After graduating from Marshall University, Mike Kirkland worked on Southern West Virginia newspapers as a reporter, city editor and news editor.
He reported from Panama for Army Times during the height of the Noreiga crisis in 1988, and in 1989 led the first delegation of Western military journalists to visit Soviet ground forces, according to the Soviet military daily Red Star.
He came to United Press International in 1992 working swing shifts on the old rip-and-read broadcast desk. In 1993, he was assigned on an emergency basis to cover the U.S. Supreme Court, sharing a small office and a complete library of filed briefs off the pressroom with the legendary Lyle Denniston, and would remain embedded with the court until 2005. In 2000, while most other news outlets stumbled, Kirkland filed a correct bulletin 2 minutes after the opinion in Bush vs. Gore was handed down at 10 p.m. Dec. 12.
At one time, Kirkland simultaneously covered the Supreme Court, the U.S. Justice Department, the six independent counsel investigations, the U.S. appeals courts and the U.S. district courts, with an occasional foray to the Washington, D.C. Superior Court.
He continues to write about the Supreme Court.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- The new U.S. Supreme Court term that begins shortly on the first Monday in October promises to be a rough one for President Obama and his appointment power, and a good one for Republicans.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- The bruising fight in Congress over President Obama's Affordable Care Act -- Obamacare -- may spill over into the U.S. Supreme Court, where a challenge to the act's contraception mandate is finally on the horizon.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, Senior UPI Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The new U.S. Supreme Court term starts on the first Monday of October, and the justices plunge into controversy early on as Republicans push for more elbow room on big campaign contributions.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Will the narrow conservative majority in the U.S. Supreme Court make it easier for communities across the United States to open government meetings with prayer -- almost always Christian prayer? Maybe.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, Aug. 25 (UPI) -- A Washington legal organization says it wants to break through the "blind deference" of the federal courts to the executive branch when it comes to withholding classified material, and has embarked on what may be a quixotic attempt to gain access to photographs showing the death and burial of Osama bin Laden.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- The fate of New York City's "stop and frisk" police program might be something of a morality play for the rest of the United States. How much freedom are U.S. citizens willing to give up in the name of security?
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND
FORT HOOD, Texas, Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Is Nidal Hasan, the accused Fort Hood, Texas, killer who insists on representing himself, trying to set up an appeal based on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel? If so, based on court precedent, he's probably whistling in the wind.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court opened the floodgates to corporate political contributions for "independent electioneering" in 2010's Citizens United vs. FEC, practically drowning federal political campaigns in money. Now the same five-justice majority that held sway in Citizens United may be poised to loosen restrictions on campaign finance even further.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, Senior UPI Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- An American overseas is linked to acts of terror in the United States. He repeatedly calls for more American killings. On the run in a foreign desert, he is beyond the reach of the U.S. justice system. So the president, acting to protect the country, orders him killed. A CIA drone strike takes him out in Yemen. Simple, right?
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND
WASHINGTON, July 21 (UPI) -- If ever there was a dispute destined to land within the cool marble confines of the U.S. Supreme Court, it's the bitter fight between the Obama administration on one side and the owners of for-profit businesses who say their religious beliefs should exempt them from providing insurance coverage for contraception.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Correspondent
WASHINGTON, July 14 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court, before going on recess last month, narrowed affirmative action in college admissions as much as it possibly could without killing it. A case accepted for argument next term not only threatens big trouble for what remains of race-based preferential admissions, but for gender-based admissions policies as well.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- A number of states, freed from the iron cuffs of the Voting Rights Act by the U.S. Supreme Court, are enjoying their newfound freedom in predictable ways -- merrily pursuing voter ID laws and redrawing political districts without any interference from Washington.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision last week striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and its companion ruling that in effect upheld the outlawing of California's Proposition 8, ignited a national conversation -- where does same-sex marriage go from here? For that matter, where does marriage go from here?
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court last week stepped into the national fight over voter identification requirements, and the result won't please those pushing such requirements in at least 30 states.
By MICHAEL KIRKLAND, UPI Senior Legal Affairs Writer
WASHINGTON, June 16 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court last week dealt a devastating blow to the genetics industry -- or opened up new vistas depending on your point of view -- by ruling unanimously that naturally occurring DNA segments could not be patented.
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