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Jean Duley testified that she was "scared to death" of Bruce Ivins after he left her a string of harassing phone messages, according to an audio recording taken during a July 24 peace order hearing. Duley, 45, told Judge Milnor Roberts that Ivins planned to "go out in a blaze of glory," had bought a bulletproof vest and a gun and planned to kill his co-workers. The audio recording was obtained by The Frederick News-Post on Monday. Duley told the court she got to know Ivins while running group and individual counseling sessions at the Comprehensive Counseling Associates in Frederick...

Start immediate investigation of Barack Obama's use of forged IDs and a CT SSN which was never assigned to him according to e-verify -- 19,362 Letters and Emails Sent So Far. On April 15, 2010 Obama posted his 2009 tax returns on line. He forgot to flatten the PDF file and his full unredacted Social Security number xxx-xx-4425 became known to the public. This number immediately raised suspicions of Attorney Orly Taitz, as it started with 042, a digit combination which was assigned to the state of CT and Obama was never a resident of CT. E-verify and SSNVS showed...

An abortion test begins today for the Roberts Supreme Court, one that will shed some light on whether the Roberts years are likely to be genuinely conservative ones. Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England -- a case about New Hampshire's parental-consent laws -- will have practical consequences for states that reject the no-questions-asked abortion culture. At immediate issue is whether state parental-consent laws must make exceptions for an underage mother's health, not just her possible death, as New Hampshire's 2003 law did. New Hampshire was one of only five states nationwide whose law did not make the health...

Ever since President George W. Bush nominated John Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, legal analysts have said that the 50-year-old jurist is an exceptional lawyer, and clearly he is. Only the most skilled of attorneys could so deftly say so little in such a great expanse of time. But don't fault Roberts for the evasions in his confirmation hearings. He's merely playing by the established rules of America's dysfunctional, overly politicized judicial confirmation process. It's a process for which Roe v. Wade bears much of the blame. On the question of that 1973 Supreme Court ruling, which came up...

Glug, Glug, Glug . . . Well, as usual, we guessed wrong. Two weeks ago we confidently predicted that Sen. Hillary Clinton would vote with the majority of the Democrats on the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts. The red-blue divide was clear. Democrats from states where George W. Bush beat John Kerry* favored Roberts 13-3, while Kerry-carry-staters opposed him 19-10. As for Mrs. Clinton, her vote shows her to be an extremist, to the left even of the Democratic Party. As New York's other senator might say, she has drifted far outside the mainstream and is headed for an...

All 55 Senate Republicans are expected to vote to confirm John Roberts as chief justice of the United States. The 44 Senate Democrats are less unified, and independent James Jeffords of Vermont has not announced his position. Democrats who have announced their support for Roberts (17):Max Baucus of Montana, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Carl Levin...

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Thank you, Mr. Chairman. One, I hope Senator Feingold has a long life and he sees many Supreme Court justices come and go. If I can do what my predecessor did, Senator Feingold, I have 50 more years to serve. (LAUGHTER) So this court will flip over four or five times. And I'm going to miss most of you all, by the way. (LAUGHTER) Senator Biden gave me some good advice when I first came to the Senate. He was gracious enough to come down and speak at Senator Thurmond's funeral upon his passing. And I really do like Senator...

WASHINGTON - It's official. The long-anticipated Senate battle over the first vacancy on the US Supreme Court in 11 years has been downgraded to a skirmish, as both sides position for the next, more critical court fight. With three Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voting to confirm John Roberts as chief justice Thursday, the last prospect for a party-line stand to block the nomination on the Senate floor next week expired.

REPORT: Hillary Clinton announces she'll vote 'NO' on Roberts... Developing...

All 55 Senate Republicans are expected to vote for John Roberts' confirmation as Supreme Court chief justice next week. The 44 Democrats are less unified. Democrats who have announced their support for Roberts (8): Bill Nelson of Florida, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, Max Baucus of Montana, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Kent Conrad of North Dakota. Democrats who voted for Roberts on the Judiciary Committee (3): Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Herb Kohl of Wisconsin.

There's no dispute that chief justice nominee John Roberts met with high-level White House officials while his appellate court was considering a case of enormous importance to the Bush administration, on the president's power to try battlefield captives and foreign terror suspects before military commissions. There is considerable dispute, among legal ethics experts as well as supporters and opponents of Roberts, about whether his contacts amounted to a conflict of interest that should have disqualified him from the case. "A reasonable person might question his impartiality when he sat on an appellate panel that directly and widely expanded the president's...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- While the Congressional Black Caucus announced Tuesday that it opposes the confirmation of Supreme Court Chief Justice-nominee John Roberts, the Senate's lone black member, Sen. Barack Obama, remained undecided, Obama's spokesman said. The Illinois Democrat will not take a position on President Bush's nominee until he has at least met privately with Roberts, spokesman Tommy Vietor said. Roberts and Obama were scheduled to meet at the senator's Capitol Hill office Wednesday, just a couple of hours before Obama is to deliver the keynote address to the Congressional Black Caucus Weekend Kick-Off at the Washington Convention Center. Even...

Reid Pushed By Liberal Groups In Opposing Judge Roberts: "The Senate Democratic Leader, Harry Reid Of Nevada, Said ... That He Would Oppose The Confirmation Of Judge John G. Roberts Jr. As Chief Justice, Surprising Both The White House And Fellow Democrats Still Conflicted About How To Vote." (Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David D. Kirkpatrick, "Top Democrat Says He'll Vote No On Roberts," The New York Times, 9/21/05) "'He Got The Message Loud And Clear, Didn't He?' Kim Gandy, President Of The National Organization For Women, Said Of Mr. Reid On Tuesday." (Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David D. Kirkpatrick, "Top...

In his calculated genuflections to Democrats in the Senate, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts left himself more wiggle room than it sometimes sounded. And it wasn't just on abortion. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., was interested in Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 case that banned segregation in public schools. William Rehnquist, the late chief justice, had expressed his doubts about that case half a century ago. How about the new chief justice? Would he be sensitive, Kennedy asked, to minorities who were not asking for a handout, but a hand up? Certainly. Roberts expressed his sensitivity. He blessed the...

Here is a quick photo tour of this week's headlines...from a child's perspective. Enjoy! Dad's big meetings start. How cool that I get to be here! --- He's gonna be the strongest man in the world after this. --- Great start, dad. They're scared of you now. --- Those guys are mean and not very smart, dad. --- This is really boring. Is it time to go home yet? --- Good job, dad.

The question of whether Judge John Roberts is qualified to be chief justice of the United States has been rendered moot by his performance in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. He is so obviously -- ridiculously -- well-equipped to lead government's third branch that it is hard to imagine how any Democrats can justify a vote against his confirmation. Start with his intellect. This is a man whose knowledge of constitutional law goes well beyond his intimate familiarity with seemingly every Supreme Court decision. It is rooted in a thorough understanding of American history. He quotes Hamilton in the Federalist...

WASHINGTON -- The only real question left about Supreme Court nominee John Roberts is how many Democrats will vote for him to become the nation's 17th chief justice. This week's grueling four-day Senate confirmation hearings only confirmed for most of the Senate's majority Republicans their contention that President Bush's pick to succeed William H. Rehnquist is the perfect choice. Since Democrats don't plan to filibuster, they must decide if it's worth casting a symbolic vote against the 50-year-old Roberts, knowing they can't stop his confirmation and that Bush will soon choose another conservative to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor,...

Using Foreign Law Is The Real Supreme Court Test By Kevin Fobbs The Supreme Court may not continue to be the supreme court of the land if the judicial philosophy of Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer of using foreign law rulings in adjudicating American cases is permitted to become standard practice by the justices. Even as the confirmation battle rages over the US Senate hearing for D.C. Federal Appeals Court Judge John Robert's bid to become the next chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, there is another more pressing battle in our nation's capitol. Unfortunately...

WASHINGTON -- Paris Hilton's name made John Roberts' Supreme Court nomination a bit sexier Thursday. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., interrupted the Judiciary Committee's somber discussion of constitutional matters with the suggestion that a recent case involving the hotel heiress should serve as a precedent for protecting the Senate panel's stolen records. Last year, Republican staffers were caught snooping through Democratic computer files, some of which outlined strategy for blocking Bush's judicial nominees. A world away, Hilton — whose sex video with an ex-boyfriend became a cyberspace novelty — was the victim of a teenage hacker who broke into T-Mobile's computer...