Ruling settles case
on dinosaur bones
The Associated Press
HELENA, Mont. -- Dinosaur fossils worth millions of dollars unearthed on a Montana ranch belong to the owners of the land's surface rights, not the owners of the mineral rights, a U.S. appeals court ruled.
The June 17 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2016 decision by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters of Billings that found dinosaur fossils were part of the surface estate, not the mineral estate, in cases of split ownership. The surface rights where the fossils were found are owned by Mary Ann and Lige Murray.
"The composition of minerals found in the fossils does not make them valuable or worthless," Watters wrote. "Instead the value turns on characteristics other than mineral composition, such as the completeness of the specimen, the species of dinosaur and how well it is preserved."
The dinosaurs unearthed on the ranch include a T. rex found in 2013, a triceratops skull discovered in 2011 and the 2006 discovery of a pair of dinosaurs that appeared to have been locked in battle when they died.
The T. rex was sold for millions of dollars. The so-called dueling dinosaurs drew a bid of $5.5 million in a 2014 auction, but failed to reach the $6 million reserve price.
In a legal effort to clarify the ownership of the dueling dinosaurs before trying to sell them, the Murrays sought a court order saying they owned the fossils, sparking the legal battle.
Brothers Jerry and Bo Severson, who owned two-thirds of the mineral rights on property once owned by their father, appealed Watters' decision.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court overturned Watters' ruling in February 2018, but the Murrays asked for a larger panel of judges to hear the case.
In the meantime, the 2019 Montana Legislature passed a bill stating that dinosaur fossils are part of a property's surface estate unless they are reserved as part of the mineral estate.
In a 4-3 ruling last month, the Montana justices said dinosaur fossils are not considered minerals under state law.
Mississippi House
passes abortion bill
The Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. -- Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is expected to sign a bill that would ban abortion based on the race, sex or genetic anomalies of a fetus, possibly setting up another lawsuit by abortion-rights groups in a state that already has some of the strictest laws in the U.S.
The state House voted 91-25 Tuesday to pass the final version of the bill, which cleared the Senate by a wide margin last week.
Supporters said the bill would prevent abortion for Down syndrome or other conditions. Opponents said it would interfere with private medical decisions in a state with one abortion clinic.
"This unconstitutional restriction adversely affects poor women who do not have the means to seek assistance elsewhere," said Beth Orlansky, advocacy director for the Mississippi Center for Justice.
Sue Liebel is state policy director for the Susan B. Anthony List, a group that opposes abortion. She praised Mississippi lawmakers for passing the bill.
"Abortions carried out because of a baby's sex, race, or potential disability, such as Down syndrome, constitutes modern-day eugenics," Liebel said Tuesday.
Nine states ban abortion because of the sex of the fetus, two ban it because of race and two ban it because of genetic anomaly, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Missouri is the only state that has banned all three. Kentucky's ban on all three reasons has been put on hold by court order.
The Mississippi bill would set a prison sentence of up to 10 years for any physician or other health care worker who knowingly violates the ban. It specifies that the woman getting the abortion would not be punished, and the ban would not apply if the woman faces a medical emergency because of the pregnancy.
With the addition of conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years, several states have enacted abortion restrictions. Some laws are aimed at spurring court challenges seeking to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.