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The U.S. government can keep pictures of detainee abuse secret while it asks the Supreme Court to permanently block release of the photographs on the grounds they could incite violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, a federal appeals court said Thursday. The one-paragraph ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan came after the Obama administration asked the court to keep the pictures secret so it could appeal to the nation's highest court. The administration last month said the disturbing photographs pose "a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American and coalition forces,...

INDIANAPOLIS – “I have learned that the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals (Court) extended the ‘stay’ previously placed on the sale of Chrysler, LLC assets, which gives the Indiana State Police Pension Fund, the Indiana Teachers Retirement Fund, and the Major Moves Construction Fund until 4:00 p.m. on Monday, June 8, 2009, to petition a continuing stay by the United States Supreme Court.

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.

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled Saudi Arabia could not be held liable for the September 11 attacks against the United States despite charitable donations that ended up in the hands of Al-Qaeda. Upholding a 2006 decision by a lower court, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled inadmissible a lawsuit in which families of victims of the 9/11 attacks charged that Saudi Arabia, four Saudi princes, a Saudi charity and bank had given material support to Al-Qaeda. The plaintiffs in the case cited Saudi donations to Muslim charity groups that were later transferred to the Al-Qaeda...

New York (AP) _ A teen who used vulgar slang in an Internet blog to complain about school administrators shouldn't have been punished by the school, her lawyer told a federal appeals court. But a lawyer for the Burlington school told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that administrators should be allowed to act if such comments are made on the Web. Avery Doninger, 17, claims officials at Lewis S. Mills High School violated her free speech rights when they barred her from serving on the student council because of what she wrote from her home computer....

Yale Law to allow military recruiters By JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer 40 minutes ago Yale Law School will end its policy of not working with military recruiters following a court ruling this week that jeopardized about $300 million in federal funding, school officials said Wednesday. Yale and other universities had objected to the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allows gay men and women to serve in the military only if they keep their sexual orientation to themselves. Yale Law School had refused to assist military recruiters because the Pentagon wouldn't sign a nondiscrimination pledge. The 2nd U.S....

Court Denies Felons Voting Rights ArgumentBy LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press Writer Last update: May 05, 2006 – 2:23 AM NEW YORK (AP) - A landmark civil rights law cannot be used to argue that barring felons from voting discriminates against minorities because they are imprisoned at a higher rate, a federal court ruled Thursday. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which removed barriers to black voters, was not an avenue of relief for 21 plaintiffs, which include six current prisoners. The plaintiffs sued the state in November 2000. Judge Jose A. Cabranes, who...

NEW YORK A preacher found relief from a higher authority today when an appeals court ruled that Ithaca selectively used its noise ordinance to silence him in violation of his rights to free speech, equal protection and freedom of religion. The 2nd U-S Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ordered a federal judge in Albany to declare victory for Kevin Deegan -- saying it found the noise ordinance "cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny." Deegan had sued Ithaca, its attorney and its chief of police in a bid to strike down the ordinance in the college town 45 miles south of Syracuse....

NEW YORK (AP) - A federal appeals court has upheld New York City's policy on school holiday displays, which allows symbols of Jewish and Muslim holidays but prohibits Christian nativity scenes. Santa Claus, reindeer and Christmas trees are permitted. The 2-1 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court judge, who said allowing secular symbols neither advanced nor inhibited religion. The appeals court said no objective observer would believe the city wanted to communicate to its million-plus students "any official endorsement of Judaism and Islam or any dismissal of Christianity." Instead, the court said,...

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court said yesterday that Hartford, Conn., police officers with offensive tattoos can be ordered not to display them, disappointing five officers who claimed the ban violates their First Amendment rights. "A police department has a reasonable interest in not offending or appearing unprofessional before the public it serves," the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said. The three-judge panel said a lower court judge was right last March to dismiss the lawsuit brought by five policemen against the city and its former police chief. The plaintiffs had argued that a city order giving the...

Two federal appeals courts yesterday upheld rulings that the Partial Birth Abortion Act, passed by Congress in 2003 but barred by the courts, is unconstitutional because it does not include an exception when the health of a pregnant woman is at risk. The rulings, which came on the same day from three-judge panels in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in New York, and the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, were substantially based on a United States Supreme Court decision in a Nebraska case in 2000. In that case, the Supreme Court found that any abortion ban must...

Feb 1, 3:24 AM EST Appeals courts uphold abortion finding By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer NEW YORK (AP) -- Two federal appeals courts declared a law banning a type of late-term abortion unconstitutional, saying it lacks an exception for when a woman's health is in danger. The rulings on the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act are expected to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, recently reconfigured with two new justices appointed by President Bush. A similar case from Nebraska already has been appealed. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court...

Two federal appeals courts on opposite sides of the country declared the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Tuesday, saying the measure lacks an exception for cases in which a woman's health is at stake. The first ruling came from a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Hours later, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued a similar decision in a 2-1 ruling. The New York decision affirmed a 2004 ruling by a judge who upheld the right to perform the procedure even as he described the procedure as...

(Washington-AP, Updated 7:50 PM) _ Connecticut libraries lost an emergency Supreme Court appeal on Friday in their effort to be freed from a gag order and participate in a congressional debate over the Patriot Act. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denied the appeal and offered an unusually detailed explanation of her decision. Ginsburg said the American Civil Liberties Union had made reasonable arguments on behalf of its client, identified in a filing as the Library Connection, an association of libraries in Connecticut. However, Ginsburg said that the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should be given time to consider...

2nd Circuit Upholds New York Handgun Limits Tuesday May 10, 2:59 am ET Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal New York state's handgun licensing scheme does not violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Upholding the dismissal of a suit brought by an out-of-state resident barred from being allowed to carry a handgun under the licensing scheme, the circuit also found in Bach v. Pataki, 03-9123, that the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV "cannot preclude New York's residency requirement in light of the State's substantial interest in monitoring...

<p>Yesterday's big legal news--no, not the charges against Michael Jackson--is that two federal appeals courts issued decisions ignoring the fact that the U.S. homeland was attacked on September 11.</p> <p>From New York comes a ruling by the Second Circuit ordering the release of alleged dirty bomber Jose Padilla. In San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit decided that the detainees at Guantanamo must have access to lawyers and the federal courts.</p>

<p>The $65 million seized by U.S. officials from a Baghdad-bound airplane yesterday may be used to pay the relatives of those killed in the September 11 attacks.</p> <p>Officials stymied the loading of the money after a federal court ordered that the cash remain in the United States until it can decided if it can be used to compensate the victim's families. The money was converted assets from the Saddam Hussein government.</p>