Court Ruling

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela's Supreme Court ruled unanimously that cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez does not have to take the oath of office as scheduled Thursday to begin his fourth term as president, a finding that some legal experts assailed as unconstitutional. Supreme Court President Luisa Estela Morales said Wednesday that Chavez's absence is acceptable given that his service will be uninterrupted and therefore does not fall under constitutional guidelines that could have forced him to attend the swearing-in ceremony or relinquish power.

Church leaders who mishandled child sex abuse allegations will be named in a 30,000-page cache of internal Archdiocese of Los Angeles records set for public release in coming weeks, a judge ruled Monday. The decision by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias reversed a ruling by a private mediator that the names of archdiocesan employees should be redacted from the documents to avoid further embarrassment to the church and "guilt by association. " Elias said the public's right to know how the archdiocese, the largest in the nation, handled molestation allegations outweighed such concerns.

Signature gatherers and protesters may be ejected from privately owned walkways outside a store, but labor unions may picket there peacefully, the California Supreme Court decided Thursday. The state high court unanimously agreed that private walkways in front of stores, unlike public areas in shopping malls, are not open forums accessible to anyone who wants to assemble to express a view. But the justices split, 6 to 1, in upholding two state laws that prevent courts from issuing injunctions against peaceful labor pickets on private property.

Walt Disney Co. has won an appeals court ruling that protects the Burbank entertainment giant's trademarks to the valuable Winnie the Pooh characters. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington upheld a decision by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that blocked Stephen Slesinger Inc.'s challenges to Disney's control of the trademark for the Hundred Acre Wood clan. The ruling appears to end a 21-year legal odyssey against Disney by Stephen Slesinger's family.

Brody the dog may have reached the end of his days. The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that the city of Lino Lakes can destroy the pooch, overturning a state appeals court decision and putting a likely end to a two-year court battle over Brody's fate. “They are going to kill my dog tomorrow,” the dog's owner, Mitchell Sawh, told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday. The city of Lino Lakes has said Brody is a dangerous dog that bit several people  unprovoked. But Sawh described his retriever-Rottweiler mix as a peaceful, lovable dog. Sawh's attorney, Marshall Tanick, said that the city planned to put the dog down Friday, but that he was pleading for an alternative.

A Delaware court ruled Thursday that Apple's iPhone infringes three patents held by Sony and Nokia, according to a report from Bloomberg .  The case was brought by MobileMedia, a holding company owned by  Sony, MPEG-LA and Nokia that controls those companies' patents. MobileMedia is charged with enforcing about 300 patents, but because it doesn't make any products, it can't be countersued. Neat, huh? Lest you think that tactic is a bit dodgy, it should be noted that Apple has its own patent holding company: the  Rockstar Consortium . Rockstar was created after Apple joined with Microsoft and Rimm, among others, to acquire 4,000 patents from Nortel.

LONDON - The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday ruled in favor of a German man who alleged he was kidnapped and tortured in 2003 as part of a U.S. rendition program involving the secret abductions and transfers of prisoners. Khaled Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, said he was mistaken for a terrorism suspect associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers. He was arrested in Macedonia and held by the CIA for months in a prison in Afghanistan. Masri was released in Albania in May 2004.

SAN FRANCISCO - In a potential windfall for the state, a federal appeals court decided unanimously Thursday that California may cut reimbursements to doctors, pharmacies and others who serve the poor under Medi-Cal. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned injunctions blocking the state from implementing a 2011 law that slashed Medi-Cal reimbursements by 10%. Medi-Cal, a version of Medicaid, serves low-income Californians. The ruling could make it harder to find doctors for as many as 2 million new patients who could become eligible for Medi-Cal under President Obama's healthcare law - a possible 25% expansion of the program.

The U.S. Supreme Court said it would decide whether pharmacy companies violate antitrust laws -- and drive up costs to consumers -- by agreeing to let brand-name drug makers pay rivals to delay selling lower-priced generics. In the last decade, several federal courts have upheld such agreements on the grounds that they are settlements of disputes over patents. The Federal Trade Commission, however, has been challenging the so-called pay-for-delay agreements as illegally stifling competition and preserving monopolies.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court set the stage Friday for a historic decision on gay rights, announcing it would hear appeals of rulings striking down California's Proposition 8 and the federal law denying benefits for legally married same-sex couples. The court could decide in the Proposition 8 case whether the Constitution's promise of equal treatment gives gays and lesbians a right to marry. But the justices also left themselves the option to rule narrowly or even to duck a decision.