The judge who sent Lindsay Lohan to jail has removed herself from the case after a prosecutor complained she improperly contacted experts or participants in the case privately, including a rehabilitation facility, officials said Wednesday.

Superior Court Judge Marsha Revel recused herself Friday, court spokesman Allan Parachini and district attorney’s office spokeswoman Jane Robison said.

Beverly Hills Superior Court Judge Elden Fox is now handling the Lohan case.

Revel’s clerk said there would be no comment, and she referred callers to Parachini.

Deputy District Attorney Danette Meyers was in court and unavailable for comment.

Robison said there were several instances when the judge had communications and the prosecutor was not present or told afterward.

In one instance, the judge contacted the Morningside Recovery rehab facility, which was not on a list provided by her court-appointed experts. She then selected Morningside as a place to send Lohan.

Lohan attorney Shawn Chapman Holley eventually persuaded the judge to send Lohan to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

An e-mail request to Chapman seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned. Court officials declined further comment.

The actress was released Aug. 2 from the women’s jail in Lynwood, where she served 14 days of a 90-day sentence for violating her probation in a 2007 drug case.

She immediately went to the UCLA drug rehabilitation facility for a court-ordered three-month stint.

(yahoo! news)

William Bauer, a federal judge, says he felt threatened by a New Jersey blogger who ranted on the Internet about a gun control ruling.

Judge William Bauer testified Wednesday at the trial of Hal Turner in New York. Turner’s case stems from an Illinois appeals court decision in 2009 upholding the dismissal of lawsuits challenging handgun bans in Chicago and Oak Park, Ill.

The same day, the North Bergen, N.J., man wrote on his blog that Bauer and two other judges “must die.”

Bauer told jurors that he considered the blog entry “a threat of violence.”

Turner has sought to portray himself as a “shock jock” and fierce gun control opponent whose tirades were protected by the constitutional right to free speech.

Two previous trials for Turner have ended with hung juries.

(yahoo! news)

Elena Kagan completed a swift transition from top US government lawyer to judge on the highest US court Saturday after being sworn in to become the 112th US Supreme Court justice.

Chief Justice John Roberts administered the judicial oath that marks the beginning of her tenure as the fourth woman to sit on the top US court.

Kagan pledged to “faithfully and impartially” administer justice to people from all walks to life, grinning broadly as her new colleague offered his congratulations.

“Welcome to the court,” Roberts told Kagan.

Also present at the ceremony were Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, who Kagan will join on the bench for the first time in October 1 for the court’s fall session.

Justice John Paul Stevens, whom Kagan replaces, was also there.

US Senators voted 63-37 Thursday to confirm Kagan as one of the nine justices who act as final arbiters of the US Constitution, set precedent for lower courts, and decide on the toughest moral and legal dilemmas facing the United States.

Five Republicans broke ranks to back the 50-year-old former Harvard Law School dean, and just one Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted against her.

Though never seriously in doubt, her confirmation to the lifetime post gave President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies a much-needed victory before November midterm elections in which they are expected to suffer heavy losses.

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For the US Supreme Court, the only qualification is to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate per Art III of the US Const. No law degree is required, although in modern practice, a law degree and extensive judicial experience is a must to prevail in the age of electronic media. For US District Courts and US Courts of Appeals, and other inferior courts, a law degree is required because those courts are established by Congress rather than the Constitution and Congress has required those judges to be lawyers.

In practice however, most, if not all federal judges are graduates of the top law schools in the US where they were top performers, served in judicial clerkships with existing federal judges, and have had distinguished careers in private practice, academia, or the government. Most have been published several times in law reviews and other peer-reviewed publications. Look at Justice Elana Kagan, she graduated at the top of her class from Harvard Law, served as Editor of the Harvard Law Review, clerked for the DC Cir Ct of Appeals, then the Supreme Court, then worked for one of the most prestigious law firms in the US before becomming a tenured professor, White House Counsel, Dean of Harvard, and Solicitor General. Along the way, she published numerous law review articles.

A court rejected a bias claim lobbed by the San Francisco District Attorney against a judge overseeing evidence issues in the crime lab scandal, ending prosecutors’ efforts to remove the judge from the case.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s office claimed San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo could not fairly preside over narcotics cases being challenged due to possible evidence tampering because she is married to a defense attorney who handled one federal case involving the San Francisco crime lab.

In his Wednesday ruling, Monterey Superior Court Judge Thomas W. Wills wrote that Massullo’s marriage plays no role in her ability to oversee narcotics cases in which evidence may have been compromised by theft and misconduct by crime lab employees.

The San Francisco District Attorney’s office attempted to get Massullo disqualified less than a month after she issued a scathing May 17 ruling against prosecutors. In her 26-page ruling, which compelled the disclosure of crime lab-related documents in 60 narcotics cases, Massullo detailed a systematic withholding by prosecutors of evidence exposing problems in the crime lab and among SFPD employees. Defense attorneys and their clients are entitled to the material under Brady v. Maryland.

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Clients of public defenders see their lawyers from a different perspective from those in the legal system — and many are dissatisfied with the public defenders’ service.

Angela Rodriguez, 27, Boyertown, said her attorney advocated for her best interests but didn’t spend enough time with her.

The charge of attempted possession of a controlled substance was her first offense, and her attorney recommended she participate in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. ARD allows first-time offenders to clear their records after serving probation.

“I never had any contact with him except when it was time for the hearing,” she said. “That was the only time I ever really saw him or talked to him.”

James Manning, 29, Reading, said his public defender didn’t listen to him and rushed through his hearing for charges of forgery, theft by deception, receiving stolen property and possessing instruments of crime.

“I got three years probation,” Manning said. “The people that were pressing charges against me didn’t show up but he continued anyway.”

Manning said he only had five minutes of his lawyer’s time before the hearing.

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