Today was another big day in court for the backers of Prop 8, who remain unhappy that federal judge Vaughn Walker did not agree with their view that homosexual marriage constitutes a horrible, civilization-destroying movement bent on ruining the blessedness of marriage for everyone. The California Supreme Court today heard arguments on the procedural question that has hung over the case for the past ten months since Walker's ruling came down: Can a few average citizens appeal a ruling regarding a ballot initiative, on behalf of the citizenry, even though the state itself does not care to appeal. As predicted by a number of legal experts, the seven justices all appear to say yes, they can. more ›

California's proposed law to ban the sale of violent video games to minors was shot down when the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional on a 7-2 vote this morning. Justice Scalia blew up the proposed legislation, stating that the ban would have violated minors' First Amendment rights. In the court's majority opinion, Scalia wrote that the state shouldn't be allowed to, "restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed," before going on to cite several gory fairy tales that we regularly subject our children to. more ›

The Supreme Court today issued what amounts to an injunction against the State of California and its prisons, ordering the state to release 30,000 prisoners from the overcrowded system. The 5-4 majority opinion in the case of Brown v. Plata, No. 09-1233 affirms an earlier order by a three-judge special federal court, made in 2009, requiring the state to reduce its prison population to 110,000, which would be 137% capacity. The current prisoner population is 140,000, down about 20,000 in the last two years. (We're also hearing that the number of prisoners has gone down only 9,000 since the cap was first ordered, and 37,000 is the magic number now. In any event, a lot of prisoners!) more ›

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor paid a visit to the Bay Area yesterday and today, and apparently never left Berkeley. She seems to have been here to judge a mock court competition at Cal, but she also toured some elementary school classrooms, visited Boalt Law School, and lunched at Chez Panisse. Berkeleyside details the Twitter tracking required to figure out all her stops. more ›

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia hopped over to San Francisco on Friday to speak at UC Hastings College of Law, and during his talk, among other things, he mentioned that the Constitution does not provide protections based on gender or sexual orientation. more ›

Our AP mobile alert just informed us that Elena Kagan's Senate confirmation is official, with a vote of 63-37. No one thought it wouldn't go through, but anyway, there you have it. This may be Obama's last shot at filling a Supreme Court vacancy until 2013ish, assuming he's re-elected and barring any unforeseen illnesses or deaths. more ›

Speaking of the Supreme Court (where the Prop 8 case is likely to end up), Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today puts to rest any rumors that she has any retirement plans during Obama's first term. She tells the AP, "If anyone asks how long I'll be here, at least until my Albers comes back," referring to a painting from her office that is on loan to a traveling exhibition until 2012. Ginsburg, age 77, is the oldest sitting Justice on the court — second only to her friend and ideological nemesis Scalia — and she looks forward to being one of three women on the court for the first time this year. Rumors had circulated about her retirement following treatment for pancreatic cancer last year, and the death of her husband of 56 years in June. [AP/Chron] more ›

Speaking of gun violence, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 today against the 30-year-old ban against handguns in Chicago, with the liberal justices all voting in the minority. Writing for the majority, Justice Alito said the Second Amendment ""limits (but by no means eliminates) [cities' and states'] ability to devise solutions to social problems that suit local needs and values." Chicago's handgun ban is one of the last remaining such outright bans on the books. [AP/NYT] more ›

Judge Sonia Sotomayor will be sworn in as the Supreme Court's 111th justice and first-ever Hispanic judge and third xx-chromosome carrier. With a Senate vote of 68-31, Sotomayor was also the first nominee by a Democrat in a long 15 years. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. will administer the oath of office on Saturday. Associated Press reports, "the Senate chamber was heavy with history as senators took the rare step of assembling at their desks on for the vote, rising from their seats to call out 'aye' or 'nay.'" more ›

What are notables saying about the California State Supreme Court upholding prop. 8? Let's find out. more ›

After much speculation this week, the California State Supreme Court will announce its official decision on Prop 8, the gay marriage ban, on Tuesday, May 26 Here's what will go down the day before the ruling is announced: more ›

We dare you to watch the Courage Campaign's Fidelity video and not get all weepy. We were able to keep it together until it got to the big crowd shots around the end, and then suddenly there was something in our eye. more ›

Oh this Prop 8 stuff just gets hairier and hairier. We were thumbing through some articles about the people who backed Prop 8; that includes groups like the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which despite the word "liberty" in their name wants to wield control over California marriages -- every single one -- vetoing whichever couples they don't like. They plan to use Prop 8 to continue stopping marriages and to nullify the approximately 18,000 that they don't currently like -- and possibly more in the future. And the Amicus Brief that they filed in Prop 8's favor contained this scintillating quote: more ›

While his Holiness is more or less meh when it comes to non-consensual sex between a man and a boy, same-sex marriage just ain't cool in his book. So stop, says Pope Benedict. more ›

Heads have been exploding throughout California ever since this morning's delightful news about same-sex marriage was announced. City Attorney Dennis Herrera, in particular, is beaming--at least according to a press released sent out an hour after the ruling was announced. more ›

According to ABC 7--who just mercifully brought The View to a screeching halt to inform viewers--the California State Supreme Court struck down the gay marriage ban. So: same-sex marriage is now legal, at least according to the California Supreme Court. more ›

Yesterday, the state supreme court flicked away San Francisco's feeble attempt to bad handguns. Or, in the words of CBS 5, the court "unanimously rejected the city's appeal of a lower-court ruling that sharply limited the ability of localities to regulate firearms." This is the final nail in the Prop H coffin, an initiate that voters passed in 2005. more ›

Ha ha. Our mayor is better than yours. Why? Because Gavin Newsom wrote a thoughtful post for the Daily Kos regarding today's state Supreme Court gay marriage percolation. Cool, right? Sure, we're confused, jealous, and sad that he didn't turn to SFist first. But while we go hit the bottle to squelch this ego blow, we urge you to read his words of inspiration and shocking clarity: more ›

And speaking of l'herb. more ›

Bad news cancer fighters, arthritic sufferers, and those of you who worked so hard at getting your medical marijuana ID card under false pretenses: employees who partake in the kind medical bud at home can be fired for testing positive for the drug at work. Which? Wow. more ›

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and veggies in South Central. On the entertainment front, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are suing Showtime over the show titled Californication and Rami Kashou of Project Runway chatted with LAist about his Palestinian heritage and, of course, designing beauty. more ›

Like a pesky gnat, the U.S. Supreme Court swatted away an appeal by former San Francisco Police Department Chief Earl Sanders yesterday. He claimed to have been nailed to the wall unfairly over his part in a little known thing called fajitagate. more ›

In a case closely watched by Silicon Valley corporate types, a federal jury in San Francisco returned a guilty verdict against Brocade Communications CEO Gregory Reyes for knowingly backdating stock options, so they would count as having been issued at a time when the stock price was lower. While backdating is not in and of itself against the law, the SEC says that backdating and not telling your investors about it constitutes criminal fraud. Reyes was convicted on all 10 charges filed against him; 9 of which call for a 20-year sentence. Reyes is 44. more ›

Because kangaroos are so adorably bouncy and keep their little blessings inside of their pouches, the California Supreme Court just overturned the Senate’s May decision to end the ban "on importing and selling kangaroo parts." Namely, the David Beckham-inspired Adidas soccer cleats might not be for sale in California. (That and other Kangaroo-skin featured items.) Although the Senate recently allowed "kangaroo-derived products made by the sporting goods" industry to sell their stuff willy-nilly, the Supreme Court’s counter will most likely be overturned. more ›

Photo of Dan Carbone and friend, by Mike Kuchar more ›

--One person is dead after a Caltrain hit a car in Palo Alto this afternoon. [CBS 5, Merc News.] more ›

We are deeply, deeply regretful that the cityblog format had not been launched back in 2001 and 2002, when we were totally obsessed with the Diane Whipple dog mauling case. more ›

Here's todays wrap up of the news more ›

As entertaining as the Gavin years have been, SFist always kind of wished they were around for the Dog Mauling case, you know the one where a couple of Presa Canario dogs killed Diane Whipple in the hallway of the apartment complex they all lived in. Now that was a trial-- there was the creepy couple who owned the dogs (Marjorie Knoller and her husband Robert Noel), their prison pen pal and Nazi skinhead Paul "Cornfed" Schneider who they also adopted, the lawyer who got on all fours and pretended she was a dog, and rumors of all sorts of nasty pornographic pictures involving Knoller and the dogs. Oh, and how could we forget the fact that one of the lawyers on the case was a then unknown Kimberly Guilfoyle. Now that, my friends, was good times. more ›

So it had to happen and it did-- somebody sued the federal government about all those extra security measures going down in the airports. The dude who did it, John Gilmore, did so under the guise that the policy violated his right to be free of unreasonable searches. He lost most of the cases and the Supreme Court, perhaps due to Judge Rehnquist undergoing some sort of bad acid flashback, rejected the case. more ›