A D.C. judge ruled today that tobacco companies will have to admit in advertisements that they lied to the public about the inherent dangers of smoking.

Mary Beth Tinker, whose 1965 schoolhouse anti-Vietnam protest resulted in a Supreme Court ruling on students’ First Amendment rights, spoke yesterday at the D.C. Council in opposition to a plan to close 20 D.C. public schools.

Well, nothing today. Though the U.S. Supreme Court handed down some decisions today—more on one of those in a bit—the long-awaited ruling on health care was not among them.

Animal rights groups in Maryland are not happy with a ruling that deems pit bulls to be “inherently dangerous.”

A Maryland court ruled late last week that pit bulls are “inherently dangerous” and that an owner and even their landlord could be held liable for any attacks for the mere fact that the dogs are pit bulls.

If the U.S. Park Police wants to get rid of Occupy D.C. campers, it will have to tell them ahead of time.

Photo by qbubbles Opponents of marriage equality may be persistent, but they’re also persistently getting shot down. On Friday, yet another D.C. Superior Court judge refused to overturn a decision by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics prohibiting a vote on same-sex marriage. So far, the board has knocked down three attempts to put marriage equality on a District ballot, and just last month a judge agreed with the board’s reasoning that any…

Head over to City Desk if you’d like to download a pdf copy of Judge Judith Retchin’s Superior Court decision from earlier today, in which she ruled against the request of petitioners Bishop Harry Jackson et al. to put a halt to the D.C. Council’s same sex marriage recognition law. Not only did Retchin rule that stopping the clock on the legislation, which is set to take effect next week, was not warranted, she went…

D.C. Wire is reporting that MPD Chief Cathy Lanier’s controversial “Neighborhood Safety Zone” checkpoint tactic has passed its first test in federal court. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon today denied a request for a preliminary injunction against the checkpoints filed by a group of District residents. In the ruling, Leon found that the checkpoints are not unconstitutional and are a reasonable crime prevention tactic to use against a specific kind of vehicle-related violent crime. This…