Judicial Panel

An Iraqi judicial panel on Monday ordered a manual recount of about 2.5 million ballots cast in Baghdad in last month's national elections, an action requested by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's alliance, which had filed allegations of vote fraud. The legal decision raised Maliki's hopes that his Shiite-dominated coalition would be awarded more parliamentary seats than his rival Iyad Allawi's secular bloc, which had stunned the nation by winning a slim plurality in the March 7 vote.

SAN FRANCISCO - A new California judicial ethics committee has issued its first formal opinion, deciding that judges may solicit attorneys to lobby for funding for the courts. The Committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions, responding to a request from an undisclosed person, said Friday that judges may ask lawyers to write op-ed pieces and lobby the community and the Legislature about court budget cuts as long as the request is not coercive. "In presenting information and requesting assistance, a judge may not hint of retribution or bias against an attorney or firm for not acquiescing in the request or otherwise place pressure on an attorney to assist," the written opinion said.

The federal appeals panel that will hear Arizona defend its sweeping law against illegal immigrants Monday consists of two Hispanics, one of them an immigrant, and a Republican appointee who often sides with immigrants in federal disputes. The judges chosen randomly to hear Arizona's appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco are John Noonan, an appointee of Ronald Reagan and a moderate; Richard Paez, a Bill Clinton appointee and the son of Mexican immigrants; and Carlos Bea, an appointee of George W. Bush who was born in Spain and was once ordered deported from the United States.

A longtime Orange County judge who said that a rape victim "didn't put up a fight" and that her sexual assault was only "technical" has been publicly admonished by a state agency that said his remarks seemed outdated, insensitive and possibly biased. The Commission on Judicial Performance said Superior Court Judge Derek G. Johnson's comments breached judicial ethics. At a sentencing in 2008, Johnson denied a prosecutor's call to impose a 16-year prison term on Metin Gurel, who had been convicted of rape, forcible oral copulation, domestic battery, stalking and making threats against his former live-in girlfriend.

A special judicial panel will hold a public hearing Saturday in San Diego on racial and ethnic bias in the courts, court officials said. The hearing, one of several slated around the state in the coming months, will mark the first broad study of racial and ethnic bias in California courts, officials said. The 28-member committee studying the issue is chaired by retired California Supreme Court Justices John A. Arguelles and Allen E. Broussard.

The California Commission on Judicial Performance, which handles misconduct complaints against judges, operates in virtual secrecy. All its hearings are held behind closed doors, and in the 27 years of its existence, only 30 disciplinary recommendations have been made public. A proposed constitutional amendment that would bring what its sponsor calls "a modicum of sunlight" to the San Francisco-based state agency will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as Proposition 92.

A judicial panel on Monday ordered that 26,639 federal lawsuits across the country alleging injury or death from asbestos be shifted to U.S. District Court in Philadelphia for pretrial proceedings. That court is the one "either expressly favored or not objected to" by the most parties in the suits, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said. The proceedings will be supervised by U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner.

Rejecting new promises of sobriety from Robert Bradley, a state judicial panel on Tuesday suspended the Superior Court judge at least until he faces six counts of misconduct at a disciplinary hearing in late May or June. Bradley, 56, who pleaded guilty in February to two counts of drunk driving, had asked to be allowed to resume his judicial duties after he completes an alcohol treatment program this month.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that federal water supply contracts awarded in 2005 did not violate protections for the endangered delta smelt, a small fish native to California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta estuary. The panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 against environmental groups that contended the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation renewed 41 water service contracts without consulting with a federal wildlife agency to determine whether the water deliveries would jeopardize the continued existence of the smelt.

Prof. Murray L. Schwartz of the UCLA School of Law has been named a member of the Center for Public Resources' judicial panel, which offers corporations and public institutions a means of resolving major legal disputes out of court. Schwartz, a former dean of the UCLA Law School, specializes in criminal law and criminal procedure.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that federal water supply contracts awarded in 2005 did not violate protections for the endangered delta smelt, a small fish native to California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta estuary. The panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 against environmental groups that contended the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation renewed 41 water service contracts without consulting with a federal wildlife agency to determine whether the water deliveries would jeopardize the continued existence of the smelt.

Ordinarily, states rely on courts and prisons to protect the citizenry from criminals, but California seems determined to turn that convention on its head: Here, we need courts to protect criminals from the state's voters. The U.S. Supreme Court will consider Tuesday whether to overturn an order by a panel of three federal judges that the state reduce its prison population to 137.5% of capacity within two years, which would mean trimming the inmate count by about 25% from its current average of 165,000.

A San Diego County Superior Court judge has agreed to resign after being censured by the Commission on Judicial Performance for a pattern of intemperate behavior toward lawyers and defendants. Judge DeAnn M. Salcido agreed to resign immediately to avoid formal proceedings against her that could have led to her ouster. The resignation becomes effective within five days, according to an agreement signed by the judge and lawyers for the commission. Salcido was appointed to the bench in 2002 by then-Gov.

The federal appeals panel that will hear Arizona defend its sweeping law against illegal immigrants Monday consists of two Hispanics, one of them an immigrant, and a Republican appointee who often sides with immigrants in federal disputes. The judges chosen randomly to hear Arizona's appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco are John Noonan, an appointee of Ronald Reagan and a moderate; Richard Paez, a Bill Clinton appointee and the son of Mexican immigrants; and Carlos Bea, an appointee of George W. Bush who was born in Spain and was once ordered deported from the United States.

An Iraqi judicial panel on Monday ordered a manual recount of about 2.5 million ballots cast in Baghdad in last month's national elections, an action requested by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's alliance, which had filed allegations of vote fraud. The legal decision raised Maliki's hopes that his Shiite-dominated coalition would be awarded more parliamentary seats than his rival Iyad Allawi's secular bloc, which had stunned the nation by winning a slim plurality in the March 7 vote.

A retired Los Angeles County judge who ordered that a lawyer be paid in $10 gift cards from a women's fashion store as part of a legal settlement was censured Tuesday and barred from presiding over court cases. The Commission on Judicial Performance accused Brett C. Klein of showing bias, abusing his authority and "grandstanding to the press" in a class-action lawsuit that he briefly presided over last year. The lawsuit accused a clothing store chain of violating privacy laws by asking for personal identification information when customers used credit cards to make purchases.

A West German judicial panel acquitted a former Nazi of complicity in the murder of 177 French Jews sent to the death camp at Auschwitz--a verdict that drew shouts of "Nazi murderer!" from victims' relatives and spectators in the Bonn courtroom. Count Modest Korff, 79, was accused of ordering the deportations of Jews from the Chalons-sur-Marne region of northeastern France, where he served as Gestapo chief in 1942 and 1943.

The House Judiciary Committee unanimously approved four articles of impeachment against U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent of Texas in an attempt to remove him from office for lying about sexually assaulting two women. If the full House approves the impeachment, the Senate would conduct the trial. The impeachment articles allege that Kent, 59, sexually assaulted two female employees and lied about the assaults to a federal court of appeals investigative committee, twice to the FBI, and to Justice Department officials.

Five men who allege they were tortured after a Boeing subsidiary delivered them to secret CIA interrogation sites will have to persuade a full panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that their case should go to trial despite administration claims that it involves state secrets. The court's decision Tuesday to rehear the case of Mohamed vs. Jeppesen DataPlan Inc. of San Jose was unusual in its naming of judges who didn't take part in the vote, including Jay S. Bybee, the former Bush administration lawyer who wrote so-called torture memos.