The lengthy legal tussle between America’s Cup sailing teams BMW Oracle Racing and Alinghi over who has the right to challenge Alinghi for the next Cup appears to have taken a decisive tack in BMW Oracle's favor.

On Thursday, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled that BMW Oracle, the American-based syndicate that represents Golden Gate Yacht Club in San Francisco, should be restored as challenger of record for the oldest major trophy in international sport.

The verdict, a unanimous 6-0 decision, overturned a ruling last year that would have allowed the Spanish-based Club Nautico Español de Vela, or CNEV, to remain Alinghi's primary challenger.

The decision opens the way for an unconventional Cup at some stage in the next year in which BMW Oracle and Alinghi could face each other in a best-of-three regatta in massive, new-age catamarans. But there is also the possibility that Alinghi’s owner, Ernesto Bertarelli, and Larry Ellison, his counterpart at BMW Oracle, could, with the legal situation resolved, resume negotiations and agree on terms for a conventional multi-challenger regatta to be staged in 2010 or 2011.

Reached by e-mail, Bertarelli initially declined to comment. In an interview in December prior to the verdict, he indicated that he was unlikely to pursue further legal action if this appeal — in New York’s highest court — went against his team.

Jane Eagleson, a spokeswoman for BMW Oracle, said, “We’re obviously pleased with the court decision today, and we’re carefully studying the decision and expect to have further comment in the next few days.”

Rapprochement has proved elusive between Bertarelli and Ellison, both of whom sail on their yachts during competition. They were once on friendly terms but have been transformed into bitter rivals off the water by the 21-month dispute over the terms of the next Cup. The court battle has forced other would-be challengers to disband or drastically reduce their payrolls while they waited for clarity.

In its decision, the court upheld a 2007 district court judge's ruling that the law violates the state constitution. It strikes the language from Iowa code limiting marriage to only between a man a woman.

"The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa constitution must be declared void even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion," said a summary of the ruling issued by the court.

The ruling set off celebration among the state's gay-marriage proponents.

"Iowa is about justice, and that's what happened here today," said Laura Fefchak, who was hosting a verdict party in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale with partner of 13 years, Nancy Robinson.

Papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in the civil case against Madoff, 70, asked a judge to include personal assets among those of his firm being gathered under the auspices of a bankruptcy court to pay back fraud victims.

A court-appointed trustee is winding down Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC to find assets to sell to return money to thousands of his former customers. But there is no trustee of personal assets of the man who pleaded guilty on March 12 to running Wall Street's biggest investment fraud.

"The recovery of Madoff's assets which may have been been transferred to family members or third parties may be more easily recovered in a bankruptcy proceeding for Madoff himself, rather than less directly in the bankruptcy case of the Madoff securities firm," said Jonathan Landers, a lawyer for scores of Madoff customers represented by Milberg LLP and Seeger Weiss LLP, which filed the request.

Douglas S. Chanthabouly had been charged with first-degree murder but a Pierce County Superior Court jury convicted him of second-degree murder. He had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Chanthabouly faces about 15 to 30 years in prison for the shooting of Samnang Kok, 17, in a hallway at Foss High School on Jan. 3, 2007. If he had been acquitted by reason of insanity, he would have been committed indefinitely to a state mental institution. Sentencing was set for May 1.

"We're disappointed and expect that we'll be filing an appeal," court-appointed defense lawyer John A. McNeish said, declining to specify grounds for an appeal.

Prosecutor Ed Murphy said he did not know the split among jurors on the charge of first-degree murder, which requires a finding of premeditation.

"I think it was a difficult issue for the jury," Murphy said.

During the trial, witnesses testified that Chanthabouly pointed a handgun at Kok and fired a shot into his face and two more rounds into his body from no more than a foot away.

_ Ruled for employers who want to force unionized workers to pursue their age discrimination claims through arbitration instead of a federal lawsuit. The court, in a 5-4 decision, said an arbitration agreement negotiated between an employer and a union that strips them of their option to take complaints to court is binding on workers. The dissenting justices said the high court in the past ruled that unions cannot bargain away employees' federal forum rights in discrimination cases.

_ Said the federal government should pay federally appointed lawyers for working on state clemency requests for death row inmates. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati had said that the law does not allow federal public defenders to be paid for working on state clemency requests. The high court disagreed and reversed that decision on a 7-2 vote.

_ Ruled that the government may consider cost in deciding whether to order power plants to undertake environmental upgrades that would protect fish. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said that the Clean Water Act does not allow cost to be used when deciding what technology would best minimize environmental impacts. But Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for a 6-3 majority, said even the appeals court and environmentalists "concede that some form of cost-benefit analysis is permitted."

The order by Connecticut Superior Court Judge Arthur Hiller, issued Monday and made public Tuesday, prohibits them from selling homes or moving money, and marks the first time their assets have been frozen.

"This is an important step," said David Golub, a lawyer representing the town of Fairfield, Connecticut, in a lawsuit against Madoff and the so-called feeder funds run by Tremont Group Holdings, Maxam Capital Management and Fairfield Greenwich Group.

The town's pension funds charged in a lawsuit that the funds "knew -- or willfully refused to know -- that Madoff's investment returns were not actually produced by his purported split-strike conversion strategy."

Separately, a judge in New York denied an appeal by Madoff's brother, Peter, to lift a freeze on his assets in a civil lawsuit. Peter Madoff had reached an agreement with U.S. authorities in December on an asset freeze, according to court papers.