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In a historic judgement, the Delhi High Court on Thursday decriminalized homosexuality by reading down section 377 of the Indian Gay activists celebrate the high court ruling decriminalizing gay sex, in New Delhi. (AFP Photo) More Pictures Penal Code. ( Watch ) The Section 377 of the IPC as far as it criminalizes gay sex among consenting adults is violation of fundamental rights, said the high court. However, Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes homosexuality, will continue for non-consensual and non-vaginal sex. Full text of Delhi HC judgment (PDF) Any kind of discrimination is anti-thesis of right...

A Logan County judge ruled last week that the state Department of Environmental Protection should grant Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. the permits it needs to develop gas wells in the 3,300-acre Chief Logan State Park. Story by Dan Page Email | Bio | Other Stories by A Logan County judge ruled last week that the state Department of Environmental Protection should grant Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. the permits it needs to develop gas wells in the 3,300-acre Chief Logan State Park. Let's give a rousing cheer for Logan County Circuit Judge Roger L. Perry, whose opinion protects the...

A judiciary official says tribunals will process hundreds of 'rioters' and 'thugs' caught in security sweeps during the unrest after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was reelected president. Reporting from Tehran -- Iran's judiciary will set up a special court to try protesters arrested in the surge of civil unrest since the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a judiciary official said on state television, as the government continues its crackdown aimed at crushing its greatest domestic challenge in 30 years.

Poll: Should Guantanamo Bay detainees be tried in U.S. criminal courts?" A Daily PollWhat will President of Iran Ahmadinijad do if he gets a nuclear weapon? A Weekly Poll

Father Timothy Mockaitis knows full well that hearing confessions is one of the most important things about being a priest. This week begins the Year of the Priest, 150 years after the death of St. John Vianney, who was known to spend hours on end in the confessional. But the seal of the confessional — the absolute confidentiality of the sacrament — was driven home to Father Mockaitis when a confession he heard of a murder suspect was surreptitiously tape-recorded. A legal battle ensued, with a court declaring that the recording had been done illegally. The tape has never been...

If you've spent any time at all on Internet message boards or in college debate class you'll have seen the rafters vibrate with righteous condemnation against the "slippery slope argument." It is claimed that a worst case, ultimate extrapolation of a thing is a bad argument because it isn't necessarily a truism. Supporters of the Second Amendment, for instance, are scolded by liberals when the supporter says that any new gun law is "one more step to banning guns." The gun restricter says that the gun supporter is employing a "slippery slope" argument and that it is idiotic to claim...

Authorities in San Francisco who called the beliefs of the Catholic Church "hateful," "callous," and an "insult," – and urged members to disobey them – have been given the go-ahead by a panel of judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to express such hate because it serves a "secular" purpose. "It is not a stretch to compare the San Francisco Board's actions to that of the Nazi Germany policy of 'Gleichschaltung:' vilifying Jews as an auxiliary to and laying the groundwork for more repressive policies, including the final solution of extermination," said Richard Thompson, the president and...

Veterans In Politics Talk Show Introduces CEO for CC Court Edward Friedland and Laura Jessee LIVE on www.AllTalkRadio.net June 6: Laura Jessee Lightyear Wireless Representative: Edward A. Friedland Clark County Court Executive Officer: "Veterans In Politics" is a weekly radio show produced by the Veterans In Politics International and hosted by Steve Sanson and co-hosted by Ronda Baldwin Kennedy. The "Veterans In Politics" show is live every Saturday 2:05 PM Pacific Time you can call in and speak to the guest or/and hosts at (702) 309-6690.

Remarks of U.S. Senator Barack Obama on the nomination of Justice Janice Rogers Brown June 08, 2005 Remarks as Delivered The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois. Mr. OBAMA. I thank the Chair. I rise today to speak on the nomination of California Justice Janice Rogers Brown to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Now, let me begin by saying that the last thing I would like to be spending my time on right now is talking about judges. I am sure that is true for many in this Chamber. I know that I certainly do not hear about filibusters...

John Schiffeler, a 68-year-old retired university instructor on ancient China, was walking his dog on a popular beach south of Carmel earlier this month. And, though he didn't know it, he was about to learn something disconcerting about the higher costs of modern life. Schiffeler recalls that the north end of Monastery Beach was almost deserted, except for himself, his 4-year-old German shepherd, Ares, and a couple. He asked the couple if they would mind if he let Ares off his 30-foot retractable leash. They said no problem. And Schiffeler broke the law: Dogs are supposed to be on a...

Friday, May 29, 2009 LOS ANGELES - Phil Spector was sentenced Friday to 19 years to life in prison for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson, who was shot through the mouth in the music producer's home six years ago. Spector, 69, looked straight forward and showed no emotion as Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler ordered a term of 15 years to life for second-degree murder plus four years for personal use of a gun.

1991 - On the 27th of November, Sotomayor was nominated by President George H.W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by John M. Walker, Jr.

PRESIDENT Obama is attacking a red herring when he defends his decision to send the worst terrorists at Guantanamo to United States prisons by saying the likelihood of escape from secure federal facilities is very low. Of course it is. No rope ladder or prison laundry truck is likely to do the trick. But when it comes to federal judges, we can't be so sure. The reason we sent the terrorists to Guantanamo in the first place, rather than bring them onto US soil, was never really connected to worries that they might escape. The Bush administration feared, quite correctly,...

A man who fatally stabbed a convenience store clerk during a robbery 23 years ago apologized repeatedly to her relatives and to his mother before he was executed Tuesday. "I know I hurt you very bad," Michael Lynn Riley said to his victim's relatives, including her two daughters and husband. "I want you to know I'm sorry." Brandy Oaks said she accepted Riley's apology and was pleased to hear it. She was 4 when her mother, Wynona Harris, was killed. "This is a difficult day and there are no winners on either side," Oaks said. "Her spirit will live on...

Video"Out of Order", a 2000 Chronicle (WCVB-TV) program, highlights the injustice faced by men and fathers due to the MGL 209a-type restraining orders in Massachusetts. Interviews of The Fatherhood Coalition leader Mark Charalambous, Harry Stewart, Dennis Watts and others.

SNIPPET: "Does terrorism work, meaning, does it achieve its perpetrators' objectives?" SNIPPET: "In the long term, however, Islamists will likely recognize the limits of violence and increasingly pursue their repugnant goals through legitimate ways. Radical Islam's best chance to defeat us lies not in bombings and beheadings but in classrooms, law courts, computer games, television studios, and electoral campaigns. We are on notice."

Last June, the Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to keep and bear arms, at least in the home for self-defense.  Here’s our own Bob Levy, who masterminded the Heller litigation, talking about that decision: While the Court’s ruling was a watershed in constitutional interpretation, it technically applied only to D.C., striking down the District’s draconian gun ban but not having a direct effect in the rest of the country.Well, today the Ninth Circuit (the federal appellate court covering most Western states) ruled that the Second Amendment restricts the power of state...

Second Amendment Incorporated by Ninth Circuit Panel, in Nordyke v. King. For those who count such things, the unanimous panel consists of a Reagan appointee (Judge O'Scannlain, who wrote), a Carter appointee (Judge Alarcon), and a Clinton appointee (Judge Gould). The panel avoids the late 19th-century cases United States v. Cruikshank (1876) and Presser v. Illinois (1886) by reading them as simply foreclosing the direct application of the Second Amendment to the states, or the application of the Second Amendment to the states via the Privileges or Immunities Clause. The panel instead follows the Supreme Court's "selective incorporation" cases under...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - "but as a matter of law, it's more like the aftermath of a bank robbery gone bad."</p> <p>"Whether a U.S. citizen is taken hostage at a downtown bank branch or on the high seas, federal authorities can claim the authority to capture suspects and prosecute them in U.S. courts."</p>

April 07, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Fiction and FactionIowa judges have imposed gay marriage on a state that voted against it. By Andrew C. McCarthy Faction is the eternal condition of mankind. “As long as the reason of man continues fallible, and he is at liberty to exercise it, different opinions will be formed,� wrote James Madison in Federalist No. 10. “As long as the connection subsists between his reason and his self-love, his opinions and his passions will have a reciprocal influence on each other; and the former will be objects to which the latter will attach themselves.� A...

Reuters reported this week that the European Union is saying a summit with Israel, planned for the coming months, is probably called off. With the Czech Republic currently holding the EU presidency, its foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg told a Czech newspaper that the EU is “not happy with some of the steps of the Israeli government, namely construction works close to Jerusalem but also access to Gaza, which is today very limited.” He added that “The new Israeli government has not raised much excitement either.”

JUDGES should interpret the Constitution according to other nations' legal "norms." Sharia law could apply to disputes in US courts. The United States constitutes an "axis of disobedience" along with North Korea and Saddam-era Iraq. Those are the views of the man on track to become one of the US government's top lawyers: Harold Koh. Obama has nominated Koh -- until last week the dean of Yale Law School -- to be the State Department's legal adviser. In that job, Koh would forge a wide range of international agreements on issues from trade to arms control, and help represent our...

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi Ministry of Interior’s (MoI) new Internal Security Forces Court system is helping build trust in the Iraqi Police and the MOI. The Internal Security Forces Penal Code and the Procedural Law of the Internal Security Forces were both passed by the Iraqi Parliament last year and signed into law in April 2008. The two laws established a court system for the MoI. “If there is justice, the right is then returned to whom it belongs, the people” said Maj. Gen. (Dr.) Abdul Kadhim Jodha, chief judge of the Cassation Court, which reviews all cases. The MoI...

America's criminal justice system has deteriorated to the point that it is a national disgrace. Its irregularities and inequities cut against the notion that we are a society founded on fundamental fairness. Our failure to address this problem has caused the nation's prisons to burst their seams with massive overcrowding, even as our neighborhoods have become more dangerous. We are wasting billions of dollars and diminishing millions of lives.

The battle by homosexuals to legally adopt children has opened on another front in Florida. Democratic State Senator Nan Rich, co-chair of the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee, has filed a bill to repeal the 1977 law that bans homosexual adoption and a second bill to give judges the authority to determine adoptions based exclusively on what she calls the best interests the children. Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel disagrees with the measures. "The actions here by Senator Nan Rich are clearly without merit, and she has the audacity to say that she is considering what is in...

Maybe the gravy train is finally beginning to grind to a halt at long last? Maybe the thievery by unions that is bankrupting governments all across the nation is starting to show signs of abating? If this court ruling in Vallejo, California is any indication, we just might be starting to see some common sense at last endangering the practice of heaping undeserved and unsustainable union benefits on government workers. On March 13 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michael McManus held that union contracts "negotiated" by city worker's unions can be voided by Vallejo if the city enters into bankruptcy proceedings. The...

President Obama's nomination of David Hamilton for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals is, I suspect, the beginning of an avalanche of left-wing appellate court nominees. The next nominee may well be Maryland district court judge Andre Davis. Judge Davis has a reputation for making rulings favorable to criminal defendants and for having these rulings reversed, including by Clinton appointees to the Fourth Circuit. Is it wise politically for Obama to load the federal bench with left-liberals? A bi-partisan panel at the Heritage Foundation recently answered that question in the negative, according to this report by Quin Hillyer. The liberal...

A pediatrician in northern British Columbia wants liquor and beer makers to help pay for the damage caused when pregnant women drink. Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD, refers to a range of disabilities that are seen in people whose mothers drank alcohol while they were pregnant. Dr. Marie Hay of Prince George has diagnosed thousands of children harmed by fetal alcohol consumption. Hay's patient files document thousands of children hurt by exposure to alcohol. She said many now face: * Anxiety. * Depression. * Autism. * Schizophrenia. * Mental retardation. * Learning disabilities. * Conduct disorders. * Trouble with...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - For abortion opponents, the trial of one of the nation's few late-term abortion providers has been a long time coming, a chance for a little bit of justice after years of seeing their efforts thwarted. To abortion-rights supporters, Dr. George Tiller's trial set to begin Monday is the culmination of repeated harassment, a witch hunt in which his foes have been willing to do anything and everything to gain a conviction. Tiller and his Wichita clinic have been regular targets of anti-abortion demonstrations, including the 45-day "Summer of Mercy" event staged by Operation Rescue in 1991....

A federal judge in Washington, D.C, dismissed a case yesterday brought by Michael Newdow and the American Humanist Association seeking to ban prayer and the phrase "so help me God" from presidential inaugurations. Newdow, a California attorney who pushed a case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in an unsuccessful effort to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, previously joined Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and others in an attempt to obtain an injunction barring pastors Rick Warren and Joseph E. Lowery from praying at Barack Obama's inauguration. As WND...

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that licensed firearms owners may not carry guns into parts of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. GeorgiaCarry.org, a gun-rights group, and state Rep. Timothy Bearden (R-Villa Rica) challenged the airport’s ban on guns. They contended a law enacted last year overrode a longstanding policy prohibiting visitors to the airport from carrying firearms in non-secure areas.

PHOENIX — The Arizona Court of Appeals Thursday upheld the constitutionality of Arizona’s corporate tax credit tuition program being attacked by the American Civil Liberties Union. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case in defense of the program on behalf of the non-profit student tuition organization School Choice America. “Parents should be able to choose the right school for their children. When it comes to our children’s education, the ACLU suddenly drops its talk of ‘freedom’ and ‘choice,’” said ADF Senior Counsel Gary McCaleb. “This program gives Arizonans a broad range of educational choices. To block...

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a lawsuit Monday against officials of Pennsylvania's Kutztown University and its police chief. The officials punished a police officer who refused to arrest a group of Christians sharing their faith on campus. Steven Armbruster was ordered by K.U. Police Chief William Mioskie to remove the group of Christians from campus for "disorderly conduct." Armbruster, who said he saw no evidence of disorderly conduct by the Christians, explained to Mioskie that he believed this would violate the group's constitutional rights. Armbruster was placed on administrative leave, suspended without pay for five working days...

Is is being reported that President Obama wanted to fire a Republican US Attorney in Missouri and to replace her with a Democrat. Now, can we revisit the agonized wailing that emanated in 2006 from the unhinged left when President Bush fired some US Attorneys? Remember how they screamed that it was all "just political" and that it might even be an illegal action? Remember how they gyrated over Bush's supposed "destruction" of the US Attorney offices in the land, how he was trying to ruin our system? Their wailing went on for several years quite despite the fact that...

A California couple pleaded guilty today to violating federal obscenity laws for making and distributing sexually explicit films that depicted rape and murder, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported. Robert Zicari, Janet Romano and their company, Extreme Associates, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Gary L. Lancaster to one count each of conspiracy to distribute obscene materials.

A North Carolina judge has ordered three children to attend public schools this fall because the homeschooling their mother has provided over the last four years needs to be "challenged." The children, however, have tested above their grade levels – by as much as two years. The decision is raising eyebrows among homeschooling families, and one friend of the mother has launched a website to publicize the issue. The ruling was made by Judge Ned Mangum of Wake County, who was handling a divorce proceeding for Thomas and Venessa Mills. A statement released by a publicist working for the mother,...

The war is over. Our peerless armed forces took Tora Bora and, when we finally let them, Fallujah. But al-Qaeda won in Washington, and that has made all the difference. The War on Terror has radically altered the compact between the American people and their government by dramatically changing the nature of the U.S. courts. Until this new, unaccountable monster is caged, it will continue to devour our political community’s capacity to wage war and to defend itself. And that caging had better happen soon, because the word “war” in this context refers only to our nation’s forcible military response...

This is not a story of bias in the media. It is a story, rather, that affects both the Old Media of newspapers, TV and radio, as well as the New Media of the Internet. Our disagreements with the Old Media aside, we both stand to see trouble if a recent court case in Massachusetts gains momentum or is applied liberally henceforth. The Associated Press reports on a libel case in Boston that pits a fired employee of the Staples office supply chain against his former employer. Staples, as it happens, sent out an emailed newsletter informing its employees that...

Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dealt a crushing blow to national defense. The three-judge panel’s ruling in al Odah v. United States has gotten scarce media attention. Perhaps that’s understandable: It’s a mind-numbing technical dispute over “discovery” in litigation, vying for attention against the socializing of our economy and the consequent collapse of the stock market. But the discovery in question is the most vital kind, namely, that of classified national-defense information. What is in dispute is how much sensitive intelligence we must share with enemies bent on annihilating Americans ... It is one...

    | Legislative Attack on Catholic Church in Connecticut   3/7/2009   On Thursday, March 5, a bill was introduced in the Connecticut state legislature, and immediately referred to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.  It targets one – and only one – church in the state, the Catholic Church, and would strip the bishops and priests of the state of any power to exercise administrative authority over their parishes. Raised Bill No. 1098  is a committee bill and does not bear the names of any individual sponsors. Both co-chairmen of the committee, State Sen. Andrew McDonald and State...

‘Strong majority’ of California justices against overturning Prop. 8 Kenneth Starr San Francisco, Calif., Mar 5, 2009 / 09:20 pm (CNA).- The California Supreme Court on Thursday began hearing oral arguments on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, the successful ballot measure which restored the state’s definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman. According to one supporter, a “strong majority” of justices are not inclined to overturn the proposition.According to the San Jose Mercury News, the legal questions center upon whether Proposition 8 violates constitutional separation-of-powers by sidestepping the court’s duty to interpret the constitution and...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE DELTA — The judges in the Hayy judicial system currently have no courtroom, no judge’s chambers and get only two to four hours of electricity a day. That is about to change. Thanks to an Iraqi Commander’s Emergency Response Program project, the existing building which also houses the Hayy real estate offices will be refurbished, and a new building that will include a new courtroom, judge’s chambers and administrative offices, will be constructed. Hayy Chief Judge Falah Kareem cut the ribbon and laid the first tile at the brick and mortar ceremony, signifying the start of the...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a ruling Wednesday that held a Montana church in violation of the law for speaking about the state's marriage amendment. Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) filed a lawsuit in 2004 after the Montana commissioner of political practices investigated Canyon Ferry Road Baptist Church, following a complaint by a homosexual activist group. The group claimed the church was required to register as a political committee in order to speak about the marriage amendment.

A federal judge has ordered a former Pfizer executive to pay $200,000 to a teen girl whose image he had downloaded from a child porn site on the Internet. Alan Hesketh was fired from his position as vice president and global patent director at Pfizer after he was arrested on pornography charges in 2008. Hesketh claimed he should not be held liable for damages to the victim because he only downloaded the images from another site.

“Collecting blood money from kids” LOS ANGELES -- In response to a Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that struck down a California law designed to prevent the sale of adult video games to minors, the Parents Television Council has called on its members to voice their support for California state Sen. Leland Yee’s call for the decision to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

I have long argued that legal immigrants everywhere would do themselves a favor by speaking out against the abuses of illegal immigration. A case in point is the Hispanic community’s pattern of defending and rationalizing the depraved indifference and arrogance of those illegal immigrants who trample others’ property rights while demanding pampered treatment for themselves. The Facts Roger Barnett is an Arizona rancher whose property has been violated too many times to list by illegal immigrants over the years. They have left him presents in the form of human waste, garbage, and dead cattle which died from ingesting their trash....

Arizona rancher Roger Barnett initially faced the possibility of paying $32 million to compensate several illegal immigrants he stopped at gunpoint on his land. He walked away instead with a verdict that rejected any notion he violated the trespassers' civil rights and affirmed that U.S. citizens can still detain aliens crossing the border. What remains to be seen, though, is what impact the $77,800 in damages that a jury Tuesday ordered Mr. Barnett to pay will have on America's larger immigration debate and the efforts of some illegals to get compensation from a country they aren't even allowed to enter....

Two weeks ago, I was among a small group of USS Cole and 9/11 victims’ families who met with President Obama at the White House. Despite President Obama’s assurances that the safety and security of the American people is his number one priority, I left the meeting with little confidence that the President appreciates the grave consequences of shutting down Guantanamo or the complex problems associated with adjudicating detainee cases in the federal court system. Indeed, he told us that he is “not at all concerned” about the security issues of bringing the detainees to the U.S. His rationale for...

SAN DIEGO – A jury found four San Diego firefighters who sued the city were sexually harassed after being ordered to participate in a gay pride parade. ---snip--- The firemen said they were subjected to sexually charged conduct and lewd comments while riding a fire engine in the July 2007 parade. ---snip--- The firemen said they were subjected to cat-calls and saw barely clothed men simulate sex acts along the route on University Avenue in Hillcrest.

WASHINGTON (Feb. 16) - Former President Bill Clinton said Monday he thinks the country will surmount the current economic crisis, but sees the threat of terrorism and global instability as a longer-term problem.