At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Judge Andre Davis, a U.S. district judge in Baltimore, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., pointedly read from a 2005 private opinion sent to the judge by the federal judiciary's Codes of Conduct Committee. Obama has nominated Davis to serve on the Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The conduct committee told Davis that his service as a board member of the Montana-based Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment, or FREE, violated judicial conduct codes, and Davis quickly quit the board.

But Feingold, long a stickler for judicial ethics, asked Davis about his initial contention, in a 2005 letter to the conduct committee, that there was no difference between his participation in the group's seminars and his decision to join the board.

"It seems pretty clear to me that joining the board of an organization like FREE is actually a much more significant indication of your involvement with the organization and poses, in my mind, very different ethical questions," Feingold said. He asked Davis if he still didn't see the distinction.

"I absolutely see the difference now, Senator," Davis replied. "I did not see it back in spring of 2004, when I was invited and agreed to join the board."

America's Cup champion Alinghi of Switzerland is being ordered to tell a New York court why it should not be held in contempt for refusing to comply with an order that its one-on-one showdown against American crew BMW Oracle Racing be held in February.

The Supreme Court of the State of New York, acting on a request by San Francisco's Golden Gate Yacht Club, scheduled a hearing for May 14.

This is the latest twist in a bitter fight between billionaires that has delayed a conventional, multichallenger America's Cup and led to a rare showdown between Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing.

Alinghi has said it is preparing to hold the best-of-three series for the oldest trophy in international sports beginning in May 2010.

But the court, in a 5-4 decision Tuesday, is refusing to pass judgment on whether the Federal Communications Commission's "fleeting expletives" policy is in line with First Amendment guarantees of free speech. The justices say a federal appeals court should weigh the constitutionality of the policy.

The decision throws out a ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The appeals court had found in favor of a Fox Television-led challenge to the policy and had returned the case to the FCC to let the agency provide a "reasoned analysis" for its tougher line on indecency.

The commission appealed to the Supreme Court instead.

President Barack Obama won more than 48 percent of the vote in November in this overwhelmingly white community northwest of the state capital.

Yet Canyon Creek, the heart of Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One, is the site of a major Supreme Court battle over the federal government's often used and most effective tool in preventing voting discrimination against minorities.

The utility district's elected five-person board manages a local park and pays down bond debt. Because it is in Texas, the board is covered by a section of the Voting Rights Act that requires approval from the Justice Department before any changes can be made in how elections are conducted.

That requirement applies to all or parts of 16 states, mostly in the South, with a history of preventing blacks, Hispanics and other minorities from voting.

The utility district is challenging that section of the law, which Congress extended in 2006 for 25 years. The Obama administration is defending it.

The Voting Rights Act, enacted in 1965, opened the polls to millions of black Americans. The law "has been the most important and transformative civil rights act in our country's history," said John Payton, director of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

Melisa Keeton and Shelley Wolfe of Des Moines received their waiver by 9 a.m.

Same-sex couples in Iowa began applying for marriage license Monday after a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay unions took effect.

The high court issued an order early in the day confirming that the appeals process in the case has officially concluded.

The Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous and emphatic decision on April 3 made Iowa the third state to allow same-sex marriage, joining Massachusetts and Connecticut. Vermont has passed a law that will take effect in September.

The case from New Haven, Conn., pits white firefighters, who showed up at the court Wednesday in their dress uniforms, against the city over its decision to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results.

As is often the case with closely fought social issues at the court, Justice Anthony Kennedy appeared to hold the key to the outcome. He seemed concerned that New Haven scuttled the test without determining that there were flaws that might have led to the racially disproportionate results.

"So shouldn't there be some standard that there has to be a significant, a strong showing after the test has been taken that it's deficient? Before it can be set aside?" he said.

Kennedy often frowns on racial classifications, yet he is not as opposed to drawing distinctions on the basis of race as his more conservative colleagues.

But where Kennedy saw shades of gray, the rest of the court seemed to view the case clearly in terms of black and white.