U.S. Supreme Court

The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe is pointing to a recent legal opinion from the U.S. Department of Interior as a major boost for its bid to have land placed into trust for a resort casino in Taunton.       The department said tribes are not required to have been federally recognized before 1934 to be eligible for a land-in-trust designation by the Bureau of Indian Affairs...

The highest court in Massachusetts has fallen in line with the U.S. Supreme Court and ruled that sentencing juveniles convicted of murder to life in prison without parole in unconstitutional.       The Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday ruled in two cases in which 17-year-old youths were convicted of murder.  ...

Gov. Deval Patrick and other top Massachusetts Democrats are criticizing the Supreme Court's ruling on the landmark Voting Rights Act.       The justices ruled 5-4 Tuesday that a key provision of the law cannot be enforced unless Congress creates an up-to-date formula for deciding which states and localities still need federal monitoring...