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One of two women accused of scrapping with an anti-abortion protester in front of Flagstaff City Hall has decided to accept six months of unsupervised probation to make the charges go away. Denise Redsteer, 48, accepted a "deferred prosecution" Friday in Flagstaff Municipal Court, said City Prosecutor Lisa Stankovich. Deferred prosecution does not admit guilt, and if Redsteer successfully completes the terms of her probation, the charges against her will be dismissed. Stankovich said that Redsteer has also agreed to pay a $150 prosecution fee and not commit any criminal offenses during the probationary period. Flagstaff attorney, Mik Jordhal, who...

Judiciary: The nominee for a California federal district court is an ACLU activist and another advocate for the empathy standard of jurisprudence. He also has a problem with "America the Beautiful." The nomination of Edward Chen is the latest in a series of nominations of people who have no particular fondness for the traditions of law and justice. These nominees see racism everywhere, and believe the courts should be used as instruments of social justice and not to discern the intent of the Founding Fathers who wrote the U.S. Constitution. They believe their "life experience" should be the final arbiter...

KNOXVILLE - For the first time in Knox County judicial history, a judge will instruct the jury in the trial of convicted torture-slaying ringleader Lemaricus Davidson that it is more expensive to execute someone than to sentence them to spend the rest of their life in prison. At the request of defense attorney Doug Trant, Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner said this morning that he will tell jurors that a 2004 study by the state Comptroller's Office concluded that execution is a more expensive form of punishment than life without parole

MOBILE, Ala. — A former Alabama judge was cleared Monday of charges accusing him of paddling and sexually abusing male inmates. Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas was found not guilty on seven counts after more than a week of testimony. A judge threw out the remaining 14 charges. Defense attorneys had painted the 48-year-old as a prominent civic leader who became a victim of felons lying about him to manipulate the court system. Prosecutors said Thomas brought 11 young male inmates to a private courthouse office and severely paddled their bare bottoms for sexual gratification. Some of the...

HAMMOND, La. (AP) - A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Indiana Court of Appeals has ruled that Indiana's voter identification law is unconstitutional. 6News is looking through the 29-page ruling now and will provide details from it as soon as possible. The decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state's voter ID law in 2008, a week before the presidential primary, in a splintered 6-3 ruling. Backers of the law, which requires a voter to present a photo identification to cast a ballot, said it curbs voter fraud. Those against the law contend that it keeps poor, older and minority voters from casting ballots. The...

Christian girl ordered to attend public schoolMom's religious views ripped by court By Julia Duin A New Hampshire court ordered a home-schooled Christian girl to attend a public school this week after a judge criticized the "rigidity" of her mother's religious views and said the 10-year-old needed to consider other worldviews as she matures. Ever since the judge's ruling came out in July, the case has aroused the interest of home-schooling groups nationwide, whohave asked why a court has the power to decide whether someone's religious views are too extreme. The girl's mother, Brenda Voydatch, has engaged the Alliance Defense...

DAYTONA BEACH -- The men's restroom on the second floor of the Volusia Mall Sears is no place for children, police said Wednesday with the release of surveillance photos of a man believed to have made sexual advances toward a 13-year-old boy. "Our biggest fear is children going into these bathrooms, especially with these predators circling around," Police Chief Mike Chitwood said. "It was just a matter of time before something like this was going to happen." The boy, visiting from Illinois with his godparents, was propositioned two weeks ago in the restroom, Chitwood said. The man was in a...

California’s prisons are so overcrowded that the state is violating inmates’ constitutional rights, three federal judges ruled today in a decision imposing a cap on the prison population that will force the state to release nearly 43,000 prisoners over the next two years....The ruling by three federal judges stems from challenges by two inmates alleging that the state’s network of 33 prisons is so overcrowded that they are denied adequate health care and treatment of mental illnesses. California’s prisons, designed to hold 84,000 inmates, house 158,000, much of the overflow contained in converted sports facilities arrayed with triple-tier bunks. That...

Judicial Activism on Display by: Bethany Stotts, July 21, 2009 Ever wonder what Constitutional law will look like in 2020? While President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court raises the question of just how much judicial activism the administration intends to foster, writings from some of his nominees also demonstrate how the President prefers progressive jurisprudence. “The editors of this book challenged the contributors to be proactive and visionary, to look ahead to the year 2020 and contemplate constitutional change we hope to promote between now and then,” wrote Indiana University Prof. Dawn Johnsen in The...

For all the publicity about the Supreme Court's 5-4 reversal of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's decision (with two colleagues) to reject a discrimination suit by a group of firefighters against New Haven, Conn., one curious aspect of the case has been largely overlooked.That is the likelihood that but for a chance discovery by a fourth member of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, the now-triumphant 18 firefighters (17 white and one Hispanic) might well have seen their case, Ricci v. DeStefano, disappear into obscurity, with no triumph, no national publicity and no Supreme Court review.

Judicial Sleight of Hand by: Brittany Fortier, July 06, 2009 Judge David Hamilton of the Southern District of Indiana, who has been nominated by the Obama administration to serve on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, proposes to bring an even more activist approach to the federal judiciary. For example, in A Woman’s Choice v. Newman, Hamilton issued an injunction against an Indiana law requiring abortion clinics to give women information about alternatives to abortion and requiring an 18-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., points out. He called Hamilton’s ruling “questionable,” while the Seventh Circuit...

A federal jury Thursday found a 32-year-old Minnesota woman guilty of illegally downloading music from the Internet and fined her $80,000 each — a total of $1.9 million — for 24 songs. Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s case was the first such copyright infringement case to go to trial in the United States, her attorney said. Attorney Joe Sibley said that his client was shocked at fine, noting that the price tag on the songs she downloaded was 99 cents...

<p>LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) - A California judge signed a dismissal order Wednesday detailing the massive fraud perpetrated against U.S. food giant Dole designed to collect billions of dollars through false claims of harm to Nicaraguan banana plantation workers.</p>

Livin’ La Vida Sonia by: Brittany Fortier, June 16, 2009 While Senate leaders discussed when the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor would take place, a panel hosted by the American Constitutional Society on June 10, 2009 debated the issues surrounding the controversial nominee.* Moderator Dahlia Lithwick, a senior editor and correspondent for Slate magazine, began by asking the panelists to define and discuss terms such as “judicial activism” and “empathy.” Cristina Rodriguez, Professor of law at New York University School of Law, argued that “judicial activism” refers to instances “when a court strikes down an action by the political...

Republicans will mount a rigorous review of her thoughts on the role of the courts in American life. Where we agree, we will say it. Where we disagree, we will say it loudly. Senate confirmation hearings serve as a platform to examine the judicial philosophy of potential Supreme Court justices... President Obama has also stated that judicial “empathy” is an important standard for Supreme Court nominees – the ability for a nominee to see beyond the facts of the case and personally indentify with people the ruling will affect. “Empathy” has no place in a court room, especially the Supreme...

Breaking on CNBC: USSC delays Chyrsler asset sale! Mourdock: USe of Tarp Funds in automotive industry was illegal Obama admin had urged USSC NOT to keep chrysler deal on hold

Sonia & the Supremes by: Brittany Fortier, June 08, 2009 The Judicial Confirmation Network has sent a letter to all Republican Senators concerning the courtesy visits that Judge Sonia Sotomayor will soon be making to their offices. “Senate Republicans have been working since January … to figure out the right approach to Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination,” said Wendy Long of The Judicial Confirmation Network. At the weekly bloggers meeting that is held at the Heritage Foundation, Long said that Senate Republican leaders have “stressed that nothing is off the table, including a filibuster. We want to have all the...

Is Judge Sonia Sotomayor a judicial activist? Just hours after Sotomayor's selection to fill the upcoming vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, special interest groups began the hunt for the dreaded activist in her, sifting decisions and speeches for evidence. Soon she will answer her critics' drumbeat of accusations of judicial activism in her confirmation hearings -- a familiar drumbeat today wherever a judge or a nominee sits on the political spectrum. Judicial activism means different things to scholars, politicians and special interest groups. But the term is often used in political rhetoric to identify decisions with which people disagree...

A mob of furious neighbors of an 11-year-old girl raped on her way to school in Philadelphia won't be charged for beating a man wanted for questioning in the case.

Leading conservatives, including radio firebrand Rush Limbaugh and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, have ripped Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the president's Supreme Court pick, for being a racist. But Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, doesn't buy it. "I don't agree with that. And frankly, I think it's a little premature and early, because she hasn't had a chance to explain some of these comments that she's made," Hatch said on CNN this week. It was just one of a number of national interviews Hatch has given since President Barack Obama tapped Sotomayor to fill...

The hearing today turned contentious when District Attorney David Prater asked the judge not to bar Ersland from access to a gun while at the store. He argued Ersland still has a right to defend himself and pharmacy employees if the store is robbed again. He said the restriction either meant Ersland would be fired from his job or crooks now know it is "open season" at the pharmacy if Ersland is there. The district attorney said his position sounds crazy but under the law Ersland has the right to protect himself. At one point, spectators clapped. Defense attorney Irven...

1) If we allow jurists which believe they can make their decisions according to “empathy” rather than rule of law (applied equally) whether someone is a man or a woman, white or a persona of color, 2) Then the law becomes illegitimate when it is APPLIED unequally. 3) If the law is applied arbitrarily according to someone’s feelings, and “Justice is not blind”, then I can not expect a fair (blind) and just ruling when I am brought before the law (or I bring suit), The law becomes illegitimate 4) If the Law is illegitimate then our system of law/jurisprudence...

She's going to be a member of the nation's Supreme Court????? Would you expect anything less from Obama? Sonia Sotomayor - "And I know this is on tape and I should never say that, because we don't make law." http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5ac_1243345628

Senior presidential adviser David Axelrod said Obama wanted someone whose judicial philosophy is similar to his. He wanted someone who would appreciate constitutional principles but "be ready to adapt them to a modern context."

Link to YouTube video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfC99LrrM2Q

If one wants a nearly thorough education about the U.S. Constitution, it would be wise to examine the following: the notes from the Constitutional Convention, the public editorials written both for and against the proposed Constitution that followed, the state ratification debates, and the actual document itself. These all give one an almost comprehensive knowledge of the U.S. Constitution, although, as any law student will explain, modern constitutional law consists solely of Supreme Court cases mostly from the last 50-100 years. So why should someone bother wasting time on the above-mentioned items when they’re no longer relevant to our federal...

founders of America designed our system of government so that policy would be created by the representatives of the people/states in Congress, with the President’s approval (subject to Congressional override) needed before any given policy is made into law. The courts were intended to simply apply law created by Congress and approved by the President to a given situation. But the courts have long since began to make policy on their own. The states were prohibited from making abortion illegal, for instance, not through a vote of Congress but rather through the arbitrary fiat of unelected judges. That’s now how...

In a 9-0 decision, the justices say the crime is limited to those who knew they had stolen another person's Social Security number. The decision limits efforts to prosecute illegal workers. Reporting Form Washington -- The Supreme Court today took away one tool for prosecuting and deporting workers who are in this country illegally, ruling that the crime of identity theft is limited to those who knew they had stolen another person's Social Security number. The 9-0 decision overturns part of an Illinois man's conviction for using false documents. The court agreed he could be imprisoned for using an ID...

Retiring Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter has handed President Barack Obama his first chance to nominate a judge to the nation's highest court. Sand-blasting "Equal Justice Under Law" from the Courthouse should commence if the Senate confirms a nominee who matches Obama's criteria for judges. Souter advised Obama that he will be retiring from the Court at the completion of its term on June 30. Souter took the oath of office on October 9, 1990, swung left and never turned back. While Souter's replacement won't change the Court's so-called "balance," it will solidify it for years to come. Souter...

Look for someone to the left of Darth Vader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor in her own words saying "the Court of Appeals (where she is) is where policy is made" Jay Sekulow said this woman believes in a "living" constitution and this video proves it...get ready, this is gonna be a long 4 years...

Courtesy of www.verumserum.com. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, considered a leading contender to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court, speaks on a panel at Duke Univ. Law School in 2005. She is responding to a question on the pros and cons of different types of judicial clerkships.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT)appeared on "This Week" today to discuss President Obama's pick to replace Justice David Souter. He is concernced that Obama might pick a judicial activist instead of someone who bases decisions on the law. Hatch claims that Obama's desire to choose a judge based on the nominee's "personal politics, personal feelings and personal preferences" are "code words for an activist judge who is going to be partisan on the bench". I agree. To me, it sounds like he wants a judge who will rule on emotion rather than fact and that is dangerous. He wants someone who...

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch believes the president has used code words indicating he wants to appoint an activist to the Supreme Court, who will push a liberal agenda. Hatch zeroed in on Obama's use of the word empathy in describing what he will look for in a new justice. In announcing Souter's retirement on Friday, Obama said: "I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes." Hatch said that statement translates into a partisan on the bench instead of an impartial arbitrator. "He...

Two states have legalized same-sex marriage in the past two weeks, but when it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are still a minority. That minority is on an upward trajectory though and Scott Barclay, political scientist at the State University of New York at Albany, explains why: newspapers. In the last two weeks, two states have legalized same-sex marriage. First, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled that a law banning same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Then Vermont became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage through its legislature. When it comes to public opinion, supporters of gay marriage are...

Looks like a historic legal battle is shaping up over polygamy, the outcome of which will surely be determined by the Supreme Court of Canada. I understand why, for political reasons, the government feels compelled to fight polygamy tooth and nail, but I suspect the government will lose. The polygamists have what seems to be an unassailable constitutional position. If polygamy is an expression of their religion, and if the participants are all consenting adults, then I don't see how the state can say no. Note the words "consenting" and "adults". No court would allow you to take a child...

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer – 2 mins ago WASHINGTON – A federal appeals court has ruled that a Marine cannot sue Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha for defamation. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich of Meriden, Conn., claimed Murtha damaged his reputation by saying he and his comrades killed women and children "in cold blood" in Haditha, Iraq, in November 2005. Murtha argued he has immunity from the lawsuit because he was acting in his official role as a lawmaker...

Over five months after the election, a three-judge panel has declared Democrat Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota U.S. Senate race. The judges issued their final ruling late Monday, stating "Franken received the highest number of lawfully cast ballots in the Nov. 4, 2008 general election." They also have determined that Franken is entitled to receive the certificate of election. Last week, Republican Norm Coleman suffered a blow after a few hundred previously rejected absentee ballots were opened and counted at the tail end of Coleman's lawsuit contesting his loss in a statewide recount. They broke almost 2-to-1 for...

GREELEY, Colo. — A state judge here ordered a halt Monday to a controversial identity theft investigation that has implicated more than 1,000 suspected illegal immigrants, ruling that the search at the start of the investigation was unlawful and violated privacy rights. The judge, James H. Hiatt of Colorado District Court, ruled that the Weld County Sheriff’s Office lacked probable cause last October when investigators seized thousands of tax returns and other documents from a Greeley tax preparer, Amalia Cerrillo, the owner of Amalia’s Translation and Tax Services. Local authorities used the documents in arresting dozens of suspects, most of...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — In wide-ranging remarks here, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended the use of foreign law by American judges, suggested that torture should not be used even when it might yield important information and reflected on her role as the Supreme Court’s only female justice. ... “I frankly don’t understand all the brouhaha lately from Congress and even from some of my colleagues about referring to foreign law,” Justice Ginsburg said in her comments on Friday. The court’s more conservative members — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr., Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas...

A Nevada school district agreed to pay $400,000 to a Muslim girl and her friend over allegations that other students threatened to kill her in the stairwell for wearing a religious head scarf and the staff did nothing to stop it.

- - Absentee ballots to be counted will be far fewer than Coleman sought in effort to close the U.S. Senate gap. Abstract: Norm Coleman's lawyers all but conceded defeat Tuesday and promised to appeal after a panel of three judges ordered no more than 400 new absentee ballots opened and counted, far fewer than the Republican had sought to overcome the lead held by DFLer Al Franken. The ballots include many that Franken had identified as wrongly rejected as well as ballots that Coleman wanted opened in his quest to overcome the 225-vote lead that Franken gained after a...

Here's where it's going . . . March 19, 2009 Last summer the Philadelphia police forced a Kmart to allow a man to use the women's changing rooms, because he presented a drivers license listing his sex as "female." However, he was clearly a man and the Kmart manager would not allow into the changing rooms. But the policeman ordered to store to do it. After the incident, a complaint was filed against Kmart with the city's Human Relations Commission. The store manager was apparently forced to apologize and told a homosexual newspaper "I guarantee you this won't happen again."

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes"The Obama Administration's Department of Justice, with former RIAA lawyers occupying the 2nd and 3rd highest positions in the department, has shown its colors, intervening on behalf of the RIAA in the case against a Boston University graduate student, SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, accused of file sharing when he was 17 years old. Its oversized, 39-page brief (PDF) relies upon a United States Supreme Court decision from 1919 which upheld a statutory damages award, in a case involving overpriced railway tickets, equal to 116 times the actual damages sustained, and a 2007 Circuit Court decision which held...

The feeling of glee — Hoeppner told attendees he was “overjoyed” and said later in a phone interview that he had been “jumping up and down for two days” — was tempered by others who lamented (know that it is impolitic not to mention) that the end of the Superferry would cost more than 200 people their jobs....

“After reading the alarming tract, I wanted to know whether Albertini -- who went to prison for a year (many years ago) for trying to block a Navy vessel in Hilo Harbor -- will be putting his life and/or freedom on the line along with the novice activists he is counseling. “The answer? No. Not only is Albertini not going to protest the Superferry, he claims he didn’t even know his “non-violent” call to arms was even published.

Jon Opsahl said he doesn't think domestic terrorist-turned-housewife Sara Jane Olson served nearly enough time for his mother's murder, but he's relieved the saga ended with Olson's Tuesday release from prison. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Tuesday after serving seven years. Sara Jane Olson was released from a California prison Olson, a member of the self-styled revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army -- perhaps best known for kidnapping Patricia Hearst -- was released from a California prison after serving seven years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. She was released to her husband just after midnight...

Gov. Linda Lingle told reporters this afternoon that she wanted to talk with the state attorney general's office and state lawmakers about the state's options, including whether to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling on the law that allows Hawaii Superferry to operate without a complete environmental impact statement. "But we know from the beginning we were correct and accurate, did the right thing, and we've been able to provide a great service for the people of Maui and Oahu, one that they've come to appreciate and in some cases to depend upon, especially in the case of...

RALEIGH -- Home-school groups and conservatives across the country are infuriated by a Wake County judge's declaration that he will make a North Raleigh mother stop teaching her children at home and send them to public schools. As part of a continuing divorce case, Wake District Court Judge Ned Mangum said last Friday that it would be in the "best interests" of Venessa Mills' three children to go to public school this fall. Mangum said at the hearing that while the children are "thriving," they need to be exposed to the "real world." "It will do them a great benefit...