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The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics ruled Tuesday that a proposed ballot initiative defining marriage as between a man and a woman cannot go forward, reaffirming an earlier ruling that such a vote would be discriminatory. The board cited the city Human Rights Act, which bans discrimination against gay men and lesbians. The board decision, which will probably be challenged in court, means the D.C. Council can move forward with its plans to vote on a bill next month to legalize same-sex marriage. The council on Tuesday scheduled a vote for Dec. 1. "We have considered all of the...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — A federal judge imposed an unusual election system on a suburban village Friday, nearly two years after finding that the existing system was unfair to Hispanics. The village, Port Chester, is run by a mayor and six trustees. Under the new system, called cumulative voting, residents will be allowed to cast as many as six votes for one trustee candidate. No Hispanic had ever been elected trustee or mayor in the village 25 miles northeast of New York City, although the population of 28,000 is about half Hispanic. The ruling is likely to mean that the...

Stories like this just make me weep for my country. In September local Connecticut news station WTNH reported: Weeds, glass, bricks, pieces of pipe and shingle splinters have replaced the knot of aging homes at the site of the nation’s most notorious eminent domain project.There are a few signs of life: Feral cats glare at visitors from a miniature jungle of Queen Anne’s lace, thistle and goldenrod. Gulls swoop between the lot’s towering trees and the adjacent sewage treatment plant.But what of the promised building boom that was supposed to come wrapped and ribboned with up to 3,169 new jobs...

The private homes New London, Conn., took through eminent domain from Suzette Kelo and others, are torn down now, but Pfizer has just announced that it closing up shop at the research facility that led to the condemnation. Leading drugmakers Pfizer and Wyeth have merged, and as a result, are trimming some jobs. That includes axing the 1,400 jobs at their sparkling new research & development facility in New London, and moving some across the river to Groton. To lure those jobs to New London a decade ago, the local government promised to demolish the older residential neighborhood adjacent to...

<p>A New Jersey appeals court has concluded that Americans have no Second Amendment right to buy a handgun.</p> <p>In a case decided last week, the superior court upheld a state law saying that nobody may possess "any handgun" without obtaining law enforcement approval and permission in advance.</p>

KNOXVILLE - For the first time in Knox County judicial history, a judge will instruct the jury in the trial of convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson that it is more expensive to execute someone than to sentence them to spend the rest of their life in prison. At the request of defense attorney Doug Trant, Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner said this morning that he will tell jurors that a 2004 study by the state Comptroller's Office concluded that execution is a more expensive form of punishment than life without parole

SAN DIEGO — A man who sneaked a bag of his feces into a San Diego courtroom during his home-invasion robbery trial, smeared it on his lawyer and threw it at jurors has been sentenced to 31 years in prison. -snip- Several days after his request was denied, McGowan pulled out a bag of excrement he had hidden in his clothing, rubbed it on his lawyer and tossed it at the jury, hitting one juror’s computer case.

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.

Down in Columbus, I’d say that birther attorney Orly Taitz has guaranteed herself a $10,000 fine at the hands of U.S. District Judge Clay Land. According to the Columbus Ledger Enquirer, Taitz’ most recent filing accuses Land of having met secretly in Columbus with Attorney General Eric Holder to conspire about ways to hide evidence of Obama’s true birthplace. For that and other reasons, she demands that Land recuse himself from the case. Her evidence for that rather stunning charge? An affidavit from a fellow birther claiming to have seen someone resembling Holder in a Columbus cafe across the street...

In a 24-page filing littered with all-caps, bold, and underlined text, Birther attorney Orly Taitz is demanding that a federal judge recuse himself in a case that has morphed from a soldier's attempt to resist Barack Obama's orders to what Taitz sees as a prosecution of herself. Taitz alleges that Judge Clay Land met with Attorney General Eric Holder, who was allegedly spotted at a small coffee shop across from Land's courtroom in Columbus, Georgia, on the day of a Birther hearing. A strange affidavit by one Robert Douglas describes the putative sighting of Holder, sans entourage, who "probably thought...

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to release notes and summaries of former Vice President Dick Cheney's 2004 interview with Special Prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald in the CIA leak case, but is allowing the deletion of what may be some of the most interesting details in the documents. In a ruling issued Thursday morning, Judge Emmet Sullivan flatly rejected claims by both Bush and Obama appointees at DOJ that the entirety of the records should be withheld because their disclosure could discourage White House officials from cooperating in future investigations. The judge said the prospect of such inquiries was...

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that Indiana's voter identification law is unconstitutional. 6News is looking through the 29-page ruling now and will provide details from it as soon as possible. The decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's voter ID law in 2008, a week before the presidential primary, in a splintered 6-3 ruling. Backers of the law, which requires a voter to present a photo identification to cast a ballot, said it curbs voter fraud. Those against the law contend that it keeps poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. The...

James O'Keefe's foray into filmmaking may cost him a few years in the slammer. O'Keefe and fellow conservative activist/budding investigative journalist Hannah Giles were the ones who dressed up like a pimp and a prostitute, respectively (or not), and went to the offices of the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now (ACORN) in D.C. and Baltimore looking for advice on how to buy a house. The resulting video caused quite a commotion and resulted in the firing of four ACORN employees, as well as other repercussions for those who support the organization. In Maryland, it's against the law to...

Insulted in Restroom, Texas Judge Jails Court Attendee, 69, for Contempt Posted 1 hour, 15 minutes ago By Martha Neil Angry about a Texas judge's ruling in a custody matter involving his granddaughter, Don Bandelman followed the jurist into a public restroom at the Caldwell County courthouse. Then the 69-year-old called District Judge Jack Robison a fool, reports the American-Statesman. Bandelman says the judge told him to leave, and he did. But then Robison had his bailiffs arrest Bandelman on the courthouse outside the sidewalk and, without any hearing, sentenced him to a 30-day jail term for contempt, the article...

Voluntary judicial tyranny: Congress can over rule the Supreme Court but won’t 09/05/2009 By Bruce Karlson Last week, we looked at the actual language which should curtail the tyrannical power afforded the US Supreme Court. Supreme Court rulings are only binding “…with such exceptions and under such regulation as the Congress shall make.” (Section 111, Article 2). Congress has never availed itself of its duty to restrain an activist Court. Congress failed the first test and has continued ever since: In 1803 under John Marshall, the Court denied relief to William Marbury based on its finding that the Judicial Act...

Court denies appeal in dog case Mary Jo Denton Herald-Citizen Staff Thursday, Sep 03, 2009 COOKEVILLE -- The shooting of a pet dog by a police officer at a traffic stop here six years ago is still being argued over in lawsuits. Just today, Thursday, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals released a ruling denying an appeal by Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper David Bush, who was one of several officers present at the stop that day and who was found guilty of excessive force in restraining James Smoak of North Carolina, the owner of the dog. Police officers here had...

Judicial tyranny cannot exist absent a compliant Congress. Bruce Karlson Judicial tyranny began with an obscure case in 1803. A supine Congress accepted the Court’s ruling in Marbury v. Madison in 1803 which nullified a law in making its ruling. Congressional acquiescence allowed the genie of judicial rule by decree to be released. To better understand the significance of this ruling, we should examine the thoughts of the Founders. The issue of judicial poaching was of concern, and is addressed in the Constitution’s Article III, Section 2, “In all other cases before mentioned the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction...

We wrote here and here about the Justice Department's dismissal of a voter intimidation case against a group of armed Black Panthers who threatened would-be voters outside a polling place in Philadelphia. The Justice Department won the case after the defendants defaulted (a wise move by them, it turns out), but decided to give the victory away. This struck us as another instance in which the Obama-Holder Justice Department made its decision based on political considerations, rather than considerations of justice. This was a case in which members of a political organization showed up at a polling place in uniform...

A Los Angeles federal judge has tentatively thrown out the convictions of a Missouri mother for her role in a MySpace hoax directed at a 13-year-old neighbor girl who ended up committing suicide. In his ruling Thursday, U.S. District Judge George Wu has acquitted Lori Drew of misdemeanor counts of accessing computers without authorization. Wu says his ruling will become final when he issues it in writing. Drew was convicted in a trial, but the judge says that if she is to be found guilty of illegally accessing computers, anyone who has ever violated the social networking site's terms of...

Just when you thought things couldn’t get more farcical in our nation’s capitol, the Al Franken Circus heads to town. Franken was declared the winner yesterday of the long-contested Senate race by the Minnesota Supreme Court with a razor-thin margin of 312 votes out of over 2.9 million votes cast. Norm Coleman chose to bow out of the race rather than continue the contest taking the fight to the federal courts. It is estimated the two camps have spent more than $1.7 million in legal fees through March, the end of the last FEC reporting period. Rumors abound that Coleman...

<p>LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California judge signed a dismissal order Wednesday detailing the massive fraud perpetrated against U.S. food giant Dole designed to collect billions of dollars through false claims of harm to Nicaraguan banana plantation workers.</p>

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A judge has issued a gag order in the capital murder case against the man accused of killing one soldier and wounding another at a military recruiting office in Arkansas. Judge Alice Lightle issued the order Monday after prosecutors requested it to block court officials and police from discussing the case

FEC dismisses complaint on MoveOn's "Betray Us" ad @ 2:38 pm by Aaron Blake The Federal Election Commission (FEC) ruled Thursday that The New York Times did not provide MoveOn.org with a special rate for its 2007 full-page ad critical of Gen. David Petraeus. The ad, which ran in 2007 and called Petraeus "General Betray Us," caused a lot of controversy when it first ran, and Democrats were forced to separate themselves from the liberal group. Conservative commentators also alleged that MoveOn was given a special rate for the ad - evidence of the New York Times's supposed liberal bias...

Facefwd.com <> The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force - one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon. The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the last days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said...

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.

California Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage ban nears The clock is ticking down on the California Supreme Court's imminent decision on whether to uphold Proposition 8, the voter-approved ballot measure restoring the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Based on regulations that require the justices to rule within 90 days of oral arguments in a case, the Supreme Court's decision in the legal challenge to Proposition 8 now will fall on one of three remaining days: Tuesday or next Thursday, or June 1. The high court normally only rules on Mondays and Thursdays, but will issue rulings next Tuesday because...

Republicans learned a hard lesson during the confirmation process of both Robert Bork and Justice Clarence Thomas. The Judicial Confirmation Network (JCN) was formed in 2004 to ensure judicial nominees of then President George W. Bush would get a fair hearing in the Senate and that the American public would get the truth about the nominees. Wendy Long, general counsel to the JCN and a former Supreme Court clerk to Justice Thomas sat down with HUMAN EVENTS to discuss the current makeup of the court and some of the likely Obama candidates to replace Justice David Souter, who has announced...

Look for someone to the left of Darth Vader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor in her own words saying "the Court of Appeals (where she is) is where policy is made" Jay Sekulow said this woman believes in a "living" constitution and this video proves it...get ready, this is gonna be a long 4 years...

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. -- A Justice Department attorney said U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., should be immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former Marine from western Pennsylvania. Murtha Essentially, Murtha's attorney said the lawsuit filed in September by Justin Sharratt, of Canonsburg, should be dismissed for the same reasons that a federal appeals court struck down a similar suit by Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, of Meriden, Conn., last week. The court ruled that Murtha couldn't be sued because he was acting within the scope of his employment when he accused Wuterich's squad of killing innocent civilians "in cold blood"...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Bush administration did not properly study the environmental impact of expanding oil and gas drilling off the Alaska coast and canceled a program to find new reserves. A three-judge panel in Washington found that the Bush-era Interior Department failed to consider the effect on the environment and marine life before it began the process in August 2005 to expand an oil and gas leasing program in the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas. The appeals court ordered the department, now run by President Barack Obama's appointee Ken Salazar, to analyze...

ALBANY, NY - New York Governor David Paterson is introducing legislation today which would promote same-sex marriages in the state. Political insiders believe he is being pressured to do so by the Gay Mafia, based out of New York’s Fashion District. The Gay Mafia, or the Velvet Hand, has been a force in New York politics since the 1970’s. Originally founded in the back rooms of Studio 54, they are now the “Pink Power Brokers” who run New York’s Fashion and Theater districts.

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer – 2 mins ago WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court has ruled that a Marine cannot sue Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha for defamation. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich of Meriden, Conn., claimed Murtha damaged his reputation by saying he and his comrades killed women and children "in cold blood" in Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005. Murtha argued he has immunity from the lawsuit because he was acting in his official role as a lawmaker...

Over five months after the election, a three-judge panel has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race. The judges issued their final ruling late Monday, stating "Franken received the highest number of lawfully cast ballots in the Nov. 4, 2008 general election." They also have determined that Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election. Last week, Republican Norm Coleman suffered a blow after a few hundred previously rejected absentee ballots were opened and counted at the tail end of Coleman's lawsuit contesting his loss in a statewide recount. They broke almost 2-to-1 for...

A Nevada school district agreed to pay $400,000 to a Muslim girl and her friend over allegations that other students threatened to kill her in the stairwell for wearing a religious head scarf and the staff did nothing to stop it.

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...

When the Constitution was created, the Founding Father's biggest fear was that the judicial branch would have little power. After all, the Judiciary can't enforce any of their policies. Their fears materialized Worcester Vs. Georgia when the Supreme Court made a decision that then President Andrew Jackson disagreed with and Jackson proclaimed.

The launch by dating service eHarmony.com of a new website for homosexuals is creating concern among customers who were attracted to the company because of its Christian foundations, but they're not getting any satisfaction. WND reported when eHarmony launched its new Compatible Partners website for homosexuals, the result of a settlement of a discrimination complaint brought in New Jersey. Compatible Partners has been put online by eHarmony following the case prompted by a 2005 complaint by Eric McKinley, a homosexual, who claimed eHarmony's heterosexual-only matching service violated the state's anti-discrimination law.

Foreign detainees 'have US right' About 600 so-called enemy combatants are held at Bagram air base A US judge has ruled that foreign suspects held by the US in Afghanistan have the right to challenge their detention in US civilian courts. Judge John Bates denied the motion by the US government to withhold the right to three detainees at Bagram air base. The US Supreme Court ruled last year that detainees at Guantanamo had such a right. The justice department later said those held at Bagram did not. Judge Bates said the cases were essentially the same. The three detainees...

A Federal Judge has given the OK and now the Somalian Muslims will get their money from their lawsuit versus Gold'n Plump Inc. They are even being allowed an extra break each day to pray.

The legal fight between Al Franken and Norm Coleman is headed to the desk of Gov. Tim Pawlenty — a no-win predicament for a Minnesota Republican with his eye on a White House run in 2012. Franken won big Tuesday when a three-judge panel allowed the review of no more than 400 absentee ballots in a race he currently leads by 225 votes. Coleman’s camp says an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court is coming; once that’s done, the dispute lands in Pawlenty’s lap. If Franken’s ahead at that point, Pawlenty will have a choice: sign the election certificate that...

- - Absentee ballots to be counted will be far fewer than Coleman sought in effort to close the U.S. Senate gap. Abstract: Norm Coleman's lawyers all but conceded defeat Tuesday and promised to appeal after a panel of three judges ordered no more than 400 new absentee ballots opened and counted, far fewer than the Republican had sought to overcome the lead held by DFLer Al Franken. The ballots include many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected as well as ballots that Coleman wanted opened in his quest to overcome the 225-vote lead that Franken gained after a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has decided to drop all charges against former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens amid charges of prosecutorial misconduct, NPR reported on Wednesday, citing Justice officials.

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes"The Obama Administration's Department of Justice, with former RIAA lawyers occupying the 2nd and 3rd highest positions in the department, has shown its colors, intervening on behalf of the RIAA in the case against a Boston University graduate student, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, accused of file sharing when he was 17 years old. Its oversized, 39-page brief (PDF) relies upon a United States Supreme Court decision from 1919 which upheld a statutory damages award, in a case involving overpriced railway tickets, equal to 116 times the actual damages sustained, and a 2007 Circuit Court decision which held...

(CNSNews.com) – A federal court in New York on Monday expanded teenagers’ access to Plan B – also known as the morning-after pill or emergency contraception. The court gave the Food and Drug Administration 30 days to make Plan B available over the counter to 17 year olds. Right now, the pill is available over the county only to those 18 years and up. Pro-life groups are dismayed that 17-year-old girls will now have unrestricted access to a drug that can produce abortion by preventing a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus. But abortion rights groups celebrated the ruling,...

[video trailer of movie] The Supreme Court has agreed to review a case involving “Hillary: The Movie.” “The outcome of this case,” producer David Bossie said, “will dictate how we’re able to make films and educate people about them.” Bossie’s movie was released while Hillary Clinton was running for the Democratic presidential nomination. He wanted to run TV commercials in key states during the primaries and show the movie on cable TV. But federal courts said no and said “Hillary: The Movie” violated campaign finance regulations because it was nothing more than an attack ad. Bossie’s group, Citizens United, appealed...

Department of Justice Withdraws “Enemy Combatant” Definition for Guantanamo Detainees In a filing today with the federal District Court for the District of Columbia, the Department of Justice submitted a new standard for the government’s authority to hold detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility. The definition does not rely on the President’s authority as Commander-in-Chief independent of Congress’s specific authorization. It draws on the international laws of war to inform the statutory authority conferred by Congress. It provides that individuals who supported al Qaeda or the Taliban are detainable only if the support was substantial. And it does not...

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...

RALEIGH, NC -- Venessa Mills is fighting a legal battle for the heart and soul of homeschooling in North Carolina. As reported on World Net Daily, on Friday, March 6, Judge Ned W. Mangum stripped her of the right to homeschool, and ordered her three children to enter public school. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=91397 Mills was forced to defend her right to homeschool during divorce proceedings brought on by her husband's unfaithfulness. Mr. Mills admitted, under oath, to repeatedly committing adultery. Even with abundant evidence showing the Mills children are well adjusted and well educated, Judge Mangum ruled overwhelmingly against Mrs. Mills on...