[JURIST] An Argentine court Wednesday charged former President Fernando de la Rua with improperly allocating public funds for his own private use and for the use of his political party while serving in public office from 1999 to 2001. The court froze approximately $74,000 (220,000 Argentine pesos) of his personal assets; if convicted he could face up to 10 years in prison. Reuters has more. From Buenos Aires, La Nacion has local coverage in Spanish here.

[JURIST] The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that a law prohibiting criminals from profiting from sales of their memoirs controverted constitutional rights to free speech. The so-called "Son of Sam" law was deemed too broad, despite the state's compelling interests in preventing profiteering for criminal misconduct and compensating victims of crime. Justice Maupin wrote in the Tuesday opinion that "the primary impediment to [the law's] validity stems from its potential application to works only partially or tangentially related to the crime committed," and would therefore unduly limit free speech. The full text of the Nevada Supreme Court opinion can be found here. The Las Vegas Sun has more.

[JURIST] Updating a story reported earlier today in JURIST's Paper Chase, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Wednesday afternoon that 735 disputed ballots should be counted in the state gubernatorial race recount. The contested absentee ballots in the extremely close statewide race were from Seattle's King County, where hand recount totals announced later in the day gave Democrat Christine Gregoire a slim 10-vote lead over her Republican challenger, with the disputed ballots still outstanding. Read the WA Supreme Court opinion here. The Washington Secretary of State is tabulating the results of the recount here. AP has the full story. KGW News Channel 8 has ongoing local coverage.

[JURIST] A federal judge Wednesday lifted a interim hold on Proposition 200, the voter-approved initiative that would deny illegal immigrants certain government benefits. The temporary restraining order was orginally placed by US District Judge David Burry to determine the constitutionality of the proposition. AP has more. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the challenges to Proposition 200 here.

[JURIST] A Florida appeals court Wednesday upheld a $500,000 lower court verdict in favor of a former TWA flight attendant who had sued tobacco companies for health damage caused by secondhand smoke on airplanes. The case turned on interpretation of a 1997 settlement between the tobacco industry and nonsmoking flight attendants under which the industry agreed to pay $349 million in satisfaction of claims based on exposure to in-flight smoke before smoking before it was banned on domestic flights in 1990. Wednesday's decision, which will likely be appealed, could in theory clear the way for trials and damage awards in some 3000 similar cases. Read the full opinion of the Florida Third District Court of Appeal here [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Chile's Supreme Court Wednesday heard an appeal by lawyers for former president General Augusto Pinochet against a lower appeals court ruling Monday that had upheld a house arrest order against him and had found him fit to stand trial on human rights charges. Pinochet, 89, has been quietly released from Santiago's Hospital Militar where he was admitted over the weekend for a suspected stroke and was apparently read the Last Rites by a Catholic priest. Observers say the high court is not likely to make an immediate ruling. BBC News has more. From Santiago, La Tercera provides the latest local coverage of the case in Spanish.

[JURIST] Homemaking diva Martha Stewart called Wednesday for US sentencing reform in a Christmas message posted on her defense website. Stewart, currently imprisoned for securities-related crimes at the Alderson West Virginia federal correctional facility for women, said she herself was "fine, really", but directed her readers' attention to "the women here in Alderson [who] will never have the joy and wellbeing that you and I experience. Many of them have been here for years -- devoid of care, devoid of love, devoid of family". Stewart continued::

I beseech you all to think about these women -- to encourage the American people to ask for reforms, both in sentencing guidelines, in length of incarceration for nonviolent first-time offenders, and for those involved in drug-taking. They would be much better served in a true rehabilitation center than in prison where there is no real help, no real programs to rehabilitate, no programs to educate, no way to be prepared for life "out there" where each person will ultimately find herself, many with no skills and no preparation for living.

[JURIST] Troubled Russian oil firm Yukos will seek a ruling by a US court Wednesday against Baikal Finance Group, which purchased Yukos' primary subsidiary in a Sunday auction. Yukos said it would seek $20 billion in damages from those involved in the auction and to have Baikal's assets frozen, after the Russian government sold the Yuganskneftegas production unit against a US court order last week. Read the company's press release. Since the sale, many in the industry questioned the relative unknown Baikal's motives in purchasing the company, with some alleging that the company was a front for other oil producing companies. Some Russian newspapers have linked the company to Surgutneftegas, the fourth largest oil producer in Russia. State oil firm Gazprom announced Tuesday that it sold its holding company that took part in the Yukos auction to avoid penalties for ignoring the US court order. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of the Yukos case. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The WA Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday on disputed King County ballots in the still-undecided governor's race. The court's decision on the 730 ballots could decide the race, which Republican state Sen. Dino Rossi currently leads by 51 votes over Democratic state Attorney General Christine Gregoire according to the recount. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports that state Democrats said Tuesday that Gregoire will win the election after King County announces the results of its recount, but county election officials said the announcement was premature. King County is scheduled to announce recount results Wednesday afternoon, although it can't certify the results until the Supreme Court hands down its decision. The disputed ballots were mailed by absentee voters, but signatures on the ballots did not match voter registration signatures in the county computers. The County election director said the signatures were never entered into the computer. Recount results are available here. Watch a live webcast of the arguments via C-SPAN at 12:30 PM ET (9:30 AM PT). CNN has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase....

• WA Supreme Court to hear appeal over disputed ballots, Democrats say
• Judge blocks hand count of misplaced ballots in Washington governor race
• Washington Supreme Court rejects Democratic ballot bid
• Democrats to pay for full statewide hand recount of Washington votes for governor

[JURIST] President Bush has granted four more pardons, bringing his total to 31 since taking office, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday. Bush has issued far fewer clemency orders than either President Clinton or his father, George H.W. Bush, who issued 77 during his term in office. Modern presidents have typically granted hundreds to thousands of pardons while in office, with Franklin D. Roosevelt granting 3,687 during his four terms. AP has more.

[JURIST] A CA judge will hear arguments Wednesday in San Francisco's challenge to a state law banning same-sex marriage. San Francisco drew the national spotlight when it issued about 4,000 same-sex marriage licenses in February and March, but the CA Supreme Court halted the practice, although it did not rule on the constitutionality of the state law. The hearing before San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer will be the first on whether the state ban on same-sex marriage violates couples' constitutional rights. Defending the law is Attorney General Bill Lockyer and two The San Francisco Chronicle has more on the case. JURIST's Paper Chase has more on same-sex marriage. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] The European Court of First Instance ruled Wednesday that antitrust penalties against Microsoft should be upheld as the computer giant appeals the European Commission's ruling from March. According to the ruling by Judge Bo Vesterdorf, Microsoft did not demonstrate that "it might suffer serious and irreparable damage as a result of the implementation of the contested decision." Read the court's full ruling and a court press release [PDF]. Microsoft has a statement on the ruling as well. The March ruling, which found Microsoft in violation of antitrust laws, ordered the company to offer a version of Windows without its own MediaPlayer software and to offer rivals information about its operating system so they can create software compatible with Windows. As a result, Microsoft has said it will comply with the order as it appeals that ruling, a process that could take up to four or five years. BBC News has background on the EU case against Microsoft. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Microsoft. The Financial Times has more.