SO THIS PRIEST IS OUT GOLFING...
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Bruce Allen was the recipient of some urgent ministerial pleadings yesterday. Edward Cardinal Egan asked the judge to be lenient with a New York priest who converted the collection plate into a personal fund for “golf vacations and Rolex watches.” Msgr. John Woolsey made a mistake, the Cardinal said, but had been a good priest for 40 years. More than 100 supporters who paraded into guard with Egan agreed. A psychiatrist called by the defense said that Woolsey “grew up dirt poor in upstate New York” and became “entranced by wealth and the trappings of privilege.” Indeed. Allen is scheduled to sentence Woolsey today, the Daily News reports.

PROXY POWER UPHELD
An Appellate Division panel agreed unanimously to halt a constitutional challenge to a law that gives guardians of retarded people power to refuse or end life-sustaining medical treatment for those under their care. The petitioner was a 26-year-old retarded woman, whom three experts said wasn’t able to make health care decisions on her own. The First Department judges said her due process rights hadn’t been violated by the 2002 state law, The New York Law Journal reports.

SIMPLE TWIST OF FAITH
The Post is busy going absolutely nuts over slurs, insults, and other manner of affronts from the likes of Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in this fair city. But the paper did find the time to report that Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis says he’s “agnostic” about the claims of mobster Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano’s lawyers that a hit list – which allegedly included the judge – was really just a request to a Santeria priestess. The judge is allowing Basciano visits with his five-year-old son, but not an adult son, Vincent, Jr., who is suspected of helping his father communicate with the mob from jail.

SUPERSUE ME
A Manhattan federal judge ruled that two overweight teens – one from the Bronx – could proceed with their lawsuit against McDonald’s, the Daily News reports. They allege deceptive advertising. The suit has wound through the courts for four years, but Judge Robert Sweet decided that the plaintiffs had “sufficiently described” the injuries they suffered, including obesity and hypertension, from eating the fast food chain’s meals.

 
OF JAGs AND SANDBAGS
It is unconstitutional for Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, to serve as a member of Congress and a military judge at the same time, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington ruled this week. The New York Times reports via the AP that the decision may be appealed to the Supreme Court . . . The Times also reports that a federal judge in D.C. ruled in favor yesterday of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in a request by prosecutors to get classified information in the Valerie (Plame) Wilson case.

 
LEXBLOG: LAST GASP
As the Brooklyn judicial convention convenes, Maurice Gumbs, posting on the political roundtable, Room Eight, angrily attacked his projected winners of the Brooklyn judicial convention—calling party chairman Vito Lopez a traitor.

According to Gumbs, the Brooklyn and Richmond County Democratic picks for Supreme Court will be Acting Supreme Court justice David Schmidt, and three Civil Court judges: Karen Rothenberg, Jack Battaglia, and Dolores Thomas. As you mull over these choices, visit our Kings County election hotsheet for comprehensive coverage.

As we reported last week, these heated discussions will soon become moot as federal judge John Gleeson’s injunction is lifted after the election—compelling the state legislature to build a new judicial selection process.

 
SHADY WIKI-EDITS
In a neat bit of detective work, The New York Times’ Empire Zone blog digs through Wikipedia entries, discovering an interesting connection to New Jersey state Senator Thomas Kean Jr.’s website: “contribution logs show repeated editing of the entry by someone with a uniquely identifiable I.P. address associated with Tom Kean Jr.’s campaign staff.”

Excited about snooping through judicial wiki logs, we discovered that New York state Supreme Court justices have a negligible presence on the online encyclopedia. However, we enjoyed the pages for justices Doris Ling-Cohan and Edwin Torres.

 
JUDICIAL BEAUTY CONTESTS
Over at everybody’s favorite legal tabloid, Above the Law is still tabulating votes in the most pressing issue facing the judiciary this year: Who Is the Paris Hilton of the Federal Judiciary?  No news on how this ruling will affect the respective Wikipedia pages of these judges.

 
"At the current time, Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit -- the reigning male Superhottie of the Federal Judiciary -- has a strong lead. But his colleague on the Ninth Circuit, Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw -- the federal judiciary's #2 Female Superhottie, as well as its #1 Gay Icon -- is running right behind him (her Manolos be damned)."