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SAN FRANCISCO - The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation's largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings. The justices' 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice Ron George wrote the opinion. The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march. The case before the court involved a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law...

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RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina would enter a compact that could eliminate the power of the Electoral College system to choose a president in a bill that passed the Senate on Monday night. If agreed to by enough states representing a majority of the nation's 538 electoral votes, the measure would require North Carolina to give its electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the popular vote nationwide.....

Environmentalists asked a federal judge Wednesday to overturn the Bush administration's rules for managing the country's 155 national forests, arguing that the regulations illegally weaken protections for wilderness and wildlife. Issued in December 2004, the rules represented a major shift in how the government balanced conservation and commercial interests in its 192 million acres of forest land. The management plan gave regional forest managers more discretion to approve logging, drilling and other projects without lengthy environmental studies. Wednesday's hearing in federal court in San Francisco was the first since a coalition of environmental groups sued the Bush administration over the...

The disciplinary arm of the N.C. State Bar dropped charges of felonious misconduct against two former Union County prosecutors Friday because of a 1999 clerical error at the state Supreme Court. The State Bar had charged Kenneth Honeycutt and Scott Brewer with lying, cheating and withholding evidence in a 1996 death penalty case. The ruling Friday marks the second time that Honeycutt and Brewer won on procedural grounds before the bar's Disciplinary Hearing Commission, which sits as judge and jury in disciplinary cases. . . . Prosecutors around the state are concerned that the case is damaging their reputation and...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote in a June 1985 memo that the ruling that legalized abortion should be overturned, a position certain to spur tough questioning at January's confirmation hearings. In a recommendation to the solicitor general on filing a friend-of-court brief, Alito said the government "should make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled." The June 3, 1985 document was one of 45 released by the National Archives on Friday. A total of...

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...

Key points • 22-month-old Charlotte Watt is seriously ill • A court order allows Doctors to choose not to resuscitate her • Parents Darren and Debbie Wyatt are appealing against the court's decision Key quote "They say that, given the improvements in Charlotte's situation and given her continuing improvement, the doctors should not have in their back pockets an open consent from the court to let Charlotte die regardless of the circumstances at the time and regardless of the views of her parents." - David Wolfe Story in full THE parents of seriously-ill Charlotte Wyatt yesterday lost the latest round...

Let's not beat around the bush. Since 1973, Roe v. Wade has been the "settled" law of the land. John Roberts can help reverse that decision. That is why the Conservative movement is holding its collective breath. Likewise, that is why activists on the left are doing their best Howard Dean impersonations. A historical moment is at hand. Assuming Roberts is confirmed, he will take the place of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor -- a "conservative" justice who voted to reaffirm the "central principle" of Roe in the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Not that you need reminding, but...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Attorneys for Katrina Leung, who was accused of using her romantic ties with a retired FBI agent to gain access to classified documents, asked a federal judge Wednesday to reject the government's bid to reinstate the case. U.S. District Judge Florence Marie Cooper dismissed all charges against Leung last month, saying prosecutors deliberately tried to keep defense attorneys from preparing properly for trial. A motion asking the judge to reconsider was filed this month. On Wednesday, Leung's attorneys submitted a 35-page response that called the motion "procedurally impermissible and substantively wrong." "The court's dismissal order was...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A business group raising money to back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's package of constitutional amendments for an upcoming special election has sued to overturn a cap on contributions to committees controlled by elected officials. The suit, served Wednesday on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, targets a regulation that officials from the Citizens to Save California and the governor's office have said does not apply to them because Schwarzenegger does not play a controlling role in the group. Critics have charged that Citizens to Save California is violating the regulation by raising unlimited amounts of money for campaign...

A Strategic Vision, LLC poll asked respondents in Washington who they would vote for in a revote, and Republican Dino Rossi was selected by 51 percent; Democrat Christine Gregoire was the choice of 43 percent; and 6 percent were undecided, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent. When asked who do they believed actually won the gubernatorial election, 53 percent said Republican Rossi, 37 percent said Democrat Gregoire, and 10 percent were undecided. Story Continues Below

Sen. SPECTER: …And I'm very much concerned about what the Supreme Court is doing, and I registered in a collegial conversation they have taken over a tremendous amount of authority, which has a Rehnquist agenda. And we're now facing a situation of Roe vs. Wade where there may be an effort to dismantle Roe vs. Wade, and I discussed with him the question about what questions are appropriate for a senator to ask. There's sort of a--there's sort of... LAMB: At a confirmation hearing? Sen. SPECTER: At confirmation hearings. There's sort of a practice, Brian, that you don't ask a...

Pierre, SD (LifeNews.com) -- The South Dakota state Senate has declined to approve technical corrections made to an abortion ban bill by Governor Mike Rounds (R). The vote came shortly after the state House approved the ban that some pro-life groups say won't prohibit many abortions. After passing through the state legislature, Rounds issued a "style and form" veto. Unlike most other states, South Dakota's constitution allows governors to require the legislature to approve changes to the bill on a majority vote. Rounds sought to ensure that current pro-life laws will remain on the books if the legislation is declared...

BOSTON (AP) - Prosecutors asked a judge to overturn the murder conviction of a man who has spent more than 14 years in prison for the killing of a 12-year-old girl. In a case that came to symbolize the city's gang violence, Shawn Drumgold was convicted of killing Darlene Tiffany Moore, who was shot as she sat atop a mailbox on a hot summer night in 1988. Suffolk County's chief homicide prosecutor, David E. Meier, filed a motion Monday citing new evidence, the failure of prosecutors to disclose some evidence and possible wrongdoing by officials during the original investigation...

NEW ORLEANS — Federal prosecutors have hailed a federal appeals court ruling as a victory in their efforts to curb illegal drug use at high energy, all night dance parties known as raves. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on June 20 that an agreement, worked out between the government and a rave club in New Orleans, can be enforced although it bans legal playthings like giant pacifiers, glow sticks and mentholated inhalers. Prosecutors say the stuff is Ecstasy paraphernalia that promotes illegal drug use. In 2001, federal prosecutors said the case was the first use of crackhouse...

Tribes fail to halt study of ancient skeleton 01/09/03RICHARD L. HILL Four Northwest tribes lost another round in federal court Wednesday in their effort to halt a scientific study of the ancient skeleton called Kennewick Man. U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks in Portland rejected the tribes' request to delay the study until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can hear the legal dispute. In August, Jelderks ruled that eight anthropologists who sued the federal government could proceed to study the 9,300-year-old remains. The Nez Perce, Umatilla, Colville and Yakama tribes appealed his decision and later asked Jelderks to delay...