A California appeals court has ruled that a person on probation for a felony can smoke marijuana for medical purposes.

This is the right decision. It would seem obvious that if a probationer had a medical marijuana certificate issued by the state, his use of the substance should be no different than taking any prescription drug while on probation. The problem arises in two ways. First, judges will arbitrarily decree that a probationer cannot use marijuana. Second, the terms of most state probation agreements specify that the probationer cannot violate any state or federal law, and the use of marijuana is a federal offense. Drug felons are subjected to urine analysis which shows if they smoked marijuana. The lab is obligated to forwards the positive report to the probation officer, and the rest is obvious.

We have faced this problem in our own cases. We're heartened to see this California decision, and hope other states will adopt its reasoning. [Thanks to Oakland attorney Dennis Roberts for the tip]

Cheers to the Indiana Supreme Court for this decision. It ought to be the law everywhere:

Criminal investigators can't keep a lawyer waiting at the jailhouse door while his or her client is inside being questioned by police.

That's the unmistakable command given Wednesday by the Indiana Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that a detained person must be told immediately if a lawyer is waiting to see that suspect.

The decision means police officers can't extract a confession from a suspect while his lawyer is waiting at the front desk.

This ruling is a victory for criminal suspects and defense attorneys in Indiana, who say it's not uncommon for police to keep the two separated while investigators try to get the suspect to waive the right to speak with a lawyer.

A law banning the possession of small amounts of maijuana has been ruled unconstitutional by an Alaska appeal court.

The ruling affirms a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision that found it legal to possess less than four ounces of marijuana in one's home. That ruling found that the state constitution's strong privacy law superseded legislative attempts to ban marijuana.

For background on the issues involved in the decision, go here.

Update: Marijuna Ruling Smokes Foes

Have you been wondering who is supporting Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore in his bid to keep the Ten Commandments display? Journalist and author David Neiwert of Orcinus has some answers. [link via Atrios.]

The Ninth Circuit has ruled shrinks can't rat out their patients, even if the patient makes a dangerous or threatening confessions during therapy.

Although psychiatrists are sometimes required to report incidents to authorities that could lead to violence, an en banc panel ruled that prosecutors couldn't use testimony from doctors to help convict their patients.

"On balance, we conclude that the gain from refusing to recognize a dangerous-patient exception to the psychotherapist-patient testimonial privilege in federal criminal trials outweighs the gain from recognizing the exception," Judge Susan Graber wrote for the 8-3 majority.

"Although incarceration is one way to eliminate a threat of imminent harm, in many cases treatment is a longer lasting and more effective solution. A criminal conviction with the help of a psychotherapist's testimony is almost sure to spell the end of any patient's willingness to undergo further treatment for mental health problems."

Colorado has backed down on its new law requiring students and teachers to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The law will be rewritten to comply with findings by the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court in Colorado last week that led him to declare the law as written unconstitutional. This is quite an about-face for Colorado Governor Bill Owens who angrily attacked the Judge's ruling last week and threatened appeals until the bitter end.

Here's the latest on Cobell v. Norton, the Indian Trust case:

Members of the Navajo Nation have been cheated out of tens of millions of dollars of trust revenue by the Secretary of the Interior who, in concert with major oil & gas companies, has permitted them to profit from sweetheart deals for rights of way across the Indians' individual trust lands in the West, a court official said today.

Special Master Balaran found that Interior Secretary Gale Norton has violated federal law and breached her trust duties to the Indians by allowing contracts that grossly undervalue individual Navajo trust lands, as much as 20 to 200 times below comparable lands owned by non-Indians and tribes. This allowed the gas companies to run pipelines to California at a fraction of real market costs.

Drug checkpoints are illegal. Fake drug checkpoints are not. So says the Colorado Court of Appeals.

Colorado police can set up fake checkpoints in hopes of sniffing out illegal drugs, an appeals court ruled in a case where camouflage-clad officers spied on fans during a bluegrass festival in 2000.

Police at the Telluride festival had posted signs along the road saying, "Narcotics checkpoint, one mile ahead" and "Narcotics canine ahead." Officers wearing camouflage hid on a hill and watched for any people who turned around or appeared to toss drugs out of their windows after seeing the signs. After Stephen Corbin Roth, 60, was pulled over for littering, police found a marijuana pipe and mushrooms while searching his car.

The appeals court said that while drug checkpoints are illegal -- because motorists are stopped at random and without reasonable suspicion of committing a crime -- the discovery of the pipe gave the officers probable cause to stop Roth's vehicle.

Indiana is doing it too. From Fourth Amendment.Com (scroll down to August 12):

Westchester County, New York has been ordered to pay $2,500.00 to a pedophile clown for violating his first amendment rights by blocking him from performing in a park at the Playland Amusement Park in Rye.

We reported the details of the case back in December, here.

The California Supreme Court has okayed adoptions by gay couples:

Second-parent adoptions, widely used by same-sex couples to form families, were declared legal Monday by the California Supreme Court.

The 6-1 ruling legitimizes as many as 20,000 adoptions that had been placed in limbo by a lower court decision and brings California in line with 21 other states that have validated second-parent adoptions.

"Our explicitly recognizing their validity will prevent uncertainty, conflict and protracted litigation in this area, all of which plainly are harmful to children caught in the middle," Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar wrote for the court.

Our view: It's the right thing to do.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg is acknowledging the growing effect of international law on Supreme Court decisions, particularly in the areas of the death penalty, race admissions and gay sex:

"Our island or lone ranger mentality is beginning to change," Ginsburg said during a speech to the American Constitution Society, a liberal lawyers group holding its first convention. Justices "are becoming more open to comparative and international law perspectives," said Ginsburg, who has supported a more global view of judicial decision making.

Ginsburg cited an international treaty in her vote in June to uphold the use of race in college admissions....Last month, Ginsburg and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer discussed the death penalty and terrorism with French President Jacques Chirac during a European tour.

Ginsburg said Saturday that the Internet is making decisions of courts in other countries more readily available in America, and they should not be ignored.

Not surprisingly, conservatives are upset by the trend.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative and Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana on September 17th (S.F., 8 am). The cases will be heard together. At issue will be the constitutionality of the Controlled Substances Act with regards to non-interstate use of medical marijuana in California. The panel will consist of Justices Reinhardt, Schroeder and Silverman.

Later the same day, a different panel will hear the appeal of the Hemp Industry Association vs. the DEA.

[thanks to Allen St. Pierre of NORML for the heads-up]