A federal judge on Tuesday upheld a gay judge's ruling to strike down California's same-sex marriage ban.

Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware said former Chief Judge Vaughn Walker did not have to divulge whether he wanted to marry his own gay partner before he declared last year that voter-approved Proposition 8 was unconstitutional.

Lawyers for backers of the ban argued at a hearing Monday that Walker should have recused himself or disclosed his relationship because he and his partner stood to personally benefit from the verdict.

Walker publicly revealed after he retired in February that he is in a 10-year relationship with a man. Rumors that he was gay had circulated before and after he presided over the trial in early 2010.

A backlash has begun against an Indiana Supreme Court ruling that homeowners have no right to resist a police officer's illegal entry but can argue it later in court.

State lawmakers are seeking a change in the state statutes and asking the court to make the judges fix the problem themselves.

A constitutional expert contends the moves are needed, because the court's arguments essentially are the same as the idea that "someone can't use a firearm to protect himself from someone who is threatening to kill him."

A Dane County judge has struck down Gov. Scott Walker's legislation repealing most collective bargaining for public employees.

In a 33-page decision issued Thursday, Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi said she would freeze the legislation because GOP lawmakers on a committee broke the state's open meetings law in passing it March 9. The legislation limits collective bargaining to wages for all public employees in Wisconsin except for police and firefighters.

"It's what we were looking for," said Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne, a Democrat.

Ozanne sued to block the law after Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) filed a complaint saying that GOP legislative leaders had not given proper notice to the public in convening a conference committee of lawmakers from both houses to approve Walker's budget-repair bill.

The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the government can dictate the message of a Christian ministry. And a brief submitted along with the question cites a page of biblical references as authority, listing them even ahead of the U.S. Constitution, statutes and previous case law.

The idea of a forced message is among the issues that are being raised in the case involving the ministry of Daniel Chapter One, which has gone to the high court to protest the actions of the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration.

Language was no barrier to the confessions of two Mexicans accused of kidnapping and torturing a Louisville contractor to extort money, a federal magistrate judge has ruled. U.S. District Magistrate Judge Clifford Shirley is refusing in an order filed Fri

A group of contractors has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn a Gwinnett County ordinance that targets the hiring of illegal immigrants. -- The contractors want a judge to prevent the county from enforcing its ordinance until the legal issues it

Judge Bruce Q. Morin issued a preliminary order on Friday awarding workers’ compensation to Edgar Velasquez, the illegal Mexican immigrant who slashed his face to the bone with a chainsaw last year. The Workers’ Compensation judge ordered the owner of

The nation's top security official may use his power to unilaterally trump a federal court order halting construction of a fence on a stretch of the Arizona-Mexico border. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is weighing whether to invoke a sectio

President Bush has the authority to fire the head of a little-known agency that oversees caretaking of the U.S.-Canada border, a federal judge ruled Friday. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman rejected the claim of Dennis Schornack, American head of the In

A federal judge temporarily delayed construction of a 1.5 mile section of a U.S.-Mexico border fence in a wildlife conservation area on the Arizona-Mexico border. The delay announced Wednesday is good for ten days. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle

PHOENIX — Denying bail to those not in this country legally who are charged with certain felonies does not violate their constitutional rights, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. The judges rejected arguments that the no-bail requirement, approve

Just when there is some slight indication the federal government is going to try to enforce the laws against illegal immigrants, count on an activist federal judge getting in the way. Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for Northern California

SAN FRANCISCO -- A U.S. federal court judge on Monday extended an order preventing the Department of Homeland Security from launching a controversial new program to root out illegal immigrants in the nation's workforce. ADVERTISEMENT 2 Million 100,000 500

Lawyers and Pennsylvania court experts are raising ethical questions about the appearance of a state appellate judge at a Capitol news conference yesterday on illegal immigration. Superior Court Justice Correale F. Stevens stood on the Rotunda steps with

DENVER -- A federal judge Friday threw out a lawsuit by the state alleging the government failed to do enough to stop illegal immigration. A day after federal attorneys asked that the lawsuit be dismissed, U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock did so, agreein