Joe Harris Sullivan was 13 in 1989 when he committed the crime that would put him away for life without possibility of parole: He raped an elderly woman. He had committed 17 other crimes in the two years before the brutal attack and his trial as an adult. ...more

November 16, 2009

At the West Tampa Sandwich Shop and Restaurant, a North Armenia Avenue eatery patronized by many Hispanics and a stopover for any Democrat visiting Tampa, Saturday morning's brief televised ceremony making Sonia Sotomayor the first Hispanic member of the U.S. Supreme Court could be seen on the wall-mounted TV. ...more

August 9, 2009

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that electoral districts must have a majority of African-Americans or other minorities to be protected by a provision of the Voting Rights Act. ...more

March 9, 2009

Like New Year's Eve, a church wedding or a young woman's quinceanera, the inauguration of Barack Obama was an event that begged to be shared. ...more

January 21, 2009

In this city blanketed by hundreds of thousands of visitors, tight security and giddy celebration amid the winter cold, Barack Obama takes his historic oath of office today as the nation's 44th president. ...more

January 19, 2009

A federal judge has refused to stop President-elect Barack Obama from using the words "so help me God" when he takes the oath of office Tuesday. ...more

January 15, 2009

President-elect Barack Obama wants to conclude his inaugural oath with the words "so help me God," but a group of atheists plans to go in front of a federal judge in hopes of stopping him. ...more

January 14, 2009

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that military training trumps protecting whales in a dispute over the Navy's use of sonar in submarine-hunting exercises off the coast of Southern California. ...more

November 13, 2008

The Supreme Court justices talked about indecency and foul language Tuesday, but they did so without using any of the actual words that federal regulators hope to ban from television and radio broadcasts. ...more

November 5, 2008

On June 23, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned the government's classification of a Guantanamo Bay detainee as an enemy combatant. The court directed the military to release him, to transfer him or hold a new proceeding promptly. This type of legal process is authorized by Congress and the president to afford prisoners adequate due process, yet keep sensitive military matters out of the civilian court system. (As a matter of fact, this ruling contained classified military information, so a sanitized version is now being prepared for public release.) ...more

July 4, 2008