Parts of law limiting vote in North Carolina struck down
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a brief, unsigned order reinstating provisions of a North Carolina voting law that bar same-day registration and counting votes cast in the wrong precinct. A federal appeals court had blocked the provisions, saying they disproportionately harmed black voters. In a dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said she would have sustained the appeals court’s determination that the two provisions “risked significantly reducing opportunities for black voters to exercise the franchise.”
Two US Ebola patients are released by Atlanta hospital
ATLANTA — The two American aid workers who were the first patients ever to be treated for the Ebola virus at a hospital in the United States have been released, capping a transcontinental medical drama that stirred public debate about whether any American with the virus should have been allowed to return.
String of deadly storms hits across Midwest and South
ATLANTA — Residents of Arkansas began assessing the damage Monday after a night of deadly storms left at least 17 people dead across the central and southern United States.
Trial brings new scrutiny of self-defense laws
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Nearly seven months after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman, whose shooting of an unarmed black teenager made him synonymous with Florida’s so-called Stand Your Ground law, the state’s latest drama involving a fatal burst of gunfire and a claim of self-defense began to play out Thursday in a courtroom here.