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Some 128 sex abuse charges filed against the Portland Archdiocese are heading to court after church officials and alleged victims failed to reach a settlement agreement by the April 17 deadline. Forty of the cases will be heard in state court, and the remaining 88 will be heard in federal court, according to the Associated Press.

The Portland Archdiocese was the first in the nation to declare bankruptcy because of damages awarded to victims of sexual abuse by priests. The archdiocese has already spent more than $53 million in settlements to victims of priest sex abuse.

Catholic News Service estimates that the cost of clerical sexual abuse to the Catholic Church is over $1.5 billion so far, according to Catholic Online, but some experts believe the cumulative cost is significantly higher.

Alabama has convened a new state panel, The Commission on Girls and Women in the Criminal Justice System, to examine the rise in women prisoners and find new ways to address the needs of the female prisoner population. Since 2000, the number of women imprisoned in Alabama has risen by 53 percent, reports the Associated Press, in keeping with nationally increasing numbers of incarcerated women.

State Representative Barbara Boyd (D) sponsored the legislation to create this committee, and will chair it as well. She told the Associated Press, “Most women in the criminal justice system have a history of physical, sexual or drug abuse that should be treated,” and hopes to shift the focus from punishment to rehabilitation. Other committee members include representatives of Youth Services, as well as the state departments of Human Resources, Public Health and Mental Illness and Mental Retardation. They are expected to issue a report in fall of 2007, reports Birmingham News, which will include recommendations on gender-specific parole guidelines, ensuring access to mental health, educational and rehabilitation programs, and other ways in ensure gender equity in the prison system.

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The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, meaning that the personnel files of two priests accused of child molestation must be turned over to prosecutors. Although this case affects only the files of Michael Baker and George Miller, it is expected to lead to more subpoenas in cases of sexual abuse by priests.

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony had fought the subpoenas, claiming that they were unconstitutional interference in church business. District Attorney Steve Cooley praised the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case, as it upholds lower court decisions making “evidence of criminality” available to the authorities, reports the Los Angeles Times. Cooley went on to say that “this is a decisive victory for victims of clerical abuse.” “We are grateful that the nation’s highest court, like so many California courts, is telling the cardinal to abide by the laws of the land,” said Mary Grant, regional director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, according to the LA Times.

LEARN MORE Read Angela Bonavoglia’s account of the priest sex abuse scandal in Ms.

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A federal court ruled yesterday that Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline could not use a Kansas statute requiring doctors and teachers to report potential child abuse to require health care providers to report consensual sexual activity among teenagers under the age of 16. Kline had issued a broad interpretation of the law in 2003 that would have required health care providers, including abortion clinics, to report any sexual activity or intimate contact reported between teens under the age of 16. US District Judge J. Thomas Marten wrote in his opinion that such a requirement would deter teens from seeking health care services, according to the New York Times.

“We are extremely pleased that, for the first time, a federal court has protected young people from a state’s attempt to intrude in the private communications between teens and health-care providers. Any threat to that privacy will drive teens away from health-care service, endangering their well-being instead of protecting it,” said Bonnie Scott Jones, lead attorney in the case and staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Judge Marten said that Kline’s “overexpansive” interpretation of the 1982 Kansas law “not only fails to serve the public interest, it actually serves to undermine it,” reports the NY Times.

Early today, two sophomore members of the Duke University lacrosse team were arrested on charges of rape, sexual assault and kidnapping. A grand jury indicted Reade Segilmann and Collin Finnerty yesterday, but the indictments were sealed and their identities were not known until this morning, when they appeared before a magistrate.

District Attorney Mike Nifong has said there may be a third indictment coming in relation to the alleged sexual assault of a woman hired to perform as an exotic dancer at a team party, but would not discuss evidence, according to the New York Times. The arrests were made, in part, on the basis of the alleged victim’s identification of the two men, reports the Associated Press.

Segilmann has already posted his $400,000 bond, and Finnerty is in the process of doing the same. Finnerty was previously arrested in connection with assaulting a man in Washington DC last fall, reports the New York Times. He then went through a diversionary program, which allowed the charges to be dismissed following 25 hours of community service.

The victim of an alleged sexual assault by three white Duke lacrosse players has identified at least one of her attackers, according to District Attorney Mike Nifong. Though initial DNA tests did not conclusively link any of the players to the assault, Nifong has said that he had sufficient additional evidence to believe that a sexual assault did occur, according to the New York Times. Examinations of the victim shortly after the alleged rape showed that she had symptoms consistent with sexual assault, according to the Associated Press.

The alleged victim, an African American, and another woman had been hired to perform as exotic dancers at a party held at a house rented by three lacrosse team captains. In addition to rape, the woman has alleged that she was physically assaulted by the players, and subjected to racial slurs. No charges have been filed yet in the case, but the grand jury in Durham meets on Monday. At a forum on violence against women at North Carolina Central University, where the alleged victim is a student, Nifong said, “In this case, I would expect a jury gets to evaluate the evidence,” according to the Raleigh News & Observer.

In a letter to the Duke community, Duke University president Richard Brodhead said that the alleged criminal acts have brought deep issues to the foreground, including “issues of race and gender, É [and] concerns about the deep structures of inequality in our society – inequalities of wealth, privilege, and opportunity (including educational opportunity), and the attitudes of superiority those inequalities breed.” President Brodhead announced five steps that Duke was taking in response to the situation, including canceling the lacrosse season, investigating the response of the administration, examining the student judicial process, launching a “Campus Culture Initiative” to address the values and responsibilities of the Duke community, and convening a Presidential Council to offer advice and guidance as Duke moves forward.

Duke University has suspended games of the men’s lacrosse team, which was ranked number two in the nation, while allegations of gang rape involving members of the team are investigated. An African-American student at neighboring North Carolina Central University told police she was raped for approximately half an hour by three white members of the Duke lacrosse team on March 13 at a party in a house rented by three team captains. She and another woman had been hired to perform at the party as exotic dancers. In addition to rape, the woman is alleging that she was physically assaulted by the players, and subjected to racial slurs, according to ABC News. The alleged victim, a mother of two children, was working at an escort service to finance her education, according to InsideHigherEd.com.

Though all team members deny the accusations, both a nurse trained to handle rape victims and a physician said that their examination of the student found symptoms consistent with sexual assault, according to the Associated Press. In addition, a police search of the house where the alleged crime took place found personal items belonging to the woman, including her false fingernails, which she says broke off when she was struggling to break free as a team member strangled her, according to the News York Times. White team members (only one of the 47 team members is African American) were required to provide DNA samples, but District Attorney Mike Nifong says that even if the DNA tests prove inconclusive, he had enough other evidence to believe that a crime did occur, the Associated Press reports.

The alleged assault has roiled both the campus and the community. Students, faculty, and Durham residents marched on Wednesday, planned before the rape charge to coincide with Sexual Assault Prevention Week at the university, protested the incident, and other protests have been held outside the lacrosse house.

An anti-abortion group known as the Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit this week challenging Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s law requiring a 15-foot buffer zone around clinics. The ordinance was passed in December, and prohibits protestors from coming within 15 feet of a clinic or within eight feet of an individual patient. Violators would be fined for their first three offenses, and could face 30-day imprisonment for subsequent violations. Alliance Defense Fund is suing on behalf of a woman who alleges “viewpoint discrimination,” saying she was threatened with arrest when she approached a patient, but was allowed to distribute anti-pornography material near the clinic without threat of arrest.

Susan Frietsche, senior staff attorney for the Women’s Law Project, described the suit as “an attempt by outsiders to attack a law that is really working well for the citizens of Pittsburgh,” reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Claire Keyes, director of the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center agreed the law was effective, telling the Post-Gazette, “It certainly has helped. We are not getting nearly as many complaints from patients that they are being grabbed or leaflets shoved in their pockets.”

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A report released this week by the Pentagon shows that reported sexual assaults in the military increased in 2005 by 40 percent over 2004. According to the report, much of the increase can be attributed to new reporting guidelines that were put in place following widespread criticism of the military’s handling of sexual assault cases in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait, as well as in the military service academies. A total of 2,374 sexual assaults were reported in 2005 in which either the victim or the alleged perpetrator was a member of the military. Of these cases, 274 resulted in punitive action against the alleged perpetrator and 352 were still being processed, according to the report.

The new reporting guidelines allow victims of sexual assault to report attacks and receive counseling and other services anonymously, according to the Washington Post. Previously, a victim could only receive help if she or he allowed an investigation to be initiated, which were not confidential, opening the victim up to potential retaliation or harassment.

“[Sexual assault] is the most underreported crime in our society,” Roger Kaplan, a Pentagon spokesperson, said, according to the Associated Press. “The key, at least in the military, is to make it less. We want victims to have treatment. And the more who come forward, the better chance we have of taking action and getting the offenders off the streets.”

At a speech at Georgetown University, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor warned that the current levels of interference with and attacks on the nation’s independent judiciary are the first steps towards dictatorship. Paraphrasing O’Connor, Nina Totenberg of NPR said, “It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship É but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings.” Without naming him, O’Connor criticized former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) for his remarks following the Eleventh Circuit Court’s decision in the Terri Shiavo case, when he said, “The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior,” according to USA Today.

O’Connor also noted that while death threats against members of the judiciary are increasing, it “doesn’t help” when a senior senator suggests there “may be a connection between violence against judges and decisions that the senator disagrees with,” according to NPR. O’Connor reminded the audience of the federal judge who was killed in Atlanta and family of the federal judge in Chicago who were also murdered. At the time, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) said, “I don’t know if there is a cause and effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country . . . And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up to the point where some people engage in violence,” according to the Guardian.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now the only woman on the Court, said recently that she and O’Connor have received death threats from what Ginsburg called the “irrational fringe” of society, according to CNN. Right-wing commentator Ann Coulter joked earlier this month in a speech to Philander Smith College that Justice Stevens, a liberal member of the Supreme Court, should be poisoned, AP reports. The climate has grown so hostile that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said that three-quarters of the 2,200 federal judges have requested the government-paid home security systems that Congress approved last year, according to the Associated Press.