[JURIST] Ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist plans to swear-in George W. Bush to his second term as President at the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC on January 20, the White House and a Supreme Court spokesperson said late Friday. Rehnquist has been undergoing cancer treatment since his hospitalization in late October and has not been seen on the Supreme Court bench for several weeks, although he has continued to take part in the court's work by telephone from his home. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Army announced Friday that the court-martial for Lynndie England, charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, has been moved to Fort Hood, Texas, from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Army said in a statement that the move was designed to facilitate consideration of several cases stemming from the prisoner abuse scandal, including those of England, Spc. Charles Graner, Sgt. Javal Davis, and Spc. Sabrina Harman. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court Friday granted certiorari in four cases on issues ranging from file-sharing to takings. In MGM Studios v. Grokster the court will consider whether suppliers of P2P file-sharing software are legally responsible for copyright infringement by computer users, as asserted by the music and movie industries. The Financial Times has more. In Medellin v. Dretke the court will rule on whether foreign nationals on death row in the US - including Mexican prisoners raising the issue - have the right to meet with a consular officer from their home country, as specified under treaty. AP has more. In Wilkinson v. Austin the court will rule on the nature and extent of state prison administrators' authority to tranfer an inmate to a maximum security prison, and in San Remo Hotel v. San Francisco, the court will rule whether property owners can assert a takings claim in federal court under the Fifth Amendment after being refused the same claim in state court. AP has more here and here.

[JURIST] Jim Taricani, a Rhode Island TV reporter convicted last month for refusing to reveal who leaked him an FBI video of a politician taking a bribe, was sentenced Thursday to six months home confinement. US District Judge Ernest Torres commented that Taricini's health - he is a heart transplant patient and is on medication to avoid organ rejection - was the only reason why he was not sentenced to a prison term. Taricini's TV station, NBC 10 in Providence, has posted his complete sentencing transcript [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that an Italian court has cleared Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of corruption charges.

12:45 PM ET - Berlusconi was cleared of one charge on grounds that the statute of limitations had run out, although the judges ruling suggested he was in fact guilty of authorising aides to influence a Rome judge in 1991. He was fully cleared on the second charge. A full Reuters story is now available here.

[JURIST] An international bar group called Friday for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to be indicted before the new International Criminal Court in the Hague for murder, rape, abduction, enslavement and other rights atrocities committed by his regime. The International Bar Association, an umbrella group of 16,000 members from hundreds of lawyers' associations around the world, made the call in a special supplement published in South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper and Zimbabwe's weekend Independent. Zimbabwe is not currently signatory to the Rome Statute of the ICC but the IBA hopes that a post-Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe might sign on and indict Mugabe at that point. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, just yesterday another group of bar leaders from Europe, Africa and the Pacific condemned Mugabe for having "subverted" and "profoundly compromised" Zimbabwe's legal and judicial system. Also yesterday, Zimbabwe's parliament passed legislation making it illegal for foreign-funded human rights groups to operate in the coutry, a move which the IBA condemned as showing "utter contempt for human rights" on the eve of International Human Rights Day. Read the IBA press release on its report here, and the full supplement here [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a mother who eavesdropped on her daughter's phone conversation over a purse-snatching crime violated Washington's privacy act. The court ruled that eavesdropping violated the act and prevented the introduction of evidence obtained through the activity. AP has more. The Washington Supreme Court's opinion can be found here.

[JURIST] The lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso over Grasso's $187.5 million compensation was sent back to state court late Thursday by US District Judge Gerard Lynch. Although Grasso's attorneys argued the lawsuit should be in federal court because the SEC regulates the NYSE, Lynch sent the lawsuit back to state court because no federal statutes are involved and the subject matter involves a violation of New York's non-profit law against excessive executive compensation. AP has more. The complaint filed against Grasso and the NYSE can be found here [PDF].

[JURIST] AP is reporting that President Bush chose Treasury deputy secretary Sam Bodman as Energy secretary.

[JURIST] The Ohio General Assembly passed a bill Thursday that caps damages and limits certain types of lawsuits that can be filed. Senate Bill 80 will limit pain-and suffering damages, certain asbestos liability and impose a ten-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits when it becomes law ninety days after it is signed by Gov. Bob Taft. The Ohio Supreme Court previously held caps on awards to be unconstitutional twice before, and the state's democratic legislators likewise expect challenges to this new bill. Cincinnati's The Enquirer has more. The Ohio General Assembly a version of Bill 80 as passed by the House here [PDF].

[JURIST] Speaking in Geneva on the eve of International Human Rights Day, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Thursday that the vision set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted 56 years ago was now "under considerable strain":

Few of us are free from fear; many of us are still not free from want. The sinister shadow of terrorism is generating a confused response, unanchored in the principles that have guided us in the search for a proper balance between our desire for collective security and our need for liberty and individual freedom.

[JURIST] The New Zealand Parliament has approved legislation recognizing same-sex civil unions. The bill, approved Thursday by a vote of 65-55, gives same-sex couples the same rights, entitlements and obligations as married couples and allows them to formally register their relationships under the New Zealand Births, Deaths and Marriages Act. It enters into force April 26, 2005. New Zealand's Associate Justice Minister David Benson-Pope, who presented the legislation, released a statement noting that

Marriage remains something solely available to a man and a woman. Civil unions offer an alternative to those unable to marry, or who do not wish to marry. Civil unions are to be a new relationship option that takes nothing from anyone else, while providing choice to people currently denied such... This Bill takes away nothing, but gives that simplest of things – the formal recognition and respect by our laws for the individual choices of New Zealanders.

[JURIST] The US Marine Corps announced late Thursday that after a five-month investigation it has filed desertion charges against a corporal who disappeared from his Iraq base and who later claimed to have been abducted and held hostage by Iraqi kidnappers. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun, an Arabic translator born in Lebanon, went missing June 21, and after appearing blindfolded in a "hostage" video turned himself over to US authorities in Lebanon 10 days later. Read the official Marine Corps press release. Hassoun will be arraigned before an Article 32 hearing, but no date has been publicized. AFP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a US soldier has pleaded guilty to killing a severely wounded Iraqi civilian, according to military sources.

8:07 AM ET - Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., was charged with murdering the Iraqi August 18 during fighting in Baghdad's Sadr City. He and other soldiers claimed that after they had attempted to save the injured man from a burning truck they decided that the best course of action was simply to "put him out of his misery." Horne is expected to be sentenced later today. A second officer, Second Lt. Erick J. Anderson, has also been charged with premeditated murder in connection with the same incident (see this previous report in JURIST's Paper Chase).

Friday's proceeding is but the latest in a series of investigations and hearings arising out of US killings of wounded Iraqis. Sgt. Michael P. Williams, 25, of Memphis, Tenn., has been charged with murder related to a separate August incident, also in Sadr City; he faced an Article 32 hearing Thursday. AP has more. On Tuesday this week, the US Army said that it would convene a court-martial for Captain Rogelio Maynulet, accused of murdering an Iraqi driver who had been injured by US soldiers during a militia sweep in May. JURIST's Paper Chase has more. The US military is also investigating the case of a US Marine videotaped by a news camera crew in November shooting a wounded, unarmed Iraqi prisoner in a Fallujah mosque who was said to be pretending to be dead. JURIST's Paper Chase has more.