Former Attorney General John Ashcroft has asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling that he can be held personally responsible for wrongfully detaining people as material witnesses after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Abdullah al-Kidd, a U.S. citizen, sued Ashcroft and other federal officials after he was arrested and jailed as a material witness in a terrorism case against another man.

Al-Kidd was never called to testify at the trial and said the government violated people's civil rights by using the material witness statute to preventively detain people.

Only the portion of the lawsuit against Ashcroft is on appeal. The rest of the case is pending in U.S. District Court in Boise.

Ashcroft appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after a lower court said the former attorney general could be held personally responsible if al-Kidd proves Ashcroft created a policy of detaining people with suspected terrorist ties without probable cause.

Booksellers, video game dealers, newspaper publishers and other critics of an online child protection law encountered skepticism from state Supreme Court justices Tuesday for their free-speech arguments.

A coalition led by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression has challenged laws throughout the country aimed at protecting children from online pornography and predators that they claim jeopardize protected speech among adults that might be linked to private chat rooms, listservs or e-mail.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in Cincinnati has asked justices to resolve two key legal questions before moving forward on the Ohio lawsuit. The questions involve what is meant by the technical terms contained in the law: "mass distribution" and "personally directed devices."

Ohio Solicitor General Ben Mizer said the state law on distributing material harmful to minors was revised in 2004 to apply only to one-on-one communications by adults knowingly targeting kids. At issue Tuesday before the court was that rewrite.

Kuwait's highest court granted women the right to obtain a passport without their husband's approval, the case's lawyer said Wednesday, in the latest stride for women's rights in this small oil-rich emirate.

Unlike with highly conservative neighbors like Saudi Arabia, women in Kuwait can vote, serve in parliament and drive — and now can obtain their own passports.

In many countries in the region, women cannot travel or obtain a passport without the consent of their male guardian.

Attorney Adel Qurban, whose case the court was ruling on, said the landmark decision "freed" Kuwaiti women from the 1962 law requiring their husband's signature to obtain a passport.

His client, Fatima al-Baghli, is one of thousands of women who have been petitioning courts for this right.

The court found the article in the decades-old law "unconstitutional" because it goes against the principal of equal rights for men and women.

A Northern California man accused of sending threatening e-mails to President Barack Obama and other officials has pleaded not guilty to federal charges.

Federal authorities say 59-year-old John Gimbel of Crescent City sent a new batch of messages on Sept. 28 after previously being warned to stop. Authorities say the e-mails contained racist, profane language and included threats to the first lady.

Gimbel was arrested Oct. 6 by the U.S. Secret Service and was indicted before Obama appeared in San Francisco on Thursday for a fundraiser.

Randall Davis, Gimbel's former attorney, says Gimbel argues he was exercising his free speech rights.

On Monday, a federal public defender was appointed to the case, which has been transferred to San Francisco.

The central figure in a huge New Jersey corruption investigation pleaded guilty to federal bank fraud and money laundering charges Tuesday.

Solomon Dwek's work for the government as a cooperating witness directly led to the arrests of 44 people in July, but it was his turn in court Tuesday.

Wearing a dark suit and light blue tie, the 37-year-old Dwek stood before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares and admitted his role in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud scheme in 2006. He acknowledged depositing two $25 million checks drawn on a closed account and using them to make wire transfers to separate banks totaling nearly $23 million.

Bank fraud carries a maximum prison sentence of 30 years, and the maximum for money laundering is 10 years, but Dwek would face nine to 11 years under federal sentencing guidelines. Linares can adjust that range up or down when he sentences Dwek on Feb. 9, and the U.S. attorney's office said it may recommend a lighter sentence based on Dwek's ongoing cooperation.

Former U.S. District Judge Brian Sandoval has joined the Nevada law firm of Jones Vargas.

Sandoval, a Republican, resigned from the bench last month to launch a campaign for governor.

He said he will focus on building an alternative dispute resolution practice for the firm, one of the state's largest with significant lobbying presence in Carson City.
Sandoval said he isn't worried about a conflict of interest.

"I know there's a government relations department in the firm, but I will be completely independent of that as well," Sandoval said. "I'll have zero involvement with them."

Sandoval becomes one of two gubernatorial candidates working for law firms that are major lobbyists. Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, a Democrat, is a shareholder in Lionel Sawyer and Collins.

Sandoval is a former Nevada attorney general, assemblyman and chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.