Texas state District Judge John Dietz held the Texas school financing system violates the Texas state constitution Wednesday, because it does not provide equal funding to both rich and poor students.

Texas allocates funds to its schools by siphoning money from wealthier school districts and into poorer ones. Judge Dietz gave the state legislature one year to replace the system. The text of Judge Dietz's decision is not yet available online. The Houston Chronicle has more. The Texas Education Agency has a school finance website with online resources here. The state of Texas maintains a school funding project website.

In Wednesday's environmental law news, the EPA has approved a final discharge permit for oil and gas offshore oil platforms located off the California coast. The new permit sets stricter limits for oil and grease effluent and will become effective on December 1, 2004. See the press release for more.

In other environmental law news...

• The Minerals Management Service, a bureau of the US Department of the Interior, has begun a field survey with the State of Massachusetts to provide a scientific mapping of the state-federal boundary off the Massachusetts coastline. The survey is expected to take a month and provide details that may impact resource management on the continental shelf and other statutory regulations. The press release is here.

The judge in the four year old USS Cole trial adjourned the case Wednesday until he issues his verdict on September 29.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the six Yemeni defendants. AP has more. The US Navy maintains a USS Cole page with background information on the briefings here.

US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ordered the US government Wednesday to release records about the treatment of prisoners in Iraq.

Judge Hellerstein, in stating that "no one is above the law," gave the government 30 days to comply with the order after he questioned its slow response to the ACLU's FOIA request for the documents filed October 2003. Judge Hellerstein's order is online here [PDF]. The ACLU has a website dedicated to the FOIA request for Iraq prison records here. AP has more.

The National Hockey League confirmed Wednesday that it would lockout its players on Thursday, an expected work stoppage that could effectively cancel the 2004-2005 hockey season. Team managements have demanded cost certainty, which players see as a veiled attempt at a salary cap, a move players have vowed to resist. The two sides had not met since last Thursday and had not been making much progress during the past year's talks.

According to League figures, teams in the NHL have been steadily losing money, $273 million in 2002-03 and $224 million last season, while players' salaries have been steadily rising. The lockout could be the first to wipe out the Stanley Cup championship since 1919, the result of a Spanish flu epidemic. Read the National Hockey League's press release announcing the lockout; the NHL website has extensive background information on negotiations under the Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players. The NHL Players Association has issued this statement responding to the lockout announcement. AP has more.

Circuit Judge P. Kevin Davey ruled Wednesday that Ralph Nader had to be removed from Florida's November ballot, finding that Nader's nominating party, the Reform Party, was not a legitimate party under Florida law. Judge Davey's ruling reinstated his temporary order last week keeping Nader off the ballot, which was suspended by Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood's appeal.

The state Supreme Court scheduled a hearing on the appeal for Friday. AP has more. Read more on Nader's struggles as documented on his website.

AP is reporting that peace talks between Sudanese rebels and the government broke off Wednesday after three weeks of little progress.

The Sudanese government insists that US criticism hardened the rebels beyond the possibility of compromise. AP has more on this story. Read more on the crisis in Darfur on JURIST's Paper Chase.

The Republican-run Senate Appropriations Committee approved a provision Wednesday that effectively blocks President Bush's proposed overtime rules. The vote comes less than a week after the House voted 223-193 to prevent the Labor Department from implementing out the rules, as reported last Thursday on JURIST's Paper Chase. The new rules have come under criticism on grounds that 6 million workers could be hurt by removing their overtime pay.

Proponents of the overtime provisions, part of the $145.9 billion spending bill financing labor, health and education programs, argue that the rules clarify who is entitled to overtime, thus reducing expensive and needless lawsuits. The language of the additional provision approved by Committee today and offered by Senator Tom Harkin, includes the additional overtime recipients as the original bill while allowing those currently entitled overtime pay to keep it. AP has the full story. For more on the proposed overtime regulations on JURIST's Paper Chase, click here.

Spanish police arrested 10 people near Barcelona Wednesday in an operation against "Islamic terrorism." Most of the 10 being held are of Pakistani descent, but police say these arrests have no connection to the investigation into the Madrid train bombing last March.

Fifty-five people have been arrested in connection with the Madrid bombing, and the arrests have focused on radical Islamists of Moroccan origin. Police also deny any connection to the detention of five suspected Islamic militants in France earlier Wednesday as part of a French investigation into the events of September 11th, 2001. Reuters has more. From Madrid, El Mundo has local coverage in Spanish.

A federal judge Wednesday denied a request from the Bush campaign to force the Federal Election Commission to act on complaints regarding private groups spending millions of dollars on anti-Bush ads. District Judge James Robertson said that although the FEC had moved at a "glacial pace" in handling complaints, he added, "That's the way Congress has set it up and apparently that's the way Congress likes it."

The Bush campaign had wanted the judge to order the FEC to act within 30 days on complaints that the campaign had made in March. The Kerry campaign has also complained to the FEC about 527 groups regarding the "Swift Boat" ads.

In Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, PIMCO mutual fund group's adviser and two affiliates have agreed to settle charges involving a failure to disclose payments made to brokers for promoting PIMCO funds by paying a fine of more than $20 million. As part of the deal, PIMCO and the two affiliates will neither admit or deny any wrongdoing. Read the PIMCO press release here [PDF]. Read the SEC press release here. Reuters has more.

In other news...

• Michael Felicissimo, a former Qwest Communications executive who the SEC has accused of hiding $112 million in accounting errors in the company, is negotiating a possible settlement. AP has more.
  
  
• As reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, Martha Stewart has asked a federal judge to allow her to serve the prison sentence as soon as possible. Read the open letter from Martha Stewart here. Read the press release from Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. regarding the decision here. Read the indictment against Stewart here. Reuters has more.
  
  
• JPMorgan Chase has announced it is scrapping a $5 billion information technology outsourcing contract with IBM. The move which the company concluded can be better handled in-house will transfer 4,000 IBM staff back onto the JPMorgan payroll. Read the JPMorgan Chase press release announcing the move here. The Financial Times has more.
  
  
• Gary Van Waeyenberghe who is accused of using his company, First Choice Management Services, to defraud more than 600 clients of at least $24 million through phony investment schemes from November 1999 to July 2000 is named in a 54-count federal criminal indictment alleging conspiracy, fraud and money laundering. The South Bend Tribune has more.
  
  
• The SEC announced it has settled with Bridgeway Capital Management and its president, John Noland Ryan Montgomery, in connection with more than $4.4 million in illegal fees Bridgeway charged to three of its mutual funds. Read the SEC press release here. Read the letter from Montgomery to Bridgeway investors here[PDF]. Read the letter from the fund's independent chairman to shareholders here[PDF]. CBS MarketWatch has more.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ordered Wednesday that the trial of former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic be suspended until October 12. Milosevic's recently appointed defense lawyers had requested the delay in order to prepare their case.

Milosevic had intended to defend himself, but the three-judge panel of the ICTY believed that could lead to further delays and appointed two British lawyers to defend Milosevic on September 3rd. Of particular relevance to the defense's request for more time was that several defense witnesses have recently refused to testify. The ICTY has further information about the Milosevic case.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

As reported earlier today, Martha Stewart has asked to start serving her jail sentence immediately.

A Manhattan federal judge had allowed her to stay out of prison while her appeal was pending. AP has the full story here.

The UN Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1560 Tuesday, authorizing the extension of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea until March 15, 2005. The resolution also approved recommendations made by Secretary-General Kofi Annan about the redistribution of military forces in the border demarcation mission. The offical UN press release is available here, the Secretary-General's recommendations (S/2004/708) are available here, download the text of the Resolution here.

In other international law news...

• The African Union begins the Second Continental Convention on Landmines tomorrow. The Conference will include leading legal experts from the African legal system and will work to creating a Common African Position based on such documents as the Kempton Park Plan of Action of the OAU and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction. The official AU press release (in PDF) is here.
  
  
• The domestic special court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for organized crime and war crimes has indicted an Iraqi-born suspect for war crimes committed in Bosnia in 1993. Abdulladhim Maktouf is accused of war crimes against Islamic fighters during the conflict. Maktouf's is the first indictment for the recently created Special Department on Organized Crime and War Crimes. See the report on the appointment of the prosecutor here. ISN has more.
  
  
• Unocal may be sued for alleged human rights abuses that occurred in Myanmar while it was building a natural gas pipeline, a California court ruled yesterday. Superior Court Judge Victoria Gerrard Chaney stated in an oral ruling that a jury was capable of making decisions about whether Unocal was responsible for the use of soldiers in the Myanmar area to allegedly enslave village residents to build the pipeline. San Diego Union Tribune has more.

WNBC in New York is reporting that a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking a special election to replace New Jersey governor James E. McGreevey, who announced his resignation last month after disclosing an affair with a male state employee.

Martha Stewart has announced at a news conference that she will enter prison early while her appeal is still pending.

Lawyers representing eight Iraqis who are suing defense contractors that provided personnel for Iraqi prisons are seeking an injunction against one of the companies that would prevent it from using untrained interrogators. Attorneys from the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a motion Tuesday requesting that CACI International Inc. be required to provide 16 weeks training for employees and to release information on employees to screen for those with violent histories.

In the recent US Army Fay report [PDF], three CACI employees were linked to the prison abuses and recommended gathering more information for possible criminal charges. CACI deployed 36 interrogators, with about a third lacking military interrogation training, according to the Fay report. The eight Iraqis have sued CACI and Titan Corp. alleging conspiracy to torture, rape and kill prisoners. CCR has a press release on the motion for an injunction. View the motion here [PDF]. AP has more.

Malaysia's high court ruled Wednesday that former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim could not appeal a corruption conviction and clear the way for a return to politics. The Federal Court had previously overturned a sodomy conviction against Anwar, freeing him from prison after six years, but the court refused to rehear the corruption conviction, citing no new evidence in the case.

Anwar already served his prison sentence for the corruption conviction, however he remains ineligible for political office under a law banning convicted felons for five years. His only recourse is now a pardon from the Malaysian king, which appears unlikely. Read the court opinion. The Free Anwar Campaign has more on his appeals. Reuters has more.

Russian prosecutors have charged Murpashi Kulayev, an alleged Chechen militant, in connection with a three-day hostage crisis at a school in the south of the country in which 330 were killed. Russian news agency Interfax reported Tuesday that Kulayev faced nine charges, including terrorism and murder, according to General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov.

Kulayev was detained by police following the end of the siege, and was shown on television saying that the objective of the attack was "to unleash a war on the whole of the Caucasus." Russian authorities reported finding the bodies of 30 hostage-takers. Mosnews.com has background on the Beslan hostage crisis. AP has more.

AP is reporting that three Americans accused of torturing prisoners in a private jail in Afghanistan have been found guilty and have been sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Previously in JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Trial of American vigilantes in Afghanistan postponed
• Trial continues for US vigilantes in Afghanistan
• Americans accused of running illegal prison return to Afghan court
• Americans on trial in Afghanistan for running illegal prison
• Three Americans arrested in Afghanistan for abusing captives

Here's a run-down of law-related events and developments on JURIST's docket for Wednesday, September 15th.

In the federal courts, US District Judge Garrett Brown Jr. is set at 11 AM ET to deliver his ruling in a lawsuit that argues a special election should be held in New Jersey to choose the interim governor to replace Gov. James McGreevey. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the case and AP has more.

On Capitol Hill, the US Senate will convene at 9:45 AM ET and begin consideration of the Military Construction Appropriations Act, 2005. Watch a live webcast here (via C-SPAN).... The US House Judiciary Committee will meet at 10 AM ET for markup of the Pledge Protection Act of 2003 (HR 2028) and the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (HR 4341). Watch a live webcast here.... The US House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution will meet at 12 PM ET to consider a motion to authorize the issuance of a subpoena to Custodian of Records, United States Commission on Civil Rights. Watch a live webcast here.

Internationally, the UN will host a 2:15 PM ET press briefing on "Focus 2004: Treaties on the Protection of Civilians." Palitha Kohona, Chief of the Treaty Section, Office of Legal Affairs, is among the scheduled speakers. Watch a live webcast here.... Also Wednesday, the UN Commission on Human Rights begins a two-day seminar on good governance practices for the promotion of human rights. Read the seminar's draft agenda [PDF].... Finally, Malaysia's Federal Court is expected to rule on whether it will set aside the corruption conviction of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. JURIST's Paper Chase has background and Bloomberg has more.

Wednesday's New York Times includes articles on reactions to Russian President Vladimir Putin's planned overhaul of Russia's electoral system, and on Tuesday's approval by the Republican-led US House of Representatives of a measure requiring sanctions against lawyers who file lawsuits deemed frivolous.

The Washington Post notes that Maryland's highest court on Tuesday rejected a demand that citizens who do not trust touch-screen voting machines be given the option of using a paper ballot in the November 2nd election; that a Madison, Wisconsin, student has been caught in a money making scheme based on fake parking tickets; and that a federal appeals court Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit from the woman formerly known as "Jane Roe" challenging the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

USA Today posts articles featuring the sprouting of lawsuits across the country demanding the removal of monuments to the Ten Commandments in public buildings in the wake of a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court earlier this year; a guilty plea to mail fraud by Scott Fawell, the closest political advisor to former Illinois governor George Ryan George Ryan, who has now agreed to cooperate in the government's corruption investigation of his former boss; and a significant snag that may have hit President Bush's attempt to create a separate criminal justice system for foreign terrorism suspects.

The Los Angeles Times highlights a Tuesday ruling by the US Supreme Court refusing to allow a Wisconsin antiabortion group to run political ads against Democrats this fall, and a Tuesday ruling by a California appeals court that television writers can pursue age-discrimination claims against networks, studios and talent agencies as a class action. The suit could effect as many as 6,000 writers over the age of 40.

In Wednesday's US law and business press, Law.com features an AP report that House Republicans have pushed through legislation aimed at reducing frivolous lawsuits.... The New York Law Journal reports on a Second US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that lenders who at closing charge home buyers marked-up fees for third-party services can be sued under federal law.... The Recorder reports that the CA State Bar Board of Governors has approved new rules allowing in-house counsel and legal services attorneys to practice in the state without taking the CA bar exam.... The Philadelphia Business Journal reports that Pilot Air Freight Corp. has agreed to pay the government $112,000 to settle a criminal tax obstruction charge.... FindLaw's Writ carries Columbia law professor Michael C. Dorf's commentary asking whether justice for celebrity icons can truly be blind, as well as University of Washington law professor Anita Ramasastry's examination of the proposed new e-discovery rules.

Click for the previous US law and business press review