QUOTE OF THE DAY
“We dodged a bullet by having it out of town, but this is too close for comfort.”
Ed McConnell, the mayor of Casselton, N.D., a town about a mile from where a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded Monday Article, this page
Utah to justices: Halt gay nuptials
SALT LAKE CITY - Utah took its fight against gay marriage to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, asking the high court to suspend same sex unions that became legal when a judge struck down the state’s voter-approved ban.
The heavily Mormon state wants the marriages to stop while it appeals a judge’s decision, which said banning gay couples from marrying violates their right to equal treatment under the law.
In papers filed Tuesday, the state asked Justice Sonia Sotomayor to overturn a decision that has led to more than 900 gay marriages in Utah.
Sotomayor handles emergency requests from Utah and other Rocky Mountain states.
Sotomayor responded with a request for legal briefs from same-sex couples by Friday at noon. She can act by herself or get the rest of the court involved.
U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby’s decision Dec. 20 came as a shock to many in the state, which approved the ban on same-sex marriage in 2004. Shelby was nominated to the bench by President Barack Obama.
Gun ban upheld; shot-limit struck
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that New York’s expanded ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines was constitutional but struck down a provision forbidding gun owners from loading their firearms with more than seven bullets or shells.
The judge, William Skretny of U.S. District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., called the seven-round limit “an arbitrary restriction” that violated the Second Amendment.
But Skretny, who was nominated to the bench by President George H.W. Bush, said the greater restrictions on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines were constitutional because they served to “further the state’s important interest in public safety.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers passed the new laws, among the most restrictive in the country, in January 2013 in response to the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012.
Laptop-search lawsuit rejected
NEW YORK - A lawsuit challenging government policy on searching laptops at U.S. borders was dismissed by a federal judge who cited past rulings that authorities need not show “reasonable suspicion” when they inspect computers.
U.S. District Judge Robert Korman in Brooklyn on Tuesday said that Pascal Abidor, a U.S.-French dual citizen and graduate student who was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, lacked standing to bring the lawsuit because he didn’t seek damages based on his claim that he was subject to an unreasonable search. Korman also said there was reason for agents to be suspicious of Abidor when an initial search of his laptop turned up photos of rallies by Hamas and Hezbollah as he sought to cross the border from Canada in 2010.
Korman, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan, said he agreed with earlier court rulings that found no reasonable suspicion is needed to conduct a cursory manual search of an electronic device at a border.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 01/01/2014