Top eight today

Top eight stories for today including the Supreme Court ruled against a group of health care workers who have been denied a religious exemption to New York state's Covid-19 vaccine mandate; USA Gymnastics reached a $380 million settlement agreement with sexual abuse survivors; Bosnian Serbs are taking steps to secede from the Bosnian state, and more.

National

No high court relief for NY health care workers who passed on Covid-19 vaccine

The Supreme Court used its shadow docket Monday afternoon to turn down a group of health care workers who have been denied a religious exemption to New York state's mandate that they get the coronavirus vaccine.

Medical personnel don PPE while attending to a patient at Bellevue Hospital in New York on Oct. 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

USA Gymnastics reaches $380 million deal with Nassar abuse survivors

USA Gymnastics and its insurers have reached a $380 million settlement agreement with sexual abuse survivors that will allow the organization to emerge from bankruptcy.

In this Feb. 5, 2018, file photo, Larry Nassar, a former sports doctor who admitted to molesting some of the nation's top gymnasts, appears in Eaton County Court in Charlotte, Mich. (Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal via AP, File)

Talc maker denied high court audience over Mississippi cancer warning

The Supreme Court turned away dozens of litigants in its Monday list of orders, bringing Johnson & Johnson to the end of the road in its fight to keep a warning about the risk of ovarian cancer off its products in Mississippi.

Screenshot of Johnson & Johnson's website showing that its iconic baby powder is discontinued. (Image via Courthouse News)

Regional

California revives indoor mask mandate amid Covid spike

California will once again require both the vaccinated and unvaccinated to wear masks in indoor settings starting Dec. 15 through at least Jan. 15.

Guests walk down Main Street USA at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae Hong)

Ninth Circuit clears expulsions for seminarians in same-sex marriages

A Ninth Circuit panel on Monday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging a Southern California seminary’s expulsion of two students for being in same-sex marriages, finding their removal was allowed under a religious exemption in a federal nondiscrimination law.

Judge refuses to move Michigan school shooting suspect to juvie

The 15-year-old sophomore accused of terrorizing his Michigan high school with a shooting rampage that killed four and injured several others faced a state judge Monday who denied a request to move him from an adult jail to a juvenile lockup.

This booking photo shows Ethan Crumbley, 15, who is charged as an adult with murder and terrorism for a shooting that killed four students and injured more at Oxford High School in Oxford, Mich. (Oakland County Sheriff's Office via AP)

International

Crisis erupts in Bosnia as Serbs threaten to break away

Twenty-six years after the signing of a peace agreement that ended the Bosnian War, Bosnia-Herzegovina is in the midst of a political crisis that has put the Balkans on edge after the country's Serbian politicians declared their intention to effectively secede.

Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik speaks during a parliament session in Banja Luka, Bosnia, on Dec. 10, 2021. (Radivoje Pavicic/AP)

Argentina to head UN Human Rights Council for first time

Argentina will preside over the United Nations Human Rights Council after a unanimous vote last week by all 47 member states of the council.

The United Nations branch in Geneva, Switzerland, which houses the U.N. Human Rights Council. (William Dotinga/Courthouse News)

Categories / Closing Arguments

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.