[JURIST] DC District Judge John Bates Thursday ruled [PDF] that a US citizen detained in Saudi Arabia at the apparent request of the US government may have the right to challenge his detention in American courts, rejecting the government's argument that the challenge should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Lawyers for Virginia native Ahmed Abu Ali, a 23-year-old student held without charge in a Saudi prison since June 2003, contend that the US ordered Saudi Arabia to arrest and hold him so he could be interrogated under torture without recourse in US courts. The US denies the allegations. Bates has ordered federal lawyers to produce documents that will show whether US officials played a role in Abu Ali's arrest. AP has more.

[JURIST] California Superior Court Judge Harry Papadakis ruled Wednesday that the Transportation Security Administration did not violate the Fourth Amendment when it searched the checked luggage of John Perry Barlow, onetime Grateful Dead lyricist and current cyber-rights activist, and had him arrested for drug possession. Barlow's attorney had argued that while TSA searches may look for threats to airline security, they may not legitimately be used to effect unrelated federal policies such as drug laws. The defense was able to elicit testimony from airport police about collaboration between the TSA and the Drug Enforcement Agency to act on drug tips, but two TSA attorneys successfully lobbied the judge not to allow defense questions on the federal agency's operations because such information could "make it easier for terrorists." Barlow, a co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, now faces five misdemeanor drug possession counts. San Jose Mercury News has more.

[JURIST] Florida Chief District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled Wednesday that a policy subjecting all Florida Department of Juvenile Justice employees to random drug testing was unconstitutionally applied to an office worker, accepting the plaintiff's argument that testing should be reserved for employees who either create a suspicion that they are drug users or work in positions involving law enforcement duties or contact with juveniles. Hinkle did not order the department to change its testing policy, but held that it was unconstitutional as applied to plaintiff Roderick Wenzel. Department attorneys had argued that testing Wenzel was necessary because if he were a drug user, he might have looked up juvenile records to find drug offenders and then threatened them or their families if they failed to provide him with drugs. Hinkle rejected this argument, noting that "to call this defense theory far-fetched would be charitable." Department spokesman Tom Denham has said testing will continue for all employees. Asked if the department would continue firing employees who refuse tests, Denham said, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." AP has more.

[JURIST] In a rare political move, 84-year old Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi has refused to sign a justice bill sponsored by the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, sending it back to Italy's parliament for revision. The President's office issued a brief news release on the refusal Thursday (in Italian). Italian judges and prosecutors had gone on strike over the bill three time while it was in process, claiming that it would erode judicial independence. The legislation would have required lawyers to decide at an early stage in their careers if they wanted to become prosecutors or judges and would have prohibited back-and-forth switching that now takes place, switching that the government says results in case delays as well as a pro-prosecutorial bias in the judiciary. AFP has more.

[JURIST] In the wake of the debacle over last month's presidential run-off in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's office has begun a criminal investigation into the activity of several members of the country's Central Election Commission, accused of deliberately miscalculating the ballots and deliberately announcing incorrect results. The Ukrainian parliament formally called for the probe Wednesday. MosNews has more.

[JURIST] A French court Thursday sentenced 10 Islamic militants for up to ten years each in prison for their roles in a failed plot to detonate a bomb in a Strasbourg market on New Year's Eve 2000. All the men (including one said to be an associate of Osam bin Laden) were Algerian or Franco-Algerian; four others involved with planning the bombing were convicted and sentenced to jail time by a German court in March 2003. BBC News has more. From Paris, Le Monde provides local coverage in French.

[JURIST] Speaking at a White House economic forum Wednesday, President Bush called on the new Congress to pass what he called "meaningful liability reform" on asbestos, on class action, and medical liability by curbing lawsuits in these areas which said had inhibited economic and job growth:

...the cost of frivolous lawsuits, in some cases, make it prohibitively expensive for a small business to stay in business or for a doctor to practice medicine -- in which case, it means the health care costs of a job provider or job creator has escalated, or is escalating. [In the campaign] I talked about the competitive advantage that we must have in America if we expect jobs to stay here. The cost of lawsuits, relative to countries that we compete against, are high. In other words, the cost of litigation in America makes it more difficult for us to compete with nations in Europe, for example.

[JURIST] Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, now held by the US for over a year at a facility outside Baghdad and due to be tried for war crimes, had his first meeting with members of his Jordanian-based legal defense team Thursday. A meeting last week had been scheduled and then quickly canceled for unknown reasons; on the eve of the anniversary of his capture on December 13 a group of his former aides had conducted a brief hunger strike in protest of their lack of access to counsel. Trials for them are expected to get under way shortly, perhaps as early as next week. In a statement after Thursday's meeting, Hussein's lawyers reported that they had met with their client for more than four hours and that he appeared to be in good health "much better compared to his first appearance before the court" in July. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Wednesday that giant mortgage lender Fannie Mae, which finances the purchase of one out of every five homes in the US, violated accounting rules in respect of its handling of derivatives and some loan-related transactions between 2001 and 2004. Read the SEC release here. Fannie Mae has been under scrutiny by the SEC and other federal agencies for several months for various alleged irregularities. The SEC has directed the company to restate its earnings in light of the findings. Fannie Mae issued a press release Thursday in response to the SEC direction, saying it will "comply fully.". AP has more.

A Pentagon spokeperson said Wednesday that 130 US troops from various branches of the service have been charged or punished by the military in connection with the abuse of prisoners at facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay. More than 100 are from the Army, responsible for detentions in the two combat theaters - of that group, 26 soldiers have been referred to courts-martial, 46 received nonjudicial or administrative punishment, 13 received letters of reprimand, and 17 others were dismissed from the military. The Pentagon numbers came in the wake of revelations by rights groups earlier this week of additional abuses in Iraq and Afghanistan. AP has more.

[JURIST] In the landmark ruling Thursday, an extraordinary nine-judge panel of the UK House of Lords, Britain's highest court, held that the indefinite detention of foreign terror suspects without charge by the British government was contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights, incorporated into domestic law by the UK Human Rights Act. Reversing a Court of Appeals ruling on the question, Lord Nicholls wrote, "Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law." Lord Hoffman observed that "The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these." The ruling sets aside section 23 of the Antiterrorism, Crime & Security Act of 2001, the British anti-terror law adopted after 9/11 that had authorized the detentions, and will require the government to act on the cases of those foreign detainees now held. UK citizens are notably not subject to the challenged law, a fact that several law lords cited as problematic and discriminatory. Read the full text of the House of Lords judgment here [PDF]. BBC News has more.