While Justice Antonin Scalia is known as an outspoken conservative, he did not approve of Arizona's law requiring proof of citizenship for voters. The opinion he penned for the U.S. Supreme Court, however, suggests a potential avenue for Arizona to get its way.

In a 7-2 ruling, the Court struck down an Arizona voter-registration provision enacted by voters in 2004, because it is pre-empted by the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), a federal law passed in 1993.

The NVRA requires voters to simply check a box on a form, swearing by penalty of perjury that they're citizens of the United States. But Arizona's law went far beyond this.

In a first of its kind ruling on human gene patents, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously decided that synthetically produced genetic material can be patented, but naturally occurring DNA extracted from the human body cannot, Reuters reports.

The Court's decision is a partial victory to biotechnology company Myriad Genetics Inc., which holds the patents in question.

But since the Court ruled that isolated human genes may not be patented, the rights group that challenged the patents came away with a win too.

A 2007 lawsuit challenging the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program will not be revived, as the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the suit's dismissal on Monday.

This legal action began years before the recent NSA leaks concerning Verizon phone records and the PRISM project. But it shows just how difficult it may be to stop NSA surveillance via lawsuits.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has been fighting for nearly seven years to try to have the NSA's Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP), which ended in 2007, labeled as unconstitutional.

A 10-year-old girl is now eligible for an adult organ transplant, thanks to a federal judge's ruling this week. The ruling may spur changes in deciding who gets on the organ-transplant list.

Sarah Murnaghan of Pennsylvania, who has end-stage cystic fibrosis, was denied eligibility to be placed on a list of those waiting for adult organs. Because she was not 12 years old -- the cutoff age for the adult list -- she had to be placed on a list for pediatric donors, which are far more rare than adults.

But that changed after the judge's ruling on Wednesday.

The Supreme Court came down on the side of warrantless DNA swabs on Monday, stating in a 5-4 majority that they did not violate a defendant’s 4th Amendment rights.

In a somewhat surprising split, the Maryland v. King majority stated the Maryland law DNA sampling law did not violate convicted rapist Alonzo Jay King’s rights by authorizing police to take a DNA sample from King after arrest, reports Reuters.

How does this ruling on DNA swabs sit with the Court’s prior rulings on collecting physical evidence from defendants?

Walmart has pleaded guilty to violating environmental protection laws, including the Clean Water Act, in three separate cases this week. The world's largest retailer is now set to pay more than $110 million in fines.

Walmart admitted to six misdemeanor counts of violating the Clean Water Act in two cases filed by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The company admitted to illegally disposing of hazardous waste materials at its retail stores.

In a third case out of Missouri, Walmart also pleaded guilty to violating the Federal Insecticide, fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) by improperly handling pesticides that had been returned to its stores by customers.

A federal court ruled that Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies racially profiled Latinos while on immigration patrols in the Arizona county, reports The New York Times.

The ruling is a major blow to the self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America,” who has become the poster child of Arizona’s strict approach to immigration enforcement. The lawsuit was brought by a group of Latinos who alleged they were racially profiled by Arpaio’s deputies as targets for raids and traffic stops.

Arpaio’s attorneys plan to appeal the federal judge’s ruling in the next 30 days.

Two states have had their early abortion bans blocked in federal court this month, and although Arizona and Arkansas laws are among the first early abortion laws to receive a real federal judicial treatment, they won't be the last.

Many states have been able to push through legislation that complies with Roe v. Wade but still limits abortions, like Texas' pre-abortion ultrasounds. So how did these laws not pass federal muster?

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Monsanto's patent rights were infringed by soybean farmer Vernon Bowman when he planted second-generation seeds that were meant for consumption.

The Court may have made its unanimous decision in the case in small part due to Bowman's somewhat ingenious way of selecting out Monsanto crops from bulk seed mixes and further developing those crops, reports The New York Times.

This ruling, issued Monday, may be the first of many in the battle over GMO foods. But this decision already has significant consequences for growers using genetically modified seeds.

In a surprising ruling on Wednesday, a Texas judge determined that cheerleaders displaying "Bible banners" at high school football games did not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause.

The ruling means cheerleaders in Kountze, Texas, can resume making banners with messages like "If God is with us, who can be against us?" after they trounced their school district in court, reports Reuters.

How does this ruling square against the U.S. Supreme Court's long history of separating church and state in schools?