The Associated Press reports, "A doctor has no duty to tell a woman considering an abortion that her embryo is an 'existing human being,' a unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, averting a trial over when human life begins." The report explains, "The decision, citing past rulings, said the court 'will not place a duty on doctors when there is no consensus in the medical community or among the public' on when life begins."

The New York Times reports, "A lawyer who was wrongly arrested in connection with the 2004 Madrid train bombings because of a misidentified fingerprint was back in court, this time asking a judge to strike down provisions of the USA Patriot Act." "The 2001 Patriot Act," the report explains, "greatly expanded the authority of law enforcers to investigate suspected acts of terrorism, both domestically and abroad."

The New York Times reports, "The federal appeals court in San Francisco yesterday upheld a death sentence from a jury that had consulted the Bible's teachings on capital punishment." "In a second decision on the role of religion in the criminal justice system," reports the Times, "the same court ruled Friday that requiring a former prisoner on parole to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous violated the First Amendment's ban on government establishment of religion."

"Prosecutors argued on Monday before New York State's highest court that the lone man remaining on the state's death row should face execution despite a landmark 2004 court ruling that effectively invalidated the state's death penalty law," reports The New York Times. According to the report, "No man or woman has been executed in New York since 1963; the court ruled in 2004 that elements of a 1995 law restoring the state's death penalty made it unconstitutional."

The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "Alcoholics Anonymous, the renowned 12-step program that directs problem drinkers to seek help from a higher power, says it's not a religion and is open to nonbelievers. But it has enough religious overtones that a parolee can't be ordered to attend its meetings as a condition of staying out of prison, a federal appeals court ruled Friday." According to the report, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that "the constitutional dividing line between church and state in such cases is so clear that a parole officer can be sued for damages for ordering a parolee to go through rehabilitation at Alcoholics Anonymous or an affiliated program for drug addicts."