A German court Wednesday rejected an effort by suspected Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk to block his expected transfer from the United States to Germany. The ruling came as Demjanjuk's lawyers formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the deportation. The Administrative Court in Berlin ruled that Demjanjuk lacks a basis for legal protection and declared his motion for a stay to be inadmissible. "Even without the agreement of the Federal (German) Government, he could be deported from the ...

Political junkies who weren't thrilled at the prospect of a relatively staid confirmation process for President Barack Obama's as yet unnamed Supreme Court nominee can rest easy. This week Senate Republicans named perennial bomb thrower Jeff Sessions, 62, of Alabama to be the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, promising to bring at least a few sparks to a confirmation process that — if Minnesota's Al Franken is seated — was bound to be relatively easy. While Sessions ...

A new national poll suggests a majority of Americans oppose legalizing same-sex marriages, but the survey indicates a vast generational divide on the issue. Fifty-four percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Monday say marriages between gay or lesbian couples should not be recognized as valid, with 44 percent suggesting they should be considered legal. But among those 18 to 34 years old, 58 percent said same-sex marriages should be legal. That number drops to 42 ...

A process begun months ago among White House lawyers to quietly compile a list of possible Supreme Court picks has accelerated with word Justice David Souter plans to step down form the bench later this year. The nominee would give President Obama an immediate opportunity to place his stamp on the nation's highest court, and perhaps to begin cementing his legacy with a lifetime appointment to that bench. Obama on Friday said he will seek "somebody with a sharp, independent ...

Supreme Court Justice David Souter has long said that he wanted to leave the court and Washington. An intensely private native of small town New Hampshire, he has never warmed to the nation's capital, socializing infrequently and focusing his energies on work and jogging after hours. While he has told many that he would stay on "for the duration," most understood that to mean the tenure of Republican control in the White House. With Obama's victory last November, Souter's long ...

Thousands of Palestinians are facing a housing crisis because of inadequate urban planning by Israeli officials who run the east Jerusalem region, a U.N. report shows. Souter is expected to discuss his decision during a weekly closed-door meeting. Souter wanted to notify his associates in private before making a public announcement, the source said. There was no immediate indication of when Souter officially would inform the White House. Previous retiring justices have traditionally informed the president by letter, delivered by ...

After more than 18 years on the nation's highest court, Supreme Court Justice David Souter is retiring, a source close to Souter told CNN Thursday. Souter will leave after the current court term recesses in June, the source said. Filling Souter's seat would be President Barack Obama's first Supreme Court appointment -- and the first since George W. Bush's picks of Samuel Alito in 2006 and Chief Justice John Roberts in 2005. Souter, 69, was tapped for the court by ...

The battle began in late March, when Fox News firestarter Glenn Beck said Harold Koh, Obama's nominee to be the State department's top lawyer, supported Muslim Sharia Law. "Sharia law over our Constitution!" Beck said in amazement. When that unlikely charge was debunked, Beck switched tacks and asserted that Koh, the outgoing dean of the Yale Law School and a former official under Presidents Reagan and Clinton, wanted to subjugate the United States constitution to foreign law. All of ...

A motel owner in New Zealand -- fed up with one too many incidents of rowdy behavior -- has banned an entire town from checking in as guests. Steve Donnelly, the owner of the Supreme Motor Lodge in the town of Palmerston North, said he decided to yank the welcome mat for the 16,000 residents of Wainuiomata because "each time they visited, our life became less exciting." "I'm not Santa Claus. I can't figure out who's naughty and who's nice," ...

Nazi war crimes suspect John Demjanjuk was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Tuesday for an expected deportation to Germany. They picked him up at his home in Cleveland, Ohio. German authorities have accused Demjanjuk, 89, of involvement in killings at Sobibor, a Nazi death camp in Poland, during World War II. He has denied the allegations. His deportation would close a chapter in one of the longest-running pursuits of an alleged ...