A North Carolina judge has struck down a 98-year-old state ban on public profanity.

Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour dismissed a misdemeanor charge against Chapel Hill resident Samantha Elabanjo on Wednesday. She had been convicted in July of using the word "damn" during a confrontation with police officers.

Baddour ruled the law against indecent or profane language within earshot of two or more people on any public road in North Carolina was unconstitutionally vague.

The case started Feb. 15 when Elabanjo stepped into the road as a police cruiser drove by. The two officers asked her to get back on the sidewalk. She did, but said: "You need to clean up your damn, dirty car" while still in the road. She then called the officers a vulgar name and she was arrested.

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 state appeals court has overturned the conviction of a man found guilty of raping his underage sister-in-law in Queens.

Luis Gomez has served nearly four years of a nine-year prison term for rape, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

The four-judge panel said the trial judge should have let jurors hear the testimony of a married couple who said the girl told them she made up the story.

Gomez was convicted of sexually abusing the girl for five years, starting when she was 9. Prosecutors say they intend to retry Gomez.

A Florida grandmother injured in a fall aboard the Battleship New Jersey cannot sue its operators for damages, an appellate court has ruled.

The panel said the Home Port Alliance – which runs the ship as a museum and memorial on the Camden waterfront – has charitable immunity as a nonprofit educational facility. That protects charities from lawsuits when the injured person benefits “to whatever degree” from the nonprofit’s activities.

Patricia Zavilla broke her right knee when she fell on some stairs while touring the ship with her husband and young grandson in April 2008.

Zavilla claimed she was there only as a tourist and wasn’t part of the community that benefits from the group’s charitable work since she lives out of state.

The court, however, found Zavilla was giving a self-guided tour that “advanced (the Alliance’s) goal” of educating the public about the battleship’s history.

The Nebraska Supreme Court has reinstated a lawsuit against an attorney that was filed by a former client convicted of securities fraud.

Bryan Behrens had sought to sue Christian Blunk for more than $8 million due to Behrens client-investors. In court filings, Behrens says Blunk gave him bad advice and was to blame for the securities fraud. But a Douglas County district judge dismissed the case in March, because Behrens had sought Fifth Amendment protection from self-incrimination.

In the opinion issued Thursday, the high court says the judge was wrong to throw out the lawsuit and should have delayed the case until after Behrens' criminal trial.

Behrens, of Omaha, pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was ordered to spend five years in prison and repay his victims.

A subway driver who authorities say was texting his girlfriend just before his trolley slammed into the back of another one near an underground station, injuring more than 60 people, pleaded guilty Wednesday and was sentenced to probation.

Aiden Quinn appeared in Suffolk Superior Court to plead guilty to gross negligence by a person in control of a common carrier. Judge Carol Ball sentenced him to two years probation and 100 hours of community service.

Quinn admitted typing a text message to his girlfriend just before the May 2009 rush-hour crash at the Government Center subway stop, prosecutors said. He ran through yellow and red warning lights and into the two-car train ahead of his. He was later fired.

Assistant District Attorney Paul Treseler asked Ball to sentence Quinn to six months in jail followed by probation, pointing to the injuries and cost of the accident.

Treseler said approximately 65 riders on the two trains sought medical care for injuries ranging from bumps and bruises to broken bones.