Court to hear 2 days of arguments on gay marriage

The Supreme Court says it will hear two days' worth of arguments over laws affecting gay marriage during the last week of March.

Justices on Monday announced they will hear arguments in Hollingsworth v. Perry on March 26 and United States v. Windsor on March 27.

The first case involves California's constitutional amendment that forbids same-sex marriage. The second concerns a federal law that denies gay couples who legally marry the right to obtain federal benefits available to heterosexual married couples. The court scheduled one hour's worth of arguments on each day. Justices can still extend the amount of time given to arguments in each case, however.

Nine states — Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and Washington— and the District of Columbia allow gay marriage.

Court refuses to block Okla. execution

The Supreme Court has refused to halt the execution of an Oklahoma inmate who claims he is mentally incompetent and ineligible for the death penalty.

The justices said in an order Tuesday that they will not grant a stay of execution to 56-year-old Garry Thomas Allen, who is set to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester.

Allen was convicted in the shooting death of his fiancée outside a children's day care in Oklahoma City in 1986.

Allen's attorneys had argued that he was incompetent when he entered a guilty plea in the case and that his mental condition has continued to deteriorate. Appellate courts have rejected those claims.

Court denies appeal of circus family assault suit

A court has turned down an appeal from the sister of the CEO of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus who claimed her estranged brother had her assaulted by private security guards.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Tuesday called her appeal "without merit and easily rejected."
Karen Feld lost her $110 million lawsuit last year against circus CEO Kenneth Feld. She had claimed that Kenneth Feld's private security guards assaulted her when they threw her out of their late aunt's shiva (a Jewish mourning ritual) held at a condo owned by Kenneth Feld.
The appeals court rejected Karen Feld's argument that Kenneth Feld was not entitled to use force to remove her from the building.

2 men sentenced in Palin lawyer harassment case

Two Pennsylvania men convicted of harassing Sarah Palin's Alaska lawyers were sentenced Friday to time served and five years' probation, with the proceedings briefly halted after a short outburst in court by one of the defendants.
During his sentencing in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, 20-year-old Shawn Christy said the judge's order that he live up to six months in a Pennsylvania community re-entry program was "ridiculous."
His father, Craig Christy, 48, was ordered to perform community service.
The Christys, of McAdoo, Pa., pleaded guilty in January to making harassing phone calls to Palin's attorneys. Attorney John Tiemessen testified that the men's calls threatened Palin and attorneys. Both Christys apologized Friday for their actions.
Shawn Christy was released and sent back to Pennsylvania last month after an evaluation report said he wasn't a danger to the public.

Court to decide if deportation ruling retroactive

The Supreme Court will decide whether to apply retroactively its 2010 decision that immigrants have a right to be told that a guilty plea could lead to their deportation.

The high court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from Roselva Chaidez, who was in the process of being deported when the court made that March 2010 decision.

Chaidez pleaded guilty to fraud in 2004 after falsely claiming to be a passenger in a car wreck. Authorities started deportation procedures while she was applying for U.S. citizenship in 2007.

Her lawyer never told her that her fraud conviction may lead to her deportation. Chaidez says she should be able to take advantage of the Supreme Court decision that cemented that principle.

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Ex-head of Nigerian state admits financial crime

A former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state pleaded guilty in a British court Monday to charges of money-laundering, conspiring to defraud and obtaining a money transfer by fraud, officials said.

James Ibori, 49, entered his plea at Southwark Crown Court. He is to be sentenced on April 16.

Paul Whatmore of the Metropolitan Police Proceeds of Corruption Unit said Ibori's guilty pleas capped an inquiry which began in association with Nigerian anti-corruption investigators in 2005. Ibori was immune from prosecution in Nigeria between 1999 and 2007 when he was serving as governor of Bayelsa state, police said.

"We will now be actively seeking the confiscation of all of his stolen assets so they can be repatriated for the benefit of the people of Delta state," Whatmore said.