Courts

This contemporary Italianate villa in Thousand Oaks sits on 24 acres adjacent to the Sherwood Country Club. Its wrought-iron entry gates open to white-fenced pastures, expansive lawns and hills dotted with mature oak trees. Location: 578 W. Potrero Road, Thousand Oaks 91361 Asking price: $13.995 million Year built: 1986 House size: Four bedrooms, six bathrooms, 9,203 square feet Lot size: 24 acres Features: Wine cellar, glass-walled entertainment pavilion, private chapel, aviaries, stables, tennis court, lake, bonsai garden, bridges, 11 waterfalls.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to allow Indiana to block Medicaid funding of Planned Parenthood clinics because they perform abortions. Without comment, the high court let stand decisions by a federal judge in Indiana and the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that prevented the measure from taking effect. The 2011 law would have banned Medicaid funds from going to an organization such as Planned Parenthood whose work includes performing abortions. Judge Diane S. Sykes, writing for the 7th Circuit last year, said the state's "defunding law excludes Planned Parenthood from Medicaid for a reason unrelated to its fitness to provide medical services, violating its patients' statutory right to obtain medical care from the qualified provider of their choice.

A former senior partner at accounting firm KPMG's Los Angeles office has agreed to plead guilty to a securities fraud charge of passing inside information about the firm's clients to a friend, who used it to make more than $1 million in stock trades. Scott London, 50, who supervised more than 500 KPMG auditors, agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to one felony charge, according to a court document he signed. The date he will enter the guilty plea has not yet been scheduled. London's stock-trading friend, Encino jeweler Bryan Shaw, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge last week.

Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable operator, won a unanimous court victory in its long-running legal match with independently owned Tennis Channel Inc. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that Tennis Channel had failed to prove that Comcast had discriminated against it by placing the channel in a higher-priced sports tier with fewer subscribers. "This could be absolutely devastating financially to the Tennis Channel," said media analyst Derek Baine of consulting firm SNL Kagan.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court gave a second chance Tuesday to prisoners who come up with strong new evidence of their innocence, but who have waited too long to file an appeal. In a 5-4 decision, the justices lifted the one-year time limit for filing such appeals in a federal court. Only the rare case will benefit from this leniency, they said. A prisoner must make a "convincing showing of actual innocence," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said. The new evidence must be strong enough to persuade a judge that "no juror, acting reasonably, would have voted to find him guilty" at his trial had the jury known of it, she said.

SAN FRANCISCO - Lawyers leading the fight for gay marriage in California have been quietly preparing state officials for the possibility the U.S. Supreme Court might dismiss the case on a technicality next month without deciding the fate of Proposition 8. The justices could decide that the sponsors of the ballot measure outlawing same-sex marriage had no legal right, or standing, to defend it in federal court. That would end the case in Washington, but it is not clear what it would mean for California.

Serena Williams has won the French Open only once, and that was 11 years ago . . . and yet it is difficult to find anyone to pick against her this year. The 31-year-old Williams, winner of 15 major titles including the 2012 U.S. Open, is on a 24-match winning streak and ranked No. 1 in the world. Last summer, after being upset in the first round of the French Open (it happens), she went on to win Wimbledon and Olympic gold medals in singles and doubles before the Open. And she seemed on the way to winning the 2013 Australian Open before being upset by 17-year-old American Sloane Stephens in the semifinals.

Two years after 9/11, federal Air Marshal Robert MacLean turned whistle-blower. He revealed to MSNBC reporters that the government planned to remove armed security officers from long-distance passenger flights to reduce hotel expenses despite reports that Al Qaeda was plotting to hijack more airliners to hit targets in the U.S. and Europe. Later, wearing a hooded sweatshirt and with only his silhouette appearing on camera, MacLean told NBC's "Nightly News" that the business suits, ties and sport coats air marshals had to wear on duty could tip off terrorists that they were present.

WASHINGTON - Deputy Solicitor Gen. Sri Srinivasan, a rising star in legal circles, won an easy and unanimous Senate confirmation Thursday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, giving President Obama his first appointee to a conservative-leaning court that decides major regulatory disputes. Srinivasan, 46, who was born in India and grew up in Lawrence, Kan., was praised as being exceptionally smart, highly qualified and even-tempered. Republicans said they had no hesitance in approving Srinivasan, unlike other Obama nominees.

SAN FRANCISCO - California retailers may be liable for large money awards if they falsely advertise that their products are on sale. A federal appeals court Tuesday revived a potential class-action lawsuit alleging that Kohl's Department Stores Inc. misstated in advertising that items had been marked down. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said California consumer laws permit such lawsuits if the customer would not have made the purchase but for the perceived bargain. "Price advertisements matter," Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote for a three-judge panel.