J Anthony Kline

Recruiting techniques used by the Unification Church are constitutionally protected, a state appeals court has ruled in throwing out a suit by former members of the church. The 1st District Court of Appeal has ruled that as long as the church led by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon did not use force or the threat of force in recruitment, freedom of religion under the Constitution prohibits a court from inquiring into "the spiritual nature of its hold on its members."

A California Court of Appeal on Thursday upheld the power of state liquor-control agents to conduct warrantless searches of bars when they suspect illegal drug activity. The three-member panel unanimously rejected a claim that such searches were unconstitutional, ruling that investigators have broad latitude to inspect closely regulated commercial businesses, where there is less expectation of privacy than in a home.

Moving to further cement his legacy, Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday named his chief legal advisor, Daniel Kolkey, to the state appellate court here. Kolkey is the second Court of Appeal justice Wilson has appointed in the past two weeks, and is likely to be the governor's final appellate appointment. During eight years in office, Wilson has named 664 of California's 1,580 judges, including four of the seven Supreme Court justices and 51 of the state's 88 appellate court justices.

A lot of very smart people have gone off the deep end, and we need to bring them to their senses before they do any more harm. California's Commission on Judicial Performance, the agency that disciplines judges, is investigating Justice J. Anthony Kline of the California Court of Appeal, a respected senior judge. The commission charges Kline with knowing disregard of the law.

Psychic advisor Georgina Ritchie never had a scintilla of suspicion that the client sitting across from her on the Sausalito houseboat that doubles as her Marin County office was an undercover agent secretly recording their session. The tale of family dysfunction he narrated included a story of his girlfriend's daughter posing naked on a website and slapping her grandmother. The whole tale was bogus.

A state prosecutor encountered a barrage of skeptical questions Thursday from the California Supreme Court as she defended the precedent-setting use of an anti-pandering law to prosecute a Los Angeles sex-film producer. Court members repeatedly expressed concern that using the 1982 law against film makers would violate the constitutional right to free expression and threaten the movie industry in California. But state Deputy Atty. Gen.

Proposals to achieve more uniformity in sentences for federal crimes drew a sharply mixed response from witnesses testifying Tuesday before the U.S. Sentencing Commission. A federal prosecutor from Los Angeles welcomed the commission's attempt to develop sentencing guidelines that would reduce disparities in punishment for the same offenses, noting that he had seen judges give everything from probation to 20 years in prison to bank robbers in generally similar cases.

A state appeals court threw out a $21.7-million award against two tobacco giants Wednesday, ruling that a jury shouldn't have considered evidence of industry misconduct in a 10-year period during which cigarette makers were protected from litigation. The decision marked the first time a jury award had been overturned as a result of a California Supreme Court ruling in 2002 that determined the effect of previous legislative protections for the industry.

For the 10th year in a row, a state Court of Appeal on Friday overturned the Legislature's tight restrictions on state-funded abortions for low-income women. This time, however, a three-judge appellate panel cited broader grounds for the ruling--an action foes of the abortion curbs said would increase their chances of victory when the case reaches the new, more conservative state Supreme Court.

The debate over same-sex marriage reached a California appeals court Monday, with one of the panel's three judges indicating agreement with the gay rights position. During five hours of arguments, the sole Democrat on the three-judge panel observed that the state's domestic partner law gave gay couples only "half a loaf," and he took jabs at the state's defense of traditional marriage.