US hikers in Iran court, hope for end to ordeal (AFP)

TEHRAN (AFP) – A new hearing opens Sunday in the trial of three American hikers who face espionage charges in Iran after straying into the country two years ago, an ordeal their lawyer hopes will have a happy ending.

Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, were arrested along with Sarah Shourd, 32, on the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq on July 31, 2009.

Iran accuses the three of "spying and illegally entering the country."

They have pleaded not guilty to spying charges, saying they were hiking in Iraq's northern province of Kurdistan when they innocently walked into Iran across an unmarked border.

Washington has vehemently denied Tehran's charges and has pressed for their release.

Shourd, who got engaged with Bauer while in prison in Tehran, is being tried in absentia after she returned to the United States following her release on humanitarian and medical grounds in September 2010, for which bail of about 500,000 dollars was paid.

"Since the hearing date coincides with the two year anniversary of their arrest, and it is the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, I am hopeful that this case has a happy ending," their lawyer Masoud Shafii told AFP on Wednesday referring to the Muslim fasting month when compassion, the spirit of caring and sharing is advocated.

"I believe that they are innocent; the espionage charges have no relevance. Even if the court does not accept my defence, the two years they've spent behind bars is punishment enough," he added referring to the illegal entry charge.

Ahead of the new hearing their families issued a statement on Friday in New York, and Shourd used her statement to wish Muslims in Iran and everywhere a blessed Ramadan on behalf of the families of the two men.

"Please, if you could make a little room in your prayers on the eve of Ramadan for my fiance, my friend and our families, it would mean the world to us," she said.

The trial has been hit by a number of delays since November 6, 2010, when it was postponed to February 6, 2011 over what was termed "an error in the judicial proceedings."

Another hearing scheduled for May 11 this year was cancelled after Fattal and Bauer were not brought before the court, according to Shafii.

Shourd, who did not attend the February 6 hearing, told AFP in Washington that she will not return to Iran to join the other two in the dock.

She said she had sent Iran's revolutionary court a five-page evaluation by a clinical forensic psychologist, who concluded she was at high risk of psychological problems if she returned to face espionage charges.

Shafii said he has met Bauer and Fattal only twice, the last time on February 6, 2011 when they appeared in court for the first hearing.

"I still have not met them (for) the lawyer-client meeting that I have requested. They told me that they will inform me and I am still pursuing it," he said.

Their case has attracted high profile support in the United States.

On May 24, the legendary Muslim boxing champion Muhammad Ali supported a call for Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to free Bauer and Fattal.

Amnesty International on Friday renewed calls for Iran to release the two hikers.

The hikers' detention has added to the animosity between arch-foes Tehran and Washington, which has increased over Iran's disputed nuclear drive and outspoken remarks by hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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Dahmer survivor in court in homeless man's death (AP)

MILWAUKEE – The man who led Milwaukee police to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer 20 years ago made his first court appearance in a homeless man's death.

Tracy Edwards and another man are charged with recklessly endangering safety in the death of Johnny Jordan, who drowned after being thrown off a downtown Milwaukee bridge. Edwards and co-defendant Timothy Carr are accused of arguing with Jordan and throwing him off the bridge Tuesday.

Edwards' attorney asked the court commissioner to allow Edwards to participate by phone Saturday. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the request was denied, and the commissioner set bail at $10,000 and scheduled an Aug. 8 preliminary hearing.

Edwards, now 52, is known for his July 1991 escape from Dahmer's apartment, which led to the serial killer's arrest.

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Presidential historian appears in federal court (AP)

BALTIMORE – A presidential historian charged with stealing historical documents and conspiring to take them from state archives in several states will remain in federal custody over the weekend, but a judge allowed his assistant to be released Friday.

At a hearing Monday, a judge will consider the prosecutors' recommendation that Barry Landau, 63, remain in custody. This will allow pretrial officials time to review his case and interview Landau, who appeared in the same blue-and-white-striped, button-down shirt and khakis that he wore to a bail review hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court earlier this week.

Federal prosecutor James G. Warwick said in court Friday that Landau poses a flight risk and might try to access documents that investigators haven't yet found and destroy evidence. Investigators believe that Landau has tried to tamper with witnesses, Warwick said, but he did not want to disclose details.

Prosecutors are looking at additional federal charges, including mail and wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen goods and theft of government property, Warwick said.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Gauvey approved an agreement Friday that allows Landau's assistant, Jason Savedoff, 24, be released to his mother on $250,000 cash bail. Savedoff, who appeared in a yellow jumpsuit from the Baltimore jail with a slight beard, has surrendered his American and Canadian passports and will stay at an apartment in the Baltimore area.

The men were arrested July 9 after a Maryland Historical Society employee reported Savedoff took a document out of the society's Baltimore library. When police arrived, investigators found 60 documents inside a library locker Savedoff was using, including papers signed by President Abraham Lincoln worth $300,000 and presidential inaugural ball invitations and programs worth $500,000, Baltimore prosecutors have said.

Landau had signed out many of those documents, according to court documents.

The two men were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday, accused of stealing and selling historical documents that included a Benjamin Franklin letter and speeches by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They also face state theft charges.

The federal indictment charges the pair with stealing an April 1780 letter from Franklin to John Paul Jones from the New-York Historical Society in March. They are also charged with taking a set of signed inaugural addresses from the FDR presidential library in December and later selling them for $35,000.

U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein has said a nationwide investigation is continuing and encouraged anyone with information about the acquisition or sale of historical items by the two to contact the FBI. Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely called "the scope and notoriety" of the documents seized in this case "truly breathtaking."

Before his arrest, Landau appeared on TV programs and was quoted in news articles, particularly for his knowledge of White House social events and drew upon his extensive collection of souvenirs to write a coffee-table book, "The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy."

The investigation included a search of the author's museum-like, New York City apartment that's lined with mementos dating back to Washington's presidency, the FBI said. Black-and-white etchings of 19th-century inaugurations hang from the walls, while a cabinet displays presidential goblets, plates and a skeleton key that purportedly fit the front door of the White House during John Adams' administration, according to a 2007 Associated Press article.

In the wake of the arrests, institutions across the country are reviewing their vulnerabilities. They often have limited money and must balance security measures against giving access to the public.

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Jeffs threatens court with Biblical repercussions (AP)

SAN ANGELO, Texas – A polygamist sect leader defending himself against sexual assault charges broke his silence Friday with a 55-minute sermon defending plural marriages as divine and later said God would visit "sickness and death" on those involved if his trial wasn't immediately stopped.

Warren Jeffs, 55, could face life in prison if he's convicted of sexually assaulting two underage girls. He has been representing himself since he fired his high-powered lawyers Thursday, but he made no opening statement and spent hours sitting alone at the defense table staring into space in silence while prosecutors made their case.

On Friday, however, the ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints suddenly cried "I object!" as FBI agent John Broadway testified about seizing eight desktop computers and 120 boxes and large folders of documents from the church's remote compound in West Texas in 2008.

"There is sacred trust given to religious leadership not to be touched by government agencies," said Jeffs, who leads an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in heaven. The sect's 10,000 members see Jeffs as a prophet who speaks for God on Earth.

Jeffs then launched into a lengthy defense of polygamy, but Walther eventually overruled his objection. She said court rules prohibited him from testifying while objecting but she let him go on at length because he hadn't offered an opening statement.

Jeffs then said he had no choice but to read a statement from God. Walther dismissed the jury and allowed him to read it.

"I, the Lord God of heaven," Jeffs read, "call upon the court to cease this open prosecution against my pure, holy way."

If the trial continues, the statement said, "I will send a scourge upon the counties of prosecutorial zeal to make humbled by sickness and death."

Jeffs has frequently said the charges against him are the work of over-zealous prosecutors.

Walther responded to the statement by telling Jeffs he could not threaten the jury.

"If you call for their destruction," she said, "or in any way say that they will be injured or damaged because of their service, you will be removed from the courtroom."

During afternoon testimony from Broadway and other witnesses who detailed documents seized from the FLDS compound, Jeffs objected so much that Walther eventually had a bailiff remove his microphones.

It was a sharp contrast to his earlier silence and halting speech. When answering questions from Walther earlier in the week, Jeffs usually paused for a full minute or two and then spoke in slow, deliberate tones interrupted by long, awkward pauses. But his words flowed freely Friday.

Jeffs, who is schedule for trial on bigamy charges in October, said his church has practiced polygamy for five generations and believes it is the will of God, who is a higher power than courts, state legislatures and the U.S. Congress.

"We are not a fly-by-night religious society . . . We are a community of faith and principles and those principles are so sacred. They belong to God, not to man and the governments of man," Jeffs said. He also noted that polygamy "is not of a sudden happening, it is of a tradition in our lives. And how can we just throw it away and say `God has not spoken?'"

Jeffs said FLDS members believe adhering to God's will, as stated by prophets like himself, is the only way to achieve eternal life in "Zion," or heaven.

"We do not seek your salvation," Jeffs told Walther and jurors, who watched and listened intently but made no visible reaction to his words. The judge turned down his repeated pleas for a separate hearing on freedom of religion.

Jeffs said Texas authorities had unfairly persecuted the FLDS just because its members are different from those of mainstream religions. Women in the sect wear prairie-style dresses and keep their hair tied up in tight buns that conjure images of frontier times.

"We are derided for how we dress, how we go about our laborers in a common society," he said. "The government of the United States had no right to infringe on the religious freedom of a peaceful people."

Jeffs said the courts and society are "not understanding our religious faith, yet judging it."

At the end of his speech, lead prosecutor Eric Nichols rose and said the Supreme Court ruled in the 1890s that religious freedom does not extend to polygamy.

The FLDS made headlines nationwide in 2008, when authorities raided its compound in tiny Eldorado, about 45 miles from San Angelo, after hearing allegations that young girls were being forced into polygamist marriages. More than 400 children were seized temporarily but eventually returned to their families.

Still, Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men were charged with crimes including sexual assault and bigamy.

All seven sect members prosecuted so far have been convicted and given prison terms of between six and 75 years.

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US court rules government can keep rare coins (AFP)

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AFP) – The US government can keep 10 rare gold coins seized from the descendants of a Philadelphia jeweler amid allegations that they had been stolen, a federal jury has ruled.

The jury decided Thursday that the government had proven its claim that the coins, valued at $75 million, were removed from the US Mint without permission nearly seven decades ago.

The government contends the 10 coins were stolen because the 1933 Double Eagles, worth $20 when they were minted, were never authorized for circulation.

But lawyers for the descendants of Israel Switt argued that nobody knows exactly how their father came to possess the coins.

Authorities believed they had destroyed nearly all of the 455,000 coins that were minted, as part of the US efforts to go off the gold standard.

But a few of the coins turned up over the years, all of them traced to back to Switt, a Philadelphia jeweler.

In the 1940s, authorities believed that all but one of Switt's coins had been tracked down and destroyed.

What was believed to be the last coin found its way into the collection of Egypt's King Farouk, and was later sold at auction for $7.5 million.

But in 2004, Switt's daughter, Joan Langbord, approached the US Treasury with 10 more of the coins she said were found in her late-father's safe deposit box.

The government seized the coins, saying there was no way the coins could have been legally removed from the Mint's vaults.

Langbord, and her sons David and Roy sued, saying nobody truly knew how the coins left the vault.

Since the government could not prove the coins were stolen, the family had argued their constitutional rights to the property had been violated. Appeals in the case are expected.

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Canadian court rules to deport Chinese fugitive (AFP)

VANCOUVER (AFP) – A Canadian court cleared the way for China's most-wanted fugitive Lai Changxing to be sent home to face expected criminal charges.

"The life of the applicant is in the Chinese Government's hands," the court ruled, citing a Chinese proverb.

China earlier promised not to sentence Lai to death if he is tried and found guilty. Canada, which does not practice capital punishment, prohibits the return of prisoners to countries where they might be put to death.

There was no immediate word from Lai's lawyers about whether the court ruling will be appealed.

Lai remained behind bars Thursday night, after a separate court ruling overturned an order by the Immigration and Refugee Board to release him.

Canadian officials told the court Lai could be sent home as early as the weekend.

If an appeal is not launched, or fails, the ruling will end Lai's 12-year battle to remain in Canada. The case has soured diplomatic relations between the two countries, and pitted Western ideas about human rights against China's treatment of prisoners.

Canada's government has repeatedly tried to send Lai to China, but the independent courts and Immigration and Refugee board had blocked his deportation until now on human rights grounds.

Lai fled here with his family in 1999 after being accused in China of running a $6 billion (US) smuggling ring in Fujian province. His lawyers say at least seven of his associates have died or vanished in China's justice system.

Earlier this month, a key risk assessment by immigration officials cleared the way for his return, after they ruled Lai would not risk death or torture if sent home to China. Thursday's ruling rejected the prisoner's appeal of that risk assessment.

His lawyer, well-known human rights advocate David Matas, has warned repeatedly that Lai would risk death or torture in China, despite the country's unusual diplomatic assurances to Canada.

Matas noted in a court filing that China has promised "access to a lawyer, permission of a Canadian official to be present at the hearing of the applicant, Canadian official access to recordings of interrogations and hearings, and permission for Canadian officials to visit the applicant in prison, mitigating risk of abuse."

But, he added, "these four assurances amount to nothing."

The court apparently disagreed.

The ruling, emailed Thursday night to reporters, cited China's much-criticized record on its treatment of other prisoners and noted they "are detained together indiscriminately."

However, "it is assumed that the assurances of the Chinese government... will be kept," the court added.

The ruling said China's "honor and face" would be at stake during the lifetime monitoring of Lai.

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Court denies motion to stop Loughner medication (AP)

TUCSON, Ariz. – A federal appeals court has refused to bar prison officials from forcibly medicating Tucson shooting rampage suspect Jared Lee Loughner with a psychotropic drug.

Judges from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday night denied the emergency motion on the medication from defense attorneys, and also rejected their request for daily reports about his condition at a federal prison facility in Springfield, Mo.

Federal prosecutors said in a filing earlier Friday that Loughner should remain medicated because he may be a danger to himself and his mental and physical condition was rapidly deteriorating.

Loughner, 22, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the Jan. 8 shooting spree that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

He's been at the Springfield facility since May 27 after a federal judge concluded he was mentally unfit to help in his legal defense.

Mental health experts have determined Loughner suffers from schizophrenia and will try to make him psychologically fit to stand trial. He's expected to spend up to four months at the Missouri prison.

The 9th Circuit had previously scheduled an Aug. 30 hearing in San Francisco on an appeal by Loughner's lawyers over forced medication. It wasn't immediately clear if that hearing will still be held.

Calls to lead Loughner attorney Judy Clarke for comment Friday night weren't immediately returned.

On Thursday, Loughner's attorneys questioned whether the forced medication violates an earlier order by the court that forbid prison officials from involuntarily medicating Loughner as judges mull an appeal on his behalf. They also said their client has been on 24-hour suicide watch.

U.S. Attorney for Arizona Dennis Burke wrote in his filing Friday that "despite being under suicide watch, Loughner's unmedicated behavior is endangering him and that no measure short of medication will protect him from himself more than temporarily because they do not address the mental state which underlies his self-destructive actions."

Loughner was forcibly medicated between June 21 and July 1 after prison officials determined his outbursts there posed a danger to others. He was given twice daily doses of Risperidone, a drug used for people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe behavior problems.

In a July 12 ruling, the appeals court upheld an earlier order that the treatments cease, saying Loughner's interest in not suffering the risk of side effects from powerful drugs is stronger than the government's interest in protecting him and those around him. But the ruling noted that authorities can take steps to maintain the safety of prison officials, other inmates and Loughner, including forcibly giving him tranquilizers.

The decision to resume involuntarily treating Loughner on an emergency basis came Monday after it was determined that he had become an immediate threat to himself, according to court documents.

If Loughner is later determined to be competent enough for trial, the court proceedings will resume. If he isn't deemed competent at the end of his treatment, Loughner's stay at the facility can be extended.

Loughner's lawyers haven't said whether they intend to present an insanity defense, but they have noted in court filings that his mental condition will likely be a central issue at trial.

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Court extends stay against forcibly medicating Loughner (Reuters)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Tucson shooting suspect Jared Loughner should not have been forced to take anti-psychotic drugs against his will without a judge first ruling on his appeal of the issue.

The decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals keeps in place a stay that court imposed on July 1 ordering officials at a federal prison hospital in Springfield, Missouri, to stop forcibly medicating Loughner.

The three-judge panel ruled that a U.S. district judge in San Diego abused his discretion by denying Loughner's emergency petition seeking to bar the Federal Medical Center from involuntarily medicating him after an administrative hearing found he posed a danger to others in the facility.

Prosecutors have cited several outbursts by Loughner in which they said he threw chairs or spat at others.

But the appeals court panel said the government "has managed to keep Loughner in custody for over six months without injury to anyone."

"We are confident it can continue to do so for the short period it will take to resolve this appeal," the judges added. "And the record shows Loughner is not a danger to himself."

The appeals court ruled that its stay should remain in effect until a hearing on the merits of Loughner's appeal, and it ordered a such a hearing set for the week of August 29.

Although prison officials remain barred from giving Loughner anti-psychotic drugs against his will, the court said they were free to take less drastic measures to control his behavior, including forced administration of tranquilizers.

The 22-year-old college dropout was declared in May to be mentally incompetent to stand trial on charges he killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in a January 8 shooting rampage in Tucson.

At the competency hearing, U.S. District Judge Larry Burns cited the conclusions of two medical experts that Loughner suffers from schizophrenia, disordered thinking and delusions.

Described by his own lawyers as "gravely mentally ill," Loughner has been since undergoing psychiatric evaluation to determine whether his ability to understand the court proceedings against him can be restored.

He pleaded not guilty in March to 49 charges stemming from the shooting at the "Congress on Your Corner" event, including multiple counts of first-degree murder. (Reporting by Tim Gaynor; Editing by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb)

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"Whitey" Bulger's girlfriend due back in court (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – James "Whitey" Bulger's longtime girlfriend was headed on Wednesday to federal court in Boston, where family members of the gangster's alleged murder victims could be granted time to speak.

Catherine Greig, 60, was arrested with 81-year-old Bulger on June 22 in their Santa Monica, California hide-out. She has been charged with harboring Bulger as a fugitive and could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

Greig was scheduled to appear before Magistrate Judge Jennifer Boal in a continuation of her probable cause and detention hearing that began on Monday.

Prosecutors said at least three family members of Bulger's 19 alleged murder victims wanted to speak in court and were relevant to the case. The government said it has evidence showing that Greig harbored Bulger and caused direct harm to the families.

Greig's defense attorney has said the charges against her are not related to these crime victims.

In a separate filing, her attorney wrote that when Greig fled with Bulger, he was "considered to be a hero-like figure in the city of Boston," and only many years later was the brutality of his alleged killings revealed.

If the court allows the families time to speak, they will be limited to a few minutes, court filings said. The defense has requested that victim impact statements be addressed to the court and not directly to Greig "in any type of highly charged, emotional or pejorative terms."

During Monday's session, prosecutors called one witness, FBI special agent Michael Carazza, who detailed the early period of Bulger and Greig's 16 years on the run together.

He discussed the pair obtaining and using fake identities and played video footage from a Santa Monica pharmacy showing Greig picking up prescriptions under an alias.

CALLING CARDS

Carazza also said Greig and Bulger used calling cards to stay in touch with associates and with Greig's twin sister in Boston. Greig would speak with her sister in calls placed to the homes of neighbors and friends, he said in his testimony.

Carazza said the pair crossed the country spending time in Louisiana and New York, sometimes indicating they were from New York and that Bulger was a retired real estate broker and Greig was a dog groomer.

The couple was arrested in Santa Monica, California where authorities found a stash of about 30 firearms and $822,000 in cash hidden in holes in the wall.

Prosecutors said they plan to wrap up Carazza's testimony on Wednesday, and Greig's defense lawyer Kevin Reddington was slated to address the court.

He has requested that Greig be released on bail to home confinement and electronic monitoring pending trial, according to court documents.

Greig, born and raised in South Boston, still owns a home in Quincy, Massachusetts, south of the city. Her twin sister will offer her home as collateral in the release as well, the filing said.

Greig's attorney said Greig posed no danger to the community and was not a flight risk, as the government has suggested.

It was Greig, not Bulger, who took a star turn in the authorities' recent media campaign that led to a crucial tip from the public and the arrest of the pair.

Authorities produced television spots that focused on Greig's appearance, habits and personality traits.

Greig loves dogs and was known to frequent beauty salons, according to the FBI. She had previously worked as a dental hygienist and had plastic surgery before fleeing with her criminal boyfriend, 20 years her senior.

(Reporting by Lauren Keiper; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jerry Norton)

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Appeals court hears Loughner medication arguments (AP)

PHOENIX – A federal appeals court panel is considering whether federal prison officials can resume forcibly giving anti-psychotic medication to the suspect in the Tucson shooting rampage.

The three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments from federal prosecutors and Jared Lee Loughner's defense lawyers in Pasadena, Calif., Thursday afternoon. It isn't known when a ruling will be issued.

The same three judges ordered the medication halted late last week after an emergency appeal by Loughner's lawyers.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns ruled last week doctors at the federal prison in Springfield, Mo., could medicate Loughner after determining he was a danger. Loughner had been forcibly medicated between June 21 and July 1 at a federal facility in Springfield, Mo., after prison officials determined his outbursts there posed a danger.

The 22-year-old has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. He has been at the Missouri facility since late May after mental health experts had determined he suffers from schizophrenia and Burns ruled him mentally unfit to stand trial.

Loughner's lawyers argued that medicating him against his will would violate his right to due process and that he would suffer irreparable harm if the medication continues. They want the temporary injunction preventing the medication kept in place while they pursue a full appeal of Burns' order allowing it to continue.

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Pa. family's fight for rare coins reaches court (AP)

PHILADELPHIA – A federal jury in Pennsylvania began hearing a tale Thursday that has long fascinated coin collectors: how a Philadelphia family ended up with a stash of exquisitely rare $20 gold coins from 1933 that the U.S. Mint never circulated.

The 10 coins could bring $80 million or more at auction. But it's not clear that day will ever come.

Federal attorneys told the jury in opening statements that the coins belong to the United States because they were never legally released by the U.S. Mint in the 1930s.

But descendants of the late Philadelphia jeweler Israel Switt say the government can't prove they were stolen. Switt, who dealt in scrap gold, might have legally traded for them in his regular dealings with the Mint, their lawyers said.

U.S. District Judge Legrome Davis promised jurors selected for the trial that the case would be more fascinating than anything they see on TV, a case replete with history about the gold standard, the Depression, and decades of sleuthing over the rare 1933 Saint-Gaudens "double eagles." The trial is expected to last two to three weeks.

"The government must prove that these coins were stolen three-quarters of a century ago," lawyer Barry Berke, who represents Switt's daughter and grandsons, told the jury.

"They have a theory as to how the coins may have left," he said. "A theory is not good enough to take a citizen's property."

Nearly a half million of the double eagles were struck in Philadelphia in 1933, but then melted into gold bars when President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the country off the gold standard. A few mysteriously survived.

Switt was twice investigated for illegally possessing gold coins in the 1930s and 1940s. He surrendered many of the coins, but was never prosecuted because the statute of limitations had run out, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said.

Switt's daughter, Joan Langbord, contacted the government in 2004 to say she had found the coins in a bank deposit box a year earlier. She asked the Treasury Department to authenticate them. The government instead seized them, but the federal judge later ordered officials to defend the forfeiture at trial. The coins are being kept at Fort Knox.

The government argues that the safety box was not rented until six years after Switt died in 1990. Government lawyers say that 10 other "double eagles" that surfaced in the 20th century can all be traced to Switt. Prosecutors believe Switt and a corrupt cashier at the Mint had a hand in the breach.

"(This is) a crime the government has been waiting to put to rest for 70 years," Romero said in opening statements. "The government simply wants its coins back."

Langbord, now in her 80s, has worked in her father's jewelry store a few blocks from the Mint nearly all her life. The other plaintiffs are her sons, entertainment lawyer Roy Langbord of New York City and David Langbord of Virginia Beach, Va.

A single 1933 double eagle, designed by famed sculptor August Saint-Gaudens, sold at auction in 2002 for $7.59 million, then a record for a coin. The coin had once been owned by King Farouk of Egypt after the U.S. government agreed it could be shipped overseas.

Romero called the 1944 shipment a bureaucratic mistake that prompted the government to allow its later owner, a London coin dealer jailed when he brought it to the U.S. in 1996, to sell it. The dealer and the U.S. government split the proceeds in a deal negotiated by Berke.

The Langbords had opened their deposit box the day before the London dealer's Farouk coin was seized in 1996, Romero said. The family later offered a similar 50-50 split with the U.S. to settle the case, but the government rejected it on grounds the family cannot legitimize their ownership of the coins, given Switt's history.

Switt had told Secret Service agents in 1944 that he had possessed and sold nine 1933 double eagles, despite the ban on owning most gold coins after January 1934. All nine were tracked down by the government and destroyed between 1944 and 1952. The Farouk coin is believed to be the tenth from that stash.

The Mint sent a pair of 1933 double eagles to the Smithsonian Institution for its U.S. coin collection.

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Court Blocks Kansas Law Shutting Down Abortion Clinics (Time.com)

By KAREN BALL / KANSAS CITY, KAN. Karen Ball / Kansas City, Kan. – Sat Jul 2, 1:30 am ET

Kansas' efforts to shut down two abortion providers will have to wait as a federal judge temporarily blocked the state Friday from imposing tough new licensing restrictions.

U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia, reading from the bench, issued a preliminary injunction, saying providers and women would suffer "irreparable" injury if the regulations took effect Friday as scheduled. The injunction will hold until a trial determines the legality over rules that, among other things, mandate the size of janitors' closets and require lockers for patients.

"This is a tremendous victory," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented a father-daughter team from Overland Park, Kan. who had been denied a license. (See TIME's special report on women's health.)

"The facts were clear," said Northup, "this licensing process had absolutely nothing to do with patient health or safety and everything to do with political shenanigans."

One other clinic, Aid for Women in Kansas City Kan., will also be able to reopen its doors. Planned Parenthood, after purchasing a "neo-natal crash unit" that it said was unnecessary, was able to meet the licensing requirements at the last-minute on Thursday. If not for the judge's Friday order, that clinic would have been the only provider left in the state.

Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, says it was never the law's intent to shut down abortion clinics and notes that although South Carolina has a similar law, clinics there have survived. Abortion providers are "putting on a show," she says. "They're the ones who said if you make abortion legal, we'll keep women safe," she says. "Why wouldn't you want rooms big enough to get gurneys in and out of?"

But supporters of abortion rights said the Kansas law was part of a coordinated national campaign to chip away at a woman's right to reproductive freedom. "More like hack away," said Northup.

"Since the November elections," added Tait Sye of the national Planned Parenthood office in New York, "we've gone through the greatest legislative assault on women's health in a generation."

If the new regulations in Kansas are ultimately upheld, Planned Parenthood said its services will be strained. About 8,000 women a year seek abortions in Kansas; Planned Parenthood performed about 5,000 of them last year, the other two providers handling 3,000. That likely includes a large number of patients from across the state line, where Missouri already has tough restrictions in place and there are no clinics in the urban core of Kansas City. (See why Kansas tried to shut down abortion clinics.)

Dr. Herbert Hodes, who filed suit with his daughter, says abortion is just one of the services he and his daughter provide in their private ob-gyn practice. He delivers babies at nearby hospitals and performs other procedures, like tubal ligations, in his office. He says there's no reason to mandate patient lockers - he notes that hospitals usually just put a patient's belongings in a bag under the gurney when they go from pre-op to surgery to recovery.

"It's a joke and a sham," Hodes told TIME. "The only purpose is to shut down access to abortions." He says he complies with rules from the Kansas Board of Healing Arts and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists since "they're realistic regulations drawn up by doctors for doctors. We all know how much legislators know about health care for women - nothing," Hodes says.

Kansas legislators have tried to implement similar regulations before but gained traction only with the election of the conservative Brownback. Kansas is also one of the states where lawmakers are trying to block funding for Planned Parenthood. The state has long been a hotbed for the abortion issue; it's where Dr. George Tiller, who famously offered late-term abortions in Wichita, was murdered in 2009.

Jeff Pederson of Aid for Women echoes Hodes' complaints about unnecessary regulations, saying that one of the new codes mandates a two-hour recovery period. He says that when he accompanied his father to get his teeth pulled, his dad was sedated, yet they left 10 minutes after the procedure was complete. "The women don't want to stay here two hours, and they don't need to. They have a caregiver with them. They're drunk, but they're walking."

The majority of Pederson's clients are low-income or minorities, he says, and he fears folks will go back to pre–Roe v. Wade days of seeking home remedies or other means to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. "I can remember what it was like before."

See why teen pregnancy and abortions are on the rise.

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Kan. abortion rules face test in federal court (AP)

TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas still has one abortion provider, but two others that have had to halt services because they don't have state licenses hoped Friday to persuade a federal judge to block a new licensing law and health department regulations they consider burdensome.

The state attorney general's office argued before a Friday hearing in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., that a license granted to a Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri clinic disproves critics' contention that the new Kansas rules are designed to cut off access to abortion.

The licensing law was part of a wave of anti-abortion legislation enacted across the nation this year, but had none of its three providers received a license, Kansas would have been the only state in the nation without a clinic or doctor's office performing abortions.

Its regulations tell providers what drugs and equipment they must stock, set acceptable temperatures for procedure and recovery rooms and set minimum sizes for some rooms. Supporters believe those rules will protect patients. But abortion-rights advocates have called the licensing process a "sham" because Gov. Sam Brownback is an anti-abortion Republican, and abortion foes pushed the law through the GOP-controlled Legislature.

Planned Parenthood received a license Thursday from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, after initially being denied but having inspectors visit its clinic in Overland Park a second time. The new licensing law and the accompanying regulations took effect Friday.

The lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia was filed earlier this week by Drs. Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser, who provide abortions and other services at the Center for Women's Health, also in Overland Park. The state's other provider, Aid for Women Clinic in Kansas City, has been allowed to intervene.

The attorney general's office attached the Planned Parenthood license in a court document filed Thursday evening, shortly after the health department confirmed it had granted a license to one of the state's providers and Planned Parenthood identified itself as the recipient.

"Women in Kansas seeking abortion services will still be able to obtain medical care at a properly licensed facility even if the statute and regulations are enforced exactly as written," the attorney general's office said.

But Bonnie Scott Jones, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Hodes and Nauser, said the state still has a "crazy process" that involved abortion opponents rushing unreasonable regulations into place.

As for Planned Parenthood's license, she said, "That's certainly better than no one being open, but it's certainly not enough to meet the needs of the women of Kansas."

She also noted that the Planned Parenthood clinic already was regulated by the health department as one of the state's 74 ambulatory surgical centers. Those centers face more detailed rules than dozens of clinics and doctor's offices performing surgical procedures, which are covered by rules from the State Board of Healing Arts, which licenses physicians.

Both Aid for Women and the Center for Women's Health fall under the office-based surgery rules, and their doctors argue that those standards are strong enough to protect patients. Those rules don't set minimum sizes for rooms, for example.

Besides objecting to the content, the providers argue that the state violated their right to due legal process by imposing the rules so quickly. The department argues the licensing law mandated a fast track.

Brownback signed the licensing law in mid-May; the providers received the current version of the regulations less than two weeks before they took effect. A state board approved the rules Thursday, allowing them to take effect.

The department hasn't taken public comments on the regulations though it has scheduled a Sept. 7 hearing in Topeka and plans to consider suggested changes.

Among other things, the Kansas regulations for abortion providers require rooms where abortions are performed to have at least 150 sq. feet of space, excluding fixed cabinets, and to keep their temperatures between 68 and 73 degrees. Each procedure room also must have its own janitor's closet with at least 50 sq. feet. Also, any patient must remain in a recovery room for at least two hours.

Aid for Women was denied a license without an inspection after it disclosed in its application that the clinic required extensive renovations to comply with the new rules.

The Center for Women's Health cancelled its inspection after Hodes and Nauser filed their lawsuit. In that document, they acknowledged that none of its six procedure rooms were big enough to comply with the regulations, nor did they have enough janitorial closet space.

Planned Parenthood said it had been denied a license Monday, and it was certain enough that it wouldn't get one by Friday that it filed its own lawsuit Thursday in federal court, also in Kansas City. The lawsuit said the Planned Parenthood clinic met most requirements and could comply with others.

Court documents also disclosed that the clinic was still in contact with the health department, trying to show that it would comply with all regulations. The license granted to Planned Parenthood is good for a year, the term specified by law.

President and CEO Peter Brownlie said he expects the Planned Parenthood chapter to withdraw its lawsuit and work to change the regulations.

____

Online:

Kansas Department of Health and Environment: http://www.kdheks.gov/

Center for Reproductive Rights: http://reproductiverights.org/

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Strauss-Kahn court hearing: live report (AFP)

1730 GMT: This ends AFP's Live Report coverage Friday on developments in the sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Here is a summary of events in the fast moving case: -- In an unscheduled hearing, New York Judge Michael Obus releases Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance and sets a new hearing for July 18. -- Obus makes his decision because Strauss-Kahn's accuser gave false information to the grand jury. The alleged victim also lied on her application to immigrate to the United States, further undermining her credibility. -- Strauss-Kahn is allowed to end his strict house arrest conditions and go where he pleases, but cannot travel abroad, as Obus retains the ex-IMF chief's passport. -- "This case was not what it appears to be," Strauss-Kahn said attorney Benjamin Brafman tells reporters outside the courthouse, predicting that his client will be exonerated. -- However the victim's attorney, Kenneth Thompson, gives a full-throated defense of his client. "The victim made mistakes, but that doesn't mean she's not a rape victim," he said. -- Thompson points to powerful physical evidence that she was sexually assaulted, including a bruised vagina, and torn shoulder ligament and ripped stockings. -- Thompson claims District Attorney Cyrus Vance is laying the foundation to dismiss the case. -- Vance speaks to reporters but takes no questions. His office is committed "to the truth and the facts" and will continue to pursue the case, he says.

1714 GMT: In a letter to Strauss-Kahn's attorneys, Vance said his office believes the alleged victim gave false information in both her asylum application to enter the United States and in her account to the grand jury about what happened immediately after the alleged assault.

1655 GMT: Thompson, the victim's attorney, claims that district attorney Vance "is too afraid to try this case" after recently losing several high-profile New York cases.

1642 GMT: After vowing to pursue the case, Vance leaves without taking questions from reporters.

1640 GMT : "Today's proceedings do not dismiss the indictment," said Vance. "Our office's committment is to the truth and the facts."

1637 GMT: District Attorney Cyrus Vance speaks to reporters.

1635 GMT: "The complainant has since admitted that this account was false and that after the incident in Suite 2806, she proceeded to clean a nearby room and then returned to Suite 2806 and began to clean that suite before she reported the incident to her supervisor," prosecutors said in court filings.

1634 GMT: Strauss-Kahn's alleged victim gave a false account in testimony to the grand jury, omitting the fact that she cleaned another room before alerting a supervisor of her claims of sexual assault, prosecutors said in court documents.

1627 GMT: .The victim said she is "going to stand in front in the cameras and tell to the world what Dominique Strauss-Kahn did," said Thompson, her lawyer.

1617 GMT: Strauss-Kahn made it back to the Manhattan home where he is staying.

1616 GMT: "We are grateful to the office of the disrict attorney for following up on this investigation and making these disclosures," Strauss-Kahn attorney William Taylor said, adding: "these disclosures reinforce our conviction that he will be exonerated."

1615 GMT: Strauss-Kahn will be exonerated, his lawyers said after a judge freed him on house arrest.

1612 GMT: The victim's credibility "is important. But you cannot discount the powerful physical evidence that was left behind in that assault," said Thompson.

1608 GMT: "The victim made mistakes, but that doesn't mean that she's not a rape victim," said Thompson.

1607 GMT: "We believe the district attorney is laying the foundation to dismiss this case," said Thompson.

1605 GMT: "Her asylum information is not completely accurate," said Thompson, saying that the victim had been raped by soldiers in Africa.

1559 GMT: News reports that the victim is linked to drugs are a lie, Thompson said.

1558 GMT: There is medical and forensic evidence supporting the victim's account that she was sexually assaulted by Strauss-Kahn, Thompson said.

1555 GMT: Thompson said the victim herself came forward voluntarily to talk about problems on her asylum application that are undermining her credibility.

1552 GMT: "The only defense that Dominique Strauss-Kahn has is that this sexual encounter was consensual. That is a lie," said Kenneth Thompson, attorney for the alleged victim, speaking outside the courthouse.

1549 GMT: A smiling Strauss-Kahn puts his arm around his wife's shoulder as the two leave the courthouse and walk to their car. One of his defense attorneys pats him on the back as the couple enters the car.

1543 GMT: Obus however did not return Strauss-Kahn's passport.

1542 GMT: Strauss-Kahn leaves the courtroom smiling with his wife Anne Sinclair.

1541 GMT: Obus releases Strauss-Kahn on his own recognizance, sets the next hearing for July 18.

1537 GMT: Judge Michael Obus arees there are "substantial changes, but the case is not over."

1535 GMT: Prosecutors agree to ease bail conditions against Strauss-Kahn, but say they will not dismiss the case.

1533 GMT: Prosecutors agree to lift Strauss-Kahn's bail.

1529 GMT: The judge and Strauss-Kahn arrive in the courtroom to start the hearing.

1525 GMT: Strauss-Kahn's lawyers enter the courtroom.

1523 GMT: The New York Times reports that prosecutors do not believe much of the version of events told by the Guinean-born chambermaid who claimed that Strauss-Kahn sexually assaulted and attempted to rape her in his luxury hotel suite in Manhattan on May 14. Although there was clear evidence of a sexual encounter, they suspect she had repeatedly lied to them.

1518 GMT: Reporters are allowed to enter the courtroom in groups of seven under the strict control of security officers.

1513 GMT: The victim's lawyer, Kenneth Thompson, takes his place in the courtroom.

1510 GMT: Strauss-Kahn is wearing a dark suit, a white shirt and a sky-blue tie, and appeared serious but confident.

1509 GMT: Prosecutors agreed to free Strauss-Kahn from house arrest and return his bail money after admitting the accuser had lied repeatedly, Bloomberg TV reports.

1508 GMT: About 100 journalists packed the viewer's gallery of Room 51, on the 13th floor of the courthouse in Manhattan, while a throng of television cameras and reporters clustered outside.

1503 GMT: The unscheduled hearing, set for 1530 GMT, will likely alter Strauss-Kahn's strict bail conditions, allowing him to travel freely within the United States. His lawyers were reportedly discussing a dismissal of the felony charges.

1455 GMT: Strauss-Kahn walks into a New York court for a special hearing in his sexual assault case, amid revelations that charges against him were unravelling on doubts about his accuser's credibility. He is accompanied by his wife, journalist Anne Sinclair.

Welcome to the AFP Live Report for Friday on a surprise US court hearing on the sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

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Bulger due in court in Mass. for 2 hearings (AP)

BOSTON – Reputed mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger is expected in court as he seeks a taxpayer-funded attorney and fights a move by prosecutors to dismiss an old racketeering indictment in favor of a later case charging him with participating in 19 murders.

Bulger has back-to-back hearings scheduled Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston. He was arrested last week in Santa Monica, Calif., after 16 years on the run.

His provisional attorney, Peter Krupp, is challenging an attempt by U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz to dismiss a 1994 indictment and focus on a more serious 1999 indictment. Krupp wants the two cases consolidated and has accused prosecutors of trying to judge shop by trying to drop the older case.

Prosecutors have objected to Bulger's request for a court-appointed attorney.

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"Whitey" Bulger heads back to court on attorney issue (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – James "Whitey" Bulger is expected to learn the fate of his request for a public defender on Thursday, when the former mob boss returns to federal court in Boston for two separate hearings.

Back-to-back court appearances, the first scheduled for 1 p.m. ET, should resolve the lingering issue of who will represent the aging gangster against charges that include racketeering and murder.

Bulger, 81, who had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and his longtime companion Catherine Greig, 60, were arrested in Santa Monica, California, on June 22 after being on the run together since 1995.

The arrests came after a tip from a member of the public, days after the FBI launched a new media campaign.

Bulger is the former leader of the notorious Winter Hill Gang, a mostly Irish-American organized crime operation based in Boston.

He had been sought by the authorities for 19 counts of murder committed in the 1970s and 1980s, many of them brutal slayings, and charges of drug dealing, extortion, money laundering and conspiracy.

Bulger and Greig had some $820,000 stashed in a wall in their California hide-out and according to prosecutors were able to finance a comfortable lifestyle replete with Las Vegas gambling trips and jaunts to Mexico to buy medications.

Bulger requested a court-appointed attorney on June 24 during his initial appearance in federal court in Boston, but prosecutors have been adamant his defense should not be at public expense.

Bulger's provisional attorney and prosecutors have also wrangled this week over the government's dismissal of a 1994 racketeering-focused indictment to concentrate resources on the stronger 1999 case that includes the multiple murder charges.

The defense moved instead to consolidate the two indictments, saying they are related and in some cases identical.

Both sides lobbed accusations of forum shopping -- an attempt to manipulate the random assignment of judges to the Bulger case or cases. A judge is expected to rule on this matter in a separate hearing.

(Reporting by Lauren Keiper; editing by Ros Krasny)

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Mob kingpin Bulger heads to court as questions swirl (Reuters)

BOSTON (Reuters) – Former mob boss James "Whitey" Bulger heads back to federal court in Boston on Tuesday as it emerged he visited Boston in disguise and heavily armed on several occasions while on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.

Tuesday's hearing, due to start at 2 p.m. local time, will focus on the issue of assigning legal counsel to Bulger, who has requested a court-appointed public defender.

Authorities are adamant that the former crime boss should not get counsel at public expense.

"He has every incentive to lie and stick the taxpayers with the bill for his defense," prosecutors said in a filing on Monday.

Bulger, 81, who had been on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and Catherine Greig were arrested at their rent-controlled apartment in Santa Monica, California, a few blocks from the ocean, on June 22 after being on the run together since 1995.

The pair had more than $820,000 in the hideout, much of it in $100 bills bundled together and stashed inside a wall.

Prosecutors have demanded that Bulger's family, including William "Billy Bulger," a former president of the Massachusetts State Senate, provide sworn affidavits about his financial position. Bulger said in a filing that he does not want help from his family to pay for his defense.

On Monday Greig, 60, hired Kevin Reddington, a well-known criminal defense attorney, to represent her. Greig has a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday.

At present Bulger is being held at the Plymouth County jail, south of Boston, where he is reportedly confined to his cell 23 hours a day. In the remaining hour Bulger can shower, exercise and make phone calls.

Prosecutors said in a filing on Monday that Bulger told FBI agents some details of his years running from the law -- and from 19 murder charges -- after his arrest.

"Bulger admitted traveling (in disguise) to Boston on several occasions while 'armed to the teeth' because he 'had to take care of some unfinished business,'" the filing said.

That comment begged the question of who among Bulger's circle -- family, friends and associates -- might have known about or helped facilitate those trips.

In the 1990s it emerged that Bulger had long been an FBI informant, tipping off a small band of corrupt federal agents about the activities of other Boston-area criminals.

In turn, those agents looked the other way at Bulger's organized crime enterprise, the violent Winter Hill Gang. Bulger is also charged with racketeering, money laundering and narcotics distribution, among other offenses.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny and Lauren Keiper in Boston, and Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington)

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Judge orders Lindsay Lohan back to court (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Lindsay Lohan, currently serving a home detention sentence, was ordered on Wednesday back to court on an allegation she violated her probation in a drunken driving case, a court official said.

The 24 year-old actress -- who is confined to her home on a separate sentence for stealing a necklace earlier this year -- is due in court on Thursday morning in Los Angeles, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the L.A. District Attorney's Office.

Gibbons said she did not know how Lohan allegedly violated her probation. But entertainment website Radar Online cited unnamed sources as saying Lohan tested positive for alcohol, which would violate her probation in the drunken driving case.

Lohan has been dogged by the 2007 drunk driving case for years and has served several stints in rehab and jail for violating her probation. A judge last year ordered Lohan to court for missing alcohol education classes, and she later went to a rehab center in southern California.

She was released from that facility in January and then landed in trouble, again, for stealing the necklace from a Los Angeles-area jewelry store.

Lohan was once considered one of Hollywood's most promising actresses, but her career has fallen on hard times due to her personal and legal troubles.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Lindsay Lohan back in court for probation hearing (AP)

By ANTHONY McCARTNEY, AP Entertainment Writer Anthony Mccartney, Ap Entertainment Writer – Thu Jun 23, 3:28 am ET

LOS ANGELES – It's back to court for Lindsay Lohan.

The troubled actress is due in a Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday so a judge can determine whether she violated the terms of her probation on a 2007 drunken driving case.

The district attorney's spokeswoman says her office hasn't yet received information on the potential violation by Lohan.

Sandi Gibbons says the issue relates to Lohan's DUI case and not a misdemeanor theft case the actress resolved with a no-contest plea in May.

The hearing comes as Lohan nears the end of what was expected to be a 35-day stint on house arrest for violating her probation by taking a necklace from a store without permission.

Lohan's spokesman, Steve Honig, declined to comment on what prompted the hearing.

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No automatic right to lawyer in US civil cases: court (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court ruled that states did not have an automatic duty to provide counsel in civil courts in the case of a divorced father who was jailed for failing to pay child support.

By a majority 5-4 vote, the justices found that while the South Carolina father's rights had been violated because he was not given free counsel, US states did not have to provide such advice in all civil contempt cases.

The case was being highly watched and had become emblematic of what civil rights groups have called a trend towards "debtors' prisons" in America.

In the case before the Supreme Court, Michael Turner had been ordered to pay $51.73 a week in child support. But he had regularly fallen behind, and spent short spells in prison.

On his fifth infraction, the South Carolina family court sentenced him to six months in jail. But on his release he was $5,728 in arrears, and was then sentenced to 12 months in jail.

Turner appealed arguing his constitutional rights had been violated as he had not been given access to free counsel -- as is normal in criminal cases -- to argue that he had been unable to pay the funds due during his jail term.

In Monday's majority decision, the court ruled that a constitutional amendment "does not automatically require the State to provide counsel at civil contempt proceedings to an indigent noncustodial parent who is subject to a child support order, even if that individual faces incarceration."

It found that such a requirement could put the other parent at a disadvantage if they could not afford a lawyer creating "an asymmetry of representation that would alter significantly the nature of the proceeding."

Instead, recognizing that ability to pay is key in many child support cases, it called on the government to ensure safeguards were put in place, to significantly reduce the risk of an erroneous deprivation of liberty."

The ruling triggered a sharp response from the Constitution Project, a bipartisan group working for reform of the justice system.

The ruling "undermines the fundamental fairness of our justice system, putting Americans in danger of losing their liberty simply because they cannot afford a lawyer," it said in a statement.

"Michael Turner was incarcerated for one year because of his failure to pay court-ordered child support. Although his inability to pay would have constituted a legal defense to incarceration, Mr. Turner was unable to prove his inability to pay to the court.

"With this decision, the Supreme Court has effectively endorsed the expansion of the unjust use of debtors' prisons in America," it added.

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