The Oklahoma Supreme Court has rejected a constitutional challenge against the state's Judicial Nominating Commission.

The high court on Tuesday overruled claims in a lawsuit that challenged the makeup of the commission that nominates candidates to fill judicial vacancies.

The case could have affected some recent judicial appointments including at least one Supreme Court justice.

Gov. Brad Henry last month appointed Oklahoma County District Judge Noma Gurich to fill a vacancy on the high court. The court rejected arguments by opponents who said the appointment may not be valid until the commission is reconstituted according to a ballot measure approved by voters in November.

Gurich has yet to be sworn in to the seat left vacant by the death of Justice Marian Opala on Oct. 11.

Federal prosecutors have rested in the corruption trial of a former northeastern Pennsylvania judge charged with taking part in a $2.8 million kickback scheme involving privately-owned juvenile detention centers.

Two IRS agents testified Monday morning in the trial of ex-Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella. Prosecutors say Ciavarella and another judge disguised extortion payments as rent on a condo in Florida.

IRS agent Ray Eppley testified that the judges failed to pay nearly $500,000 in taxes on illicit income.

The state Supreme Court threw out thousands of juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, saying he disregarded the constitutional rights of the defendants. He has denied breaking any laws.

The second judge pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and awaits sentencing.

The Wisconsin superintendent who received $140,000 a year in salary and benefits has been declared indigent and will get a taxpayer-funded attorney to defend him against charges of trying to solicit sex from a minor.

At a hearing in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Monday, New Holstein superintendent Christopher Nelson was appointed a lawyer who will be paid $60 an hour by Milwaukee County. A lien will be placed on Nelson's retirement benefits.

The 58-year-old Nelson was arrested Jan. 19 while attending a school board convention in Milwaukee. Prosecutors say he tried to arrange a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old boy who was actually an undercover investigator. The Sheboygan Press says the two had been chatting online since June.

The former Wellesley College student who was found not guilty by reason of insanity of stabbing her former boyfriend as he slept in his MIT dorm room was allowed to go free yesterday, after a judge decided not to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital, her attorney and a prosecutor said.

Anna Tang, 24, of Brighton, was initially charged with armed assault with attempt to murder in 2007 after prosecutors accused her of sneaking into Wolfe Styke’s dorm room and stabbing him while he slept. Tang admitted stabbing Styke, but maintained that she was not criminally responsible by reason of mental illness.

Tang waived her right to a jury trial and on Jan. 8, Judge Bruce Henry found her not guilty by reason of insanity of armed assault with attempt to murder, home invasion, and assault with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury, Tang’s lawyer Robert A. George said yesterday.

After her acquittal, Tang was sent to the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center in Boston for evaluation. Yesterday, at a commitment hearing in Middlesex Superior Court, Henry decided against having her committed to a mental health facility and ordered her to be released.

The lawyer for Julian Assange argued Monday the embattled WikiLeaks founder would face a secret trial that violates international standards of fairness if sent to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

The leader of the secret-spilling website is fighting extradition in part because Swedish rape trials are customarily held in secret, Geoffrey Robertson said at the start of a two-day extradition hearing. Closed-door hearings would be "a flagrant denial of justice ... blatantly unfair, not only by British standards but by European standards and indeed by international standards," he said.

Assange is accused of sexual misconduct by two women he met during a visit to Stockholm last year. Rape trials are often held behind closed doors in Sweden to protect the alleged victims.

Assange denies wrongdoing. Defense lawyers also argue he should not be extradited because he has not been charged with a crime, because of flaws in Swedish prosecutors' case — and because a ticket to Sweden could eventually land him in Guantanamo Bay or on U.S. death row.

A federal appeals court has denied the government's request to suspend a lawsuit challenging the military's ban on openly gay servicemembers.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued an order Friday requiring the Department of Justice to file papers by Feb. 25 arguing why the court should overturn a Southern California trial judge who declared the "don't ask, don't tell" policy unconstitutional.

Government lawyers asked the 9th Circuit earlier this month to set aside the case because the Pentagon was moving quickly to satisfy the steps Congress outlined last month when it voted to allow the ban's repeal. A Justice Department spokeswoman said it had no comment Saturday.

The appeals court did not explain in its order why it rejected the request. In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama said he expected to finalize the repeal and allow openly gay Americans to join the armed forces before the end of the year.

On Friday, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters that the training of officers and troops the Pentagon has said is a predicate to full repeal would begin in February.