Knight v. Superior Court of Sacramento County, Court of Appeal of the State of California, Third Appellate District, April 5, 2005 . Excerpt: the plain and unambiguous language of Proposition 22 shows that the initiative was intended only to limit the status of marriage to heterosexual couples and to prevent the recognition in California of [...]

Johnson v. United States, Supreme Court of the United States, April 4, 2005 . Excerpt from the Opinion by Justice Souter: Although Johnson knew that his conviction subjected him to the career offender enhancement, he failed to attack the predicate for enhancement by filing his state habeas petition until February 1998, more than three years [...]

Rousey v. Jacoway, Supreme Court of the United States, April 4, 2005 can be exempted from a bankruptcy estate, allowing bankruptcy filers to retain their IRAs rather than forcing them to divide the assets among their creditors]. Read the full text of the opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Federal prosecutors argued Monday that it would be in the public interest for former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay to face trial this summer – no later than June – on bank fraud charges. The government cited Lay's repeated assurances that he is prepared to stand trial and hopes for a speedy resolution to his legal [...]

California's Third District Court of Appeal Monday rejected a challenge to the state's domestic partnership law granting same-sex partners a body of rights almost identical to those enjoyed by the state's married couples, including automatic parental status and responsibility for each others debts. The suit, brought by the Alliance Defense Fund and other conservative groups, [...]

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has confirmed that prisoners at Camp Bucca , a US-run detention camp in southern Iraq, rioted on April 1 despite an initial US military denial of any incident. An ICRC delegation was at the camp conducting a regular prisoner visit the day of the riot. The Red [...]

In Monday's environmental law news, the California legislature is considering revisions to the 35-year-old California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The revisions are prompted by increased housing costs in the rapidly growing state. The CEQA requires a variety of environmental reviews of new development projects. Governor Schwarzenegger is pushing for trimming some environmental reviews that slow [...]

The Florida Attorney General's office has filed its first lawsuit under the state's new anti-spam law . Civil suits seeking up to $24 million in fines were filed Monday against Scott Filary, 25, and Donald Townsend, 34, who are accused of masterminding a spam operation which sent over 65,000 deceptive e-mails. Under the state law, [...]

Kansas voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. Kansas law already prohibits gay marriage but supporters claim the ban must be put into the Kansas Constitution to avoid any legal challenges. The chief argument in favor of placing the ban in the Kansas constitution [...]

Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, Fannie Mae regulator the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) , has announced it is investigating Fannie's use of trusts which it set up to sell securities. Specifically, OFHEO is determining whether the company accounted for trusts as "qualifying special purpose entities" to keep the trusts' assets [...]