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WASHINGTON ---- Lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui petitioned the Supreme Court on Monday, challenging the government's right to put the terrorism suspect on trial while the defense had no access to potentially favorable al-Qaida witnesses. The written brief questioned whether Moussaoui's constitutional rights would be violated if the defense was forced to rely on government-prepared summaries of interrogation statements from three al-Qaida captives. A federal appeals court has approved use of the summaries after the government argued that more direct access to al-Qaida leaders - or even their classified interrogation statements - would jeopardize national security. The lawyers said it was...

The hearing is just about the start. John Howard's case will be heard by the 4th Circuit to determine if there should be a new election, if Donna Frye's write-in candidacy was invalid and other related issues.

UPI White House Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush slammed Democratic sidelining of his judicial nominees Wednesday, saying Senate Democrats were ignoring a federal judicial crisis and using issue litmus tests on those selected to sit on a federal bench. "These judges deserve better treatment in the United States Senate," he said. "A minority of senators apparently don't want judges who strictly interpret and apply the law. Evidently, they want activist judges who will rewrite the law from the bench." Bush made the comment in Raleigh, N.C., where he met with three of his picks whose...

LANSING, Mich. - President Bush travels to North Carolina and Michigan on Wednesday, this time to raise money and meet with nominees whose ascent to the federal appeals courts has been blocked by partisan differences. Bush plans to meet with North Carolina nominees to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and attend a fund-raiser in Raleigh earlier in the day. He then will meet in the afternoon in Pontiac, Mich., with the Michigan judicial nominees and attend a fund-raiser that evening at the home of major campaign donor in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. Bush's trip is being handled as an...

<p>A common refrain heard among the calls for ratification of the 26th Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, was that if people were old enough to fight and die for their country, they were old enough to vote. The same rationale that worked in 1971 could be dusted off today in the debate over prayer at colleges and universities, including many throughout Texas.</p>

WASHINGTON - President Bush re-nominated Claude A. Allen for a federal appeals court seat yesterday, putting the conservative Virginian back in the spotlight and re-igniting a battle that pitted Maryland's two Democratic senators against the White House last year. Allen was nominated last spring to fill a vacancy on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, formerly held by Francis D. Murnaghan Jr., a liberal from Baltimore who died in 2000.

<p>WASHINGTON — President Bush used his executive authority Friday to bypass Senate Democrats and install District Judge Charles Pickering (search) on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.</p> <p>The recess appointment, confirmed by Fox News on Friday, allows Pickering to skip confirmation by the deadlocked Senate and hold the seat until the next Congress takes office, which will be in January 2005.</p>

Republicans think this is last means to get judge to serve on 5th Circuit Court WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Trent Lott had been the lone vote against confirming a federal appeals court nominee because he disagreed with how former President Clinton gave the man a temporary appointment to the bench while Congress was out of town on recess. Now there's talk of pressing the White House to give Charles Pickering a so-called "recess appointment" to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and Lott has changed his way of thinking. "It's not something I'm generally supportive of," he told a Capitol...

<p>WASHINGTON - For a state steeped in tradition, President Bush's choice of a nonresident to take a Virginian's seat on the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stands out.</p> <p>The White House's mistaken labeling of Haynes as a Virginia resident was followed by a congressional leak, administration backpedaling and a correction. Virginia's senators, both Republicans, were not thrilled by the choice of a nonresident. The nominee has acted quickly to buy a house in Virginia.</p>

... the opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves in their own sphere of action but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch." - Thomas Jefferson It's about time that we all stood up and shouted, "We've had it, and we're not going to take it any more!" Right on the heels of a federal judge's order that, by virtue of a clause in the Constitution that does not happen to be in the Constitution but was...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 25 — The government has asked a judge to dismiss all charges against terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, according to a motion released Thursday. Prosecutors said they made the extraordinary request to hasten an appeal challenging the defendant’s right to question al-Qaida prisoners.

The Court's Gone Too Far in Purging Religion From the Square Clowns like Roy Moore would have a harder time rallying support if the justices displayed more common sense. by Stuart Taylor Jr. .... One way to get elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, it appears, is to thumb your nose at the U.S. Supreme Court. That's how an obscure circuit judge named Roy S. Moore got the job in November 2000. Now Moore has made an even bigger splash by clownishly defying (until recently) federal court orders requiring removal of the 5,280-pound granite monument to the...

CNSNews.com) - A group that claims to represent atheists in the U.S. military is protesting a decision by the Naval Academy to continue letting chaplains lead a mealtime prayer for midshipmen each weekday at lunch, arguing the practice violates the cadets' constitutional rights. Bart Meltzer, director of regional operations for American Atheists and a retired U.S. Navy veteran, said chaplain-led prayer creates the impression that the government is telling people that they have to hold specific beliefs, in violation of the Establishment Clause. "Even though it's non-denominational, it's still a religious belief. It does not matter what denomination it is...

<p>WASHINGTON - Claude A. Allen of Virginia received the lowest passing rating from an American Bar Association panel for his qualifications to sit on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.</p> <p>Allen, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was rated "qualified" by a "substantial majority" of the 15-member panel, and an undisclosed minority judged him "not qualified," a congressional aide said yesterday.</p>

Court denies rehearing enbanc by a vote of 7-5.

<p>Prosecutors urged a federal appeals court Tuesday to keep terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui from interviewing a senior al-Qaida operative, arguing he has no constitutional right to question an enemy combatant and disrupt a military interrogation.</p> <p>"The damage to the United States will be immediate and irreparable," Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff argued as he tried to convince the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that Moussaoui can receive a fair trial without access to the al-Qaida witness he demands.</p>

Court says Virginia Military Institute must stop prayer before supper. On April 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the tradition of voluntary supper prayer at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is an unconstitutional "establishment of religion." The unanimous decision for a three-judge panel was written by Judge Robert King, an appointee of President Bill Clinton. The Fourth Circuit covers North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland. The court sits in Richmond, Virginia. It's not the first time a court has addressed VMI affairs. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the...

The Naval Academy should review its practice of leading students in lunchtime prayer, the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland said yesterday. A federal appeals court decision involving the Virginia Military Institute raises serious legal questions about the practice, the group said. VMI's suppertime grace violated the First Amendment because of a "coercive atmosphere" that gave students little choice about participating, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction covers Maryland, Virginia and three other states, ruled Monday. "The logic of the decision applies directly to the Naval Academy practice," said Rebecca Glenberg, legal director of the ACLU of...

The long tradition of saying grace before meals at the state-supported Virginia Military Institute is unconstitutional, even though the prayers are voluntary, a federal appeals court panel ruled on Monday. "In establishing its supper prayer, VMI has done precisely what the First Amendment forbids," the three-judge panel said in its ruling, which upheld a lower-court decision. "Put simply, VMI's supper prayer exacts an unconstitutional toll on the consciences of religious objectors," wrote Judge Robert B. King. The federal appeals court panel said the nondenominational prayer, said before supper, is not really voluntary, given the strict obedience demanded of VMI cadets....

<p>RICHMOND, Va. — In an important victory for First Amendment groups, a federal appeals court ruled Monday that the traditional prayers said before evening meals at the Virginia Military Institute (search) are unconstitutional.</p> <p>The decision upholds a lower court ruling and emphasizes that the extraordinary obedience demanded of VMI cadets doesn't give them the freedom to choose not to participate in what's been called a non-denominational, voluntary dinner prayer.</p>