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HAMMOND, La. (AP) - A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.

A Georgia judge has blasted attorney Orly Taitz, who has handled a number of court challenges to President Barack Obama's eligibility under the constitutional demand the Oval Office be occupied only by a "natural born" citizen, fining her $20,000 for what he called "frivolous" court actions, and he then mocked the concern over Obama's background. "Although counsel's present concern is the location of the president's birth, it does not take much imagination to extend the theory to his birthday," wrote U.S. District Judge Clay Land in an order released today. "Perhaps, he looks 'too young' to be president, and he...

WASHINGTON (AP)— A federal judge has ordered the release of a Kuwaiti man held at Guantanamo Bay and rebuked the U.S. government for relying on scant evidence, uncredible witnesses and coerced confessions to hold him for more than seven years. In an opinion declassified Friday, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said government attorneys presented a “surprisingly bare” record during four days of classified hearings last month to oppose Fouad Al Rabiah’s request for release from the U.S. naval detention facility in Cuba. She said the aviation engineer is being held almost exclusively on confessions obtained through abusive techniques and that...

In the now-famous Ricci v. DeStefano case, the city of New Haven made the claim that Federal civil rights laws forced it to discriminate on the basis of race. The plaintiffs had earned promotions by outperforming their colleagues on a test, but the city threw out the results because almost all of the top performers were white. Officials claimed they feared black firemen would sue under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, on the grounds that the test had a “disparate impact” on minorities. The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case Ricci v. DeStefano of the, New Haven Firefighter...

There are no legal grounds for prosecuting Bush administration lawyers who supported the use of enhanced interrogation techniques to thwart planned terrorist attacks, so civil libertarians have the tort system to try to ruin Bush lawyers. They may succeed. Last week, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco backed a complaint filed by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla and his mother against former White House Office of Legal Counsel John Yoo for writing memos that allegedly led to Padilla's illegal imprisonment and treatment during the three-plus years that Padilla was jailed as an enemy combatant. You are part of the...

I just had a liberal friend tell me that the terms "legislating from the bench" and "activist judges" stem ONLY from the right wing nuts. I KNOW this is not true, but I am having a hard time finding articles which come from the left when talking about Bush nominees or actual cases where activist judges legislated from the bench. In case you guys hadn't seen (something I caught a ton of in my searching), there are a PILE of articles piling up that are blaming conservatives for making up the whole activist judge thing. They're saying that we only...

By now many of you have either heard about or read about the infamous sentence spoken by President Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “I would hope that a wise Latina woman, with the richness of her experiences, would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life” (From a lecture delivered by judge Sonia Sotomayor published in the Spring 2002 issue of Berkeley La Raza Law Journal entitled "Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation.”)...

President Obama hit a home run with his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court -- and not just because she's the "woman who saved baseball" by ending the strike in 1995, nor simply because she would be the first Latina ever to serve on the high court. It was a home run because in her three-decade career as a prosecutor, judge, private litigator and law professor, she has time and again earned bipartisan praise as one of America's finest legal minds. And it was the right choice because Judge Sotomayor -- herself born and raised in a...

Three of the five majority opinions written by Judge Sotomayor for the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and reviewed by the Supreme Court were reversed, providing a potent line of attack raised by opponents Tuesday after President Obama announced he will nominate the 54-year-old Hispanic woman to the high court. "Her high reversal rate alone should be enough for us to pause and take a good look at her record. Frankly, it is the Senates duty to do so," said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America.

U.S. President Barack Obama talks with Judge Sonia Sotomayor after announcing her as his choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, May 26, 2009. Obama nominated Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, selecting a woman who would be the court's first Latino. Obama's choice of the liberal Sotomayor, a 54-year-old judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, was unlikely to change the ideological balance of the high court because Souter, 69, was part of the panel's liberal wing

Obama’s Supreme Court Pick, the first pick by a Democratic President in 15 years, is Sonia Sotomayor, a federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Surprise surprise, she is a liberal with little understanding of law and the Constitution. Today I form a list of grievances, if you will, giving good reason for why Sotomayor shouldn’t be seated on the Supreme Court bench. My biggest problem with Sotomayor is that she rules from the bench, that is, she is no impartial but instead acts as a legislator does and imposes her own opinion.

A judge who ruled that prayers in Jesus Name, at the Indiana House of Representatives was unconstitutional, but prayers to Allah were not, has been nominated by the Obama Administration to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. The change we were supposed to believe in is worrying more Americans as the days go by. With the democrats in the majority in both the House and Senate, Dems feel empowered or better yet, a sense of duty to bring forth their version of social change. Upon ending his Euro-trip, our President decreed to his Muslim audience,...

A San Francisco County judge, who yesterday struck down California’s ban on homosexual marriage, today ruled on the same basis that separate restrooms for men and women are unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer likened the division of washrooms to laws requiring racial segregation in schools, and said there appears to be “no rational purpose for denying women access to men’s facilities and vice versa.” “The state’s protracted denial of equal protection cannot be justified simply because such constitutional violation has become traditional,” Judge Kramer wrote. “The court finds that the legal principle of lavatorio proportio [potty parity] offers inadequate...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A federal judge is blocking a portion of a crime victims' rights measure approved by California voters in November. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton in Sacramento says a federal injunction that had been agreed to by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration trumps the section of Proposition 9 that limits legal rights for parole violators.

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A federal appeals court says a judge can proceed with hearings to determine whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can be held in contempt for refusing to pay for improved inmate health care. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected an appeal from the administration that attempted to block U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson's hearing.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) -- The U.S. has rejected a Guantanamo prisoner's proposal to end his 3 1/2-year hunger strike in exchange for easing his conditions at the American prison in Cuba, saying such a deal would undermine security and encourage similar protests. A federal judge in Washington had urged U.S. authorities to consider the proposed deal in the case of Ahmed Zuhair, a Saudi prisoner who has refused to eat since the summer of 2005 and is force-fed a liquid nutrient mix to keep him alive.

RALEIGH -- Home-school groups and conservatives across the country are infuriated by a Wake County judge's declaration that he will make a North Raleigh mother stop teaching her children at home and send them to public schools. As part of a continuing divorce case, Wake District Court Judge Ned Mangum said last Friday that it would be in the "best interests" of Venessa Mills' three children to go to public school this fall. Mangum said at the hearing that while the children are "thriving," they need to be exposed to the "real world." "It will do them a great benefit...

A New York artist known for her colorful canvases of drag queens and gay pride parades gave $1,000 to help pass California's ban on same-sex marriage. Maureen Mullarkey, 66, made her sizable contribution to the National Organization for Marriage's "Yes on 8" fund in June, a Daily News review of campaign records found. The Westchester County woman was one of tens of thousands who poured a total of more than $83 million into the coffers of Proposition 8 support groups - money that helped convince California voters to overturn an earlier court decision granting gays the right to marry in...

Jenny, they've got your number in a legal battle ASSOCIATED PRESS May 20, 2007 LINCOLN, R.I. – One-hit wonder Tommy Tutone made the phone number 867-5309 famous in the band's 1982 hit single, which uses the digits over and over in its catchy refrain. Now, a Rhode Island company and a national firm are battling over the right to use the number, which doesn't reach the “Jenny” that Tutone sings about but could find callers a decent plumber. Two years ago, Gem Plumbing & Heating of Lincoln, R.I., trademarked the phone number from the song, which reached No. 4 on...

NEW ORLEANS -- A same-sex couple in California has won a federal court ruling that their adopted son's Louisiana birth certificate must bear the names of both adoptive fathers. The facts are so clear that no trial is needed, U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey wrote. "What a great Christmas present for these guys!" said Kenneth D. Upton Jr. who represented Oren Adar and Mickey Ray Smith of San Diego. In his ruling Monday, Zainey said Louisiana's Office of Vital Records must give full faith and credit to the New York State court in which Adar and Smith adopted the boy,...

Attorney General Jerry Brown made noises like a 19th-century states' rights zealot last week in opposing a looming federal court order requiring the state to spend up to $8 billion to improve health care in its much-overcrowded prison system. As Brown depicted it in his appellate filing opposing the order obtained by federal receiver Clark Kelso, the order violates a federal law barring courts from ordering states to build new prisons as well as constitutional guarantees of state sovereignty. "In ordering the state to fund the receiver's massive prison construction program, the district court clearly violated federal law, and its...

PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge in San Francisco rejected the Bush administration's request today to speed up consideration of rules that would pressure employers to fire suspected illegal immigrants whose Social Security numbers didn't match records in the government's database. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer - who blocked the so-called no-match rule from taking effect in October 2007 - turned down a proposal by the Department of Homeland Security for an accelerated hearing schedule that might have allowed a new version to take effect before President Bush leaves office next month. Instead, Breyer set a standard schedule for...

Baton Rouge, La. (AP) -- A judge has ruled that a former Black Panther should be released on bail while he awaits a new trial on charges he killed a prison guard in April 1972. U.S. District Judge James Brady said Tuesday that Louisiana must release Albert Woodfox on bail until either it drop charges against him or retries him. The state is appealing Brady's previous ruling that Woodfox deserves a new trial because he had an ineffective defense lawyer. Woodfox is one of the inmates known as the "Angola Three."

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- A private prison company that has been lobbying the Schwarzenegger administration and is a campaign contributor to the governor's causes has made a bid to operate an overhauled inmate medical system, a move that could conflict with court-ordered reforms, according to a document obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The offer by The GEO Group Inc. of Florida caught the court-appointed receiver overseeing reform of California's inmate health care system by surprise. In the five-page internal memo obtained by the AP, the receiver's chief of staff repeatedly makes it clear that he believes the bid was...

Arizona’s Supreme Court Justice has agreed to enforce the Hispanic Bar Association’s demands of banning the terms “illegal” and “aliens” in all of the state’s courtrooms. Claiming that the terms are inflammatory, the president of Arizona’s Hispanic Bar Association, (known as Los Abogados) has asked state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to stop using them at trials or hearings because they create perceptions of judicial bias. In a strongly worded letter to the chief justice, Los Abogados’ president says attaching an illegal status to a person establishes a brand of contemptibility, creates the appearance of anti-immigrant prejudice and tarnishes...

SAN FRANCISCO -- After a heated, divisive campaign fueled by a record $73 million of spending, California voters have approved Proposition 8, which would change the state Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Opponents promptly filed suit to try to block the measure from taking effect.With 96 percent of the vote counted, Prop. 8 was winning by a decisive 400,000-vote margin, 52.2 percent to 47.8 percent. It piled up huge margins in the Central Valley and carried some Democratic strongholds such as Los Angeles County. The measure lost in every Bay Area county but Solano.As the vote counting continued this morning,...

I just got home about 25 minutes ago from a frustrating afternoon to say the least. Long story short...my wife and I were leaving a restaurant late this afternoon after voting and as we were pulling out I noticed a very tall male between the ages of 18-20 yrs of age spray painting the huge McCain/Palin signs that were in front of the mall...he was putting the word "DON'T" in yellow spray paint with a nazi symbol on the bottom. He was doing this in broad daylight on a public road...so I turned my truck around and hauled it down...

State told to take care of legal fees from suit NASHVILLE -- A federal judge in Memphis has ordered the state to pay $117,263 in attorneys fees to the lawyers who represented state Sen. Ophelia Ford when the Senate voided her 2005 special election. That was $12,575 less than the attorneys sought. U.S. Dist. Judge Bernice Donald ordered the reduction on the grounds the state was not responsible for costs incurred by Ford in the early days of the proceeding, before the state Senate began its own proceedings to vacate the election. Prior to that, Ford was fighting an effort...

The conflict between California and federal judges over operation of the 170,000-inmate prison system could evolve into one of those epic legal struggles that involve bedrock constitutional principles and wind up in an historic Supreme Court decree. Or not. While some conservative Republicans contend that the state should strenuously resist the creeping judicial takeover of the prison system, even defying a judge's orders, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and most Democrats are just pleading for more time to comply. By the same token, federal Judge Thelton Henderson scolded state officials this week for not complying with demands from receiver J. Clark Kelso...

SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge seemed ready to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang to cough up $250 million in the next few weeks for prison health care construction. But Senior U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson isn't quite ready to hold the governor and controller in contempt of court, a move that could put California on the hook for millions of dollars in fines per day until state officials do the judge's bidding. Henderson said the $8 billion price tag that his appointed receiver, J. Clark Kelso, has placed on construction required to bring the state's long-addled...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge scolded California officials on Monday for failing to provide the billions of dollars a court-appointed receiver says is needed to upgrade the state's prison health care system. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson made it clear he expects California to pay $8 billion for seven new inmate medical facilities. But he stopped short of immediately holding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Controller John Chiang in contempt for failing to turn over the money. The judge says he is likely to order the state to pay $250 million as a first installment to demonstrate good faith....

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court upheld San Francisco's pioneering health coverage program today, saying the city has the legal authority to require employers to help pay for health care for uninsured workers and residents. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges by restaurant owners and the Bush administration to the ordinance, the first of its kind in the nation. The 2-year-old program, when fully implemented, will offer care at a network of hospitals and clinics for 73,000 uninsured adults not covered by the Medi-Cal program for the poor or Medicare for the elderly. More than 80...

A former Army Special Forces commander passed over for a job as a terrorism analyst at the Library of Congress because he was in the process of becoming a she won a discrimination lawsuit on Friday. More News * Radical rescue: Hundreds of billions for bailout 09.19.08 * Q&A on cleaning up the financial crisis mess 09.19.08 * Light rail train hits bus in LA; 14 injured 09.19.08 * CHP warns of 'star 72' phone scam 09.19.08 U.S. District Judge James Robinson ruled that the Library of Congress discriminated against Diane Schroer of Alexandria, Va., by not giving her the...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- The state attorney general's office is fighting an attempt to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in contempt of court for not releasing $8 billion for new inmate medical facilities. The court-appointed receiver who runs the prison medical system has asked a federal judge in San Francisco to force Schwarzenegger and Controller John Chiang to turn over the money. But Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a filing Monday that the federal court does not have the authority to require state prison construction.

A federal judge has ordered a temporary halt in the state's 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, improving access to care for 6.5 million low-income patients but throwing a new wrench in already difficult state budget negotiations. The U.S. District Court decision forces the state to reimburse most Medi-Cal providers at rates prior to the 10 percent cut, which lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made effective July 1 as a cost-cutting measure to help resolve a $15.2 billion budget shortfall this year. The move effects reimbursement rates the state pays to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, adult day-care centers and other...

The federal receiver in charge of California's inmate health care system is asking a judge to seize $8 billion from the state's treasury over the next five years. Court-appointed receiver Clark Kelso on Wednesday said he needs the money to build new medical units for 10,000 sick or mentally ill inmates.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking. Otero's ruling Friday, which focused on specific courses and texts, followed his decision in March that found no...

San Francisco (AP) -- California Chief Justice Ronald George has spent more than half his life cultivating an image of a cautious jurist and earning a reputation as a politically skilled court administrator. But his unlikely legacy as gay rights pioneer was sealed May 15, when he heard the roar of a crowd gathered below his office as his majority decision legalizing same-sex marriage was announced. Now, the law-and-order supporter of capital punishment is enduring from gay marriage foes the very complaints of "judicial activism" he has worked so hard to avoid during his 17 years on the high court...

In a setback for opponents of gay marriage, a Sacramento judge Friday left intact a ballot title that states Proposition 8 eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry. Sponsors of the proposal had argued Attorney General Jerry Brown was prejudicial when he changed the ballot title – "Limit on Marriage" – that was on petitions circulated last year to qualify the Nov. 4 ballot measure. But Sacramento County Judge Timothy Frawley, who heard arguments in the case on Thursday, disagreed. "Petitioner has failed to explain why the term 'eliminates' is inherently argumentative, while the term 'limit' is not," Frawley...

Sacramento, CA (AP) -- The court-appointed receiver who oversees medical care in California's prisons is asking Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to invoke emergency powers and borrow $7 billion. Court-appointed receiver Clark Kelso wants Schwarzenegger to bypass the state Legislature and issue bonds to build seven inmate health care centers around the state. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter Kelso sent Monday to Schwarzenegger's legal affairs office. The receiver's request comes after the state Senate blocked his borrowing twice last month. Kelso has been given broad authority by federal courts to fix the prison system's medical and mental health...

SAN FRANCISCO—A federal court referee is recommending that California's prison population be cut by nearly 40,000 inmates over the next four years. There is little agreement over how to accomplish that, leading a special judicial panel on Friday to grant more time for settlement talks. The three-judge panel says it will set a trial in November if the state, inmate advocacy groups, law enforcement organizations and others fail to agree on ways to solve prison crowding. They have 30 days to reach a settlement. The federal courts could order an immediate release of inmates or cap the prison population, actions...

Sorry to rain on everybody’s parade, but this isn’t a good thing. Of course, I have already explained why I believe that civil unions would be better for us than gay marriage. I have also explained why at this point I don’t want gay marriage at all. (For those of you who don’t want to click, I can sum it up: 1) no-fault divorce, 2) alimony and 3) Terri Schiavo.) Had California’s state legislature passed a law, I wouldn’t be complaining. I still wouldn’t be getting married, for the reasons I referred to above, but I’d have no objection to...

LAS VEGAS, (AP) -- Elizabeth Halverson is a judge. But the way courthouse staffers see it, she expects to be treated like a queen. Her former bailiff, for example, says Halverson made him feel like a "houseboy." He says the judge — who is obese and uses a motorized scooter to get around — made him put her shoes on her feet, massage her back, cover her with a blanket for naps and make sure her oxygen tank was filled. He says she asked him, "Do you want to worship me from near or afar?" Halverson also surrounded herself with...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bush administration has violated legal deadlines for updating the nation's clean-air standards on carbon monoxide, a federal judge in San Francisco has ruled. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White told the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday to follow a schedule that would allow a full scientific review, public comment and any proposed changes in the standard to take place by May 2011. The EPA had proposed a timetable that would extend through October 2012. Carbon monoxide, an odorless and invisible byproduct of incomplete combustion in auto exhaust, refinery fumes and other emissions of fossil fuels, is lethal...

New Orleans (AP) -- The Army Corps of Engineers can be held liable for flood damage caused by a "hurricane highway," a navigation channel that is believed to have funneled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into the city, a federal judge ruled Friday. The Corps of Engineers had argued that it was immune from liability because the channel is part of New Orleans' flood control system. The law says the federal government cannot be sued if something goes wrong with a flood control project such as a levee, reservoir or dam. Judge Stanwood Duval dismissed that argument, saying the Mississippi River-Gulf...

The U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down this week validating a lethal injection execution procedure in Kentucky is likely to jump-start executions in many states across the country but not in California. Our state uses the same three-drug protocol the court declared constitutional in a Kentucky case, but the legal flaws with California's death penalty procedure go beyond that one issue. In a detailed 2006 review of the state's death penalty procedures, U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel called the state's "pervasive lack of professionalism" in carrying out executions "deeply disturbing." In calling for a temporary halt of the state's death...

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that water regulators failed to consider the effects of global warming and other environmental issues related to the decline of California salmon populations when they approved increased pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger said a 2004 study prepared by federal regulators to support the increased water exports was scientifically inadequate. "There is no analysis of adverse effect on critical habitat," Wanger wrote about winter-run chinook salmon. The judge also ruled that there was a "total failure to address, adequately explain, and analyze the effects...

New York (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday upheld a city regulation requiring calories to be posted on the menu boards of some chain restaurants, calling the rule a reasonable approach to health officials' goal of reducing obesity. The judge turned back a challenge from the New York State Restaurant Association, a voice for the food service industry. "It seems reasonable to expect that some consumers will use the information disclosed ... to select lower calorie meals ... and these choices will lead to a lower incidence of obesity," U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell said. New York City's Department...

The federal government has failed to prepare an adequate plan to manage and protect the Merced River in Yosemite National Park, a federal appeals court ruled today. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a federal judge's decision in 2006 that the National Park Service had not adequately addressed limits on public use of the 81 miles of the river that wind through the park. U.S. District Judge Anthony Ishii blocked several construction projects after he issued his ruling, including repaving the heavily used Valley Loop Road and rebuilding some of the hotel rooms and campsites...

MIAMI, (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered a former Peruvian army officer to pay $37 million for his role in a 1985 massacre in Peru in which 69 civilians were slain, including elderly people and infants. U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit filed against former Maj. Telmo Hurtado by two women — Ochoa Lizarbe and Pulido Baldeon — who were 12 at the time and survived the attack. Jordan had previously found in the lawsuit that Hurtado was had committed torture, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Hurtado, 46, is in federal custody in Miami...