Could California Attorney General and former San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris be the next nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court? Maybe, says Tom Goldstein of SCOTUSblog who claims with certainty that Harris is a shoo-in for candidacy. Working on the assumption that Obama will want/win a second term (which seems likely), Goldstein says: more ›

Just ten days after former Police Chief George Gascon was sworn in as the interim District Attorney, a lawyer at the Public Defenders Office is considering asking him to step aside from the high-profile officer-involved shooting of Randal Dunklin, the man in a wheelchair who stabbed an officer, on January 4. more ›

The California Supreme Court made a controversial 5-2 ruling yesterday allowing police to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant. This finding is said to be in line with decisions made in the 1970s that items on an arrestee's person during an arrest, such as cigarettes or a wallet, can be seized and later examined without a warrant. more ›

The House voted today to repeal the U.S. military's ban on LGBT service. Wednesday's vote, 250-175,"propels the issue to the Senate for what could be the last chance for now to end the 1993 law that forbids recruiters from asking about sexual orientation while prohibiting soldiers from acknowledging that they are gay." more ›

As the Mehserle closing arguments wrap up, on Thursday, the Chronicle reports, jurors "were told that the video-recorded killing during an arrest at BART's Fruitvale Station in Oakland was either an intentional act by a cop who 'lost all control' or a tragic accident by an officer who intended to subdue a suspect with a Taser." more ›

Alleged Christian groups all over the U.S. have incorrectly and abusively attempted to use the First Amendment to commit balls out acts of hate and discrimination. Take, for example, anti-gay group the Christian Legal Society, who, while attempting to bar UC Hastings members who happen to be gay, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court claiming their free speech rights were being trampled on (not the case) because of the college's nondiscrimination policy. more ›

Prop 8 closing arguments start today. more ›

Get ready to see some dirty laundry aired. Today Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ordered gay marriage advocacy groups to turn over campaign materials from the election fight over Proposition 8... more ›

While national health care faced a set back this week with the loss of the 60th Democratic senate seat, California took a step forward. A new state law sets limits on the length of time a patient must wait to see a doctor... more ›

Like a tightly-scrunched walnut, the fine folks at TMZ have cracked the case of California First Lady Maria Shriver's wanton disregard for public safety and that of her own. It seems Shriver was caught in the act of talking on her cellphone while driving, sans "hands-free" device. As most of you know, the hands-free law went into effect last year. more ›

The people who sponsored last year's gay marriage ban must hand over certain internal campaign records to lawyers looking to overturn Prop 8. Turning down a request to block their super-special information from being made public, U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, KTVU reports, "said the Protect Marriage campaign had failed to show that providing private e-mails, memos and reports would inhibit the political activities of gay marriage opponents or subject them to unbridled harassment." more ›

People are crying foul after SFPD had the unmitigated gall to hand out citations to people boozing it up in Dolores Park. Drinking alcohol in San Francisco parks, as most of you know, is verboten. No matter how many shows at Amnesia you've attended. No matter how often you prattle on about the salted caramel at Bi-Rite Ice Cream Shoppe. No matter how age-inappropriate your haircut and attire is. Drinking in public is illegal. more ›

Today, San Francisco's California Supreme Court made the decision to uphold the death penalty of Richard Allen Davis, the man convicted of kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Polly Klass at knife point during her slumber party. If you recall, the case made headlines across the country back in the day, including a cameo from Peteluma local Winona Ryder. (An Aside: Does Ryder still live in Pacific Heights? Where is she these days? We miss her. Word has it she's also in some sort of Star Wars Outerspace Galactica-ish movie we will never see.) Anyway, according to reports, a lengthy 112 page decision boiled down to this: Yeah, let's kill the bastard. So, congratulations to all of you eye-for-an-eye believers. more ›

Here it is in all of its confusing glory. In a nutshell, Rota Hao explains, it's because our constitution sucks -- even Mississippi has a provision in their constitution that says "you can't amend this constitution to take away people's fundamental rights" and we don't have that. more ›

At 9 a.m. today, the preliminary hearing for BART officer Johannes Mehserle began. Mehserle is charged with the murder of Oscar Grant. The former officer's defense, most likely, will center around the idea that he meant to fire his Taser, not his pistol, that fateful morning. If you recall, Grant was shot on New Year's Day at the Fruitvale station after Grant and some pals were detained by BART officers. more ›

After allegedly being beaten, sexually assaulted, threatened by a Guatemalan congressman, and chronically harassed by Guatemalan police, gay Bay Area resident Saul Martinez fled to the United States in 1992. Now, after years of living in the U.S., the Feds are trying to send him back to his country of origin. According to the National Center for Lesbian Rights: more ›

All set to receive a sentence from the state of California, in addition to the 5-plus years former SF Supervisor Ed Jew was handed in federal court earlier this month, today's hearing was postponed "as the judge scheduled to deliver Ed Jew's state court sentence has fallen ill," according to reports. Today's sentencing was expected to land the disgraced supervisor anywhere between one to three more years in the clink. The hearing will be rescheduled. more ›

Take note, California: the Governor of New York introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. "There is clearly a problem in that those individuals who are gay or lesbian who would live in a civil union are still not entitled to somewhere between 1,250 and 1,300 civil protections" that are afforded to married couples, Paterson said yesterday. more ›

While lawyers and civil rights advocates agree that Prop 8 will (most likely) be upheld when the State Supreme Court makes its decision, no one can say for sure if forced divorces will affect the 18,000+ couples who were legally married. In what could be the biggest debate in all of this is, well, "is." The wording of Prop 8 reads like this: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Kenneth Starr claimed during this month's hearing that the phrase “is recognized,” even in the present tense, would also nullify existing same-sex marriages that happened in the past. But as Ashby Jones of the Wall Street Journal points out, "Advocates who favor allowing the gay marriages to stand point to a California legal tradition of protecting what are called 'vested rights.' The idea is that if somebody obeyed the law in exercising a right, any new law must be extremely clear in its intent to take away that right." That is to say, if you want a law to work retroactively, said law must be clear about it; the gay marriage ban was not. (Also for comprehensive coverage about civil marriage equality in California, check out Stop8.org.) more ›

Cook County is all aghast over Craigslist escort ads. According to KCBS, a sheriff filed "a federal lawsuit against Craigslist on Thursday, saying the popular online classifieds site promotes and facilitates prostitution on a massive scale." Well, duh. A Craigslist spokesperson said, "OMG, paying for hanky-panky is bad, and we follow the law, so shut up." Or something that. If you would like to check out one of the many fine masseuses on Craigslist, go here. more ›

Supervisor Chis Daly has yet another meme in the works: new rent laws. Three of them, in fact. The first one would bar landlords from increasing rent to more than one-third of a tenant's income, the second would make it easier for tenants to add roommates to the lease, and the third would put a limit on "so-called banked rent increases." The Chronicle reports: more ›

What with Bush out of office, American Apparel has, unfortunately, turned into a lightening rod for San Francisco's wrath. more ›

Sporting a tan suit (not since Nedra Ruiz has San Francisco seen a such a glamor-free court trial), Barry Bonds pleaded 'not guilty' in federal court today. Bonds, a former SF Giant great, is accused of lying to a grand jury after testified in 2003 that he never used steroids. Yesterday, the prosecution alleged "that Bonds used a designer steroid during the 2003 season, along with a female fertility drug that was supposed to mask the steroid on drug tests." The trial starts March 2. more ›

U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. ruled in favor of keeping proposition 8 donor info public. Anti-gay marriage ilk tried to get a preliminary injunction to hide the identities of those who financially backed prop 8 campaign. Because they are cowards. But today, things were coming up neither roses nor daffodils for those who helped allow discrimination into the California state constitution. more ›

Stepping back in time 20 years, a court ruled in favor of California Lutheran High School in Riverside County after two female students were expelled for having "a bond of intimacy ... characteristic of a lesbian relationship." According to reports, the girls sued the school claiming they had violated some sort of state anti-discrimination law. But not so, said a three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal. The private religious institution was deemed "not a business," so they were above the state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation. Which, as a private entity, they are. Alas. more ›

Two sergeants and nine officers in the Oakland Police Department will be looking for fresh new careers soon. Why? It seems said law enforcement officials lied on sworn affidavits in order to get judges to sign search warrants. Yeah. The warrants were for East Oakland homes suspected of small-time drug dealing, it seems. Police Chief Wayne Tucker freaked out, saying, "We demand professional conduct from all employees ... [t]he foundation of our system requires that law enforcement officials maintain the highest integrity, and once that integrity is compromised, you lose credibility, and you cannot continue to be a peace officer." While this kind of edgy behavior flies on Law & Order, not so much in real life. more ›

Senator Mark Leno and (new!) Assemblymember Tom Ammiano will introduce measures that prove Proposition 8 is "an improper revision of the California State Constitution," according to reports. The measure, which should be announced today during the second day of the 2009-20101 legislative session, is sponsored by Equality California and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Prop 8, if you recall, could ban same-same marriage, effectively altering the California constitution to allow discrimination. more ›

Watch your manners in courtroom, people. Same goes for you, honorable judges. See, Superior Court Judge James McBride was publicly reprimanded for his courtroom behavior on Tuesday. With cases going back to 2006, the Commission on Judicial Performance claims that McBride committed numerous offenses, breaking rules requiring judges to be "patient, dignified and courteous" to attorneys and their clients. But what we're all dying to know is this: What did he do? SF law types are encouraged to dish in the comments. Because we assumed sassy, impatient, undignified and discourteous judges landed their own daytime TV shows. Please advise. more ›

A number of police officers have filed a federal class action lawsuit against the San Francisco Police Department. The 34 plaintiffs, all patrol officers over age 40, have been on the waiting list for promotions to inspector since taking the inspector's exam 1998. They claim "younger, less experienced" police officers" have been promoted instead--and without taking the inspector's exam and KCBS reports that apparently the SFPD even "admits to promoting younger sergeants over older patrol officers to the Inspectors' Bureau." Lead plaintiff Juanita Stockwell, 60, told the Chronicle, "They're excluding all the older people now, trying to put in younger people and just leave us on the vine." The SFPD had no comment at this time. more ›