The Federal Communications Commission cannot fine broadcasters for showing a woman's nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of "NYPD Blue," a federal court ruled Tuesday, citing its earlier decision to strike down FCC (News - Alert) rules regarding fleeting expletives uttered on live broadcasts as unconstitutionally vague.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan decided Tuesday to nullify a $27,500 penalty that the FCC imposed on ABC and 45 of its affiliate stations after the image was broadcast on the police drama for less than seven seconds in February 2003. The combined fine was greater than $1.2 million.

The appeals court said its finding was consistent with its decision last year that TV stations can no longer be fined for fleeting, unscripted profanities uttered during live broadcasts.

The FCC had created its fleeting–expletive policy after a January 2003 NBC broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards in which U2 lead singer Bono uttered the phrase "f****** brilliant." The FCC said that word in any context "inherently has a sexual connotation" and can lead to enforcement.

Fox Television Stations, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and other networks challenged the policy in 2006 after the FCC cited the use of profanity during awards programs that were aired in 2002 and 2003. The FCC has appealed that ruling.

In its Tuesday ruling, a three–judge 2nd Circuit panel wrote that there was "no significant distinction" between its decision in the expletives case and its findings in the "NYPD Blue" case.

North Dakota Rep. Earl Pomeroy, who was defeated in his campaign for a 10th term, said he will join a Washington, D.C., law firm next week as an attorney and adviser on health policy.

Alston & Bird, which has more than 800 lawyers, said Tuesday it had hired the veteran Democrat and his House chief of staff, Bob Siggins, to work for its health care group.

Federal law bars Pomeroy from lobbying Congress for a year. Pomeroy said he may do lobbying work once the prohibition is lifted.

He said he doesn't believe he will be asked to advocate policies he opposed as a member of Congress or to represent clients who worked to turn him out of office. Republican Rick Berg, a Fargo property developer and former North Dakota state legislator, defeated Pomeroy in November.

"I want the work that I do in health policy to be consistent with trying to make a better health care system," Pomeroy said. "I have received assurances from the firm that I won't be asked to work on something that I fundamentally don't agree with. . No, I don't intend to sell out."

Pomeroy, who was North Dakota's insurance commissioner for eight years before being elected to the U.S. House in 1992, said he was hired because of his knowledge of insurance, health policy and the workings of Congress.

The Navajo Nation’s high court has banned elected tribal officials from doling out public money until the tribe establishes rules on their financial aid program.

The court made the decision this week in a case that challenged the reduction of the Tribal Council from 88 members to 24.

Tribal lawmakers set aside $150,000 in public money to mount the challenge. The Supreme Court justices said the appropriation was unlawful and that tribal officials failed to adequately review it.

Some lawmakers have been criticized for discretionary spending. All but 11 of the 88 lawmakers and the incoming tribal president were charged in a probe of the spending.

One of the cases has been dismissed, but a judge hasn’t ruled on whether it can be refiled.

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has ruled that a strip search of a male inmate by a female guard was unconstitutional.

In a 6-5 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday said the search of the inmate Charles Byrd at a minimum-security jail in Maricopa County, Ariz., in 2004 was a "humiliating event" that violated his rights.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a three-judge appeals court panel ordered Byrd's civil rights lawsuit dismissed in 2009.

In its ruling Wednesday, the court determined that cross-gender searches of intimate areas violate the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches.

Family members of imprisoned former Illinois Gov. George Ryan have gathered at the hospital bedside of his gravely ill wife while waiting for a federal appeals court to decide whether he should be allowed to join them.

Ryan's attorneys filed an emergency motion Wednesday asking that the 76-year-old former governor be let out of prison during daytime hours so he can be with his wife of 55 years, who they said was in intensive care suffering complications from chemotherapy.

One of Ryan's attorneys, former Gov. James Thompson, told The Associated Press that Lura Lynn Ryan's family was called to her side Wednesday morning. Family members did not address reporters who congregated outside Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee.

"Doctors have told the family that they have to go hour by hour," Thompson said.

An emergency motion filed with the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago says Ryan's wife went into septic shock, a complication of her treatment for what the motion describes as incurable cancer of the lungs, back, pelvis, ribs and liver.

The California Supreme Court ruled in San Francisco on Monday that police are entitled to search text messages on the cell phones of arrestees without obtaining a warrant.

The court, ruling in a Ventura County case, said by a 5-2 vote that warrantless searches of text messages are permitted under precedents set by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The panel upheld the drug conviction of Gregory Diaz, who was arrested for aiding in selling Ecstasy to a police informant during an undercover sting operation. 

Sheriff’s deputies seized Diaz’s cell phone along with six tabs of Ecstasy. One and one-half hours later, a detective, who did not have a search warrant, looked in the text message folder of the phone and discovered a coded message that referred to Ecstasy sales.

When confronted with the message, Diaz admitted to participating in the deal. He later pleaded guilty to transporting a controlled substance and was sentenced to probation, but he reserved his right to appeal the use of evidence from the text message.

The state high court majority said the search was permitted under U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have allowed warrantless searches of personal property such as clothing or a cigarette package that are “immediately associated” with a person who is arrested.