The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of the families in Pulaski County Circuit Court seeking to overturn Act 1, which was approved by voters in last month's general election.

"Act 1 violates the state's legal duty to place the best interest of children above all else," said Marie-Bernarde Miller, a Little Rock attorney in the lawsuit.

The group filed the lawsuit on behalf of 29 adults and children from more than a dozen families, including a grandmother who lives with her same-sex partner of nine years and is the only relative able and willing to adopt her grandchild, who is now in Arkansas state care.

The plaintiffs also include Stephanie Huffman and Wendy Rickman, a lesbian couple raising two sons together who want to adopt a foster child from the state.

The 5-year-old kindergarten student in Hyannis, Mass., told her parents that in 2000 a third-grade boy repeatedly made her lift her dress, pull down her underwear and spread her legs.

Local police and the school system investigated, but found insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges or definitively sort out the story, according to court records. The district refused to assign the boy to another bus or put a monitor on the bus, records show.

Upset with the school district's response, parents Lisa and Robert Fitzgerald sued the district in federal court under both Title IX, which bars sex discrimination at schools that receive federal money, and a provision of a Civil War era, anti-discrimination law that was designed to enforce the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.

The issue for the court is whether Title IX, enacted in 1972, rules out suits under the older provision.

A federal judge ruled that the Fitzgeralds could not sue under the older law because Congress had subsequently passed Title IX. The Fitzgeralds also lost on their Title IX claims. The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling.

The justices appeared skeptical of the idea that Congress, in legislation expanding protection from discrimination, would cut back on the ability to sue for violations of constitutional rights. But they also wondered whether the Fitzgeralds ultimately would win their lawsuit.

The FCC this week appealed a ruling by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, saying that court was wrong to throw out the case and a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp. in July.

The appellate court cited the FCC practice of not considering objectionable images indecent if they are "fleeting."

In Jackson's halftime show at the 2004 Super Bowl, which spawned the case, she briefly flashed a breast as she performed with Justin Timberlake.

The FCC said the court incorrectly applied a rule — since changed — regarding expletives that required a profanity be repeated before it is deemed indecent. The FCC contends the rule didn't apply to images.

Reaction to the appeal was swift from the Media Access Project, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the appellate court on behalf of a group of TV writers, directors and producers.

"The impact of the FCC's decision on the creative process is very profound," said the group's chief executive, Andrew Jay Schwartzman. "The FCC's decisions in this area have made it very difficult for creative artists to exercise their craft."

At the time, broadcasters did not employ a video delay for live events, a practice that changed within a week of the game.

The FCC also has an appeal pending before the U.S. Supreme Court in a New York case involving profanity uttered by Cher during a December 2002 music awards show and by Nicole Richie during a December 2003 awards show, both carried on Fox stations.

The agency has asked the court to rule in that earlier case before taking on the Jackson incident.

Louis Bressler, 25, was convicted Wednesday in connection with the Dec. 1 death of Kevin Shields. He could be sentenced to as many as 24 years in prison and is to stand trial next month in the slaying of another soldier.

Jurors acquitted Bressler of first-degree murder after deliberation, first-degree murder in furtherance of a felony and aggravated robbery.

Bressler's lawyer argued that no physical evidence linked him to Shields' slaying and that two co-defendants, also Iraq war vets, conspired to frame him. The co-defendants have reached plea agreements in Shields' slaying and are serving prison terms.

Bressler is one of at least five Fort Carson soldiers who served in Iraq with the 4th Brigade Combat Team and who later were accused of various slayings at home over the past 15 months. A sixth team veteran faces attempted murder charges. An Army task force is investigating whether there are any common factors in the slayings.

Prosecutors said Bressler killed Shields because Shields knew too much about robberies that Bressler and fellow veterans Bruce Bastien Jr. and Kenneth Eastridge planned to commit. They also said Shields had beaten Bressler in a fight before the slaying. All four had been drinking heavily.

Shields' family said he was out celebrating both his birthday and news that his wife was pregnant with their second child.

The prosecution's case suffered a blow when co-defendant Bastien refused to testify against Bressler, in violation of his plea agreement. El Paso County District Judge Theresa Cisneros refused a request by Deputy District Attorney Jack Roth that Bastien be compelled to testify.

Former state Sen. Wayne Bryant was found guilty on all 12 counts alleging he took a "low-show" job at a branch of the scandal-ridden University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey as a bribe for directing state money to the institution.

Later, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said Bryant was more brazen than other elected officials on the take.

"He stole in plain sight," Christie said of the Democrat who was one of the state's most powerful politicians. "He thumbs his nose at the public."

The scam was uncovered by a federal monitor assigned to investigate UMDNJ after it was discovered that UMDNJ double-billed for services covered by Medicare.

Prosecutors said Bryant had almost no legitimate responsibilities at UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, which is in the southern New Jersey legislative district he represented.

Witnesses testified that he showed up on some Tuesday mornings and was seen reading the newspaper and talking on the phone in his office — but doing no other work.

But between 2003 and 2006 — when he worked for the school — officials said he boosted its funding from the state by at least $10.5 million.

Michael Gallagher, the dean who hired Bryant for the $35,000-a-year job at the school, was also convicted on one bribery charge and five mail fraud charges. He was acquitted on one mail fraud charge. His lawyers, Ralph Jacobs and Jeremy Frey, said they expected to appeal.

Bryant was also convicted of boosting his pension by taking another public-sector job at the Gloucester County Board of Social Services. Associates at his law firm did thousands of hours of work there, but he received pension credit for it, authorities said.

The five charges dealing with the pension were more complicated because there is no law against New Jersey elected officials holding other public-sector jobs or getting pension credit for work done by subordinates.

The city temporarily shut down performances of "Naked Boys Singing!" in August 2005 while it considered the Milwaukee Gay Arts Center's application for a theater permit. The group later received a permit and reopened the show.

Larry Dupuis, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, which is handling the case, said the city's enforcement seemed unusually zealous, even given the musical's content.

"I think the title made it kind of controversial," Dupuis said. "But of course, `The Full Monty' has nudity in it, and that doesn't get it threats to shut it down."

The lawsuit, filed Monday, says the city ordinance is unconstitutional because it gives officials "unbridled discretion" over when permits must be obtained and how applications will be handled. It also says the law could be used to restrict certain viewpoints.

Eileen Force, a spokeswoman for Mayor Tom Barrett, declined to comment on the lawsuit, and a call to the office of City Attorney Grant Langley rang unanswered Monday afternoon.

Dupuis said few, if any, other nonprofit theater groups have been required to get permits from the city.