The last of seven New York teenagers implicated in the hate crime killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant pleaded guilty on Wednesday.

Anthony Hartford's plea to gang assault and other charges closes the prosecution phase of a case that attracted international headlines and prompted an ongoing U.S. Justice Department probe of police responses to bias crimes. The judge indicated Hartford would likely face 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 20.

The 18-year-old admitted being with a group that targeted Hispanics for violence in November 2008. Their attacks culminated in the killing of immigrant Marcelo Lucero in Patchogue.

"He's never denied being involved," said defense attorney Laurence Silverman. "He's never denied that it was wrong to be involved."

A week ago, 19-year-old Jeffrey Conroy was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his conviction on manslaughter as a hate crime. Five others are awaiting sentencing.

A federal judge says a New York school must reinstate a 13-year-old boy who was suspended for wearing rosary beads.

Judge Lawrence Kahn ordered the Schenectady (skeh-NEHK'-ta-dee) seventh-grader reinstated pending a June 11 hearing into whether the suspension violated the boy's civil rights.

Oneida (oh-NY'-duh) Middle School officials contend Raymond Hosier violated a policy banning gang-related clothing because the prayer beads sometimes are worn as gang symbols. They suspended him two weeks ago.

But the boy says he wears the purple rosary in memory of his younger brother, who died while clutching it after a bicycle accident.

The American Center for Law and Justice filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court contending the suspension violated Hosier's rights to free speech and religious expression.

Forty-eight states and the District of Columbia have submitted a brief to the Supreme Court in support of a father who sued anti-gay protesters over their demonstration at the 2006 funeral of his son, a Marine killed in Iraq.

Only Virginia and Maine declined to sign the brief by the Kansas attorney general.

Albert Snyder sued over protests by the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church at his son's funeral in Maryland. The church pickets funerals because they believe war deaths are punishment for U.S. tolerance of homosexuality.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the protesters' message is protected by the First Amendment.

In the brief filed Tuesday, the states argued they have a compelling interest in protecting the sanctity of funerals.

A federal judge has ruled two Connecticut public high schools can't hold their graduations inside a church because that would be an unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall made the ruling Monday in the case of Enfield High School and Enrico Fermi High School, both in Enfield.

The Enfield school board says it voted to hold services June 23 and 24 at The First Cathedral in Bloomfield because it had enough space at the right price. But two students and three of their parents sued.

The judge says Enfield had unconstitutionally entangled itself with religion by agreeing to cover much of the church's religious imagery. She also says the town coerced the plaintiffs to support religion by forcing them to enter the church for graduation.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block a lawsuit against a former prime minister of Somalia over claims that he oversaw killings and torture in his home country.

The high court said it will allow lawsuits against Mohamed Ali Samantar to go forward despite his claims of immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. However, the court warned that the U.S. District Court will have to decide whether Samantar can access other claims of immunity that could stop the trial.

The court's decision could have broad foreign policy implications. Allowing lawsuits against former foreign officials living in the United States could increase the likelihood that U.S. officials would be sued in overseas courts. An increase in the number of U.S. lawsuits dealing with past actions in foreign countries could also affect the United States' current ties with those countries.

Samantar was defense minister and prime minister of Somalia in the 1980s and early 1990s under dictator Siad Barre.

He now lives in Virginia. He is being sued under the Torture Victim Protection Act by Somalis living in the United States who were subjected to persecution in the 1980s. They say Samantar was in charge of military forces who tortured, killed or detained them or members of their families.

A 10-page order signed on Wednesday by Los Angeles County Superior Judge Carl West also recommends that the state-based litigation, consisting of consumer-fraud class actions and personal injury claims, be assigned to a single judge in neighboring Orange County.

The order lists 40 separate cases filed so far in California courts against the Japanese automaker seeking damages for sudden, unintended acceleration of Toyota vehicles, said Aldwin Lim, a court clerk.

A final decision on assigning the cases rests with the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, Ronald George, and he is expected to render his decision in two to three weeks.

Complaints of runaway vehicles and other safety issues have led to the recall of more than 8.5 million Toyota vehicles worldwide, most for repairs of ill-fitting floor mats and sticking gas pedals the automaker blames for surging engines.

At a hearing before West on Tuesday, a lawyer for Toyota Motor Corp urged the judge to order all the California court cases to be sent to Orange County, the same jurisdiction where over 100 separate Toyota cases brought in U.S. district courts around the country have been assigned to a single federal judge.

Judges at the court said in a report that Sudan has refused to hand over Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ahmed Harun and Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb.

"After taking all possible measures to ensure the cooperation of the Republic of the Sudan, the Chamber concludes that the Republic of the Sudan is failing to comply with its cooperation obligations," the report said.

The court ordered the men arrested in 2007 on a total of 51 charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.