A federal appeals court overturned Washington state's ban on voting by convicted felons Tuesday in a ruling that could extend ballots to prisoners in other states where studies showed racial bias in the criminal justice system.

In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said the Washington law violates the federal Voting Rights Act because evidence showed discrimination against minorities at every level of the state's legal system: arrest, bail, prosecution and sentencing.

If the ruling survives, it will be binding in the circuit's other eight states, including California, which denies voting rights to 283,000 convicted felons in prison or on parole, according to a report from the nonprofit Sentencing Project.

About 114,000 are African Americans, who are disenfranchised at seven times the rate of the general population, the report said.

Among those in Washington state who commit crimes, "minorities are more likely than whites to be searched, arrested, detained and ultimately prosecuted," Judge A. Wallace Tashima said in the appeals court's majority opinion.

For example, he said, studies showed that African Americans in Washington were more than nine times as likely to be in prison as whites and 70 percent more likely to be searched, even though a study of one police department found that officers were more likely to find contraband when searching whites.

Findings were similar for Latinos and Native Americans, none of which could be explained by differences in crime rates, Tashima said.

The Voting Rights Act "demands that such racial discrimination not spread to the ballot box," he said.

Dissenting Judge Margaret McKeown said the court should have told a trial judge to reconsider the Washington law based on an amendment last year that made it easier for paroled felons to vote.

The American Trucking Associations filed its final response brief with the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking a summary judgment in its challenge to certain aspects of the Port of Los Angeles clean-truck concession requirements.

ATA charges that certain aspects of the port’s concession requirements violate the federal pre-emption provision that bars state and local entities from regulating motor carrier rates, routes and services.

The Port of Los Angeles is attempting to use its concession requirements to revoke a motor carrier’s authority to provide drayage service in the harbor, ATA stated. ATA also noted that the neighboring Port of Long Beach resolved this issue by replacing its clean-truck plan’s concession requirements with a registration agreement.

The U.S. District Court is scheduled to hear the ATA motion and the port’s cross motion for summary judgment on Jan. 11, with a decision expected shortly thereafter. A trial is scheduled for mid-March.

The state Supreme Court is considering changing Indiana's rules governing advertising by attorneys.

State Trial Court Services Director Tom Carusillo says many of the proposed changes are designed to clarify the rules' language or update the rules to fit modern communications technologies such as the Internet.

He says one proposed change would broaden a rule to allow more attorneys to advertise as specialists if they are certified in a particular field of law.

The Supreme Court's rules committee will be accepting comments on the proposed changes from judges, lawyers and the public until March 1.

A 25-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to setting a fire at a western Massachusetts home that killed two of his neighbors. It was one of nine fires set within hours of one another in the community of Northampton.

Anthony P. Baye was ordered held without bail Tuesday at his arraignment on two counts of murder, arson and armed burglary in Northampton District Court. He has not been charged with the other fires.

Prosecutors said in court that Baye was caught on surveillance video in the area the night of the fires. They said that proves his alibi — that he was visiting his girlfriend — was a lie.

The Dec. 27 blaze killed 81-year-old Paul Yeskie Sr. and his 39-year-old son, Paul Yeskie Jr.

Baye lives in the Yeskies' neighborhood. A woman who answered the phone at the Baye home Tuesday declined to comment.

Rejecting Zacarias Moussaoui’s arguments, federal appeals court Monday upheld Moussaoui’s conviction and prison term.

Roman Polanski will be returning to the courtroom for an overdue hearing for his criminal case later this week. The case could be resolved quickly, the appeals court has suggested, if Roman’s attorneys agree to sentencing in absentia — without Roman physically in court — or Roman drops his opposition to being extradited to the United States. Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said Judge Peter Espinoza will hold a hearing for Roman’s case on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.

Roman is currently under house arrest at his Swiss chalet after he was arrested in late September on a fugitive warrant.

He was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl during a 1977 modeling shoot and was indicted on six felony counts and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse. Roman fled to France the day before his sentencing in 1978 after spending 42 days in a California prison for psychiatric evaluation.