Montana's former tourism director who was fired last summer has filed a lawsuit in federal court contending her civil rights were violated.

Betsy Baumgart filed the suit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Missoula, arguing the state's Commerce Department violated her First Amendment rights by firing her for political reasons.

She is seeking monetary damages for wrongful discharge, emotional distress, and humiliation. She is also seeking punitive damages and attorney fees.

The Great Falls Tribune reports that Baumgart in the lawsuit contends her affiliation with the Republican Party was a factor in her firing.

A department spokeswoman declined to comment.

A hearings examiner last month upheld the Commerce Department's firing of Baumgart, ruling the agency had just cause.

An unusual court hearing on the constitutionality of the death penalty in Texas was put on hold Tuesday after the state's highest criminal court granted a request by prosecutors to stop it.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered that the hearing be temporarily halted so prosecutors and defense attorneys can file motions on whether the legal proceeding should be allowed to continue.

The hearing, which began Monday and was set to last up to two weeks, had been ordered by a state district judge in Houston.

District Judge Kevin Fine last spring initially declared the Texas death penalty statute unconstitutional after granting a motion in a capital murder case he is presiding over. Under heavy criticism, Fine clarified then rescinded his ruling and ordered the hearing, saying he needed to hear evidence on the issue.

Fine is a judge in Harris County, which has sent more inmates to the lethal-injection gurney than any other county in the nation.

Lawyers for the Houston man who had asked for the hearing had already presented two days of testimony on whether problems with such things as eyewitness identification and evidence offered by informants have created flaws in death penalty prosecutions in Texas and resulted in a risk that innocent people will be executed. They said their client, John Edward Green Jr., is innocent and the case against him uses some of the same faulty evidentiary procedures that have resulted in others being wrongly convicted. Green, who is awaiting trial, faces a possible death sentence if convicted of fatally shooting a Houston woman during a June 2008 robbery.

The Kansas Supreme Court has rejected a legal challenge involving a site for a proposed state-owned casino south of Wichita.

Iowa-based developer Peninsula Gaming said Wednesday the Kansas court's ruling resolves legal questions surrounding the company's proposed casino site in Mulvane.

The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to hear a lawsuit by the Sumner County Commission against the city of Mulvane over its annexation of the land. The decision leaves in place a Kansas Court of Appeals ruling upholding the annexation.

City officials in Mulvane have endorsed Peninsula's plan, and the annexation was necessary for the project to move forward. The county commission is backing a rival proposal from Ada, Okla.-based Global Gaming Solutions for a casino near Wellington.

The county commission said it still sees the Global site as superior.

The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a federal death row prisoner who wants the courts to consider evidence that one federal judge said "is virtually guaranteed" to show the inmate is mentally retarded and thus barred from being executed.

The court did not comment Monday in rejecting an appeal from Bruce Carneil Webster. He was sentenced to death more than 14 years ago and has since tried in vain to persuade federal judges that he is mentally retarded.

Evidence recently provided by the Social Security Administration shows three federal doctors determined Webster was mentally retarded when he applied for disability benefits in 1993, a year before 16-year-old Lisa Rene was kidnapped and killed.

Rene was raped, beaten and buried alive after her abduction was recorded in a desperate 911 call.

The Mountain States Legal Foundation has built a reputation as an influential behind-the-scenes player over the years on conservative legal causes.

It has waged battles against affirmative action and protections for endangered species while being bankrolled by some of the most powerful families in the West.

The group is now fighting a protracted legal battle with American Indians who believe the organization is trampling on their voting rights in a rural Wyoming county.

At issue is a local dispute over the election of county commissioners in Fremont County. Mountain States Legal Foundation has been representing the county pro bono for the last five years in a fight against American Indians who want greater representation on the commission.

That Mountain States has waded into such a local dispute further demonstrates the clout it seeks to wield in Western legal disputes, in this case arguing first that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 didn't apply to Indians in Fremont CountyFailing at that, it's now arguing on appeal that a federal judge can't order the county to create separate commission districts.

Federal tax records show that the organization's supporters in recent years have included foundations controlled by the Coors brewing family in Colorado and Philip F. Anschutz, a reclusive Denver billionaire with extensive holdings in railroads, energy and communications.

Mohammad Reza Sadeghnia, a purported Iranian government agent who pleaded guilty to trying to hire a hitman to kill a broadcaster critical of the Iranian regime, is a fugitive from justice after missing a Los Angeles court date.

Sadeghnia, 43, was granted permission to travel to his native Iran earlier this fall to visit his ailing father and apparently never returned. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to appear at Tuesday's hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court, deputy district attorney Ron Goudy said.

Sadeghnia's name appears among the trove of U.S. government documents recently posted by the WikiLeaks website. A confidential Jan. 21 diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in London says Sadeghnia admitted being an Iranian agent and conducting surveillance on two anti-Iranian government broadcasters — London-based Voice of America commentator Reza Nourizadeh and Jamshid Sharmahd, who runs Los Angeles-based radio programming for opposition group Tondar.

Sadeghnia, who lived for years in Ann Arbor, Mich., was arrested in July 2009 by police at a hotel near the Los Angeles airport. Prosecutors say he tried to hire a hitman to kill Sharmahd for $32,000. The man rejected the offer, police said, and agreed to testify against Sadeghnia, who pleaded guilty.