William Brennan

APHILADELPHIA MAN who was the victim of a cruel airplane hoax was set up by his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend because the man had posted a "compromising picture" of his ex on Facebook, according to court documents. Federal authorities arrested Kenneth Smith Jr., 26, of Philadelphia, for calling police at the Philadelphia International Airport Thursday morning and reporting that passenger Christopher Shell would attempt to board a Texas-bound flight with liquid explosives, court documents said.

William Brennan, legal scholar, judge and politician, is leaving the Supreme Court, and we are all the poorer. We are poorer in large part because Justice Brennan's careful cobbling of landmark decisions so they would have the greatest possible consensus is in the finest tradition of politics and of principled checks and balances within government. Brennan's charm and brilliance were as important when they helped get unanimous 9-0 verdicts on school desegregation and the limits of presidential power as they were when he wrote eloquently on free speech.

For a lying, scheming criminal and junkie, he cleaned up well, and, under bruising cross-examination, more than held his own. If I had to score Round One of the most important testimony to date in the trial concerning sex abuse and conspiracy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I'd give it to the beleaguered - yet believable - 30-year-old victim staring at his alleged abuser in court. "Mark," as he was labeled in the 2011 grand jury report, is the Bucks County man charging a criminal breach of trust by the Rev. James J. Brennan, a priest and family friend he thought of as an uncle.

It is not enough to remember Justice William J. Brennan Jr. for the breadth and quality of the 1,360 opinions he authored as a member of the nation's highest court - although those opinions marked him as the dominating judicial figure of the last third of a century. It is not enough to remember Justice Brennan, who died Thursday, for his liberal legacy - although his expansive interpretation of the Constitution broadened forever the American concept of personal freedom and equal rights.

IN A MATTER of a few moments - long enough for men with badges to say that they had a search warrant - Kermit B. Gosnell's 43-year medical career came to a grinding halt. A squad of imposing federal agents greeted Gosnell with the warrant when he arrived at his West Philadelphia practice, the Women's Medical Society, on Feb. 18. The agents began raiding the clinic, which was filled at the time with patients who were waiting to be seen by the doctor. "It was tremendously traumatic - totally unexpected," Gosnell, 69, said this week.

A raid of two clubhouses under the Market-Frankford El this morning was part of a federal crackdown today on a motorcycle gang whose "Mother Chapter" is alleged to be based in Philadelphia. About 6 a.m., agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms entered two Wheels of Soul buildings that sit across from each other in the 6100 block of Market Street. A federal indictment unsealed in St Louis this morning alleged that 18 Wheels of Soul associates from seven states - Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin and Kentucky - are suspected of involvement in murder, kidnapping, drug distribution and racketeering.

I believe some clarification is required regarding a May 6 Letter to the Editor about funding remedial programs at parochial schools. Considering that funding of such programs is lawfully intended for non- public as well as public students, the U.S. Supreme Court's questionable interpretation of the Constitution leaves no alternative other than the use of vans so that private school students may receive remedial instructions to which they...

Prosecutors have refiled felony sex-assault charges against a suspended Philadelphia priest, days after a judge dropped them for lack of evidence. A city judge found that the alleged victim's testimony at a preliminary hearing last week failed to support the most serious charges against the Rev. Andrew McCormick, 56. The judge upheld misdemeanor charges, including indecent exposure and indecent assault. Prosecutors insist the priest's actions amounted to felony sexual assault.

West Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell routinely delivered live babies in the third trimester of pregnancy, then murdered them by "sticking scissors into the back of the baby's neck and cutting the spinal cord," according to a grand jury report. One newborn who weighed almost six pounds was so big, the report said, "the doctor joked . . . this baby 'could walk me to the bus stop.' " Those are among the jaw-dropping details - complete with photographs - in a 260-page grand jury report released Wednesday that charges Gosnell, 69, with the murder of a patient and seven infants.

Justice William J. Brennan Jr., the Supreme Court's oldest and most liberal member, was admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital yesterday afternoon suffering from pneumonia, a court spokeswoman said. The announcement of Brennan's illness was made in a brief statement by the Supreme Court public information office. "Justice William Brennan was admitted to the Bethesda Naval Hospital with pneumonia," the statement said. "He is being treated with antibiotics and doctors expect him to respond very well.