[JURIST] Leading Friday's states brief, the Kansas Supreme Court removed [order] Saline County District Judge George. R. Robertson from the bench today for viewing pornography from his office computer. The court stated that the conduct of a single judge may effect the public's perception of the judicial system and that "public trust is essential to an effective judiciary." Robertson told a judicial panel, who recommended his removal for violating canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct [text], that the pornography sites provided a diversion for 9 months while he was stretched thin between work and church obligations. Governor Kathleen Sebelius [official website] will appoint someone to complete Robertson's term which ends in January 2009. AP has more.

In other state legal news …

• Using the "frequency, regularity and proximity test", the Mississippi Supreme Court dismissed [text] Monsanto Company as a defendant in an asbestos litigation brought by employees at International Paper Company in Natchez. Justice George C. Carlson wrote that "the proper test to be used is the frequency, regularity, and proximity standard to show product identification of the defendant's actual produce, exposure of the plaintiffs to those products, and proximate causation," and in applying the test the court found that the plaintiffs failed to provide evidence of exposure to Monsanto's products. Monsanto Co. [company website] was among 270 defendants. AP has more.
• Florida Circuit Judge Joseph Will has ruled that a state Department of Corrections [official website] policy allowing for the re-arresting of sex offenders who have not secured a suitable address before their release from prison is unconstitutional. Will found it to be "fundamentally unfair" to prevent an offender's release when the offender has served his sentence. The sex-offender will be free on probation which will include daily reports to his probation officer and wearing a location-tracking monitor. AP has more.