A federal judge has ruled that Ken Cuccinelli was unlawfully appointed to lead the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency and therefore lacks authority to give asylum seekers less time to prepare for initial screening interviews

Many states have victim’s advocates or child advocates, people in the judicial system who represent those affected by crime or abuse. Now, one state has created legal advocates for abused animals, an experiment being watched nationwide for signs of success. There are eight approved volunteer advocates across Connecticut — seven lawyers and a University of Connecticut law professor, working with...

Involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges have once again been dropped against the Amtrak engineer at the controls during a deadly 2015 derailment in Philadelphia.

West Point Cadet Peter Zhu was declared brain dead after suffering a spinal injury in a ski accident. Being the last male child in his family, his parents asked for a judge’s order to extract genetic material from his body to carry on the family name. Sergio Quintana reports.

New documents set to be released could reveal whether Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh misled Congress during his confirmation hearing for his job as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, something two Democratic senators accused him of in 2007, according to NBC News. While under oath in 2006, Kavanaugh said he wasn’t involved in creating a terrorism...

Libraries are built for reading and research, and librarians are trained to help patrons find what they need. But staffers at San Diego city libraries are also coping with threats to their safety and occasional violence, according to court records and interviews. At least 16 city library department employees have asked judges for protection from unruly patrons, according to documents...

Without offering proof, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday said actor Leonardo DiCaprio had funded nonprofit groups that he claimed are partly responsible for fires in the Amazon this year. Bolsonaro’s remarks about the American actor were part of a wider government campaign against environmental nonprofit groups operating in Brazil. DiCaprio’s environmental organization Earth Alliance has pledged $5 million to...

Two massive explosions 13 hours apart tore through a Texas chemical plant Wednesday, and one left three workers injured. The blasts blew out windows and doors of nearby homes and prompted a mandatory evacuation of a 4-mile radius from the plant in Port Neches in Southeast Texas, about 80 miles east of Houston. Officials say they have no estimate for...

Richard Spencer, who was fired at Navy secretary for his handling of a SEAL war crimes case championed by President Donald Trump, wrote Wednesday that the commander in chief “has very little understanding” of how the American military works. The extraordinary accusation came in an opinion piece published on The Washington Post’s website Wednesday evening, three days after he was...

A magistrate judge on Wednesday ordered that a central Vermont man be held in a detention center while he awaits future court hearings, following accusations that are believed to be the first in the state to bring a federal hate crime prosecution. Police in Barre City said in late July that Stuart Kurt Rollins made life hell for his neighbors,...

A Vermont man was ordered held in a detention center Wednesday pending future federal court hearings as he faces accusations that are believed to be first ones in the state to rise to the level of a federal hate crime prosecution.

The University of North Carolina announced Wednesday that a torn-down Confederate monument won’t return to campus under a legal agreement that hands over the “Silent Sam” statue to a group of Confederate descendants. The University of North Carolina System said in a news release that a judge approved a settlement giving possession of the monument to the Sons of Confederate...

Harvard University agreed to make its website and online courses friendlier to those who are deaf or hard of hearing as part of a settlement announced Wednesday in a federal lawsuit. The suit, filed in 2015 by the National Association of the Deaf, alleged that many of Harvard’s online videos, courses and podcasts did not include captions or were inaccurately...

The federal judge who ruled that former White House counsel Don McGahn must comply with a House subpoena for his testimony put her ruling on a brief hold Wednesday. Such holds, known as administrative stays, are often issued to give lawyers a change to file their appeals, NBC News reported. U.S. District Judge Kentanji Brown Jackson said her order “should...

Some people heading to Thanksgiving gatherings predict it’s not just the turkey that will get roasted. Already polarized over Republican Donald Trump’s presidency, Americans are deeply split on a looming historic impeachment. Many families reflect the nation’s divisions, setting up heated holiday debates in households with a taste for politics. Bryan Wright, of Cincinnati, said “impeachment will definitely come up”...

A U.S. judge in Oregon on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction blocking a Trump administration proclamation that would require immigrants to show proof of health insurance to get a visa. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon said in a written opinion that the proclamation could not take effect while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality makes its way through the courts....

A special anti-terrorism tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced seven members of a banned militant group to death Wednesday for their involvement in an attack on a Dhaka cafe that killed more than 20 people, mostly foreigners. Judge Mojibur Rahman found the men from the Jumatul Mujahedeen Bangladesh group guilty of various charges including planning the attack, making bombs and murder. An...

Maryland’s highest court ruled Friday that Adnan Syed, the subject of the world-famous “Serial” podcast, will not be granted a new trial after he was convicted of killing his high school classmate Hae Min Lee 20 years ago.

Footage shows towering flames in San Francisco as crews battle a fire caused by a gas explosion.