Judiciary

In the state's first decision involving juries and social media, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has called on judges to better police jurors' use of the Internet to make sure they do not discuss cases online, and thus risk a mistrial. The court said judges need to do more to explain to jurors that refraining from conversations about a case also means not posting anything about it on Facebook or Twitter, common practice in today's technology-driven world. "Jurors must separate and insulate their jury service from their digital lives," the court said in a ruling involving a Plymouth Superior Court...

President John F. Kennedy's only surviving child is celebrating what would have been his 95th birthday this month by honoring three Iowa judges who were ousted after the court unanimously decided to legalize same-sex marriages. Caroline Kennedy will also recognize the U.S. ambassador to Syria who risked his life to support opponents of President Basher Assad's regime. Kennedy heads the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, which promotes the late president's memory and legacy.

GOP PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Newt Gingrich recently made disturbing comments regarding the judiciary. He proposed that Congress should be able to impeach judges whose decisions he believes to be wrong. If elected, he would abolish courts that displease him, ignore Supreme Court decisions he doesn't approve of, and order US marshals to arrest judges to force them to explain their decisions to Congress. Attacking the federal judiciary is unquestionably popular in some precincts in America.

Here are the spending levels proposed by President Barack Obama for each federal agency in his 2013 budget. Agency-by-agency figures are for budget authority. All totals are in billions of dollars. Department Total 2012 Total 2013 % Change from 2012 Agriculture 147.5 154.7 4.8 Commerce 8 9.2 15.6 Defense 706 677.7 -4 Education 116.6 55.7 -52.2 Energy 22.8 32.3 41.4 EPA 8.3 8.1 -2.1 Health and Human Services 888.9 921.6 3.7 Homeland Security 47.7 45.1 -5.4 Housing and Urban Development 55.9 44 -21.3 Interior 11.6 11.4 -2.1 Justice 35.4 30 -15.3 Labor 138.4 89 -35.7 State 60.6 69 13.8...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s start-and-stop announcements over the release of one of three detained Americans add up to a distinct message: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his allies still have a fight on their hands within the ruling ranks. The confusing signals over the fate of Sarah Shourd, 31 — whose planned release yesterday was backed by Ahmadinejad — underscore the wider backlash to efforts at expanding the president’s powers and sway over internal policies and Iran’s foreign affairs, analysts say. It also points to one of the main fissures in...

TEHRAN — Iran’s judiciary detained a close ally of the president yesterday, another step in a power struggle that is sweeping the Iranian leadership, according to a report on Iranian state television. The television report said Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh was in custody, and the judiciary pledged to issue a statement. The arrest was the latest episode in a struggle involving President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Parliament, and the powerful Iranian Muslim clergy. Ahmadinejad is in danger of losing the backing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,...

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's judiciary yesterday denied President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statements that two American hikers convicted of spying were being pardoned and would be released within two days. In a statement published in Farsi on its website, the judiciary, which constitutionally is independent from other powers in Iran, said it was "not correct" that Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal would be released in the coming days under a "unilateral pardon" that Ahmadinejad said Tuesday he intended to grant.

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown today denounced Newt Gingrich's attacks on elements of the nation's judiciary system, saying the former House speaker's plans would undermine the fundamental governing principle of the separation of powers. "Gingrich styles himself a historian, but he is either blissfully unaware that the Founding Fathers deliberately established our government with three co-equal branches of government, or he is fully aware of that elementary fact and yet is pandering to the right-wing extreme element in our own...

THE STATE judiciary system has absorbed major budget cuts in recent years - so much so that Massachusetts Trial Court judges are warning that the system will grind to a halt without an infusion of cash. But what the court system needs at least as much is the ability to trim itself down to proper size. For now, jurists say, the system is making do by cutting service. Judicial officials recently told the Globe they have restricted public access to some court offices in order for clerks to address backlogs.

NEWT GINGRICH'S presidential ambitions may be heading for the exits - opinion polls suggest that the former House speaker's hour has come and gone - but his critique of judicial supremacy deserves to be taken seriously no matter what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire. In a 54-page position paper , Gingrich challenges the widely held belief that the Supreme Court is the final authority on the meaning of the Constitution. Though nothing in the Constitution says so, there is now an entrenched presumption that once the court has decided a constitutional question, no power on earth short of a...

JEFF JACOBY'S defense of Newt Gingrich's sour-grapes interpretation of the American judiciary ( "Supreme Court can't be absolute," Op-ed, Jan. 1) is predicated on understandings that are far removed from reality. Jacoby and Gingrich talk as if the courts run around sticking their noses into the affairs of people and creating legally binding laws and regulations. In fact, the courts sit on the sidelines and wait until parties bring disputes to them for adjudication. Sometimes, resolving the case depends on interpreting the Constitution, because each party may have a...

Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown today denounced Newt Gingrich's attacks on elements of the nation's judiciary system, saying the former House speaker's plans would undermine the fundamental governing principle of the separation of powers. "Gingrich styles himself a historian, but he is either blissfully unaware that the Founding Fathers deliberately established our government with three co-equal branches of government, or he is fully aware of that elementary fact and yet is pandering to the right-wing extreme element in our own party," Brown, a Republican, wrote...

GOP PRESIDENTIAL hopeful Newt Gingrich recently made disturbing comments regarding the judiciary. He proposed that Congress should be able to impeach judges whose decisions he believes to be wrong. If elected, he would abolish courts that displease him, ignore Supreme Court decisions he doesn't approve of, and order US marshals to arrest judges to force them to explain their decisions to Congress. Attacking the federal judiciary is unquestionably popular in some precincts in America.

NEWT GINGRICH'S presidential ambitions may be heading for the exits - opinion polls suggest that the former House speaker's hour has come and gone - but his critique of judicial supremacy deserves to be taken seriously no matter what happens in Iowa or New Hampshire. In a 54-page position paper , Gingrich challenges the widely held belief that the Supreme Court is the final authority on the meaning of the Constitution. Though nothing in the Constitution says so, there is now an entrenched presumption that once the court has decided a constitutional question, no power on earth...

The state's highest court has opened a formal inquiry into whether the acquittal rate in drunken driving trials before judges, a rate that now eclipses 80 percent, is unusual and excessive, a step it called necessary to assure the judiciary's integrity. The Supreme Judicial Court announced the inquiry yesterday, the day after the Globe Spotlight Team reported that district court judges are acquitting accused drunk drivers at a rate that is about 30 percentage points higher than that of juries, a degree of leniency that specialists have said is virtually unsurpassed in the United...

THE STATE judiciary system has absorbed major budget cuts in recent years - so much so that Massachusetts Trial Court judges are warning that the system will grind to a halt without an infusion of cash. But what the court system needs at least as much is the ability to trim itself down to proper size. For now, jurists say, the system is making do by cutting service. Judicial officials recently told the Globe they have restricted public access to some court offices in order for clerks to address backlogs.

TEHRAN - Iran may reconsider an eight-year jail term for an American journalist during her appeal, the judiciary spokesman said yesterday in an indication her sentence will be commuted. The statement was the latest hint Iran could be backing off from the imprisonment of 31-year-old Roxana Saberi on charges of spying for the United States. On Monday, the judiciary chief ordered a full investigation into the case, a day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged Tehran's chief prosecutor to ensure Saberi be allowed a full defense during her appeal.

CAIRO -- Iranian judges have detained and tortured writers, student leaders, and political activists in secret prisons and muzzled reform-minded newspapers to "shut down" dissent, Human Rights Watch said in a report today that holds out little hope for change. "There is widespread agreement that the political environment has become increasingly abusive and defined by force," Human Rights Watch said in its 73-page report, based on interviews with former political prisoners. The report, "Like the Dead in Their Coffins: Torture, Detention, and the Crushing of Dissent...

TEHRAN - Iran's foreign minister said yesterday that the courts are willing in "the near future" to commute the prison sentences for two Americans convicted of spying. The Americans' lawyer, meanwhile, was in court trying to arrange a $1 million bail-for-freedom deal. The release rests in the hands of the hard-line judiciary, and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi gave no clear timetable. He also raised the issue of Iranians held in US prisons, suggesting the Americans' release might be drawn out to bring attention to inmates Iran wants freed.