[JURIST] The US Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought last week [JURIST report] against President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld by a coalition of US soldiers, parents of US soldiers and Congressmen challenging the authority of the President and the Secretary of Defense to wage war against Iraq absent a clear declaration of war by the United States Congress. Read the Memorandum in Support of the Motion to Dismiss [PDF text].

[JURIST] The US State Department has posted an updated fact sheet listing the 150 States Parties and Signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention [text]. Iraq is not a signatory.

[JURIST] Rustenhaven v. American Airlines [PDF opinion] (February 21, US 8th Circuit Court of Appeals [official website]). "In action arising out of the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420, award of $2 million for loss of consortium was not supported by the evidence and should be remitted to $500,000; award of $4.24 million in non-economic damages to plaintiff was excessive and should be remitted to $3.24 million.".... Alicea-Hernandez v. The Catholic Bishop of Chicago [PDF opinion] (February 21, US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals [official website]). The Court held that the Plaintiff-Appellant, an Hispanic female, served a "ministerial function" for the Church in her role as a press secretary for the Archdiocese of Chicago and that therefore her Title VII claims of discrimination by the Church based on her gender and national origin are barred by the First Amendment. "To rule otherwise would enmesh the court in endless inquiries as to whether each discriminatory act was based in Church doctrine or simply secular animus." On the "ministerial exception" generally, see Shawna Meyer Eickenberry, Thou Shalt Not Sue the Church: Denying Court Access to Ministerial Employees [PDF text], 74 Indiana Law Journal 269(1998).... Shaev v. Saper [PDF opinion] (February 21, US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals [official website]). "This case presents important questions pertaining to corporate governance and responsibility. They involve the application and alleged violations of Securities Exchange and Treasury Regulations with respect to shareholder proxy statements soliciting shareholder approval of executive incentive compensation plans."....

[JURIST] Law faculty and students debated affirmative action [Seattle Post-Intelligencer report] Thursday at Seattle University Law School [official website].... Also Thursday, law professors Doug Laycock and Lino Graglia went head to head on the same issue at the University of Texas School of Law [official website].... A new study by Canada's University of Toronto suggests that raising yearly tuition at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law [official website] from the present $14,000 to $22,000 by 2006 will not discourage attendance by poor and minority law students....

[JURIST] In a letter to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, the International Commission of Jurists [official website] Friday expressed its alarm at the arrest [BBC News report] of High Court Justice Benjamin Paradza in his chambers February 17 for allegedly obstructing the course of justice. Read the Commission's letter [text].

[JURIST] Glenn Reynolds is blogging "live" from the Marbury v. Madison 200th anniversary conference going on today at the University of Tennessee College of Law [official website].... On his Legal Theory weblog, Lawrence Solum of Loyola Los Angeles Law School [official website] rounds-up some of the latest work in legal philosophy from Oxford University, and disputes Judge Richard Posner's recent assertion (in dissecting the life and morals of US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas) that "One can be a bad person and a good judge, just as one can be a good person and a bad judge"....

[JURIST] The Harvard Law Review [official website] (which unfortunately does not publish online in full text) has posted a notice of its February 2003 issue. Read an abstract of Taxing Sunny Days: Adjusting Taxes For Regional Living Costs and Amenities [PDF] by Michael S. Knoll [no homepage currently available] of the University of Pennsylvania Law School [official website] and Thomas D. Griffith [faculty profile] of the University of Southern California Law School [official website]. The other article in the February issue is The Mechanisms of the Slippery Slope by Eugene Volokh [faculty profile] of UCLA School of Law [official website], a draft version of which is available on Eugene's website.