Court Order

WASHINGTON - A divided U.S. Supreme Court, citing "serious constitutional violations" in California's overcrowded prisons, upheld an order requiring the state to cut its inmate population by tens of thousands. In a 5-4 vote along ideological lines, the justices said the order, the largest of its kind in U.S. history, was an appropriate step to remedy the inadequate level of medical and mental health care that prisoners were receiving. That care "falls below the standard of decency that inheres in the Eighth Amendment," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority, referring to the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

New Jersey's Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the state to come up with $500 million more to aid certain poor and largely urban school districts next year, finding that the state did not enforce its own law or live up to promises made to the court. However, the justices, in their highly anticipated decision, declined to restore the full amount of the state's aid shortfall - about $1.6 billion - that could have benefited many districts, including others with low-income children.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said he kept a campaign promise Tuesday. He made a telephone call to Maureen Faulkner and asked her what to do about Mumia Abu-Jamal. Leave him to spend life in prison, he asked, or keep seeking the death penalty for the murder of her husband, Police Officer Daniel Faulkner, in 1981? She chose the death penalty, Williams said. It means the case of Abu-Jamal, now 57 and perhaps the best-known death-row inmate in the world, is headed back to the U.S. Supreme Court.

After spending more than 45 years in prison, 82-year-old Louis Mickens-Thomas will be released Tuesday, thanks to a federal court order. Mickens-Thomas was convicted of the 1964 murder of Edith Connor, 12, largely on the testimony of a crime-lab worker who was later discredited. The former owner of a shoe-repair shop has steadfastly maintained his innocence. A team of lawyers, activists, and scientists has claimed for years that Mickens-Thomas might have been wrongly convicted.

Shamir Robinson was released from jail last month, just in time for the holidays. The only problem was, it was by accident. After a judge sentenced Robinson, 21, to time served on a robbery charge on Dec. 20, prison officials failed to notice a court order that should have kept Robinson in the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on pending charges in a 2009 robbery and assault case, said Robert Eskind, Philadelphia prisons spokesman. Robinson walked away a free man. The mistake was not discovered until two weeks later, when Robinson showed up Monday in court for a trial that had been scheduled on the 2009 charges.

Philadelphia police officers fired for major violations of departmental rules have sometimes been reinstated by arbitrators who would not act without a conviction in criminal court, according to a review of 42 cases reached over the last decade. The cases involve officers disciplined by the department for drunken driving, assault, insubordination, and other infractions. Punishment sought by police supervisors ranged from a day's suspension to termination. The decisions by arbitrators, released by Common Pleas Court on Thursday, shed light on the police union grievance system, a process long hidden from public view.

A former deputy constable seeking elected office had no difficulty winning the support of voters in Lower Merion Township, but yesterday, a Montgomery County Court judge proved less receptive. Accusing Steven D. Sokoloff of deceiving the electorate, Judge Paul W. Tressler made a temporary injunction permanent and ordered the 58-year-old Ardmore resident stricken as the November winner of one of two constable positions. The judge also found Sokoloff in contempt of a November 2007 consent decree, made after a dozen complaints were filed stemming from Sokoloff's work as a deputy constable.

An ousted deputy constable from Lower Merion who ignored a court order to stay off the ballot and won election last week as a constable has additional obstacles to overcome before he can assume office in January. Yesterday, Montgomery County Court Judge Paul W. Tressler issued a temporary restraining order to prevent the election board from certifying Steven D. Sokoloff, 58, of Ardmore, as the winner. In addition, the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office amended an indirect criminal contempt petition filed in March, adding more than 200 counts of contempt - one for every day Sokoloff has violated the court order.

Though strangers to each other, Jeremey Newberg and Angela Landi have shared a passion for public service. Newberg has committed his skills as a developer to clearing blight and rebuilding Philadelphia neighborhoods. As a city police officer, Landi devoted herself to fighting crime in those same communities. Four years ago, their paths intersected in an unexpected and tragic way: Landi was injured chasing a suspect into the decaying shell of a rowhouse that was owned by the South Philadelphia Area Revitalization Corp.

In the middle of Philadelphia's budget crisis, Mayor Nutter threatened to implement his so-called Plan C if state lawmakers rejected the city's effort to increase the sales tax and defer pension payments. Among the more cockamamy proposals in Nutter's "doomsday" budget was the elimination of funding for the lower courts. That half-baked idea may have helped the city balance its five-year budget on paper, but in reality the move was an act of pure fiction. It's easy to see why Philadelphia would want to stop spending $100 million a year on the courts.