Federal Judge

WASHINGTON - U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales indicated yesterday that the Justice Department might still file criminal charges against U.S.-born "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla, even if the courts order his release. The Justice Department is appealing last week's decision by a federal judge that the nearly three-year detention of Padilla without charges or access to a lawyer violated the law. Padilla has been in a military brig almost continuously since his May 2002 arrest in Chicago in a suspected plot to launch a radioactive "dirty bomb" attack on the United States.

A federal judge fined a New Jersey company $100,000 after it pleaded guilty Friday to environmental violations in Cecil County.Appearing before U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson in Baltimore, Hartford Associates admitted that it negligently filled wetlands on a 375-acre property the company owned south of U.S. 40 and north of Frenchtown Road in Elkton.An ecologist with the Army Corps of Engineers said that the damage caused by Hartford could have destroyed more than 50 acres of wetlands had it not been discovered.

A federal judge edged closer yesterday to throwing out a $45,001 judgment against two correctional officers who, a jury decided, used excessive force against a state inmate. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett held a hearing in Baltimore yesterday on the state's motions that he set aside the jury verdict, order a new trial or reduce the monetary damages that the federal jury awarded to Norman R. Willis, 37. Bennett said that the jury might not have followed the standard for excessive force established by the courts and explained in instructions from the judge.

A federal judge fined a New Jersey company $100,000 after it pleaded guilty Friday to environmental violations in Cecil County.Appearing before U.S. District Judge William M. Nickerson in Baltimore, Hartford Associates admitted that it negligently filled wetlands on a 375-acre property the company owned south of U.S. 40 and north of Frenchtown Road in Elkton.An ecologist with the Army Corps of Engineers said that the damage caused by Hartford could have destroyed more than 50 acres of wetlands had it not been discovered.

BOSTON -- Lawyers for Massachusetts gained yesterday what appears to be a significant victory when a federal judge ruled that the state's lawsuit to recover $1 billion in Medicaid costs for smoking-related illnesses should be heard in state, not federal, court.Sources have said that both sides in the suit believe that the state will have a better chance of winning its case against the tobacco companies in state court because it is more likely to encounter sympathetic judges and juries there.

NEWARK, N.J. - A federal judge cleared the way yesterday for a ban on the sale or manufacture of ephedra to start immediately. The judge denied a request by two manufacturers of the dietary supplement to delay the ban pending the outcome of a lawsuit. The manufacturers have sued the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. Judge Joel A. Pisano of U.S. District Court in Newark ruled that NVE Pharmaceuticals of Andover, N.J., manufacturer of Stacker 2, and the National Institute for Clinical Weight Loss of Birmingham, Ala., manufacturer of Thermalean, had not met the standards for a temporary restraining order.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge in Miami handed back to the Cable News Network yesterday the right to make its own news decision about broadcasting tapes of ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Antonio Noriega's telephone calls from prison.Lifting a 20-day-old ban on the broadcast of seven audiotapes, U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler said he had decided, after reading transcripts of those tapes, that there was no need to keep them off the air any longer.He had imposed the ban at the request of lawyers defending General Noriega in a drug case pending before Judge Hoeveler.

A federal judge in Baltimore ruled yesterday that he has jurisdiction over a Miami death penalty case, but he delayed his decision on whether to halt the execution while the Florida Supreme Court reviews the case.Rickey Bernard Roberts, a convicted rapist from Maryland, was scheduled to die in the electric chair this morning for a 1985 Miami murder. Florida's Supreme Court issued a temporary stay yesterday, rescheduling the execution for next Thursday.If the Florida Supreme Court turns down Roberts' challenge during a hearing scheduled for Tuesday in Tallahassee, his fate could rest with U.S. District Judge Andre M. Davis in Baltimore.

A federal judge in Detroit struck down the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program yesterday, calling it unconstitutional and an illegal abuse of presidential power. The ruling marked the first court rejection of the controversial monitoring program and amounted to a broad rebuke of the Bush administration's tactics in the war on terrorism. "In this case, the president has acted, undisputedly, as [federal intelligence law] forbids," U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor said in a 43-page decision that sided with the American Civil Liberties Union challenge to the government system of warrantless eavesdropping.

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge held yesterday that an FBI search of the Capitol Hill office of Rep. William J. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat, was lawfully conducted, ruling that members of Congress who become the targets of criminal investigations generally deserve no more protection under the law than ordinary citizens. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan was a blow both to Jefferson, the focus of a federal bribery probe, and to the House leadership, a bipartisan group of which had supported his appeal.