Court rulings

U.S. academic publishing giants hope a favorable ruling by a German court will put a dent in the black market for pirated e-books.

After years of court rulings that payments to doctors-in-training aren't taxable, federal appeals panel, responding to IRS rule change, finds otherwise. Decision could be costly.

In key Supreme Court case, major higher ed associations back right of public colleges to apply anti-bias policies to religious student groups. Some Christian colleges object.

A federal appeals court on Friday ruled, 2 to 1, that Virginia's alcohol regulatory board can ban alcohol-related advertisements in student newspapers. The ruling could expand a debate with both First Amendment ramifications and a significant economic impact on the college press. The appeals court reversed a lower court's ruling and the new decision conflicts with one from a different appeals court, which in 2004 found a similar ban in Pennsylvania to be in violation of the First Amendment.

The Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state could not spend $10 million to build a pharmacy school at the University of the Cumberlands, a Baptist institution, because doing so would violate the state Constitution's ban on support for religious institutions. The university responded by announcing that it was calling off plans to create the pharmacy school.

Overturning the ruling of a lower court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has granted Arizona’s Maricopa Community College District immunity from a lawsuit filed by a group of Latino professors who charged that college officials had not sufficiently disciplined a colleague who sent e-mails they viewed as discriminatory.

Freshmen who entered Ohio State University at Mansfield in the fall of 2006 are about to graduate. A legal battle set off by the selection of a book for them all to read their first semester only came to a close on Monday -- when a federal judge rejected a former librarian's lawsuit against the university.

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court ruled today, 5-to-4, that public colleges and universities may require religious organizations seeking recognition or funds as campus groups to comply with anti-bias rules.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Monday settled a key question about the anti-bias rules of public colleges and universities. Under the ruling, public colleges and universities may limit recognition to student groups that abide by anti-bias rules -- even when the groups are religious and they object on religious grounds to some of the rules.

Let's say a student group wants to invite Sarah Palin to campus, or Bill Ayers for that matter. Can a public university say that approval is contingent on the student group paying all extra security costs associated with such a visit?