution

Players will soon be dropping into Warzone 2.0 – Call of Duty's revamped battle royale experience which launches later this month. Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is Activision's follow-up to the original Call of Duty : Warzone. The title redefined the battle royale genre when it initially launched back in March 2020, as the series answer to the phenomenal success of Fortnite . Since then, we've seen the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X , and this new version of the game has been built for the latest generation of hardware. But don't worry, it'll still see a release on last gen's hardware. Warzone 2.0 was unveiled at the Call of Duty Next event back on September 16, and is launching later this month. Players can look forward to a slew of innovations that should make Warzone 2.0 truly feel like a new game, rather than just a sizeable expansion for Warzone. The title is getting a brand-new map of its own, and we'll see significant changes to gameplay and mechanics … [Read more...] about Call of Duty Warzone 2: Release date, loadouts, gameplay changes and new map

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 11 NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — A former “Dances With Wolves” actor accused of sexually abusing Indigenous girls and women for two decades in multiple states has been charged in Nevada for crimes that prosecutors said occurred in the Las Vegas-area starting in 2012. Nathan Chasing Horse, 46, was formally charged Monday morning during a brief appearance in a North Las Vegas courtroom full of his friends and relatives who had hoped to see him released on bail. But a judge postponed hearing arguments about his custody status until Wednesday to allow Chasing Horse to find a new attorney. Nevada law requires prosecutors to present convincing evidence that a defendant should remain in custody. Clark County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Walsh said last week that she expected testimony from Las Vegas police detectives, FBI special agents and … [Read more...] about ‘Dances With Wolves’ actor charged in Nevada sex abuse case

When Robert Eringer first saw Craig Rosebraugh in the news, he knew his professional contacts would be very interested in the young man’s story. A masterful account of Mr. Rosebraugh’s life as a radical environmentalist — not to mention his connections with domestic terrorists — would certainly impress the people who paid Mr. Eringer. He was a pro at getting people to reveal intimate details of their lives in the memoirs he helped them produce. He would reach out to Mr. Rosebraugh and get him to write a book, to tell his story in all of its specifics. That story had begun in the blink of an email one evening in 1998, as Mr. Rosebraugh, a tall, thin environmentalist, was making dinner. Alone in his one-bedroom apartment in Portland, Ore., he spotted an encrypted message in his inbox and decoded it to find a communiqué, addressed to him, from the Earth Liberation Front. Two days earlier, on Oct. 19, 1998, eight fires had torched a mile-long stretch of Vail Mountain in Colorado, … [Read more...] about The Case of the Eco-Terrorists and the Book Deal

In Miami, where coronavirus cases are the highest in all of Florida, 20 percent of people contacted following a COVID-19 diagnosis refused to be contact traced, a county report shows. According to a recent Miami-Dade County Grant Report issued by Florida's Department of Health, a summary of contact tracing for the county as of August 19 shows that out of the 43,202 cases assigned to the call center, 9,426 people refused an interview—a little more than 20 percent. Just 14,648 of the people, or 34 percent, had successfully completed a case interview, the report shows. The large majority of cases, 65 percent, were noted as having an "unsuccessful interview attempt," which included six possible categories: no answer; no number; refused interview; voicemail; wrong number or expired. The state's contact tracers' job is to "communicate with COVID-19 positive individuals to compile a list of everyone that they had contact with in the previous 14 days," Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez … [Read more...] about In Miami, Where FL COVID Cases Are High, 20% of Diagnoses Refuse Tracing

Justice Sonia Sotomayor has condemned the Supreme Court 's refusal to block a law in Texas banning abortions in almost all circumstances, accusing those who voted against the move of opting to "bury their heads in the sand." Sotomayor was one of four judges to write a dissent against the decision after the court voted 5-4 on Wednesday night to refuse to block the extremely restrictive abortion law in the state, which would prohibit the procedure if a " fetal heartbeat " is detected. This typically occurs after around six weeks in to a pregnancy and before most women are unaware that they are pregnant. "The Court's order is stunning," wrote Justice Sotomayor. "Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand." "The Court has rewarded the State's effort to delay federal review of a … [Read more...] about Sotomayor Says Other Justices Buried ‘Heads in the Sand’ Over Abortion Ban

A legal effort to disqualify from re-election lawmakers who participated in events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol expanded on Thursday, when a cluster of voters and a progressive group filed suit against three elected officials in Arizona to bar them under the 14th Amendment from running again. In three separate candidacy challenges filed in Superior Court in Maricopa County, Ariz., voters and the progressive group, Free Speech for People, targeted Representatives Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs and State Representative Mark Finchem , who is running for Arizona secretary of state with former President Donald J. Trump’s endorsement. It was unclear whether the challenges would go anywhere; an initial skirmish, also led by Free Speech for People, failed to block Representative Madison Cawthorn’s candidacy in North Carolina. But they were the latest bids to find a way to punish members of Congress who have encouraged or made common cause with those who stormed … [Read more...] about Legal Effort Expands to Disqualify Republicans as ‘Insurrectionists’

PRINCETON, N.J. — By the time he was a senior at Princeton University in 1992, Ted Cruz had developed an arsenal of rhetorical skills and theatrical gestures that made him one of the most polished performers on the college debate circuit. So when he reached the quarterfinals of the national championships at M.I.T., with the title that had eluded him so far now in sight, he decided to try to knock his Harvard opponents off balance with one of his favorite tricks. Instead of the regular practice of defending his proposed topic — the merits of mind-reading — Mr. Cruz let his adversaries choose which side to argue. But the tactic, intended to highlight his confidence, backfired. As he waited for them to decide, the two Harvard students conspicuously dithered, eating up Mr. Cruz’s allotted speaking time as they whispered and searched their pockets for a coin to flip. The audience, now on to the stalling tactic, chuckled as Mr. Cruz snapped: “Gentlemen! You must have decided by now.” … [Read more...] about Ted Cruz Showed Eloquence, and Limits, as Debater at Princeton

William H. Rehnquist, who died Saturday at the age of 80 almost a year after learning he had thyroid cancer, helped lead a conservative revolution on the Supreme Court during 19 notably successful years as chief justice of the United States. Including 14 years as an associate justice, Chief Justice Rehnquist's tenure on the court was not only one of the longest in the institution's history but also one of the most consequential. With a steady hand, a focus and commitment that never wavered, and the muscular use of the power of judicial review, he managed to translate many of his long-held views into binding national precedent. Chief among those was an enhanced role for the states within the federal system, which the court accomplished under his leadership by overturning dozens of federal laws that sought to project federal authority into what the Supreme Court majority viewed as the domain of the states. In the zero-sum game of the tri-partite separation of powers, the Supreme … [Read more...] about William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Is Dead at 80

See the article in its original context from November 12, 1972 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. “The Best and the Brightest;” Pulitzer Prize winner David Halberstam's latest, most important and impressive book, sets out to discover why America got involved in the worst and messiest war in our history. “What was it about the men, their attitudes, the country, its institutions and above all the era which had allowed this tragedy to take place?” They were, after all, “the best and … [Read more...] about How we got into the messiest war in our history