Two U.S. Supreme Court justices are taking theatrics out of the courtroom — and into to a more suitable venue.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia will have nonspeaking roles Saturday night in a production by the Washington National Opera. They'll be dressed in black-tie attire and remain on stage for nearly 90 minutes during the opening performance of "Ariadne auf Naxos" (are-EE-AHD-nay off NACKS-ohs).

The opera depicts a serious opera company and a comedic troupe performing at the same time during a dinner party. The justices will play party guests.

Event organizers say Ginsburg and Scalia are opera lovers and have appeared in previous productions.

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft has asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling that he can be held personally responsible for wrongfully detaining people as material witnesses after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Abdullah al-Kidd, a U.S. citizen, sued Ashcroft and other federal officials after he was arrested and jailed as a material witness in a terrorism case against another man.

Al-Kidd was never called to testify at the trial and said the government violated people's civil rights by using the material witness statute to preventively detain people.

Only the portion of the lawsuit against Ashcroft is on appeal. The rest of the case is pending in U.S. District Court in Boise.

Ashcroft appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals after a lower court said the former attorney general could be held personally responsible if al-Kidd proves Ashcroft created a policy of detaining people with suspected terrorist ties without probable cause.

The AlabaThe violent North Carolina criminals set to be freed later this month because of a court ruling and good conduct credits have racked up more than 250 infractions in prison for offenses such as fighting, weapon possession and theft.

Department of Correction records reviewed Friday by The Associated Press show the violations go as far back as the 1970s but also appear as recently as 2008, raising questions about whether the prisoners are reformed. Each one of the 20 inmates has at least two infractions, and combined they have a total of 256.

They have repeatedly been denied parole.

The inmates are scheduled to be released Oct. 29 after state courts sided with one of the inmates, double murderer Bobby Bowden, that a 1970s law defined a life sentence as only 80 years. The state's Fair Sentencing Act in 1981 included a retroactive provision essentially cutting all those sentences in half, and good behavior and other credits have shortened the sentences to the point that they are now complete.

Bowden had argued before the Court of Appeals in 2008 that he had accumulated 210 days of good conduct credit, 753 days of meritorious credit, and 1,537 days of gain time credit. But the 60-year-old has also racked up 17 infractions in prison, including two for weapon possession, one for damaging property and several for disobeying orders.

The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered two estate planning companies and their co-owners to pay nearly $6.4 million, the state's largest-ever fine for the fraudulent practice of law.

The owners and employees of American Family Prepaid Legal Corp. and Heritage Marketing and Insurance Services Inc. of Columbus committed more than 3,800 acts of unauthorized law practice by participating in a "trust mill" operation, the court said.

The ruling comes about six years after a complaint by the Columbus Bar Association against the companies was resolved when American Family, Heritage and its owners signed an agreement in which they promised to stop marketing and preparing trusts and other estate planning services.

From March 2003 to March 2005, the companies targeted Ohioans 65 and older with exaggerated mail and magazine advertising aimed at dissuading them from obtaining a will. Sales representatives who were not licensed as attorneys to advise on estate planning gave "high-pressure" in-home presentations in which customers were told they would save money by purchasing one of the companies' living trusts, the court said.

The court permanently barred the California-based companies, and co-owners Jeffrey and Stanley Norman, from marketing, selling or preparing living trusts, estate planning documents and other legal services in Ohio. Other company employees were ordered to pay fines ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.

The court noted that it has found other similar trust mills illegal, and that such trusts may not be needed, may be insufficient or could be harmful for certain people.

The Supreme Court seemed receptive Tuesday to reinstating the death sentence of a flamboyant neo-Nazi convicted of murdering three men in Ohio more than a quarter century ago.

Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray told justices during oral arguments that Frank Spisak had a fair trial and deserves death. Cordray urged the high court to reverse a federal appeals court ruling that found Spisak's trial lawyer was ineffective and that his jury received faulty sentencing instructions.

Spisak, 58, was convicted of three murders at Cleveland State University over a seven-month period in 1982 — crimes he said were motivated by his hatred of gays, blacks and Jews. At the same time, Spisak claimed his crimes were sparked by mental illness related to confusion about his sexual identity. He wants to have surgery to become a woman.

The 1983 trial became a public spectacle as Spisak celebrated his killings in court and openly discussed his hateful views. He even grew a Hitler-style mustache, carried a copy of Hitler's book, "Mein Kampf" during the proceedings and gave the Nazi salute to the jury.

The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that Spisak's trial attorney essentially gave up on his client in closing arguments by conceding that Spisak was "demented" and "undeserving of sympathy."

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider reinstating the sex trafficking and forced labor conviction of a man dubbed the "S&M Svengali."

The justices said Tuesday they will hear an appeal filed by federal prosecutors in the case of Glenn Marcus, convicted after a sensational trial that dealt with mutilation and extreme humiliation. Arguments will be held early in 2010.

Last year, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the conviction violated the Constitution because Marcus was convicted of breaking a law, the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act, that wasn't in place when some offenses happened.

In September 2007, Marcus was sentenced to nine years in prison for abusing a woman he photographed for his Web site, which reveled in sadomasochism. She was identified only as "Jodi."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor took no part in the court's consideration of the case. She was on the appeals court panel that ruled in Marcus' favor and joined in the panel's decision. But she wrote separately to suggest that the ruling, though required by a string of 2nd Circuit cases, might not be in line with the Supreme Court's view of the case.

The ruling turned on authorities' use of the 2000 law to prosecute Marcus for incidents spanning from 1999 to 2001. Marcus' attorneys argued, and the court agreed, that the law was applied retroactively.

A Florida appeals court has chastised a judge for granting extensions in a foreclosure case for compassionate reasons.

The Third District Court of Appeal ruled last week that Circuit Judge Valerie Manno Schurr could not grant extensions solely on grounds of benevolence or compassion.

Schurr had given a Miami couple an extra month to sell their house. The judge said in court she understands times are bad and that she hates to see anyone lose a home.

The appeals judges ruled that the law doesn't allow compassion or benevolence alone to be used as the basis for such a decision. The court said the continuance was an abuse of judicial discretion and the one-month delay should not have been granted.

The house was sold at auction last week for $1.3 million.