Growers, Suppliers Would Qualify for Acquittal Reacting to the latest wave of federal marijuana prosecutions and raids, a California congressman announced legislation Wednesday that would keep medical marijuana growers and suppliers out of federal prison. The U.S. Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration has "no respect for the laws we here in California have established to allow patients to live pain-free lives," said Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel. Farr's bill would apply to California and seven other states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. Anyone charged in those states with growing, transporting or distributing marijuana, in violation of federal law, would qualify for an acquittal by proving that the marijuana was intended solely as medicine. [continues 454 words]
Feds Ignore Cities' Laws, Advocates Say When the federal government charged prominent marijuana advocate Ed Rosenthal with illegal cultivation, California's medical marijuana law proved useless as a shield. With Rosenthal now convicted and facing prison, and federal charges pending against other purveyors of medicinal pot, some advocates say it's time to strengthen the shield -- ideally, by putting the state government in charge, as either the overseer of marijuana distribution or the official supplier. "You need the state to step in before the feds are going to blink," Dave Fratello, spokesman for the Campaign for New Drug Policies, said Wednesday. [continues 731 words]
Feds Score Big Victory Against California Law A federal jury in San Francisco found Ed Rosenthal, one of the nation's most prominent marijuana advocates, guilty Friday of felony conspiracy and cultivation charges -- a triumph for federal prosecutors seeking to override California's endorsement of pot as medicine. Jurors deliberated less than a day before finding the 58-year-old Oakland resident -- a columnist for High Times and Cannabis Culture magazines and author of more than a dozen books -- guilty of all three felonies charged. Rosenthal faces a minimum of five years in prison. [continues 663 words]
References To Medical Uses Quickly Squelched In Federal Court The Bay Area's first federal medical marijuana trial ended Thursday with a bizarre touch that symbolized the entire case: The judge took over questioning of a defense witness to make sure he didn't refer to the medical use of marijuana. It started when Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley mentioned that he had met defendant Ed Rosenthal "in the context of Proposition 215," the 1996 California medical marijuana initiative. Without prompting from the prosecutor, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer [continues 737 words]
Ruling Says Doctors Can Recommend Pot A federal appeals court said Tuesday the federal government cannot punish California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. The ruling by the three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco was a rare legal victory for medical marijuana advocates and was hailed as a significant step toward preserving California's landmark medical marijuana law, which has been continually challenged by the U. S. Justice Department since its adoption in 1996. [continues 840 words]
Patients Protest U.S. Raids On Supplies Medical marijuana patients and advocates held protests in San Francisco and several other cities Monday against the latest federal raids on their supplies. Outside the federal court building in San Francisco, about 30 demonstrators chanted, "We're patients, not criminals," and carried "Wanted" posters for President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson. "This is a life-and-death issue," said Randi Webster of San Francisco, who uses medical marijuana to ease pain from arthritis and a degenerative condition in her knees, and hobbled along the march on a brace. "The federal government doesn't see it that way. They think we're drug pushers and terrorists." [continues 277 words]
Reversals Of Fortune Ninth Circuit's Gets A Bad Rap As Wacky, Rogue Court There they go again. The court that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional June 26, because schoolchildren are required to say "one nation under God," is the same Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that was overruled 27 out of 28 times by the Supreme Court in 1996-97. It's the same San Francisco court that has been overruled unanimously when it declared that terminally ill patients had a constitutional right to die and that patients with a medical necessity for marijuana could use it without violating federal law. [continues 1084 words]
A CIA Mickey -- Lawsuit Claims LSD Was Put In Veteran's Drink In 1957 Until the night of an office Christmas party in 1957, Wayne Ritchie was a Marine Corps veteran, a deputy U.S. marshal and a solid citizen. Overcome by what he later described as depression and a delusion that everyone had turned against him, he tried to hold up a bar that night in San Francisco's Fillmore District. Spared a prison sentence, Ritchie quit his job in disgrace, spent years fighting off suicidal urges and for more than three decades lived with guilt and self-contempt -- until a 1999 newspaper article propelled him into federal court with a lawsuit against the U.S. government that could soon go to trial. [continues 1369 words]
A Santa Rosa medical marijuana club reportedly halted operations Thursday as its owner and another man appeared in court on drug charges in the aftermath of the latest federal raid on a California marijuana provider. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched the Aiko Compassion Center on West College Avenue on Wednesday. They then arrested Daniel H. Nelson, identified by a DEA agent as the owner, and Edward M. Bierling of Santa Rosa, described by his lawyer as a patient. Both men appeared before a federal magistrate in San Francisco on charges of cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants, charges that carry a mandatory prison sentence of at least five years. Nelson is also charged with maintaining a place where marijuana was cultivated. Both were released on bond. [continues 157 words]
Appellate Ruling Applies To 9 Western States, Territories If you're a Rastafarian who considers marijuana holy, it's legal to light up in Guam -- and maybe in any national park on the West Coast. At least that seemed to be the conclusion of a federal appeals court in San Francisco, which said Tuesday that a 1993 religious-freedom law puts limits on prosecutions in the "federal realm" -- specifically in a U.S. territory like Guam, or potentially within any other federal property. [continues 447 words]
Judge Backs Federal Effort To Close Them After a loss in the U.S. Supreme Court, advocates for medical marijuana suffered another setback Friday when a judge rejected constitutional challenges to the federal government's campaign to shut down Northern California pot clubs. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer snuffed efforts by marijuana dispensaries in Oakland and Fairfax to mount new defenses against the Justice Department's enforcement of federal drug laws. The Supreme Court upheld the shutdown of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative last year, ruling that the federal ban on marijuana did not exempt cases of medical necessity. The court did not rule on other issues, prompting the clubs' return to Breyer's San Francisco court two weeks ago. [continues 262 words]
Federal Government Didn't Violate States' Rights, Ruling Says In another setback for medical marijuana advocates, a federal judge ruled today that the federal government didn't violate states' rights or individual liberties by shutting down Northern California marijuana dispensaries. The Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, joined by a Marin County marijuana club, launched a constitutional challenge after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that federal drug laws contained no exemption for cases of medical necessity. But U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the federal government has the constitutional authority to regulate drug activity, even if it takes place entirely within a state's boundaries. He also said the clubs had no legal standing to assert the constitutional rights of individuals who obtain marijuana from them. [continues 262 words]
Why Is Federal Government Into This, He Asks A federal appeals court was openly skeptical yesterday about the federal government's attempt to punish California doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. "Why is the federal government getting into this?" asked Judge Alex Kozinski, historically the most conservative of the three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals panel. "Why on earth does an administration that's committed to the concept of federalism . . . want to go to this length to put doctors in jail for doing something that's perfectly legal under state law?" [continues 584 words]
Drugs Found When Bag Punctured Customs agents were entitled to puncture an airline passenger's bag and examine the contents after his actions and an X-ray of the bag aroused their suspicions, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday. In upholding the passenger's drug conviction and 20-year sentence, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco set guidelines for "routine" luggage searches -- which can be conducted without evidence of wrongdoing. The ruling appeared to pose no obstacle to the screening required by the airline security law signed by President Bush last fall. [continues 362 words]
The Supreme Court unanimously allowed housing authorities in Oakland last week to evict low-income tenants for drug activity they knew nothing about. A year ago, the court -- in another unanimous ruling, also from Oakland -- barred distribution of medical marijuana to seriously ill patients. The justices also appear ready to expand drug testing of students not suspected of drug use. Is the court moving to the front ranks of the war on drugs? Don't jump to conclusions, say legal analysts who have studied recent cases and can cite evidence to the contrary. [continues 869 words]
U.S. Appeals Court Decision May Reduce Terms For 340 Inmates In the latest blow to California's "three strikes" law, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday that it is unconstitutional to sentence a felon to 25 years to life for shoplifting. Yesterday's unanimous ruling held that even a record of violence doesn't justify a life term for a minor crime that is punished much less severely in all other states. The sentences imposed on Earnest Bray Jr. and Richard Napoleon Brown "are grossly disproportionate to their respective crimes -- stealing three videotapes and a steering wheel alarm -- even in light of their criminal records," wrote Judge Marsha Berzon of the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco. [continues 522 words]
To the immense relief of prosecutors in nine Western states, a federal appeals court removed a cloud yesterday that it had cast five months ago over a federal drug sentencing law. The law, in effect since 1984, is used regularly in federal prosecutions and allows drug sentences to be lengthened by many years based on the amount of narcotics involved. One application is to increase the maximum sentence for selling drugs, normally 20 years, to life in prison if large quantities were sold. [continues 363 words]
Dennis Peron Caught With Joint The godfather of medical marijuana in California didn't get much respect last week in Cedar City, Utah, where police caught him smoking a joint in his motel room. Facing a felony charge of possessing marijuana for distribution, Dennis Peron said yesterday it was time that Utah had a law like California's Proposition 215, which he drafted in 1996. "I'm going to go back and fight it and going to try to change the state law, " he said. "It's going to be a tough nut to crack, but it's not impossible." [continues 273 words]
Attorney General's Actions Show Shift In White House Policy Attorney General John Ashcroft is an ardent advocate of states' rights, as he demonstrated in 1998 when he praised a pro-Confederacy magazine for defending "Southern patriots" like Jefferson Davis. His boss, President Bush, told campaign audiences last year that the federal government was too big and too active outside its proper sphere -- and even suggested that states should decide whether to legalize medical marijuana. But Ashcroft's actions toward doctors in Oregon and toward medical marijuana suppliers and physicians in California have led some analysts to question the administration's devotion to curbing the powers of the federal government. [continues 820 words]
Mandate For Treatment Given Maximum Effect The first appellate court to consider California's voter-approved overhaul of drug sentencing ruled yesterday that people sentenced after July 1 for possessing drugs are entitled to treatment instead of jail. In a decision that affects hundreds or even thousands of defendants statewide, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel in Los Angeles said Proposition 36 applied to everyone waiting to be sentenced when it took effect in July, no matter when they committed their crimes. [continues 329 words]
Federal Court Challenge To '91 HUD Rule San Francisco -- The San Francisco Housing Authority's attempt to evict a pregnant Hunters Point woman because police allegedly found heroin in the jacket of a visitor has become the latest test case of a controversial federal drug eviction policy. A federal judge issued a restraining order last November temporarily barring the eviction of the woman and her three children from their two-bedroom apartment in the Hunter's View project. The judge is considering an injunction that would ban eviction indefinitely and could further erode a policy weakened earlier this year by a federal appeals court. [continues 329 words]
State's Rights Issue May Decide Future Of Oakland Club The fate of Oakland's medical marijuana dispensary, to be argued this week in the U.S. Supreme Court, will probably hinge just as much on states' rights as on drug policy. A court that has regularly elevated state prerogatives over federal authority is being asked to harmonize the national "war on drugs" with a state's decision to let gravely ill residents use drugs that the federal government has not approved. [continues 1107 words]
Evidence Inadequate For Search Warrant A few phone calls from the home of a drug suspect and an electric bill higher than others in the neighborhood make enough evidence for a warrant to search a home for marijuana growing. At least that's how a Sonoma County judge saw it. A state appellate court panel took a different view, however. "This was not a close case," three judges of the Court of Appeal said in a ruling made public yesterday that overturned Richard Hight's cultivation conviction and nine-month jail sentence. [continues 270 words]
Attorney General Bill Lockyer urged the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday to stop federal interference with California's medical marijuana law. The court is scheduled to hear arguments March 28 over rulings by lower federal courts that would allow the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to distribute marijuana to patients with cancer, AIDS and other diseases who can't benefit from legal drugs. California's Prop. 215, which paved the way for medical marijuana laws in eight other states, allowed patients whose doctors had recommended the drug to use it without risking prosecution under state law. Advocates say marijuana can have life-saving powers in combatting pain, nausea and loss of appetite suffered by some AIDS and cancer patients. [continues 111 words]
Appeals Court Says 'One-Strike' Policy Evicts Tenants Unfairly Saying Congress never intended to drive innocent people from their homes, a federal appeals court overturned the government's "one-strike" policy, which let public housing authorities evict tenants for drug activity they knew nothing about. Yesterday's 7-to-4 ruling in an Oakland case invalidates the policy in California and eight other Western states. Nationwide, more than 3 million low-income residents of federally funded housing live under the rules adopted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1991. [continues 622 words]
Ruling To Decide If State Laws Can Survive A Federal Prohibition In agreeing to review a medical-marijuana case from Oakland, the U.S. Supreme Court has put itself in a position to decide how far states can go in making otherwise illegal drugs available to their residents for health reasons. The court granted a hearing yesterday to the Clinton administration, which argued that federal drug laws would be undermined by a lower court ruling last year in favor of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative. [continues 932 words]
Decision Will Affect Seriously Ill Patients The Supreme Court jumped into the battle over medical marijuana in California and other states Monday, agreeing to decide whether seriously ill patients and their suppliers can be exempted from federal drug laws. The justices agreed to review the Clinton administration's appeal of an unprecedented lower-court ruling last year that allowed the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to distribute marijuana to patients who showed a medical necessity. Justice Department lawyers argued that allowing an exemption would flout federal drug laws and defy Congress' determination that marijuana has no currently accepted medical use. [continues 745 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- When a mirror fell off the wall of a restroom at a truck terminal in Riverside County three years ago, it was like a scene out of a bad spy movie: Underneath the two-way glass were cameras and microphones, installed by a trucking company to detect drug use by its drivers. Until now, the drivers have gotten nowhere in their claims of invasion of privacy. Federal district judges dismissed their lawsuit without a trial, and an appeals panel ruled in April that even though the surveillance was apparently a crime, the truckers could only file grievances under their Teamsters Union contract. [continues 309 words]
He Has Federal Court Order Protecting Him Mario Rodriguez-Franco had a federal court order protecting him from deportation for an old marijuana conviction, but that didn't prevent immigration officials from putting him on a bus bound for Mexico, or from brushing off his attorney when she tried to object, civil rights attorneys say. Rodriguez-Franco, of Napa, sued a deportation officer and other Immigration and Naturalization Service employees for $1.5 million Tuesday. He wants damages for the three days he spent in Tijuana last September, separated from his family, before the INS acknowledged its mistake and brought him home. [continues 454 words]
In a test case of a national housing policy, a government lawyer says authorities in Oakland must have the authority to evict tenants of low-income public housing for any drug use by a household member or guest, even if tenants were unaware of it. Congress put no limits on local housing agencies' power to "rid themselves of the scourge of drug activity" by evicting tenants for drug crimes by anyone in the household, on or off the premises, Justice Department lawyer Howard Scher argued Tuesday before an 11-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. [continues 553 words]
HUD Policy Allows Tenants To Be Thrown Out Even If They Don't Know About Violation In a test case of a controversial federal housing policy, low-income tenants in Oakland will get another chance to persuade a federal appeals court that their rights would be violated by eviction because a household member possessed drugs without their knowledge. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals announced Friday that a majority of its judges had voted to reconsider a panel's ruling in February upholding the Department of Housing and Urban Development's drug eviction rules. The rules, in effect since 1991, apply to more than 3 million tenants of federally funded housing nationwide. [continues 504 words]
Cops Claim He Was Subject To Scrutiny At Any Time, But Federal Appeals Court Says No With a ringing call for privacy protection, a federal appeals court has rejected Napa County officers' warrantless search of the home of a man suspected of plotting to firebomb PG&E property. Sheriff's deputies said they needed no warrant to search the Napa apartment of Mark J. Knights in June 1998 because he was on probation for a drug conviction, requiring him to submit to searches at any time. [continues 421 words]
Argues that doctors urging use be barred from prescribing The Clinton administration is continuing its war against California's medical marijuana law, arguing in federal court that doctors who recommend the drug should lose their authority to prescribe legal medicines. "It doesn't matter what California says," Justice Department lawyer Joseph Lobue said Thursday at a hearing on a suit seeking to protect doctors from punishment for advising their patients to use marijuana. "There is a national standard." A doctor who tells a patient that marijuana is the best remedy available for nausea or other effects of treatments for cancer and AIDS "has recommended use of a drug that has been found to be unsafe" by Congress and the Food and Drug Administration, Lobue said. He likened it to a lawyer's recommending that a client commit perjury. [continues 383 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- Hundreds of foreign-born Californians with one-time convictions for drug possession will be shielded from deportation by a new federal appeals court ruling, say immigration lawyers. Overturning an Immigration and Naturalization Service policy, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that legal immigrants couldn't be deported for a drug possession conviction that had been "expunged," or erased from the books, under state law. Expungement is available in California for first-time offenders who have successfully completed probation, usually a period of one to three years. The issue is crucial for many noncitizens because federal laws requiring deportation for criminal convictions have been expanded in recent years. [continues 214 words]
Legal immigrants with a single conviction find some protection in appeals court ruling. Immigration lawyers say hundreds of foreign-born Californians with one-time convictions for drug possession will be shielded from deportation by a new federal appeals court ruling. Overturning an Immigration and Naturalization Service policy, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that legal immigrants could not be deported for a drug possession conviction that had been "expunged," or erased from the books, under state law. [continues 457 words]
Appellate Decision For Oakland Cannabis Club "Flouts' Congress The Clinton administration wants the Supreme Court to overturn an appellate ruling that would make medical marijuana available to seriously ill patients in Oakland, saying the ruling would flout the will of Congress and undermine federal drug laws. The ruling last September by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which opened the door for distribution of marijuana in cases of "medical necessity," was "directly at odds with Congress' express finding that marijuana has no currently accepted medical use," the Justice Department said in papers filed with the high court. [continues 548 words]
Fights Deportation To Nicaragua, Says CIA Knew Of Cocaine Deals The former Northern California spokesman for the Nicaraguan contras, facing deportation for cocaine trafficking in the 1980s, will apparently get the chance to convince a federal judge that he was assured the drug deals had U.S. government approval. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that a judge should hear and evaluate Renato Pena's claim that a federal prosecutor in San Francisco had told him after his arrest in 1984 that he was at no risk of deportation for having carried cocaine and cash to Los Angeles about a dozen times. [continues 831 words]
Ruling Limits Use To Strictly Defined Medical Necessity Medical marijuana will soon be legal in Oakland under an unprecedented ruling by a federal judge. Over Clinton administration objections, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer allowed the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to distribute the drug to patients who face imminent harm without it and have no legal alternative. Monday's ruling comes three days after San Francisco health officials started issuing photo ID cards to marijuana users who had their doctors' approval. [continues 665 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Police who board a bus and ask passengers if they will consent to a drug search must make it clear that a passenger can stay on the bus after refusing a search, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a cocaine conviction and 20-year prison sentence in a Sacramento case, saying passengers were led to believe they could avoid a search only by leaving the bus. The 2-1 ruling is binding on federal courts in nine Western states. It is one of several attempts by federal judges around the country to interpret the Supreme Court's 1991 ruling that allowed police to board buses, trains or planes, without a warrant or evidence of a crime, and ask passengers to consent to a search. [continues 478 words]
Cresent City Prison Employees Allegedly Pitted Inmates Against Each Other SAN FRANCISCO - Two more former Pelican Bay State Prison guards have been charged with violating the civil rights of inmates of the maximum-security prison by setting up attacks, one of them fatal, by other prisoners over a nearly three-year period. The indictment of - E. Michael Powers and Jose Ramon Garcia was made public Wednesday, nine days after another former guard was convicted of a civil right violation for shooting a Pelican Bay prisoner in 1994. [continues 478 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - A public housing tenant can be evicted for a household member's drug use even if the tenant was unaware of it, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. The federal government's "one-strike" eviction policy, which applies to more than 3 million low-income tenants nationwide, is a reasonable step toward making public housing safe and drug-free, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 2-1 ruling, one of a handful of court decisions on the issue, overturned a federal judge's 1988 order that barred the Oakland Housing Authority from evicting tenants because of their housemates' off-premises drug activities -- activities the tenant knew nothing about. [continues 481 words]
Lockyer's Support: The Attorney General Urges Reno Not To Appeal A Judicial Ruling. SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court decision that could allow some seriously ill patients to use marijuana has won the endorsement of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who wants the Clinton administration to drop its objections. In a letter last week to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, made public Thursday by supporters of an AIDS patient who wants to use the drug, Lockyer urged the government not to appeal the precedent-setting Sept. 13 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. [continues 487 words]
A federal appeals court decision that could allow some seriously ill patients to use marijuana has won the endorsement of state Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who wants the Clinton administration to drop its objections. In a letter last week to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, made public Thursday by supporters of an AIDS patient who wants to use the drug, Lockyer urged the government not to appeal the precedent-setting Sept. 13 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 3-0 ruling indicated ``medical necessity,'' the need to violate a law to prevent more serious harm, would be a valid defense to the prosecution of a marijuana patient or provider under federal drug laws. [continues 505 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A Los Angeles man who has been in prison since 1988 for cocaine convictions is entitled to a hearing on whether the verdict against him was affected when his codefendant tried to bribe a juror, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Michael Dutkel's conviction should be set aside unless prosecutors can prove that the bribe did not affect his case, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Dutkel could then be tried again on the same charges. [continues 333 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court Monday raised the possibility that clubs that provide medical marijuana might be reopened, saying ``medical necessity'' could make some patients exempt from laws against pot. In a rebuff to the Clinton administration, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told a judge who had issued an injunction against such groups to consider exempting patients and doctors who could show ``medical necessity.'' The injunction against six medical marijuana clubs had been issued at the request of the Justice Department. [continues 445 words]
SAN FRANCISCO The federal appeals court for nine Western states reversed itself Thursday and said federal agents do not need a warrant before scanning a home with a device that can detect different heat levels indoors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in April 1998 that the device, which is supposed to detect heat from indoor drug labs but may also be able to peek into bedrooms, was intrusive enough that agents should have to get a warrant by persuading a judge they were likely to find evidence of crimes. But while the government's request for a rehearing was pending, one judge on the panel retired and a replacement was appointed. The result was a 2-1 majority to allow the scan without a warrant and uphold a marijuana conviction from coastal Oregon. [continues 464 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- The federal appeals court for nine Western states reversed itself Thursday and said federal agents do not need a warrant before scanning a home with a device that can detect different heat levels indoors. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in April 1998 that the device, which is supposed to detect heat from indoor drug labs but may also be able to peek into bedrooms, was intrusive enough that agents should have to get a warrant by persuading a judge they were likely to find evidence of crimes. [continues 509 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Police who find the door of a house open and see clutter inside can enter and seize any contraband they find in plain sight, the state Supreme Court said Thursday in a ruling that failed to pinpoint the reason. Six justices agreed that the officers didn't need a search warrant, but only three voted to recognize a new legal rationale for a home search: "community caretaking," a security check to "find out what is going on" when there are signs of a possible break-in but no apparent emergency. [continues 454 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - Federal officials don't have to go to court before revoking an immigrant's citizenship for failure to disclose past crimes or arrests, says a federal appeals court. Friday's ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a judge's nationwide injunction last year that protected more than 4,500 naturalized citizens from administrative revocation of their citizenship by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein of Seattle said in her July 1998 ruling that the INS's authority to revoke citizenship without going to court was in serious question. [continues 291 words]
