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California will go yet another year without an execution on the largest death row in the nation. The ongoing legal challenge to the state's lethal injection procedures will not be completed this year, resulting in further delays in the ability of state officials to carry out executions at San Quentin state prison. Lawyers for the state and for death row inmates revealed during a conference with a federal judge last week that they will not be ready for a hearing in the case until at least December, according to a transcript of the proceeding released Monday. The primary holdup in...

The now-retired federal judge who struck down California's ban on same-sex marriage shared his reflections with reporters for the first time Wednesday, saying that the trial should have been televised and that he never considered stepping aside because he is gay."If you thought a judge's sexuality, ethnicity, national origin (or) gender would prevent the judge from handling a case, that's a very slippery slope," former Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker told reporters in a conference room at the San Francisco courthouse where he served for 21 years."I don't think it's relevant," he said.Independent thinker Walker, 67, who retired from...

Madison -- Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi issued a temporary restraining order Friday, barring the publication of a controversial new law that would sharply curtail collective bargaining for public employees.Sumi’s order will prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law until she can rule on the merits of the case. Dane County Ismael Ozanne is seeking to block the law because he says a legislative committee violated the state’s open meetings law.Sumi said Ozanne was likely to succeed on the merits.

A recent Wall Street Journal article on how states are reducing their prison costs was illustrated with a photo of inmates being housed cheek-by-jowl in a California prison gymnasium. The article was also illustrated with a chart detailing how 31 states were reducing their prison spending. But California was not on the list for a very simple reason: It is not reducing prison spending, even though the number of its inmates is slowly declining. Gov. Jerry Brown's 2011-12 budget makes sharp reductions in spending on health and welfare services and higher education – permanent ones, he says – but would...

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court has upheld $78,000 in damages to illegal immigrants who were held at gunpoint by a rancher in the southern Arizona desert, a case that prompted death threats against a federal judge who was fatally shot last month in Tucson. U.S. District Judge John Roll was one of six people slain Jan. 8 when a gunman opened fire outside a supermarket at a crowd of constituents meeting with Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who was critically wounded. Jared Lee Loughner, 22, is being held in the slayings. Roll, 63, was killed nearly three years after...

OAKLAND -- In a victory for gay-rights advocates, a federal judge has ruled that state employees in California can sue for discrimination over the federal government's exclusion of their same-sex spouses from a long-term health care program. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland denied an Obama administration request to dismiss the suit Tuesday and signaled that she is likely to overturn provisions of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which denies federal benefits to same-sex couples. A federal judge in Massachusetts declared the law unconstitutional in July, a ruling the administration is appealing. President Obama has criticized the law,...

Here, for reasons that I shall provide in a memorandum to be filed in due course, I am certain that “a reasonable person with knowledge of all the facts would [not] conclude that [my] impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” United States v. Nelson, 718 F.2d 315, 321 (9th Cir. 1983); see also Sao Paulo State of the Federated Republic of Brazil v. Am. Tobacco Co., 535 U.S. 229, 233 (2002) (per curiam). I will be able to rule impartially on this appeal, and I will do so. The motion is therefore DENIED.

From the Courthouse News Service, a federal district judge has rejected a motion to dismiss the suit brought by the Obama Justice Department against the state of Arizona: PHOENIX (CN) – A federal judge rejected motions in which Gov. Jan Brewer, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu sought dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s new immigration law. The complaint filed by civil rights groups, including Friendly House and the American Civil Liberties Union, contains sufficient allegations that S.B. 1070 perceptibly impairs the ability of the organizational plaintiffs to provide the services that...

Federal judge issues nationwide injunction stopping enforcement

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has expressed a willingness to ban protesters from burning the Koran as the modern day equivalent of shouting fire in a crowded theater.The Supreme Court has ruled burning the American flag in protest is protected speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution.Breyer spoke to George Stephanopoulos on ABC's Good Morning America today:But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on "GMA" that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.“Holmes said it doesn’t mean you can shout 'fire' in a crowded theater,” Breyer...

Another federal judge has decided to impose her personal views on the nation's laws so that they will favor homosexual conduct. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips declared unconstitutional the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law that prohibits homosexuals from serving openly in the military. Not that it is any of her business. Judge Phillips' finding arose from a suit filed by the Log Cabin Republicans against the Clinton-era law. This Clinton-era judge invoked a "heightened scrutiny" test, which allowed her not only to analyze the direct effects of the law on homosexuals in uniform, but also to expostulate...

California State University at Stanislaus and its private foundation violated public records laws and will have to release the speakers contract with Sarah Palin they had tried to keep secret, a judge has ruled. The details of Palin's contract to speak at a June 25 fundraiser for the foundation became national news last spring after foundation officials refused to tell state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, how much Palin would be paid. Yee has been trying to change a state law that shields campus foundations from public scrutiny. The Palin story grew more bizarre in April after students found discarded...

When 52 percent of California voters passed Proposition 8 in November 2008, Attorney General Jerry Brown said he would defend the measure during the inevitable appeals. Then, as is his fashion, Brown changed his mind. Ditto Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who twice vetoed same-sex marriage bills passed by the Legislature in deference to California voters who passed an earlier same-sex marriage statute in 2000. But after Prop. 8 passed, both refused to defend the measure. This month, after U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that Prop. 8 is unconstitutional, both Brown and Schwarzenegger urged Walker to lift a stay on his...

When a federal judge last week struck down California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional, proponents of same-sex marriage cheered the decision at rallies in West Hollywood and San Francisco. Public displays of displeasure at U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker's ruling were far and few between. But Walker's decision struck an angry chord with many who voted for Proposition 8 in 2008. On Thursday, he extended a temporary hold on his order until Wednesday to give sponsors of the measure time to appeal the ruling. What was once a moral argument has morphed into a debate over the democratic process...

A San Francisco appellate court let stand Thursday a judge's order blocking furloughs for state workers. The decision by the First District Court of Appeal means that workers will not be furloughed -- at least temporarily.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Lesbian and gay couples were lining up this morning at the San Francisco clerk's office, hours before a judge is expected to rule on whether same-sex marriages can resume while his landmark decision in the case is appealed. Rod Wood, 56, and his boyfriend of seven years, Roger Hunt, 52, were the first in line at San Francisco City Hall. The San Francisco couple said they wanted to be there in case the window of opportunity to wed was small. Wood proposed to Hunt two days ago, and the couple got rings Wednesday night at the Stonestown...

SAN FRANCISCO – The federal judge who overturned California's same-sex marriage ban is set to rule Thursday on whether gay marriages should resume immediately in the state or await an appeals court's input. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker announced late Wednesday that he would issue his decision by noon on requests to impose a stay that would keep Proposition 8 in effect while its sponsors appeal his decision.

The judge who threw out California's ban on gay marriage said Wednesday he is prepared to decide whether to stay his ruling pending appeal. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, chief of the court in San Francisco, ruled last week that Proposition 8, adopted by California voters in 2008, is unconstitutional. The court said he plans to issue his decision on a stay Thursday morning. Walker issued a temporary stay last week. If he decides to keep his ruling from taking effect pending appeal, same-sex couples might be barred from marriage in California for several years, the Los Angeles Times said....

An Alameda Superior Court judge Monday temporarily barred Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from imposing new furloughs on state workers beginning Friday. Judge Steven A. Brick ruled that there are "serious questions" about the legality of the furloughs and that permitting them before a scheduled Sept. 13 court hearing could cause irreparable harm. "The court finds, on the limited record before it, that the balance of hardships tips in favor of petitioners," states Brick's ruling, which is intended to preserve the status quo until both sides have had ample opportunity to press their case. Schwarzenegger, through a spokesman, vowed an immediate appeal...

The federal judge who overturned California's same-sex marriage ban this week is a Republican who once came under fire for his membership to a powerful all-male club that had only recently allowed blacks to join. But after Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker struck down the voter-approved ban known as Proposition 8, he became something else in the minds of some: a gay activist. Rumors have circulated for months that Walker is gay, fueled by the blogosphere and a San Francisco Chronicle column that stated his sexual orientation was an "open secret" in legal and gay activism circles. Walker himself hasn't...