All three Iowa Supreme Court justices up for retention election have been ousted from the bench.

Around 54 percent of Iowans voted not to retain each of the three judges: Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and associate justices Michael J. Streit and David L. Baker. The campaign for the judges ouster was based on the court’s unanimous 2009 ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa.

There were 74 judges, including three Supreme Court justices, on the ballot Tuesday. Only the Supreme Court justices, however, came anywhere close to being removed from the bench.

The highly charged campaign featured more than $1 million in spending against the judges from national anti-gay organizations like the Mississippi-based American Family Association, Washington, D.C.-based Family Research Council, Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, Georgia-based Faith & Freedom Coalition and New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage. The campaign culminated in a 20-city bus tour across Iowa.

The groups pushing for ouster promised that this was simply the first battle in a nationwide war against gay marriage and gay rights.

“If you rise up you will see states calling, other people from other states phoning and e-mailing and coming to find out how you did it because they too want to take their state back,” said Tamara Scott, of the Concerned Women of America’s Iowa chapter and a participant in the bus tour.

Despite the ouster of the judges, though, same-sex marriage continues to be legal in Iowa, and outgoing Democratic Gov. Chet Culver has the authority to appoint the judges’ successors.

Iraq's highest court has ordered the country's parliament back to work, in a ruling that could help break a seven-month deadlock in negotiations to form a new government.

The chief judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Midhat Mahmoud, said the court had ruled unconstitutional the parliament's failure to meet since June or to fulfil its duty to elect a speaker and a president.

The 325-member parliament elected in March has met only once, on June 14, for 18 minutes.

Advertisement: Story continues below The court's ruling has the potential to deepen the political crisis if the Iraqiya bloc, which won the most seats in the election, refuses to attend sessions.

''All members of parliament should abide by this decision,'' said Abdul Sattar al-Beeraqdar, a spokesman for the country's judiciary. ''It will be a constitutional breach if they don't.''

The ruling is in response to a case filed by a consortium of groups, backed by the Communist Party, against the acting speaker, Fouad Massoum.

Mr Massoum, a Kurd, said he would not disobey the order and expected to summon MPs to meet again within two weeks.

The Supreme Court won't decide who really owns the initials "SC" when it comes to college sports: the University of Southern California or the University of South Carolina.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from South Carolina, which wanted to trademark a baseball cap logo with the initials "SC."

The Trojans already have a trademark on a version of "SC" and say the Gamecocks' symbol looks too much like theirs. The California school says it has sold tens of millions of dollars of apparel with "SC" on it, while South Carolina only wanted to start using those initials on baseball caps in 1997.

Courts have rejected South Carolina's trademark.

The case is University of South Carolina v. University of Southern California, 09-1270.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's chief enforcement official says the agency has toughened its efforts to shut down financial misconduct after failing to act quickly in the cases of R. Allen Stanford and Bernard Madoff.

SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami says in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing that "we have moved aggressively" to put in place reforms recommended by the SEC inspector general. The IG found that the SEC knew since 1997 that Stanford likely was operating a Ponzi scheme but waited 12 years to bring fraud charges against the billionaire.

Khuzami also tells the Senate Banking Committee the SEC is working to provide "maximum recovery" to investors hurt in Stanford's alleged $7 billion fraud.

Stanford has been in federal prison since his indictment in June 2009 on criminal charges that his international banking business was really a pyramid scheme. He is disputing the charges. He faces a life sentence if convicted.

The SEC didn't bring civil fraud charges against Stanford until February 2009. SEC Inspector General David Kotz said in a report issued in April that "institutional influence" in the enforcement division was a factor in the agency's repeated decisions not to conduct a full investigation.

The report found that SEC enforcement officials discouraged cases that couldn't be resolved quickly. And it said an SEC enforcement official who helped quash investigations later legally represented Stanford.

The SEC's office in Fort Worth, Texas, had conducted "examination after examination" of Stanford's business over eight years, but "merely watched the alleged fraud grow, and failed to take any action to stop it," Kotz testified at Wednesday's hearing.

A Florida man known for his sports-related philanthropy pleaded guilty Wednesday to running a multistate Ponzi scheme that prosecutors say left investors with up to $100 million in losses.

Nevin Shapiro pleaded guilty in New Jersey federal court to one count of securities fraud and one count of money laundering as part of an agreement that still has him facing up to 17 years in prison at his Jan. 4 sentencing.

Prosecutors say 41-year-old Shapiro of Miami Beach, used a Florida-based company called Capitol Investments, USA, Inc., to raise nearly $900 million from investors who thought they were buying into a wholesale grocery distribution business.

Charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission claim Shapiro promised investors risk-free annual returns as high as 26 percent by persuading them to invest in a "grocery diversion" enterprise — a practice of buying low-cost groceries in one region of the country and reselling them in higher-priced markets.

Shapiro allegedly siphoned at least $35 million of the proceeds for personal use, including $23 million for salaries and commissions for himself, $5 million for a Miami Beach mansion and $400,000 for courtside Miami Heat basketball tickets. He also spent lavishly on luxury cars, a high-stakes gambling habit, and a pair of diamond-studded handcuffs given to an unnamed prominent athlete, according to court documents.

Immigration authorities have rescued more than three dozen immigrants who were locked inside a sweltering boarded-up bedroom in a Southern California house.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Wednesday some of the 37 immigrants from six Latin American countries had been held for weeks in the 10-by-10-foot room in Riverside and had gone several days without food.

The immigrants, mostly men, had been stripped of their shoes and were found lying on the floor. Three children under 3 years old were also found inside the room, said Debra Parker, assistant special agent in charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations in Riverside.

Authorities say they began searching for the house after a caller reported smugglers had threatened to kill his relative when the family could not pay for his release. After scouring the area for two days, including with an infrared-equipped helicopter, officials searched the home Tuesday afternoon.

Smugglers often hold illegal immigrants in so-called drop houses for days or weeks while collecting payment for bringing them into the country.

A California court has refused to order Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal a ruling that overturned the state's gay marriage ban.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal on Wednesday denied a conservative legal group's request to force the officials to defend voter-approved Proposition 8.

Presiding Justice Arthur Scotland did not explain why the appeals court turned down the request filed two days earlier by the Pacific Justice Institute.

The institute now plans to take the matter to the California Supreme Court, Chief Counsel Kevin Snider said Thursday.

"We are disappointed that the appellate court showed indecisiveness in trying to prevent a constitutional crisis," Snider said. "They didn't want to deal with it."

The institute maintains the attorney general and governor have the duty to uphold all laws, not just those with which they personally agree.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker struck down Proposition 8 as unconstitutional last month.

The measure approved by 52 percent of California voters in November 2008 amended the state Constitution to outlaw same-sex unions five months after the state Supreme Court legalized them.

The state has until Sept. 11 to challenge Walker's ruling. Both Brown and Schwarzenegger have said they don't plan an appeal.