SCOTUS yesterday effectively decided to uphold an earlier decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the use of religious messages and textbooks in classrooms. The two cases — one involving a San Diego area teacher who had hung "In God We Trust" and "God Shed His Grace on Thee" banners in his classroom for three decades and one involving an Idaho charter school that used the Bible as a "cultural" text — were heard together in September. more ›

While the pundits, legal analysts, and holders of J.D.s pore over the 128 pages of text in the Ninth Circuit Court's decision this morning, we bring you our very favorite arguments for ruling Prop 8. unconstitutional. Presented by the Judges of the Ninth Circuit, in their own pop-culture referencing words: more ›

Start clearing space on the DVR and setting it to record CSPAN now, because the latest round of hearings on Prop 8 gets underway next week and after the list of three, randomly-selected Ninth Circuit Court Judges was announced via the AP today today, it sounds like it's going to make for some interesting TV. more ›

After a federal judge blocked "a key provision of a new city program providing basic health care to uninsured residents, City Attorney Dennis Herrera is scheduled to petition the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today for an emergency stay pending appeal to help SF maintain the "Healthy San Francisco" program. The program, which would help uninsured San Franciscans receive health care, was scheduled to begin on January 2, 2008. According to CBS 5: more ›

Josh Wolf's Ninth Circuit appeal is officially dead, and it looks like he's stuck in jail for the next 18 months -- unless he wants to turn over his video footage. And in other grand jury contempt of court news, an animal rights activist is scheduled to stay silent before the federal grand jury today, and the LA Times laments the fate of Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada. more ›

She's going out like Jay-Z, Michael Jordan, and Stephen King -- after her erstwhile "retirement," former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's coming back in the game. The former Justice is (.pdf) sitting by special designation on the Ninth Circuit appellate federal court in San Francisco this week. She was on the bench today and will be there again on Friday. more ›

-SF Board of Supervisors Committee approves plan for more foot patrols in troubled areas. -Daly and Newsom go at it again over anti-violence measures. more ›

If life were a Monopoly game, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada just rounded the Free Parking corner -- the next roll might put them in jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Earlier this week, Judge Jeffrey White of the local federal district court ordered the Chronicle's sports reporters who broke the BALCO story to testify before a grand jury which is investigating how the BALCO grand jury's testimony got leaked to the press in the first place. Judge White indicated (.pdf) that he was stuck with the Ninth Circuit's rulings that reporters are not shielded from grand jury subpoenas under federal law. The Chron is appealing the ruling, says the reporters won't testify, and vows to take it to the Supreme Court if they have to. If they don't testify, they could be sent to jail for contempt of court. more ›

-The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that an East Contra Costa County school can teach Islam by having the students pretend to be Muslim for three weeks. As part of a history course at Excelsior School for seventh graders, a teacher had students role-play being Muslim to help learn Islam. So the kids adopted Muslim names, read religious poetry, gave up something to simulate Ramadan, and stoned girls for not wearing burkas (kidding!). This got the school system sued by a couple of parents who thought that by "teaching" kids Islam, they were in fact "indoctrinating" them and thus violating their constitutional rights. The court, however, ruled that the school was only doing it for educational purposes and not trying to convert them. That's what science class is for. more ›

Medical marijuana finds its way back to the Supreme Court. Man, you just can't kill that weed! more ›