Dick Heller, the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court case, had challenged the new regulations, claiming the registration procedures, a ban on most semiautomatic weapons and other limitations violated the intent of the high court's decision.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo M. Urbina sided with the city, saying the Supreme Court decision did not ban reasonable limits on gun ownership designed to promote public safety.

"While the (Supreme) Court recognized that the Second Amendment protects a natural right of an individual to keep and bear arms in the home in defense of self, family and property, it cautioned that that right is not unlimited," he wrote.

The decision by Urbina, who was appointed by former President Bill Clinton, moves the case along what is likely to be a lengthy path through the legal system.

"We fully expect to go the Court of Appeals," said Heller's lawyer Richard E. Gardiner.

The RNC plans to ask the court to overturn a ruling Friday rejecting its bid to raise unlimited donations.

A three-judge federal court panel in Washington said it lacked the authority to overturn a 2003 Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on the raising of "soft" money — unlimited donations from corporations, unions and others — by the national parties. The ban is a cornerstone of the so-called McCain-Feingold law.

The RNC argues it should be able to raise soft money for state races and other activities it says have nothing to do with federal elections. The Federal Election Commission says the ban should stand.

About a dozen banks and financial firms must defend allegations of bid rigging, limited competition and price fixing in the municipal derivatives market, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Victor Morrero's written order said the defendants, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, UBS AG, Morgan Stanley and others, should prepare for a pretrial conference on April 30.

The case is In Re Municipal Derivatives Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 08-2516.

In 2006, the U.S. Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission launched a sweeping investigation into how the derivatives, known as guaranteed investment contracts, had been priced.

Municipal bond issuers had frequently parked their proceeds from debt sales by buying these contracts, which generate income, until they needed to spend the money.

While the investigation cooled down by early 2009, with information occasionally trickling out in the banks' and insurance companies' SEC filings, it has heated back up in the last few months. At the same time, a number of counties and cities have moved to sue the companies involved.

As lawsuits over Toyota acceleration problems multiply nationwide, more than 150 attorneys gathered Wednesday to sharpen their legal skills on the eve of a major federal court hearing on whether dozens of cases will be consolidated before a single judge.

The main topic at the conference, organized by legal publisher HarrisMartin, was today's scheduled hearing before a panel of federal judges in San Diego who will choose whether to combine more than 100 Toyota lawsuits and where to send them.

Lawyers for people suing Toyota and the company itself have suggested 19 jurisdictions, according to court documents. But the panel is not required to pick from that list.

"You have consumers that have been affected in every state," said Howard Bushman, a Miami attorney whose recent cases included a $24 million settlement for AIDS patients who paid for a drug they didn't need.

Toyota has been hit with an avalanche of lawsuits that could cost it billions of dollars after its recall of 8 million vehicles worldwide, including about 6 million in the U.S., over sudden unexpected acceleration. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has linked 52 deaths to the accelerator problems, which Toyota has blamed on floor mats that can snag accelerator pedals or on pedals that sometimes stick.

The McLane Law Firm with offices in Manchester, Portsmouth, and Concord, and Woburn, Mass., announced that the firm has absorbed the Colucci Norman Law Firm, of Beverly, Mass.

John Colucci, William Norman, Larry Plavnik, all corporate lawyers and Andrew Botti, a litigator, join McLane's business-focused firm of more than 90 attorneys, 44 of whom actively serve Massachusetts businesses in some capacity.

The addition of these attorneys and associate support staff necessitates the second office space expansion within a year at the TradeCenter, McLane's fourth location.

Days after Florida Republicans assaulted President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, the state's Democrats launched a political counter-attack Thursday aimed squarely at the GOP's front-runner for governor: Attorney General Bill McCollum.

First, Senate Democrats tried legislative tactics to slow down McCollum's lawsuit filed Tuesday against the national healthcare law. Then, House and Senate Democrats called on Republican legislative leaders to audit McCollum's office to examine its use of staff time.

And capping it all: A Washington Democratic leader accused McCollum of skirting state law by failing to go through the proper channels before filing his lawsuit, a charge McCollum denied.

Though the efforts to audit McCollum and stop the suit failed Thursday, the Democrats' onslaught signaled the heightened sense of partisanship in an election-year legislative session.

Leading the anti-McCollum charge: Sen. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat running for attorney general who said the incumbent's ``frivolous'' lawsuit is an ``ideological escapade'' that won't survive in the courts. ``This is nothing other than a political frolic,'' he said. ``We have incredible challenges in our state. . . . We want our chief law-enforcement officer spending his time protecting our citizens.''