Nina Totenberg

The Supreme Court has ruled that individual retirement accounts (IRAs) that Americans inherit are not protected in bankruptcy proceedings.

When Heidi Heffron-Clark declared bankruptcy in October 2010, she and her husband claimed the IRA she inherited from her mother — then worth $300,000 — qualified as "retirement funds," meaning the ...

By a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that POM Wonderful's lawsuit against the Coca-Cola Co. may go on. The repercussions of the case for the food and beverage industry are unclear.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal law seeking to improve accountability for environmental spills and pollution can be circumvented by certain kinds of state laws.

The federal Superfund law supersedes state statutes of limitations. Instead the federal law dictates that lawsuits alleging environmental injury need only be ...

In an unusual majority, the Supreme Court's liberal and conservative justices have decided that immigrant children who turn 21 while their parents' immigration application is pending must start over.

The justices ruled that federal authorities erred by invoking the chemical weapons treaty in prosecuting a woman who attacked a romantic rival with chemicals.

In two decisions handed down Tuesday, the Supreme Court made it more difficult for citizens to sue law enforcement officers for their conduct. Both decisions were unanimous.

The central issue in both was the doctrine of "qualified immunity," which shields public officials from being sued for actions that fall short ...

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down a Florida rule requiring a defendant's IQ to be 70 or below before that defendant could avoid the death penalty for reasons of mental retardation.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage as unconstitutional. The ruling is the latest in a growing cascade of federal and state court decisions declaring a right to marry for gay couples.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court last year struck down a federal ...

The Supreme Court delivered a blow on behalf of writers, giving a screenwriter's daughter a chance to prove in court that the critically acclaimed movie Raging Bull infringed her father's copyright.

All of us who write for a living know what it's like to completely forget something you wrote 13 years ago.

But when a Supreme Court justice pointedly cites the facts in a decision he wrote, and gets them exactly wrong, it is more than embarrassing. It makes for ...

In a case that reaches into almost every American's pocket or purse, justices struggled over whether police can search cellphones without obtaining a warrant at the time of an arrest.

Police have long been able to search people without a warrant at the time of their arrest. Two cases before the Supreme Court ask whether cellphones should be off-limits until police get permission.

Nowhere is the legacy of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington — among the greatest composer/bandleaders in history — more profound than at the Washington, D.C., arts high school that bears his name.

In 2006, the Supreme Court said public employees have no First Amendment protection for speech "pursuant to their job duties." But Monday, in a case about criminal testimony, justices seemed dubious.

Monday the Supreme Court hears about a man who was fired after testifying against a state lawmaker. The case on public employees' right to speak out could impact future corruption investigations.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police can stop and search a driver based solely on an anonymous 911 tip.

The 5-4 decision split the court's two most conservative justices, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing for the majority and Justice Antonin Scalia penning the dissent.

In August 2008, an ...

By a 6-2 vote, the Supreme Court upheld a voter-approved measure in Michigan that banned the use of race or gender in deciding admissions to the state's public universities.

The Supreme Court ruled that a Michigan ballot initiative to ban racial preferences in college admissions is constitutional, overturning a lower court decision.

Bruce Springsteen may have been ahead of his times with his song "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)," released in 1992. These days there are hundreds of channels, and whether you like it or not, you get most of them in your basic cable package. On Tuesday, that economic model is ...

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday testing whether states can make it a crime to lie about candidates during an election campaign.

At issue is an Ohio law that imposes potential jail time or a fine for the first offense, and possibly loss of the right to vote for ...