SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) – A Santa Cruz court is slated to hear a custody dispute between former lesbian partners in which the biological mother has become romantically involved with the sperm donor father of her 10-month-old twins.

Kim T. Smith of Santa Cruz has sued for joint custody of the twins, saying she and former partner Maggie Quale agreed to raise the boys together.

Qaule and the boy’s biological father, 28-year-old Shawn Wallace, now live together and argue they should be able to fully parent the children.

Quale and Smith never registered as domestic partners with the state. But the two women are listed as the boys’ parents on their birth certificates, and the twins carry the hyphenated last name Quale-Smith.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Jan. 29.

Smith’s attorney said she had never heard of a case in which a biological mother has tried to “sub in” the biological father following the break-up of a lesbian relationship.

“If they won, we would consider it a very dangerous precedent for lesbian couples having children with the assistance of known sperm donors,” said Deborah Wald, a family law attorney who is representing smith along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

Quale’s attorney, Darlene Kemp, said the dispute was not about gay rights.

“It’s being turned it into something political, when it’s not that at all,” Kemp said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with sexual orientation. She doesn’t meet the criteria of a presumed parent.”

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – The independent student newspaper for the University of Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College has published a staff editorial apologizing for a cartoon that made a joke about violence against gays.

The editorial Friday says The Observer newspaper created an “egregious” error in judgment when it published the cartoon Wednesday.

The newspaper also ran an apology from the cartoon’s writers. They say the cartoon was meant to address intolerance of homosexuality on the Catholic university’s campus but was offensive.

The cartoon depicts a conversation that says the “easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable” is with “a baseball bat.”

Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins issued a statement condemning the cartoon.

Assistant managing editor Aaron Steiner says an internal review is under way.

HOUMA, La. (AP) – The sheriff of Terrebonne Parish says the Christmas day murder of a Houma bar manager was likely not a hate crime.

Still, the motive in the stabbing death of 39-year-old Robert LeCompte hasn’t been determined.

LeCompte was the manager of a gay bar called The Drama Club. His body was found there early Christmas morning. More than $4,000 in club money was missing.

Sheriff Vernon Bourgeois, detectives have interviewed current and former Drama Club employees, frequent customers and LeCompte’s friends.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A new U.S. marshal was sworn in for Minnesota on Friday.

When Sharon Lubinski took the oath of office, she became the first openly gay U.S. marshal in the country, and the first female to hold the post in Minnesota.

Lubinski has 31 years of law enforcement experience and was most recently the assistant police chief in Minneapolis.

Lubinski was sworn in at 10 a.m. at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis. Speakers at the ceremony included Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis, and retired Minneapolis and Bloomington police Chief John Laux.

The U.S. marshal has a key role in the federal justice system, overseeing federal courthouse security, witness protection, the apprehension of federal fugitives and the transport of federal prisoners.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The bishop of the South Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says seven congregations in the state have taken initial steps toward leaving the country’s largest Lutheran denomination over its policy to allow gay clergy.

The Rev. David Zellmer says he also has been asked to lead the entire synod into a new denomination. But he says that won’t happen, no matter his own misgivings about the decision.

Zellmer says this is not the first time he has been upset with the church, but he has never wanted to leave.

ELCA convention delegates in August voted to lift a ban prohibiting gay and lesbian pastors who were not celibate from serving as clergy. The new policy will allow such people to lead ELCA churches as long as they are in committed, lifelong relationships.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court decided Friday it would get involved for the second time this week in a case in which opponents of gay rights fear they will be harassed if their views are made public.

The high court will consider whether Washington state officials can release more than 138,500 names on a petition seeking a vote on overturning the state’s domestic partnership rights.

Protect Marriage Washington, which unsuccessfully opposed the law giving gay couples expanded rights, wants to shield from disclosure the signers of the petition for a referendum on that law. The group says it fears harassment by gay rights supporters, some of whom have vowed to post signers’ names on the Internet.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco has said the names could be made public, but the Supreme Court blocked their release until it decided whether to hear the case.

Justices earlier this week intervened in another case where gay rights opponents complained about potential harassment.

The court’s conservative majority decided to block the televising of a trial on California’s ban of same-sex marriage. Lawyers representing opponents of gay marriage argued that broadcasts would expose their trial witnesses to retaliation from gay marriage supporters.

In Washington state, Referendum 71 asked voters to approve or reject the so-called “everything but marriage” law, which grants registered domestic partners the same legal rights as married couples.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court on Wednesday indefinitely blocked cameras from covering the high-profile federal court trial on the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

The high court split 5-4 Wednesday, with the conservative justices in the majority.

Now in its third day, the trial in federal court in San Francisco concerns the state’s voter-approved ban on gay marriage.

The presiding judge, Vaughn R. Walker, had proposed posting recordings of the trial on the court’s Web site after several hours of delay and allowing real-time streaming of the proceedings for viewing in other federal courthouses in California, New York, Oregon and Washington.

On Monday, the Supreme Court responded to an emergency plea from gay marriage opponents and temporarily prohibited any Internet postings or real-time streaming of the trial. The court had said it needed more time to consider the issue.

In an unsigned opinion Wednesday, the court criticized Walker for attempting to change the rules “at the eleventh hour to treat this case differently than other trials.”

While the court set no time limit in its ruling, any further proceedings at high court likely would come after the trial was over.

The four justices in dissent were Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and John Paul Stevens.

In a dissent written by Breyer, they said the high court should have stayed out of the issue.

Breyer said “the public interest weighs in favor of providing access to the courts.”

The court’s majority, though not identified in the ruling, consists of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Though all 50 states allow cameras into some state-level court proceedings, federal courts from the high court on down have for decades generally refused to admit cameras into courtrooms.

Most federal courts say they fear broadcasts will diminish the system’s dignity, could unfairly influence rulings and disrupt proceedings. There is also concern that judges, lawyers and witnesses will pander to the camera while potential jurors will shy away from serving out of concern they will be identified.

Congress has failed several times to pass bills introduced to specifically allow the technology in the federal courts, though a new proposal with bipartisan support to allow cameras is pending before the U.S. Senate’s Judiciary Committee.