Boston

Court rejects attempt to stop gay marriages

A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected an attempt by conservative groups and state lawmakers to stop gay marriage in Massachusetts.

The Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which launched the lawsuit, said it would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs had argued that Massachusetts’ high court usurped the power of the Legislature, and thereby violated the U.S. Constitution, when it ruled last year that gay couples were entitled to wed.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed Tuesday and said the appropriate way to contest the state court ruling was by amending the Massachusetts Constitution — a long process already under way.

California

Mistrial declared in gang-rape case

A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the case of an assistant sheriff’s son and two other teenagers accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl.

The judge ruled after jurors sent him a note saying they were “hopelessly deadlocked” on all 24 counts.

The three teens were charged with drugging and raping the girl in July 2002, during an encounter they recorded on a videotape that was the focus of the trial. Defense attorneys argued that the girl pretended to be unconscious during the videotaping and had consented to the sex acts.

“We’re very disappointed,” said Susan Kang Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office. “It would take some strong information for us not to retry a case in which a 16-year-old girl was assaulted while she was unconscious.”

Los Angeles

Mattel must pay nearly $2M to artist

Mattel Inc. must pay more than $1.8 million in legal fees and court costs to a Utah man who incorporated nude Barbie dolls in his artwork, a federal judge has ruled.

The award stems from a lawsuit the El Segundo-based toy maker filed in 1999 against Tom Forsythe of Kanab, Utah, on grounds that his series of photos, “Food Chain Barbie,” infringed on the toy maker’s copyrights.

The photos often depicted Barbie dolls placed in sexually provocative positions. One called “Barbie Enchiladas” shows four Barbie dolls inside a lit oven, wrapped in tortillas and covered with salsa in a casserole dish.

The company lost its case, and in December, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Mattel’s appeal, saying Forsythe had a First Amendment right to parody the iconic doll.

The question of legal fees was sent back to U.S. District Court Judge Ronald S.W. Lew in Los Angeles, who echoed the panel’s statements.