[JURIST] Speaking Friday in Michigan at the end of a three-day policy campaign dedicated to tort reform, President Bush called for a halt to asbestos lawsuits that he said have bankrupted companies and resulted in dramatic cost and tax increases. Instead he urged Congress to pass legisltion establishing an $140 billion asbestos compensation fund to compensate victims of exposure. Against a backdrop of panels with the slogan "Ending Lawsuit Abuse" Bush was joined by Cardozo law professor Lester Brickman, who has written extensively on asbestos issue. Echoing the President, Brickman called the record of asbestos litigation a "national tragedy", noting that hundreds of thousands of what he called "largely baseless" claims had "generated tens of billions of dollars in payments, and billions of dollars in fee income for lawyers." The White House has posted the full text of this afternoon's policy conversation here. Bloomberg has more. Federal legislation setting up an asbestos compensation fund and limiting lawsuits was proposed in 2004 but died at the end of the last Congress when lawmakers could not agree on terms. Responding to the Bush policy campaign, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America Friday called on the President to address the asbestos problem substantively by banning the use of a substance that it says has killed more than 300,000 American workers. Read their press release here.

[JURIST] Updating a Wednesday announcement on Chief Justice William Rehnquist's return to work part-time, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said Friday that Rehnquist will not preside from the bench Monday when the high court returns from the holiday break. Rehnquist, 80, will be absent due to "continuing secretions caused by his tracheotomy and radiation therapy." The Chief Justice was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in October of last year and has subsequently missed about 25 arguments while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments. The spokeswoman noted however, that Rehnquist will "continue to read briefs and transcripts of oral arguments, participate in conferences, and vote on cases." As noted in JURIST's This Day at Law feature, today marks Rehnquist's 33rd year on the court. If his health allows, he is expected to administer President Bush's oath of office at his second inaugural on January 20th. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court announced Friday that it would hear an appeal brought by the Chicago-based accounting firm Arthur Andersen, previously convicted for obstruction of justice by destroying documents related to the fall of the Enron Corp. Andersen was convicted by a federal jury in June 2002 and was sentenced to a $500,000 fine and five years probation. The conviction was upheld in a US appeals court last year. Andersen's appeal raises several arguments to be addressed by the Supreme Court. The court will have to determine the precise definition of "corruptly persuades" in the context of jury instructions, and additionally decide whether the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation was an "official proceeding" as required by law. The court is expected to hear arguments in April and release a decision by June. Read the initial indictment against Andersen here. Reuters has more.

The Court Friday also granted certiorari in a case testing the powers of a patent-holding drug company to stop research by a rival pharmaceutical concern. AP has more. The Court's full order list from today is not yet available online.

4:25 PM ET - The Court's full order list with several other cert grants is now online here [PDF].

[JURIST] Following up on a report this morning in JURIST's Paper Chase, jury selection came to a close Friday after the seating of a 10-man jury in the military trial of Spc. Charles Graner, named by prosecutors as the ringleader of the alleged prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. The jury, consisting of four officers and six enlisted men, must return seven votes of guilty to warrant the conviction of Graner on the charges of conspiracy to maltreat detainees, assault, dereliction of duty. The jury selection process resulted in the dismissal of two prospective jurors, including Col. Allen Batschelet, who was excused when he told the judge that he was embarrassed to be an Army officer upon seeing the photos. With the jury selection completed, opening statements in Graner's case are scheduled to begin Monday. While Graner's trial is the first, three other soldiers face related prisoner abuse charges. AP has more.

[JURIST] Reuters is reporting that a US bankruptcy judge has rejected a United Airlines labor deal with pilots which would have saved the struggling airline some $180M per year. The pilots union ratified the deal only yesterday by a vote of 76.8 percent to 23.1 percent. Labor groups has critized the agreement because it imposed a 15% pay cut and allegedly paved the way for United to eliminate its traditional pension plan. Background information on United Airlines' restructuring is available from United here. The rejection of the UA agreement comes a day after a bankruptcy court canceled a collective bargaining agreement between rival US Airways and its machinists, achieving similar annual savings for that airline.

12:02 AM ET - AP now has a story on the bankruptcy ruling here. The text of the ruling is not yet available online.

[JURIST] The Sri Lankan government, concerned at reports of abduction and trafficking of children in the wake of the December 26 tsunami disaster that killed over 30,000 in Sri Lanka alone, has announced that adoption of children is illegal until further notice. A government spokesman made the announcement after a cabinet meeting in the capital, Columbo. He went on to say "Not even a Sri Lankan can adopt a child affected by this disaster until the government has come out with their programme...Even if they are relatives, they are not expected to take children without government permission." BBC News has more. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, UN children's fund group UNICEF has warned about dangers to children orphaned and left homeless in the wake of the international disater, and is working with authorities in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and elsewhere to ensure that child victims are protected against criminal exploitation. On Friday, UNICEF officials confirmed a case of child trafficking in Indonesia after the tsunami involving a 4 year-old boy in the devastated Aceh region who was taken away by a couple falsely claiming to be his parents. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Military prosecutors late Thursday dropped adultery and obstruction of justice charges against US Army Spc. Charles Graner on the eve of Friday's start of jury selection in his court-martial trial in connection with abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. In photos that precipitated an international scandal when they were released early in the spring of 2004, Graner, a former Pennsylvania prison guard and member of the 372nd Military Police Company, is seen posing with naked and abused humiliated Iraqi prisoners, in one picture even giving a thumbs-up sign over a corpse. The decision to drop the two charges in advance of trial may be part of an effort to focus the prosecution's case or may alternatively may reflect a lack of evidence. Charges of conspiracy to maltreat detainees; dereliction of duty for willfully failing to protect detainees from abuse; cruelty and maltreatment; maltreatment of detainees; assaulting detainees; and committing indecent acts stand. Graner's defense is said to be that he was simply following orders, somewhat problematic as under principles developed at the Nuremberg trials after World War II such a defense is impermissible. Graner's is the first Abu Ghraib-related trial to get under way. The court-martial is taking place at Fort Hood, Texas, where other soldiers involved in the abuse scandal, including Graner's colleague and alleged lover Pfc. Lynddie England, are awaiting their trial proceedings. Review the original charge sheet against Graner here. AP has more.

[JURIST] Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania; official website here) said Friday that he expected White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to be approved by his Committee and confirmed in the wake of Thursday's seven-hour hearing on his nomination for the post of US Attorney General. As reported yesterday in JURIST's Paper Chase, Gonzales was subjected to hard questioning by senators and harsh criticism by legal scholars wary of his views on torture and the Geneva Conventions, but the Bush administration is thought by most observers to have enough Senate supporters on the nomination to let it through. AP has more. Thursday's hearing marked the first time in the Judiciary chair for Specter, who was formally elected to the chairmanship earlier this week after an embarrassing controversy erupted late last year over his suitability when conservative Republican elements questioned his commitment to the Bush agenda. For his part, Specter has made a commitment to see administration-approved nominees and legislation through, but he nonetheless demonstrated some independence Thursday by being more indulgent of critical Democrat questioning that was his predecessor, Utah Republican Orrin Hatch. AP has more.

[JURIST] Israeli authorities Friday arrested independent Palestinian presidential candidate Mustafa Barghouti, a distant relative of imprisoned militant and withdrawn presidential contender Marwan Barghouti, as he tried to attend prayers at the El Aksa Mosque in East Jerusalem. He was later taken a checkpoint outside the city limits and released. Mustafa Braghouti is one of seven candidates running in the January 9 election to succeed late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat; the front-runner at the moment appears to be Fatah leader and PLO chair Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti was previously detained by Israeli security agents in December when he came into Jerusalem without a permit. Palestinians claim Jerusalem as the proper capital of Palestine but the claim is rejected by Isreal, which claims it as its own seat of government. From Israel, the Jersualem Post has more. The Palestinian Central Election Commission has official background information on the upcoming vote here.

[JURIST] John Bolton (official biography here), the US Under-Secretary of State who led the US campaign against the establishment of the International Criminal Court (see a representative speech by Bolton here) and later helped negotiate a series of controversial bilateral agreements with countries around the world that would exempt American personnel from its jurisdiction, is planning to quit the State Department, according to sources cited by Reuters. Bolton, considered a conservative hard-liner for his ICC stance and also for his positions on nuclear proliferation issues involving North Korea (speech transcript here) and Iran (speech transcript here), is said to have been hoping for promotion in the second term of the Bush administration, but that seemed to have been largely precluded Wednesday after Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice chose US Trade Reprentative Robert Zoellick as her deputy. Observers suggest that her choice may signal a less confrontational, more internationalist US foreign policy turn. It is said Bolton is pursuing other opportunities in the private sector. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] An alleged member of the Ku Klux Klan was arrested in Mississippi Thursday after being indicted by a grand jury for the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers that later inspired the movie "Mississippi Burning". The accused, Edgar Ray Killen is a now-80 year-old Baptist minister and one of eighteen individuals who stood trial in 1967 on failed federal conspiracy charges arising from the murders. On June 21, 1964, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, newly-arrived in Mississippi to advance black voting rights at the outset of what would later become known as Freedom Summer, were beaten and killed by a local mob on a deserted highway while on their way to investigate a fire. The Los Angeles Times has more. From Mississippi, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger provides local coverage.

12:30 PM ET - AP is reporting that Killen has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

1:15 PM ET - A full AP story on Killen's not guilty plea is now online here.

[JURIST] The Washingston state governor's race went back to court Thursday as voters filed two challenges to the recount results which gave Democratic Christine Gregoire a victory over Republican Dino Rossi by a margin of 129 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast (official recount results from the WA Secretary of State here). The state Republican Party is expected to file its own challenge Friday, focusing on the counting of disputed provisional ballots in King County (country election site here). King County election supervisor Dean Logan issued a statement Thursday discounting reports of discrepancies in the numbers of votes cast in the jurisdiction. Gregoire's inauguration is scheduled for next Wednesday. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer provides local coverage of the expected Republican challenge. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate and House of Representatives Thursday rapidly approved a bill that would give a tax break to donors to tsunami relief efforts by allowing them to claim deductions in the 2004 tax year for donations made prior to January 31, 2005. The measure is designed to encourage fund-raising to help victims of the December 26 disaster in South Asia estimated to have killed over 150,000 people; without it, donations made in January could not have been claimed until tax filings in 2006. The operative text of HR 241 follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. ACCELERATION OF INCOME TAX BENEFITS FOR CHARITABLE CASH CONTRIBUTIONS FOR RELIEF OF INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI VICTIMS.

(a) IN GENERAL- For purposes of section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, a taxpayer may treat any contribution described in subsection (b) made in January 2005 as if such contribution was made on December 31, 2004, and not in January 2005.

(b) CONTRIBUTION DESCRIBED- A contribution is described in this subsection if such contribution is a cash contribution made for the relief of victims in areas affected by the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami for which a charitable contribution deduction is allowable under section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.