The 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to immediately reinstate Washington’s rule that religious beliefs can’t block sales of the so-called “morning-after pill.”

A federal judge in Tacoma suspended the rule last fall, after pharmacists and a drug store owner sued due to their religious objections to “morning-after” birth control’s interference with conception. The state ruled in early 2007 that druggists who believe emergency contraceptives are tantamount to abortion can’t stand in the way of a patient’s right to the drugs.

The state and supporters wanted federal appeals judges to lift the suspension while it’s being challenged, but a 9^th Circuit panel of judges refused on a 2-1 decision.

Sold as Plan B, emergency contraception is a high dose of the drug found in many regular birth-control pills. It can lower the risk of pregnancy by as much as 89 percent if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex. Some critics consider the pill related to abortion, although it is different from the abortion pill RU-486 and has no effect on women who already are pregnant.

The federal Food and Drug Administration made the morning-after pill available over the counter to adults in 2006.

The Washington Board of Pharmacy says the decision to make pharmacists distribute prescriptions despite their beliefs was for all drugs, not just Plan B.

Lawyers for Idaho and Washington news organizations argue that the public should be able to know results of the psychological exam that will help decide whether admitted murderer Joseph Duncan is competent to act as his own attorney in his federal sentencing hearing.

In a motion filed in federal court in Boise, the groups also are urging U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge to unseal several documents that discuss why testimony from one of Duncan’s victims, Shasta Groene, should be heard in a closed courtroom.

The Spokesman-Review, the Associated Press, and other newspapers and television stations are challenging an effort to exclude the public from Duncan’s sentencing hearing if Shasta takes the stand, or the jury is shown a video taken of the torture and murder of her 9-year-old brother, Dylan.

Duncan faces life in prison or the death penalty for the 2005 kidnapping and molestation of the two children, and killing of Dylan.

Jury selection for the hearing is on hold until Lodge decides whether to grant Duncan’s request to serve as his own attorney. As part of that decision, the judge ordered a Boise psychologist to examine Duncan and report whether he is competent to represent himself. Lodge’s order for the exam indicates it will be kept from the public once it is filed.

Prosecution and defense attorneys are under a judge’s gag order that prohibits them from discussing the case.

(The Spokesman-Review)