Free Republic

NASHVILLE — The state has asked a federal appeals court to lift a temporary restraining order that has delayed the execution of death row inmate Philip Workman set for this week. In a motion filed today with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, the state seeks an expedited action to overturn the order handed down Friday by a U.S. District Court judge in Nashville. The state is hoping to get the restraining order overturned and put Workman's execution, set for Wednesday, back on track. Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr. argues in the filing that the restraining order...

San Francisco (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday barred the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa nationwide, ruling that the government didn't adequately study the biotechnology crop's potential to mix with organic and conventional varieties. U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer made permanent a temporary ban he ordered in March on alfalfa with genetic material from bacteria that makes the crop resistant to a popular weed killer. The ruling is a major victory for anti-biotech crusaders, who have been fighting the proliferation of genetically engineered crops. It is the first ban placed on such crops since the first variety —...

SACRAMENTO -- One of the most powerful figures in state government is a cranky authoritarian who can spend unlimited amounts of taxpayer money, overrule high-ranking bureaucrats and sidestep long-standing laws. From a nondescript office building in San Jose, Bob Sillen uses his unprecedented authority to tackle one of the toughest jobs in California: rebuilding the medical care system for the state's 172,000 prison inmates. Sillen, who earns $500,000 a year, was appointed by a federal court judge to bring prison medical services up to "constitutional standards." He has, in effect, replaced the governor, Legislature and top corrections officials as chief...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A state appeals court has given San Francisco a chance to reinstate an affirmative action program for minority and female contractors, saying a history of discrimination may justify preferential treatment despite California's Proposition 209. A judge who struck down the 20-year-old program in 2004 failed to review San Francisco's claims that long-standing and pervasive discrimination by both city employees and contractors resulted in firms owned by minorities and women being illegally excluded from winning city business, the First District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday. If San Francisco can prove those claims, it may be able to show...

An Alameda County judge rejected last-minute pleas from state water officials and instead finalized his order that they shut off massive Delta pumps in 60 days unless they can comply with the state law that protects endangered species such as Delta smelt and salmon. The California Department of Water Resources said it would appeal Wednesday's ruling and warned of dire economic repercussions should the pumps be shut off. The State Water Project delivers water to 25 million people from the Bay Area to San Diego, but a shutdown would probably most severely affect Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore. The Zone 7...

A federal judge has ordered the Marines to discharge a San Jose lance corporal as a "conscientious objector" who had an aversion to killing and participating in war. Robert Zabala, 23, must be released from the Marines Corps Reserves by mid-April, U.S. District Judge James Ware said in a 21-page ruling Thursday. "We're very pleased with it," Zabala's attorney, Stephen Collier, said Monday. "I think it's a good decision and that it makes clear to the armed services that they can't deny conscientious-objector discharges from the military." Zabala, a UC Santa Cruz student, began boot camp in June 2003. During...

San Francisco (AP) -- A federal judge on Friday tossed out new Bush administration rules that gave national forest managers more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews. U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that the government failed to adequately consider the effects the rules would have on the environment and neglected to properly gather public comment on the issue. Hamilton said in her written decision that the government couldn't institute the new rules until proper environmental reviews were conducted, but she declined to specify how the nation's 155 national forests should be managed...

Officials must first get permission to kill protected wildlife - The state must stop running the giant pumps that send water to Southern California unless wildlife officials approve the continued killing of protected salmon and Delta smelt, a judge ruled today. The decision by Judge Frank Roesch of Alameda County Superior Court gives the state Department of Water Resources 60 days to get the necessary permission from wildlife officials. Granting permission could, in turn, require massive efforts to increase salmon and smelt populations elsewhere. Many environmentalists blame the exporting of Northern California water for causing sharp declines in the number...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge ruled Friday that a former escort service owner cannot sell phone records and other company records, saving about 15,000 clients from possible public embarrassment. Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 50, has said she planned to sell the list to a news organization to help raise money for her defense. The alleged "D.C. Madam" ran Pamela Martin and Associates, an upscale escort service in the Washington area, for 13 years before it closed in August. Federal prosecutors say it was a prostitution ring that yielded $2 million in assets, including cash and homes. In October, the federal...

San Francisco (AP) -- A ski area on a northern Arizona mountain may not use treated wastewater to make snow because that would violate the rights of American Indian tribes that consider the peak sacred, a federal appeals court has ruled. The Arizona Snowbowl on the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff wanted to add a fifth chair lift, spray man-made snow and clear about 100 acres of forest to extend its ski season. However, the Navajo Nation and a dozen other Southwest tribes filed suit to block the project, arguing that it would violate their religious freedom. The lawsuit...

A Superior Court judge in New Jersey says homeschooling is just about the same as deliberate child abuse. In fact, he says, he just might name a school district in his state as a defendant in a current court dispute, citing the district's "shocking" failure to monitor and test all students – including homeschoolers. "In today's threatening world, where we seek to protect children from abuse, not just physical, but also educational abuse, how can we not monitor the educational welfare of all our children? A child in New Jersey, who recently was found unfed and locked in a putrid...

CARMEL, Calif. - The city cannot get rid of Carmel's historic Flanders mansion. Reversing a City Council decision to sell the mansion, Superior Court Judge Robert O'Farrell ruled the city must keep and maintain it."It's a great victory for the movement for the preservation" Flanders Foundation member Melanie Billig said Tuesday.The city scheduled a closed council meeting this week to discuss the future of Flanders. Councilman Gerard Rose declined comment.The council decided in 2005 that selling the mansion to a private party would provide the city with revenue while putting the house in hands that could properly care for the...

MIAMI - A federal appeals court on Tuesday reinstated a key terrorism charge, the only one carrying a potential life sentence, against alleged al-Qaida operative Jose Padilla. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with federal prosecutors in Miami that the charge that the U.S. citizen and his two co-defendants conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas did not duplicate other counts in the indictment. The Atlanta-based court reversed a decision last summer by U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who said the three charges in the indictment contained nearly identical elements and could subject...

A judge issued a preliminary injunction today stopping the construction of a $125 million athletic training center and other facilities near the University of California, Berkeley's football stadium. The order by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Barbara Miller keeps in force a stay that was issued on Dec. 22 and temporarily prevented the university from going forward with the project. Miller held a daylong hearing on the issue last Tuesday and her ruling was made public today. The UC Board of Regents Grounds and Building Committee voted 7-0 on Dec. 5 to approve the project, which calls for 451,000 square...

SAN DIEGO -- A federal judge has upheld a suburban San Diego high school's dress code, rejecting a challenge by a student who got pulled from class for wearing a T-shirt with anti-gay language. Tyler Chase Harper sued the Poway Unified School District in 2004 to overturn a policy that says the schools will aim to reduce or prevent "hate behavior," including threats and attacks based on sexual orientation. The student claimed the policy limited free speech. The front of Harper's T-shirt read, "Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27." The back read, "Be ashamed. Our school has embraced what God has...

Los Angeles -- A Senegalese man held for two years while his immigration case is pending should be released unless the government can show he's a danger or flight risk, a judge said. Friday's opinion came after attorneys for Amadou Lamine Diouf challenged the government's decision to hold him without a bond hearing. U.S. District Judge Terry Hatter ordered a hearing in the matter and said an immigration judge should free Diouf "unless the government shows by clear and convincing evidence that the petitioner presents a sufficient danger or risk of flight to justify his detention in light of how...

CINCINNATI - A veteran federal appeals judge has turned up the volume in his opposition to the death penalty, drawing increasing attention with his unusually blunt and outspoken opinions. Former Chief Judge Boyce Martin, a Jimmy Carter appointee on one of the most sharply divided appeals courts, is building a reputation for his stand, such as with a dissent that Capital Defense Weekly described as blistering. Some experts believe the U.S. Supreme Court is watching what's happening in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and other circuits before it takes another look at the death penalty or, at least,...

THE LATEST federal judge to rule against the constitutionality of a state's death penalty is U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel, who issued a ruling Friday that found California's lethal injection protocol to be "intolerable under the Constitution." Chalk up the ruling as a victory for Michael Morales, who was sentenced to death for raping and murdering 17-year-old Terri Winchell of Lodi in 1981. Time is on his side. The decision was not your standard slam-dunk ruling against the death penalty. Fogel was careful to note that capital punishment is constitutional and that California's three-drug execution protocol "when properly administered will...

After a botched execution that took 34 minutes to end a convicted murderer’s life, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has suspended all death sentences until a commission can review lethal-injection procedures “to ensure they don’t inflict cruel and unusual punishment on their helpless victims.” In a gesture of goodwill, Florida’s leading association of murderers also announced a temporary hold on premeditated and/or serial killings as well as brutal rapes, according to a spokesman, “until we can determine if some of our victims experience discomfort or pain.” The Sunshine State Coalition of Capital Criminals released the statement through its ACLU attorney, pledging...

A federal judge declares California's application of the current method of execution unconstitutional. But in a grand gesture of understanding says that ... "it can be fixed" See more at the link...