Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals News

In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is asking a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.

By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press DENVER - In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc.

Ind. Decisions - 7th Circuit hears oral argument in Ind company challenge to requirement to include birth control in their employee benefits The cases of Korte v. Sebelius , 12-3841 and Grote v. Sebelius , 13-1077, were argued before the 7th Circuit yesterday.

Lawyers for two Roman Catholic-owned companies in Illinois and Indiana argued before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday that a law forcing them to include birth control in their employees' benefits would violate their First Amendment rights.

After a barrage of lawsuits from businesses, Obamacare's birth control mandate is finally hitting the judicial big time.

At the National Academy of Sciences' Committee on Science, Technology, and Law 25th meeting held on May 13 and 14, CSTL considered undertaking a study of the patent system with the Academies' Science, Technology, and Economic Policy Board .

May 22 - The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments today in two cases filed by for-profit companies, one a construction contractor and the other engaged in manufacturing vehicle safety systems, challenging the Obama administration's rule requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraception.

Sen. Kwame Raoul and his Chicago-style "no carry" carry law passed out of the Senate Executive Committee by a straight party vote of 10-4 last week and could come to the floor of the Senate for a vote this week.

Adam Liptak of the NY Times has a brief story here on the Court's decision this morning to hear the case.

The Supreme Court has yet to decide if it will consider widely watched cases about public schools using a church facility to host graduation ceremonies, and the use of prayers to open township board meetings.

Illinois concealed carry legislation that requires special permission to have a gun in Chicago is scheduled for a Senate committee vote.

Former Lake County Coroner Thomas Philpot continues to fight his criminal conviction and 18-month prison sentence, arguing that the government proved nothing more than that he was negligent when he illegally took more than $24,000 from a state fund from 2004 to 2009 when he served as the Lake County clerk.

I have blogged before [ May 16, 2012 , November 21, 2012 , April 23, 2012 , May 15, 2012 , September 5, 2012 ] about the liability that can be imposed on businesses whose union employees participate in a multiemployer pension plan if the business ceases to participate in that plan.

BMO Harris Bank will pay $400,000 to a group of 14 former employees under a consent decree entered on May 2, 2013, to resolve a disability discrimination case brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission .

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The U.S. Supreme Court is giving Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan more time to decide whether or not to appeal a ruling that the state's ban on carrying concealed firearms is unconstitutional.

Even though lawmakers have been unable to agree on a plan allowing Illinoisans to carry concealed weapons, the Quinn administration has launched the process of building a computer system designed to handle future gun permits.

It's not really Constitutional Carry, which four states enjoy and another will have later this summer, because local home-rule government units can place restrictions and may try to make an arrest of an Illinois gun owner carrying concealed - or otherwise.

Justices have been deciding for weeks whether to take up a Wisconsin case in which a school district was found to have violated the 1st Amendment.

Tony McKenzie, the Lisbon man sentenced earlier to three years for knowingly having unprotected sex with his wife without telling her he was HIV positive, appeared for resentencing on Friday morning in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.