U.S. Supreme Court

CA Supreme Court: Marijuana Dispensaries Can Be Banned, But At Least They're Legal

At least one major roadbloack in the way of medical cannabis reform in California was removed Monday when the California Supreme Court issued a long-awaited ruling -- which says that cities and towns can ban pot clubs. For now. At least 200 places across the state -- including San Mateo County an ... More >>

Five Straight Rappers Who Support LGBT Rights

As we're sure you're aware, the U.S. Supreme Court is again hearing arguments today about what to do with the issue of same-sex marriage. If the inundation of red profile pics on Twitter and Facebook is any indication, the growing social tide is on the side of the gay folk. Yet another sign that the ... More >>

Gay Marriage Advocates Ask Justice Antonin Scalia to Recuse Himself From Prop. 8 Deliberations

Earlier today, Justice Antonin Scalia made himself (in)famous among gays when he bluntly asked: "When did it became unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?" After a few back-and-forths with Ted Olson, the attorney representing the plaintiff's in the Proposition 8 case heard by ... More >>

S.F. Gays Will Try to Get Married on Valentine's Day

Tomorrow at noon, some loving, happy, devoted same-sex couples who raise kids, pay bills, and work through arguments just like straight couples, will descend on San Francisco City Hall to ask, once again, to be married. Perhaps some consider it a dress rehearsal, as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares ... More >>

S.F. Public Nudity Ban Upheld -- Lawyer Promises Friday Nude-In

Update 4:04 p.m.: Christina DiEdoardo, the attorney representing a quartet of nudists, tells us that her clients are disappointed by the judge's decision. But that won't stop nudists from dropping trou come Friday -- the day that public nudity will be officially illegal. Expect to see plenty of na ... More >>

Nudists, City Clash in Federal Court

In a city where everything is political, is everything really political? What about cock rings? Yes, really. The city's indignant nudists have, quite literally, made a federal case out of Supervisor Scott Wiener's ordinance banning disrobing in most public venues. Today the nudists' and city's attor ... More >>

Prop. 8: Supreme Court Sets Date to Hear Case on Gay Marriage

Consider this your very own "save the date." The U.S. Supreme Court this morning said that oral arguments will begin on March 26 for the much-anticipated Proposition 8 case, which will finally bring some closure to the gay marriage debate that started right here in California over four years ago. ... More >>

S.F. Asks Federal Court to Dismiss Lawsuit Challenging Ban on Naked People

San Francisco's City Attorney is attempting to block public nudists from taking the city to court over its recently passed nudity ban. City Attorney Dennis Herrera today filed a motion in federal court, hoping a judge would dismiss the nudists' lawsuit challenging the city's ban on most public nud ... More >>

The Big Veto: Our Governors Hate Inmate Media-Access Bills

Justice Is Ours

Medical Marijuana Advocates to Argue DEA in Federal Court

Is marijuana a medicine, or is it a vitality-sucking, life-destroying devil weed? Cannabis advocates and law enforcement don't exactly see eye-to-eye on this crucial point -- but for the first time, a judge will be called in to decide.A federal court of appeals in Washington, D.C., late last week ag ... More >>

Obama Officially Wins Health Care Debate

Now is the time to take back all the really mean things you have said about Justice John Roberts. The very conservative Supreme Court Justice gave us a reason to think that thing just might be okay when he not only sided with the liberal justices on Obamacare, but wrote the majority opinion upholdin ... More >>

The Pro-Gay Marriage Ruling Conservatives Should Love

Men with Confederate Flag decals reading "Never Forget" on their gun rack-equipped pickups and a fondness for "state's rights" don't seem like the likely demographic to support same-sex marriage. Following today's unanimous ruling by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that the Defense of Mar ... More >>

Peter Magowan, Former Giants President, Among Romney's Top Bay Area Donors

Californians would have loved 2002 Mitt Romney. That guy was the bleeding heart who pushed universal health care in his state; the conservationist who would attack a coal plant by saying "I will not create jobs that kill people!"; a man who signed a Planned Parenthood candidate questionnaire affirmi ... More >>

Mitt Romney Visits Bay Area to Get as Far Away from Obamacare Debate As He Can

​While the U.S. Supreme Court debates the constitutionality of Obamacare over in D.C., GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has made sure to keep his distance from the debate -- literally. The former Massachusetts governor, who has been criticized himself over "Romneycare," traveled some 3,000 mil ... More >>

Kamala Harris Says Arizona Can't Boot Illegal Immigrants from Country

​California has the largest number of illegal immigrants and undocumented laborers in the country. So it should be no surprise that California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined the fight against Arizona's unfriendly immigration law.Yesterday, Harris filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Cancer Patient Booted from UCSF

​Angel Raich is busy dying. The famous marijuana activist -- who took the federal government to the Supreme Court of the United States for the right to use medical cannabis -- was, earlier this year diagnosed with an inoperable terminal brain tumor, a condition that causes frequent seizures as wel ... More >>

Prison Break: Realignment Inmates Enter Rehabilitation in S.F.

Does Your Woman Have Bad PMS? Tell Her to Smoke Some Weed

Let's roll you a joint, madam​Recently, we wrote about a study which claimed that a majority of medical marijuana users in California are probably white men. Not included in the study was how many of those men were acquiring marijuana to placate their wife or girlfriend to cure the myriad of "wome ... More >>

California to Reduce Prison Population by 46,000, Supreme Court Rules

Mass exodus in the making ​Supreme Court justice have backed an order to reduce California's prison population by 46,000, a move that some are calling a "judicial travesty."At the same time, the state's overcrowded prison population is creating "injury and harm" to the inmate population, which is ... More >>

Kamala Harris Wants Federal Appeals Court To Allow Gay Marriages Now

Harris: Let the people marry​Supporters of same-sex marriage just got a powerful ally: California Attorney General Kamala Harris. The newly minted AG is urging the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to allow gay couples to marry while it considers a federal appeal over the constitutionality of Propositi ... More >>

Judges Named For Prop. 8 Hearing

​A liberal, a conservative, and a moderate. An old guy, a middle-aged guy, and a sorta young guy. Sounds like the makings for a road-trip comedy. Could be. But it's definitely the composition for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' Dec. 6 hearing of the Proposition 8 case, which could determine the ... More >>

Wronging the Rights

Appeal the Prop. 8 Decision!

It'd be a shame if the reversal of Prop. 8 didn't have national implications...​There was talk on Monday that a "group of conservative leaders" were chasing around Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado, begging him to file an appeal on the Proposition 8 decision, since he was acting as governor while ... More >>

Judge Vaughn Walker Targeted for Impeachment

Judge Vaugn Walker is not universally popular these days​ In an effort to undermine his Prop. 8 ruling, the American Family Association is leading a campaign to impeach Judge Vaughn Walker. The right-leaning pro-family organization states in a letter on its website that Walker should not have been ... More >>

What a Week in Gay it Was!

Photo illustration | Audrey FukumanJudge Vaughn Walker gave Prop. 8 the pimp slap​Seriously, this was one mother fu**ing gay week! Can I hear a what what?You may have heard that Vaughn Walker, the gayest judge in the world -- even gayer than Supreme Court's new softball coach, Justice Elena Ka ... More >>

Supreme Court Won't Hear Challege to Healthy San Francisco

​The U.S. Supreme Court this morning delivered a major victory for gun ownership rights -- and also denied to hear a challenge to San Francisco's universal health care plan. So if you're uninsured and shot within city limits, this is your lucky day.

SF Weekly Letters

Did Elena Kagan Shill for Monsanto on GMOs?

arcticpenguin/FlickrIs the Supreme Court nominee Roundup Ready?​Over at The Atlantic's online presence, Barry Estabrook, a former contributing editor for Gourmet, has a bone to pick with President Obama's Supreme Court nominee. Some critics may question Elena Kagan's position on battlefield ... More >>

Memo to Elena Kagan: Come Out of the Closet

Elena Kagen's life as a -- ahem -- softball player shouldn't be a big secret​"She's a lesbian!" said Betty White over and over again on Saturday Night Live this past weekend. White was talking about a character in a Little Women parody but she might as well have been talking about Elena Kagan, ... More >>

School That Deemed American Flag Clothing 'Incendiary' on Shaky Legal Ground

Higher-ups at Live Oak High School may be caught with their pants down, legally​Administrators at Morgan Hill's Live Oak High School who opted to send home students bedecked in American flag regalia on Cinco de Mayo likely ran afoul of the law, one of the nation's foremost constitutional scholars ... More >>

The Week in Gay: Anti-Immigration Laws Bad, Anti-Gay Laws Good

Your future drinking accomodations. ​ I'm just going to say this once - up front - and then I'm going to move on: The furor raised over the Arizona illegal immigrant law is interesting to watch from my queer perch. I understand the outrage. The nerve of one state threatening to restrict the ... More >>

A Higher Court

The legal tussle between SF Weekly and the Bay Guardian rises to a new level.

Chronic City: 'Truth In Trials' Bill Would Lift Ban On Medical Marijuana Evidence In Federal Court

​U.S. Representative Sam Farr (D-Carmel) and more than 20 bipartisan co-sponsors introduced legislation today that would allow defendants in medical marijuana cases the ability to use medical evidence at trial, a right they currently do not have. Due to the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in G ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

SF Weekly appeals the Bay Guardian's big payday to a higher court

Guantánamo's Last Days

America prepares to shutter the infamous prison camp, and more jihad looms.

Weekly to Judge: Time to Put Things Right

Ka-Ching!

Sounds of Silence

ASCAP's legal threats kill a thriving local music scene

Do the Right Thing

Everything we know we've learned from documentaries

A Black and White Issue

A lawsuit alleging racism at Amtrak's Oakland yard has made it to the Supreme Court -- and could affect discrimination cases nationwide

Reversing Course

A broad repudiation of Prop. 209 surfaces at Berkeley

Riff Raff

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

REAL ASTROLOGY For an Unreal World

Unspun

Totems Are Taboo

But if the court's crucifixation is overblown, let a thousand icons bloom

Dog Bites