Senior adviser David Axelrod and press secretary Robert Gibbs refused to retreat from criticism Obama leveled during his State of the Union address, with six of the nine members of the court sitting a few feet in front of him. The two White House officials defended Obama's statement that the ruling was seriously flawed.

"Under the ruling of the Supreme Court, any lobbyist could go in to any legislator and say, `If you don't vote our way on this bill, we're going to run a million-dollar campaign against you in your district.' And that is a threat to our democracy," Axelrod said. "It's going to further reduce the voice of the American people, and it's something we have to push back vigorously on."

Chief Justice John Roberts said this week that Obama's unusually open criticism was "very troubling" and questioned whether justices should attend the annual address.

The Bloomfield Hills law firm of Lipson, Neilson, Cole Seltzer & Garin, P.C. is holding a 25th anniversary celebration May 6 where it is giving 25 small businesses or entrepreneurs a half day of free legal and business counseling at Automation Alley in Troy.

Lipson Neilson was founded in 1985, at the cusp of an economic recovery beginning to develop 25 years ago. Since its modest beginnings with only three attorneys, Lipson Neilson has grown into a full-service law firm with four offices and 26 attorneys in two states.

To celebrate its silver anniversary, Lipson Neilson will be reaching out to entrepreneurs and emerging business owners who are charging down the same path that Lipson Neilson itself embarked upon 25 years ago.

“In 1985, after a period of some of the darkest days in Michigan’s economic history, the state began to come back with a vengeance," said the law firm's co-founder and managing partner Jeffrey Neilson. "We want to use our 25th anniversary to help inspire another rebirth for the companies that can most make a difference in our state’s economic future, the small business entrepreneurs.”

Lipson Neilson will host its free consulting event for 25 entrepreneurial companies selected from submissions to the firm. The event will be held in the Automation Alley atrium on May 6 from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Attorneys from the Lipson Neilson firm will cover a myriad of areas that most start-up and emerging businesses encounter, including company organization, structure, financing, and marketing.  The firm will provide a full complement of sound advice to help entrepreneurial companies negotiate these difficult times and help them develop a plan for success in the Michigan economy.

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a Nevada law that bars legal brothels that operate in some of the state's rural areas from advertising by newspaper, leaflets and billboards in Las Vegas, Reno and other places where prostitution is illegal.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto hailed the ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in San Francisco, while a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada promised to appeal.

The laws had been challenged by the ACLU, a Nye County brothel called the Shady Lady Ranch and two newspapers: the High Desert Advocate and Las Vegas City Life.

Prostitution is illegal in Clark and Washoe counties — which include Las Vegas and Reno — and three other Nevada counties. Ten Nevada counties authorize prostitution by local ordinance.

The 9th Circuit panel reversed a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan in Nevada that two 1979 state laws prohibiting brothel advertising in counties where prostitution is illegal were overly broad and unconstitutional.

The laws also prohibit brothel advertising in theaters and on streets and public highways.

The 9th Circuit noted in its ruling that Nevada was unique among states because it has a "nuanced boundary," rather than total criminalization of prostitution.

But the state still seeks to confine the sale of sex acts through licensing and advertising restrictions, the judges said.

A federal court has upheld regulations that require cable TV companies to make channels they own available to satellite TV providers and other rivals on equal terms.

Friday's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia leaves in place the Federal Communications Commission "program access" rules. The ruling marks a setback for Cablevision Systems Corp. and Comcast Corp., the cable companies that had challenged the rules in court.

Comcast has nonetheless pledged to extend those rules to the local NBC and Telemundo stations it would control as part of its proposed combination with NBC Universal. Comcast is seeking FCC and Justice Department approval to buy a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co.

A former aide to John Edwards is returning to court just days after a North Carolina judge nearly sent him to jail over his handling of a videotape purportedly showing the two-time presidential candidate in a sexual encounter.

Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones scheduled a hearing for Friday. He asked Andrew Young earlier this week to provide a full accounting of how he handled items Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter, is seeking.

Judge Jones declared on two occasions during a Tuesday hearing that Young would go to jail for contempt following conflicting statements. But Jones relented after Young's attorneys protested.

Hunter has sued Young for invasion of privacy, seeking the return of items including a tape purportedly showing Edwards and Hunter in a sexual encounter.

An appellate court has upheld references to God on U.S. currency and in the Pledge of Allegiance, rejecting arguments they violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

"The Pledge of Allegiance serves to unite our vast nation through the proud recitation of some of the ideals upon which our Republic was founded," Judge Carlos Bea wrote for the majority in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals 2-1 ruling Thursday.

Bea noted that schools do not require students to recite the pledge, which was amended to include the words "under God" by a 1954 federal law. Members of Congress at the time said they wanted to set the United States apart from "godless communists."

In a separate 3-0 ruling, the appeals court upheld the inscription of the national motto "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins and currency, citing an earlier 9th Circuit panel that ruled the phrase is ceremonial and patriotic and "has nothing whatsover to do with the establishment of religion."

The same appeals court caused a national uproar and prompted accusations of judicial activism when it decided in Sacramento athiest Michael Newdow's favor in 2002, ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance violated the First Amendment prohibition against government endorsement of religion.

President George W. Bush called the 2002 decision "ridiculous," senators passed a resolution condemning the ruling and Newdow received death threats.

That lawsuit reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004, but the high court said Newdow lacked the legal standing to file the suit because he didn't have custody of his daughter, on whose behalf he brought the case.

So Newdow filed an identical challenge on behalf of other parents who objected to the recitation of the pledge at school. In 2005, a federal judge in Sacramento decided in Newdow's favor, prompting the appeals court to take up the case again.

Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was part of the three-judge panel that ruled in Newdow's favor eight years ago, wrote a 123-page dissent to the 60-page majority opinion.

A federal court has upheld regulations that require cable TV companies to make channels they own available to satellite TV providers and other rivals on equal terms.

Friday's ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia leaves in place the Federal Communications Commission "program access" rules. The ruling marks a setback for Cablevision Systems Corp. and Comcast Corp., the cable companies that had challenged the rules in court.

Comcast has nonetheless pledged to extend those rules to the local NBC and Telemundo stations it would control as part of its proposed combination with NBC Universal. Comcast is seeking FCC and Justice Department approval to buy a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co.