Texas’ 14th Court of Appeals has ruled State District Court Judge Susan Criss has no more authority to conduct hearings in a shooting case that ended in a plea agreement.

The court “directed (Criss) to desist from further orders, hearings, or other proceedings” in the case of State of Texas v. Haki Danaj.

Noting that the current relationship between judges and legislators is "more tense than at any time in my lifetime," Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor urged jurists at the 9th Circuit's annual conference Thursday to educate legislators about their needs and "make a friend" of Congress. During her wide-ranging remarks, O'Connor also touched on the recent Blakely decision and key Court rulings in terrorism-related cases.

FindLaw columnist, attorney, and author Edward Lazarus discusses a case that could become one of the hallmarks of the coming Supreme Court Term. The case, Roper v. Simmons, asks whether the Court still believes -- in light of both statistical evidence as to states' death penalty statutes, and psychological evidence as to juveniles -- that the juvenile death penalty is unconstitutional. As Lazarus explains, this case is bound to divide the Court -- for it plays into a longstanding rift that relates to not only the death penalty, but the Court's role in our system.

The Republican-led House voted Thursday to prevent federal courts from ordering states to recognize gay marriages sanctioned by other states.

The Marriage Protection Act was adopted by a 233-194 vote, buoyed by backing from the Bush administration. Last week, the Senate dealt gay marriage opponents a setback by failing to advance a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex unions.

Ralph Nader's independent campaign for president is still fighting to get him on the Texas ballot for the November general election.

A federal lawsuit filed by the consumer activist says Texas ballot access laws for independent candidates are unconstitutional. It was set for a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel on Thursday.

An inmate who spent 10 years on death row for his part in a robbery-murder in this West Texas city was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday.

Joe Lee Guy, 32, was convicted and sentenced to death in 1994, but last month U.S. District Judge Sam Cummings in Lubbock threw out the death sentence.

That ruling did not affect Guy's conviction but sent the case back to court for sentencing.

Inside tax help for private dances. That's the trade an IRS employee offered a dancer at his favorite South Austin strip club, according to federal court documents.

Charles G. Herndon, 57, of Austin made the proposal last year after Casey Urias, who was a dancer at Exposé on South Congress Avenue, told him she was being audited and hadn't filed a tax return in several years, according a federal court affidavit.

A Bryan civic leader who left his 6-year-old daughter along a highway in August has been acquitted of abandoning and endangering her with intent to return.

Roy Flores, 43, told authorities that his intentions were not to abandon his "fearless and determined" child, but to teach her a lesson after she tried to run away.

State attorneys general are known best for throwing mobsters in jail and trying to protect consumers from things like false advertising and Medicare fraud. But now an increasing number are taking an activist role well outside their state boundaries - challenging federal agencies, treading novel legal waters, and suing everyone from pharmaceutical companies to mutual funds.

In their latest foray, they're taking on global warming and polluters in states other than their own. Wednesday, eight attorneys general from California to Connecticut, along with officials from New York City, filed suit against five giant utilities they contend are the nation's largest emitters of carbon dioxide, a key contributor to global warming. None of the companies are located in the states that are suing.

The 9th Circuit joined the Blakely fray Wednesday, ruling that the Supreme Court decision bars federal judges from using facts not found at trial to increase sentences. Defense attorneys said the ruling will help judges figure out what to do with hundreds of cases thrown into disarray by the high court opinion, which called into question federal sentencing guidelines. Said one: "It does something that none of the other opinions have done -- look at consequences."

FindLaw columnist and U.C. Hastings law professor Vikram Amar discusses four rulings from the past Supreme Court term that concern the limits of federal power -- how far can Congress go with respect to civil, and to criminal, law? Amar explains the import of each ruling, and also notes the underlying debate, in several of the cases, regarding whether the Court should look to the whole range of applications of a given statute, or just the type of applications before it in a given case.

FindLaw columnist and antitrust attorney David Lundsgaard argues that while federal antitrust enforcement may, in some circumstances, be an effective weapon against rising gas prices, one recent effort to this effect is a big mistake. This month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it will investigate the "antitrust implications" of Shell Oil's decision to close its Bakersfield, California gasoline refinery. Lundsgaard contends that unless shocking new evidence is unearthed, it seems plain that there was no antitrust issue relating to the closing.

A private contractor denied Tuesday that the State of Texas paid $20 million too much for its Children's Health Insurance Program in 170 rural counties.

In a letter to state officials, Dominic Hagger, senior vice president of Clarendon Insurance Group of New York City, said a state auditor's review of the program was "vastly inaccurate and includes many accusations that are clearly without merit or foundation and cannot be substantiated."

The city [of Arlington] won a permanent injunction and damages Tuesday in a suit against two Arlington residents whose home pit bull business has drawn numerous neighborhood complaints.

The Tarrant County civil court ordered Donald and Donna Norton to refrain from breeding or selling pit bulls from their home, from disposing of waste in the storm drainage system and from owning more than two dogs at a time. The court also ordered each to pay the city $5,000.

FindLaw columnist and Columbia law professor Michael Dorf explains how the U.S. Consitution, and federal statutes, would apply should a terrorist attack affect November's election. How would ballots be cast and counted? Who would decide if the election should be delayed? Dorf calls upon Congress to act to remedy the uncertainties, and add uniformity, to the current legal situation.

FindLaw columnist and former counsel to the President John Dean surveys the legal landscape to explain -- considering various hypotheticals -- what would happen if there were a terror attack sometime between now and the next Inauguration Day. Given that terrorists reportedly are planning to seek to disrupt the elections, Dean chastises Congress and the Bush Administration for inadequate contingency planning to take account of the very scenarios about which there is the greatest worry.

Changing the county's indigent defense practices would save money, but views differ on whether the system needs a drastic overhaul or a minor tuneup.

Establishing a public defender's office could save the county $95,627, according to preliminary estimates. Lubbock County spent $2.1 million for court-appointed attorneys in fiscal year 2003, according to the County Auditor's Office.

Friday came and went without a lawsuit against Webb County over conditions at the county jail.

Two weeks ago the state attorney general's office sent notice of its intent to sue if officials did not bring the 571-bed facility into compliance with the Texas Commission on Jail Standards in 14 days. The announcement came after an unannounced inspection revealed such violations as overcrowded cells, and a failure to properly classify and segregate inmates.

The deadline was set for Friday, July 16, but Tuesday County Attorney Homero Ramirez, Sheriff Juan Garza and Commissioner Judith Gutierrez had what they described as a positive dialogue with representatives from the AG's office

A woman who received nationwide attention when she was arrested after selling two sex toys to undercover police officers posing as a couple is no longer charged with violating the state's obscenity law.

A judge dismissed the case against Joanne Webb, Johnson County Attorney Bill Moore said Friday in a statement. He said he asked the judge for the dismissal to prevent wasting county resources, but he didn't say when the dismissal occurred.

For 17 years, Shane Clendennen has waited for justice after his brother's killer was sent to death row.

But now that James Vernon Allridge III has finally been assigned an execution date on Aug. 26, Clendennen cannot understand why Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon made a special trip to death row to visit Allridge. Death penalty opponents say she wants his sentence commuted to life.

"How would she feel if someone tied up her child and shot him in the back of the head, then she had to watch him on life support for three days until he died?" asked Clendennen, 34, a machinist from Fort Worth. "(Sarandon) should not have a voice in this unless she has gone through that kind of pain and loss."

Clendennen's brother, Brian, was 21 and working in a convenience store in Fort Worth when he was shot in 1985.

FindLaw guest columnist and former Congressman Bob Barr discusses the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), which recently failed in the Senate. The FMA would have forced states to define marriage as heterosexual marriage only. Barr argues that the FMA was unnecessary and harmful to conservative interests -- especially given that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), legislation that Barr himself authored, is still good law. DOMA ensured that states could define marriage for themselves -- and did not necessarily have to respect other states' same-sex marriages.

FindLaw columnist and Hofstra law professor Joanna Grossman offers a legal history perspective on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), which just failed in the Senate. Grossman contrasts the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which continues to be federal law, with the FMA, now a failed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. She also goes much further back in American history to track another, parallel conflict -- the conflict among the states as to whether they had to recognize each other's divorces -- and a key U.S. Supreme Court cases that weighed in definitively on that conflict.

In yet another twist over punishment standards, a federal appeals court has determined that a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared state sentencing guidelines unconstitutional does not apply to the federal punishment system in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Monday's ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans starkly contrasted from the one handed down Friday by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Friday's decision said the Supreme Court ruling — known as Blakely vs. Washington — applied to federal guidelines. The 7th Circuit's jurisdiction includes Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

The development effectively means that judges in the 5th Circuit can resume using federal sentencing guidelines.

With electricity rates rising sharply in the 18 months under deregulation, now is not the time to eliminate the independent state agency that represents residential customers, the agency's leader testified Tuesday.

The Office of Public Utility Counsel also received support from consumer advocates and even from the electric companies it regularly opposes in rate cases. John Fainter, president of the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, said the industry understands the public policy goal of having a vigorous advocate for consumers.

FindLaw guest columnist Kristin Armshaw, of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), explains jury service reform legislation proposed by ALEC that has now been adopted in eight states. As Armshaw notes, the legislation addresses jury no-shows, abuse of hardship excuses, and professional exemptions. She urges that more states should adopt this or similar legislation.

FindLaw columnist and Rutgers law professor Sherry Colb discusses what nursing mothers can do when the legal protections for breast feeding don't protect them effectively in practice. Colb explains why breastfeeding is a crucial option for a mother to have, and argues that "in your face" protests, similar to those of the gay rights movement, can help to desensitize the public and erase the taboo against nursing outside the privacy of one's home.

A Supreme Court decision that forbids a judge from acting alone to add time onto a convict's sentence does not herald the demise of federal sentencing guidelines, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday.

The 5th Circuit's opinion came in the case of Francisco Pineiro, an inmate who was sentenced on drug convictions prior to the Supreme Court's opinion.

In that case, the court overturned the sentence of a Washington state man, Ralph Howard Blakely, who was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for kidnapping his estranged wife in 1998. A judge had said the four-year term called for in state sentencing guidelines was too lenient.

The Supreme Court, however, held that it should be up to a jury - not a judge's own discretion - to decide if a sentence should be increased.

Pineiro used that as his appeal, saying his sentence should be overturned based on the Blakely case.

But the 5th Circuit rejected his argument.

Federal health officials have finished their on-site investigation at Baylor University Medical Center into the rabies deaths of four transplant recipients.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta reviewed patient information, logs and hospital procedures, and representatives of the agency said they are confident that all tissues and organs of an Arkansas man infected with rabies have been accounted for, CDC spokesman David Daigle said.

Although no official findings have been made, CDC investigators have praised Baylor officials for their efforts in addressing the situation, Daigle said.

After four months of legal maneuvers, personal attacks and nail-biting uncertainty, U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez apparently has lost his battle to maintain his Congressional District 28 seat.

The 4th Court of Appeals ruled Monday, in a 5-2 decision, to uphold a lower state court ruling barring Rodriguez from introducing evidence to back up allegations of vote tampering and illegally cast ballots stemming from the March 9 Democratic primary.

Laredo lawyer Henry Cuellar, now officially the Democratic nominee, will face Republican candidate Jim Hopson of Seguin in November.

Monday's ruling likely closes a chapter in what had become one of the more bizarre and bitter elections in recent South Texas history.

Sen. John Kerry on Monday announced the creation of a legal SWAT team to combat nationwide the kind of voting irregularities that occurred in Florida four years ago, contributing to the disputed election of President Bush by a single electoral vote.

Kerry said his team would take "tough action" to prevent voter "intimidation and harassment" he said kept an estimated 1 million African American voters from the polls in 2000 and prevented some 57,000 African American voters from casting votes in Palm Beach County, Fla.

The legal team is to be led by attorney Robert Bauer in the nation's capital and backed by teams of lawyers around the nation.

Solicitor General Theodore Olson used his last day as the Bush administration's top Supreme Court lawyer to lament the Court's decision on foreign terrorism suspects. He also said the court term that ended last week did not represent the Court's "finest hours" and held no good news for conservatives. Olson accused Justice John Paul Stevens of "ingeniously" crafting a "dramatic shift in habeas corpus jurisdiction for alien detainees who have never set foot in the United States."

Everyone in a law firm deserves respect -- even staff attorneys. And although many law firms maintain a strict pecking order, there are still ways to avoid being the resident Rodney Dangerfield. Break free of the "bullpen" of the same old faces; participate in team functions as much as possible; and, whether at a cocktail party or the firm cafeteria, don't overlook the value of socializing.

A Southern District of New York judge has raised the bar for class certification in securities fraud lawsuits that accuse stock analysts of tailoring their evaluations to curry favor with their firms' institutional clients.

In an area of law the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has described as being in flux, Judge Jed Rakoff rejected class action status for three consolidated suits against Lehman Brothers even though the allegations were sufficient to survive motions to dismiss.

To qualify for class status when pursuing a "fraud on the market" claim, Judge Rakoff wrote in DeMarco v. Lehman Brothers, 03-3470, plaintiffs must demonstrate that large numbers of stock buyers relied upon the analysts' allegedly ginned up recommendation.

Ruling on a fundamental issue in immigration law that has splintered the federal circuits, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that an alien seeking a stay of a deportation order must satisfy a four-part test modeled on the standard for granting a preliminary injunction.

In Douglas v. Ashcroft, the 3rd Circuit adopted the standard used in the 1st, 2nd and 6th circuits. In doing so, the court rejected the 9th Circuit's test as too lax, and said it found the 11th Circuit's test too strict.

Third Circuit Judge Dolores K. Sloviter found that the 3rd Circuit has never addressed, in a published opinion, the "standard of review for assessing a motion to stay removal of an alien pending judicial review."

Looking to other circuits for guidance, Sloviter found that the courts are splintered but that most have applied the standard for granting a preliminary injunction.

When Carter Phillips argued in the case of Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices Inc., it was something of a first for the Supreme Court. That's because the Court bestows argument time on amici only rarely -- and never before, Phillips believes, to a foreign governmental body like the Commission of the European Communities. The grant of time can be read as yet another sign, amply reinforced last term, that the justices like to hear arguments from familiar voices.

FindLaw columnist and Brooklyn law professor Anthony Sebok discusses the recent, unanimous Supreme Court decision in the case of Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain. The case tested the ability of noncitizens to bring tort suits, pursuant to the Alien Tort Claims Act, in U.S. federal courts based on actions in violation of the law of nations or U.S. treaty obligations. Sebok argues that while the decision has been claimed as a victory for human rights activists, if so it is only a modest one, for it is still not clear how broadly the Court will interpret the right to sue under the ATCA in the future.

FindLaw columnist and Cardozo law professor Marci Hamilton discusses the recent move by some Catholic Archdioceses to consider, or actually opt for, federal bankruptcy in the wake of clergy abuse litigation. Hamilton notes that bankruptcies designed primarily to avoid or delay litigation may be bad-faith and therefore illegal. She also predicts that if bankruptcies do go forward, the document disclosure issues have occurred in clergy abuse civil actions are likely to recur -- for the archdioceses may invoke the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to challenge aspects of bankruptcy procedure as applied to them.

The government's failure to open a dump site for commercial nuclear waste could expose taxpayers to tens of billions of dollars in damages. The first in an expected string of trials to determine how much began Monday across the street from the White House.

More than two decades ago, the government signed a contract with utilities promising to take charge of the highly radioactive used reactor fuel at commercial power plants by 1998. But the government has yet to come up with a central storage site.

A number of court cases have ruled that the Department of Energy is liable for the cost of keeping the waste because of a breach of contract. How much is at stake is anyone's guess, but the industry has put the number as high as $56 billion.

In Part One of a two-part series on the just-concluded Supreme Court Term, FindLaw columnist and U.C. Hastings law professor Vikram Amar discusses several cases in which the Court avoided a question, or issued only a narrow holding -- and one case in which the Court issued a very broad ruling that will affect sentencing practices nationwide. Amar also discusses why narrowness and avoidance were some of the hallmarks of this Term.

Abandoned at birth shouldn't be the way a baby comes into the world. But for the infant known as Baby Ethan, things are looking up.

Ethan, Bexar County's first baby abandoned under the 1999 Baby Moses Law, was formally adopted this week.

Given the name after his birth mother left him at a West Side fire station last July 21, he's been living with his adoptive parents, Susan and Franz, ever since. They agreed to be interviewed on the condition their last name not be published.

Hispanics make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, but more than 70 percent of them live in communities whose air quality violates federal standards, according to a report issued Thursday by the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Tied together with high poverty rates and a high percentage of Hispanics without health insurance, that represents an environmental injustice that must be addressed by the nation's leaders, officials said at a news conference at LULAC's national convention in San Antonio.

"Our civil rights must include the right to breathe healthy air, the right to raise healthy children, the right to challenge the companies that pollute and petition the government charged with protecting us," said Gabriela Lemus, LULAC's national policy director, who issued a "call to action."

State environmental regulators intervened Thursday in a standoff between a Creedmoor landfill operator and Penske Truck Leasing Co. over the fate of tons of lead-tainted garbage sitting in 99 metal containers at the landfill.

John Steib Jr., the top enforcement official at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, stated in a letter to Texas Disposal Systems on Thursday that the agency would send state contractors to begin testing the waste as soon as today to determine whether it must be trucked to a hazardous waste landfill or treatment facility, as landfill officials contend.

A radio personality who put on a ski mask and then walked into a convenience store to buy a pack of gum as part of an on-air prank has been charged with making a terroristic threat.

Police said Dan Chappell, known to listeners of Austin station KHFI/96.7 FM as "Lunchbox," walked around the store narrating events on the phone before buying the gum and leaving. Though no verbal threats were made, store clerk Atif Akhlaque said, he pressed the silent alarm because he thought he was going to be robbed.

The state's highest court on Thursday put on hold the exhumation of rancher John G. Kenedy, stalling a Corpus Christi man's quest to try to prove the supposedly sterile ranch scion was his grandfather.

The 400,000-acre, oil-rich ranch is valued at up to a half-billion dollars. It is now controlled by two charities that distribute money to Catholic charities throughout Texas.

The exhumation to obtain DNA evidence was set for Saturday at the cemetery at the Kenedy Ranch at Sarita, about 60 miles south of Corpus Christi.

Lawyers for the ranch have been fighting the procedure, arguing that Austin Probate Judge Guy Herman lacked jurisdiction to order the exhumation.

An independent laboratory has exhausted the retesting and review process of evidence in a 1993 burglary case without being able to compile a DNA profile of the man who pleaded guilty to the crime, according to an assistant Harris County prosecutor.

Additionally, evidence in seven of 25 of the most recent retested cases originally processed by the troubled Houston Police Department DNA laboratory must undergo additional testing or review, according to retest results released Thursday by the Harris County district attorney's office.

The father of a girl claims crew members of a Royal Caribbean Cruises ship that departed this coastal community provided her with alcohol that incapacitated her and that they sexually assaulted her.

A lawsuit filed in the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Dade County, Fla., says the girl boarded the M/V Rhapsody of the Seas ship in Galveston on July 13, 2003, for a round-trip cruise to Key West, the Cayman Islands and Cozumel, Mexico.

Tragic tales of sex slavery and the exploitation of immigrants in Texas were the focus of a Senate hearing Wednesday by lawmakers considering new federal laws against human trafficking.

U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton of San Antonio told senators that law enforcement officials have seen an increase in the number of trafficking cases along the Texas border over the past three years.

And while cooperation between federal and state authorities has helped make a dent in trafficking rings, U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby of Houston said: "I know the problem is probably bigger than we realize and that much work remains to be done."

High school health textbooks under consideration for state adoption are being criticized for being so focused on abstinence that teenagers won't get state-mandated lessons on condoms and other sensitive sex education topics.

In fact, one textbook says respecting yourself and getting enough rest are two steps to preventing sexually transmitted diseases. Condoms aren't mentioned.

Two other texts talk about "barrier protection" but never say what it is.

Critics worry lessons on contraception that could help teens avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy will fall by the wayside. And not only Texas teens, who place among the highest for birthrates in the country, but youths nationwide would "pay the price," they say, because Texas textbooks are generally adopted around the country.

Courts have embraced electronic filing. Online research has become second nature. The Internet, brand new to most attorneys when the first URL appeared in a published New York court opinion in 1998, now seems indispensable. But what are the pitfalls of citing Web sites in legal documents? Looking at how Web sites have been used in court opinions can answer some fundamental questions about how lawyers should use the Internet.

The SEC is expected today to bring civil fraud charges against Enron founder Kenneth Lay, including making false and misleading statements and insider trading. Such an action would follow reported criminal charges that were filed on Wednesday but kept under seal. The anticipated charges cap a three-year investigation that has already seen several other executives charged and, in some cases, already sentenced to prison for their roles in the company's scandalous collapse.

FindLaw columnist and U. Washington law professor Anita Ramasastry discusses a recent appellate ruling in a Swiss suit brought by five plaintiffs who are gypsies against IBM. The plaintiffs allege that IBM was complicit in Nazi conduct during World War II that resulted in their parents' deaths. IBM denies responsibility. Ramasastry explains the suit's significance -- not only in attempting to achieve reparations for gypsy Holocaust victims, but also in showing that U.S. courts is not the only possible forum for international human rights claims bassed on current and past conduct.

FindLaw columnist, attorney, and author Edward Lazarus discusses the past Supreme Court term, and predicts what next year's term may look like. With respect to this past term, Lazarus argues that it represents a standstill in the "Rehnquist Revolution" -- the movement towards a conservative agenda that has occurred over the past twelve years. Lazarus contends that on many legal topics, moderate Justices Kennedy and O'Connor have apparently gone as far as they are willing to go on the spectrum between liberal and conservative jurisprudence -- and the past Court term reflects this.

The American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday sued the city of Baltimore and four Maryland counties for the right of same-sex couples to marry.

The lawsuit was filed in Baltimore Circuit Court on behalf of nine couples and a man whose partner recently died. The couples had sought marriage licenses and were denied, said Ken Choe of the ACLU's Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, based in New York.

Maryland law specifically defines marriage as between a man and a woman. In February, Attorney General Joseph Curran sent a memo to state legislators and the 24 clerks of the court reminding them that clerks are not authorized to issue licenses to gay couples.

The ACLU has pending legal challenges in Massachusetts, Oregon, New York, Washington state, California and Nebraska.

Other groups have filed lawsuits in New Jersey and Florida to legalize gay marriage.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the scheduled execution of a man convicted of murdering a robbery victim nearly 20 years ago.

Appeals filed to the court contend jurors were not allowed to properly consider Troy Kunkle's drug and alcohol abuse history and that Kunkle's due-process rights were violated when appeals lawyers were denied access to a state-paid full transcript of juror questioning.

The Supreme Court issued an indefinite stay.

Seven Dallas police officers are asking for at least $1 million each in damages in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in which they claim they were denied promotions and discriminated against in the disciplinary process because they were white or did not speak Spanish.

The officers say they were occasionally passed over for minority candidates who had less experience, were on probation or hadn't applied for an open position.

The meeting in May of two young black men from Brooklyn has begun a process of full disclosure behind a 1955 Mississippi murder and the sham trial that followed -- a travesty of justice that helped launch the civil rights movement. Attorney Kenneth P. Thompson worked with filmmaker and social activist Keith Beauchamp to reopen a Justice Department investigation into the grisly slaying of 14-year-old Emmett Louis Till.

Democrats' White House dreams may have dominated the headlines Tuesday, but behind the scenes, lawyers are looking down the road to the Republican National Convention. The New York Civil Liberties Union has mounted a "Protecting Protest" campaign that includes three federal suits aimed at preventing police from using heavy-handed practices on demonstrators. Prosecutors and legal aid groups are also gearing up for increased work as police expect up to 1,000 arrests a day.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday dismissed more than a dozen lawsuits that accused power companies of double-billing the state of California millions of dollars during the energy crisis.

In tossing out Attorney General Bill Lockyer's lawsuits against Reliant Resources, Inc., Dynegy Inc. and other energy concerns, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that California courts don't have jurisdiction over the issues at the heart of the complaint. The decision upheld an earlier ruling by a lower court.

Three-quarters of a century after the League of United Latin American Citizens was formed, it remains the nation's oldest and largest Hispanic civil rights organization.

LULAC has grown to more than 115,000 members and more than 700 chapters across the country since its formation in 1929. This week, thousands of Hispanic leaders are in San Antonio for LULAC's six-day national convention, starting Tuesday.

FindLaw guest columnist, attorney, and former Sentencing Commission staffer Mark Allenbaugh discusses the significance of a recent decision by the Supreme Court holding that a jury -- not a judge -- must find all the facts that increase a defendant's sentence. Allenbaugh argues that this decision will have seismic effects -- requiring a rethinking of sentencing in the federal system, and those of many states as well.

FindLaw columnist, attorney, and author Julie Hilden discusses the Supreme Court's recent decision on COPA, the Child Online Protection Act. Hilden focuses on two interesting aspects of the decision. One is the odd split it caused on the Court, drawing a line separating liberal from liberal, and conservative from conservative. The other is the way each side of the Court's divide believed it was the one best vindicating the First Amendment.

McLennan County's new 414th Judicial District doesn't have a judge or a courtroom, and it comes with a hefty startup cost that some officials say is eclipsed only by the county's need for another state district court.

In June 2003, the Legislature approved Senate Bill 1551, which created the first new state district court in McLennan County since 1970 but postponed its opening until Sept. 1, 2005.

A short film that could change the lives of many black, Hispanic and other Texas minority students debuted in Galveston last week and should be playing in schools across the state in the next year.

The 12-minute film is titled Color of Justice and it couples MTV-style video effects with a rock-music background to tell young audiences that the door to legal careers is open to those willing to work hard and stay the course.

The plaintiffs bar has found a new target: nonprofit hospitals.

In the past two weeks, plaintiffs firms have filed 19 class actions against not-for-profit hospitals, claiming they are charging uninsured patients as much as 300 percent more than they charge their insured patients.

Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein and the Scruggs Law Firm filed the most recent suit Wednesday against Sutter Health. The complaint, filed in the Northern District of California, alleges that Sutter is breaching its obligation to provide charitable health care to uninsured patients in return for substantial tax exemptions

In a U.S. Supreme Court term enlivened by terrorism-related rulings, the Pledge case and a recusal controversy, pragmatism repeatedly triumphed over principles. The justices forcefully asserted their primacy -- taking up issues across constitutional and national boundaries -- but then pulled back and left it to others to fight another day. Here's a review of some of the major trends, an up-close look at select cases and players, and a peek at the upcoming term.

FindLaw columnist and human rights lawyer Joanne Mariner discusses the Supreme Court's rulings in the three detainee cases decided last week. Examining the impact of these decisions on the Bush Administration's broad claims of power to fight a "war on terrorism," she explains how Justice O'Connor's opinion in the Hamdi case suggests a reluctance to embrace such a radical position. She also explains that even though the Court's various opinions fail to set out a complete framework of its views on counter-terrorism, they offer tantalizing hints of the justices' leanings.

A group of Republican lawmakers urged a newly formed committee on judicial conduct to investigate a New York federal judge who compared President Bush's rise to power to that of dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

Judge Guido Calabresi, of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has since apologized for the uproar that the remark has caused and has received a rebuke from the chief district judge.

But GOP lawmakers say the action violates the code of conduct and deserves a stiffer punishment.

"We strongly believe that Judge Calabresi's remarks comparing President Bush to Hitler and Mussolini are inexcusable for a sitting federal judge," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, in a letter signed by 15 lawmakers.

Calabresi, 71, told a June 19 convention of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy that Bush attained the presidency through a Supreme Court decision, "the result of the illegitimate acts of a legitimate institution."

"The reason I emphasize that is because that is exactly what happened when Mussolini was put in by the king of Italy," the judge was quoted in an Associated Press report about his speech.

A Travis County jury awarded $17 million in damages Wednesday to the husband of a woman who died last year after she was pinned by machinery at a Borden Superior Dairies plant in East Austin.

No one at the plant turned off the machine or called 911 for 20 minutes after employees noticed that Faye Martinez was trapped, said Gary Rodriguez, one of the plaintiff's lawyers.

After exhausting all appeal options Wednesday, a Texas inmate whose false testimony sent an innocent man to death row for a 1976 murder was executed for an unrelated slaying.

"Sir, in honor of a true American hero, let's roll," David Ray Harris told the warden as he lay strapped to the gurney in the death chamber. "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

The numbers just don't jibe with the controversy. For the third straight year, the 9th Circuit -- for many, the black-robed embodiment of West Coast liberalism -- fared about the same as other circuits when it came to being reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court. But as the circuit shakes its reputation for being out of step, a new trend appears on the rise: a growing domination of the high court docket. Why the shift? Court watchers offer some theories.

FindLaw columnist and Cardozo law professor Marci Hamilton discusses both the results and the importance of two "war on terrorism" cases just decided by the Supreme Court. In the first, Rasul v. United States, the Court held that the detainees at Guantanamo have the right to file habeas corpus petitions to challenge the legality of their detention. In the second, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, a majority of Justices - in a plurality opinion, and a concurrence - held that American citizen Yaser Hamdi has the right to challenge the government's justification for his detention.

A federal appeals court ruled that conditions on Mississippi's death row are so bad it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, with inmates stuck in filthy, hot cells and given inadequate mental health care.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday ordered the state Department of Corrections to make changes including repairing toilets, adding screen windows and fans and improving mental health care.

The court also directed the state to house inmates with severe mental illnesses separately from others.

A group of congressional Republicans, including Rep. Henry Bonilla of San Antonio, asked Tuesday for an investigation into a letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell that included their forged signatures.

The letter, which was published in Russian newspapers, implicates former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Kiriyenko in the disappearance of a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

Bonilla and four other Republican congressmen learned their names were on the letter when staffers fielded dozens of phone calls from Russian reporters.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week accepted an appeal for the second time in as many years from a Texas death row inmate who says Dallas prosecutors wrongly excluded blacks from the jury in his 1986 trial.

The decision came after a federal appeals court twice in two years refused the appeal of Thomas Miller-El, despite evidence that Dallas County prosecutors had removed 10 of 11 black potential jurors.

A Houston federal judge delayed the execution of an inmate who was scheduled to die today, citing evidence that lethal injection causes intense agony.

The order by U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore made David Ray Harris the second condemned prisoner to get a reprieve on Tuesday.

Mauro Barraza, who was set to die Tuesday evening, received a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court because the court plans later this year to review the issue of executing convicts who were younger than 18 when they committed their crimes.

In the Harris case, Gilmore issued a temporary restraining order blocking today's execution in response to his lawyers' arguments that the drugs used for lethal injection cause excruciating pain in violation of the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

Summer associates: Do you have what it takes to claw your way to the top of the legal profession? Heck, just to get through the summer, you'll need to sharpen skills like photocopying and restaurant selection. You'll have to be ready for long, luxurious lunches on a daily basis. You might even be called upon to handle a golf match, a cocktail party and an office scavenger hunt -- all in the same week! The Disassociate has your number.

For the second time in two years, the Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Congress' bid to restrict minors' access to adult material on the Internet. The justices returned the case to a district court for scrutiny of less restrictive alternatives to the Child Online Protection Act, which makes it a crime for commercial Web sites to put adult material where minors can see it. In the meantime, the Court ruled that an injunction halting COPA's enforcement should stay in effect.

FindLaw columnist, attorney and author Julie Hilden discusses a recent development in the high-profile California murder prosecution of Scott Peterson. Recently, the judge in the Peterson case decided to dismiss juror Justin Falconer, apparently on the ground that he had become a "distraction" due to media focus on a comment Falconer had made to a relative of the victim, Laci Peterson. Hilden argues that since the comment was found to have been relatively innocuous, the dismissal -- if it was based on media attention -- was an error.

FindLaw guest columnist and attorney Jared Leland defends the Pledge of Allegiance's inclusion of the phrase "under God," which has been challenged as an Establishment Clause violation -- although, in a recent decision relating to the issue, the Supreme Court did not resolve the challenge. Leland argues that not only does the Pledge not violate the Constitution, it honors traditions of which the Founding Fathers approved, and properly recognizes that our institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.

The Supreme Court wrapped up its nine-month term on Tuesday - on time - with praise for the administration's retiring solicitor general and no retirement announcements of its own.

The court traditionally ends its term before July 1, and the justices managed to do that despite dealing with major issues late in the year, including President Bush's war on terror.

In past years, justices who planned to retire announced their intentions at the close of a term. A retirement had been considered unlikely this year, however. All but one of the justices is past 60. The oldest, Justice John Paul Stevens, is 84. Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist turns 80 this fall.

A convicted killer sent to death row for a murder committed when he was 17 won a U.S. Supreme Court reprieve about four hours before he could have been executed Tuesday evening.

Lawyers for condemned prisoner Mauro Barraza had argued the lethal injection should be delayed because the high court plans later this year to review the issue of executing teenage killers.

In a death penalty case scheduled for Wednesday, a federal judge in Houston issued a temporary restraining order that blocks Texas prison officials from using a combination of three drugs in lethal injections. State authorities were appealing the order.

Barraza, 32, already had been moved from the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice outside Livingston, home of death row, to the Huntsville Unit, about 45 miles to the west, where lethal injections are carried out.

"Man, that's good news," Barraza, 32, who grew up in San Antonio and Fort Worth, said when informed of the reprieve by a warden. "I was hopeful. We already knew they'd given other people stays."

Prison officials said he would be returned to death row.

A Tarrant County man scheduled to be executed tonight for a murder he committed in 1989 at age 17 spent Monday waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to act on his request that the death sentence be halted.

Mauro Barraza, who was condemned for beating and stomping 73-year-old Vilorie Nelson to death in her Haltom City home, would be the first U.S. inmate executed for killing someone while a minor since the Supreme Court agreed in February to review the constitutionality of executing youthful offenders.

"We are still hopeful that [the Supreme Court] will do the right thing and stay this execution, but it's getting a little late in the game," said attorney Scott Schutte of Chicago, who is handling Barraza's final appeals.

In addition to asking the Supreme Court to halt the execution on grounds that it would violate the ban on cruel and unusual punishment, Schutte also asked Gov. Rick Perry on Monday to grant a 30-day reprieve in the event the court takes no action.

Democratic congressional nominee Henry Cuellar formally asked the 4th Court of Appeals on Monday to reconsider a three-judge panel's ruling ordering a new trial in U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez's election challenge.

Cuellar, who won the contentious March 9 Democratic primary by 58 votes after two controversial recounts, argued in two separate motions that the ruling contradicts legal precedent set by the 4th Court of Appeals in a 1998 elections case.

Last week, the two Democratic members of a 4th Court's three-judge panel ruled that a lower court judge erred when he barred Rodriguez from bringing evidence of illegal votes cast in Webb county during a May trial.

The majority opinion ordered the case back to state district court in Laredo for a new trial. The lone Republican justice on the panel issued a dissenting opinion.

Cuellar is asking that the seven justices of the full appellate court re-examine the opinion and rule that a new trial is not necessary.

In a historic pair of decisions affirming due process rights even in a time of war, the U.S. Supreme Court largely repudiated the Bush administration's view that enemy combatants and detainees can be held indefinitely without access to federal court habeas corpus review. In both cases, different 6-3 majorities made it clear the government had gone too far in seeking unchecked power to detain and interrogate individuals in the war on terror.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is approving the early release of prisoners at its highest rate in more than a decade, a newspaper reported Sunday.

The percentage of parole-eligible inmates granted re lease under supervision has grown from a low of less than 17 percent in 1997 to more than 30 percent so far this year, according to a Houston Chroni cle analysis of state records.

The higher approval rating has helped stabilize the inmate population as the state prison system hovers at capacity. However, current and former parole officials say decisions to release inmates are made on a case-by-case basis and are not dictated by the number of prisoners.

Drug use, sexual assaults, bomb threats, illegal possession of firearms — children in the Rio Grande Valley probably know more about the subjects than adults like to think.

Whether school district police departments are required to release reports that document those crimes committed by students is a contested topic, but most Valley school police forces say they release those reports nonetheless.

But in Brownsville, requests for student crime reports in the district’s care would most likely be denied, based on the same federal law that gives school-house police departments the right to withhold a variety of student records.

The number of methamphetamine cases in East Texas has dramatically increased in the last few years, prompting prosecutors and police to launch a program aimed at stopping the manufacture and use of the drug.

The "Methbusters" program, to be launched on Monday, will develop outreach programs, keep statistics on arrests and prosecutions of meth-related offenses, and teach law officers and the community about the trend.

When George Kazen started his career as a U.S. district judge here, the office had one public defender, an assistant U.S. attorney and a lone FBI agent.

Kazen, 39 at the time, was the only one behind the bench.

Twenty-five years later, Kazen's hair has thinned to just a fine row of gray while his workload has boomed along with the federal presence on the U.S. southern border.

Today there are 16 public defenders and 13 assistant U.S. attorneys in Laredo. FBI officials wouldn't release personnel numbers, citing security concerns.

The entire Southern District of Texas, which loops from Galveston to Houston, and from Laredo to Brownsville, is the fifth busiest district — per judge — out of 94 in the country, largely due to its proximity to illegal drugs and undocumented immigrants crossing the Rio Grande.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that more than 100 death sentences should not be overturned despite sweeping changes to how the ultimate penalty is handed down. The 9th Circuit ruled last year that scores of death sentences should be thrown out because of a 2002 Supreme Court decision that juries -- not judges -- should decide "aggravating" factors in capital cases. But in a 5-4 split, the high court said Ring v. Arizona is not retroactive.

FindLaw columnist and Brooklyn law professor Anthony Sebok explains the import of, and comments upon, the Supreme Court's recent decision barring state law suits against HMOs that deny coverage to these patients. Sebok notes that the decision raises a key issue that could become an election issue this Fall: If states cannot, under the law, regulate HMO decisions, then should Congress amend the relevant federal law, ERISA, to allow more generous remedies when HMOs err? Sebok explains why this issue is relevant to a Bush 2000 campaign promise -- and notes that the law the Court struck down was a Bush-supported Texas law.