Cynthia Holcomb Hall, a federal appeals court judge whose rulings frequently took a conservative view, has died in Pasadena. She was 82.
The Los Angeles Times says Hall died Saturday at her home from cancer.

Hall was appointed to the U.S. Tax Court in 1972. In the 1980s, she was appointed to the U.S. District Court and then to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Though semi-retired in 1997, she continued to hear some cases.

Hall often took a conservative tack. She dissented in 2003 when the court majority reinstated a lawsuit against gun manufacturers in a Los Angeles hate crime.

However, she voted with the majority in a 2006 ruling that upheld the right of an Alaskan high schooler to display a banner reading: "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

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The Supreme Court said Tuesday that a court for veterans shouldn't rigidly enforce deadlines on military vets who suffer from mental illnesses.

The high court ruled that Doretha H. Henderson, wife of the late David Henderson, can continue his appeal after he was denied benefits.

Henderson's husband was discharged from the armed forces in 1952 after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. He asked the Veterans Affairs Department for home care in 2001 and was denied. He missed a 120-day deadline for appeal to a veterans court by 15 days, blaming it on his illness.

The veterans court and a federal appeals court agreed that his case was over because Henderson missed the deadline.

Henderson died last Oct. 24, and his wife has taken up his case, arguing that Congress meant the benefits system to be helpful to veterans and their benefits claims.

A second Senate committee has endorsed adding an intermediate appeals court to West Virginia's judicial system.

The three-judge court would hear both criminal and civil cases under the version advanced Monday by the Senate Finance Committee. It heads to the full Senate.

The court would handle appeals filed with the state Supreme Court that the justices decide not to consider. Its decisions would set legal precedent and could be appealed to the Supreme Court.

The governor would appoint the three judges, nominated by a selection committee.

A commission that studied West Virginia's judiciary recommended an intermediate appeals court in 2009. Critics question the potential cost, and also cite how the Supreme Court revamped its appeals process last year.

A German court says John Demjanjuk's defense attorney may only file new motions in written form after a flood of requests slowed his trial to a crawl.

Ninety-year-old retired Ohio autoworker Demjanjuk is accused of 28,060 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he was a guard at the Nazi Sobibor death camp in occupied Poland. He rejects the charges, saying he never served the Nazis in any camp.

Presiding Judge Ralph Alt on Tuesday noted that defense attorney Ulrich Busch read aloud 130 motions in the previous two court sessions. He says many repeated points were already decided and lacked "structured summaries."

He says Busch can continue to file motions, but the court will only accept them in writing.