[JURIST] Little more than two weeks after telling the Washington Post that he would not press the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, President Bush has publicly reversed course in tonight's State of the Union Address:

Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be re-defined by activist judges. For the good of families, children, and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.

To make our economy stronger and more competitive, America must reward, not punish, the efforts and dreams of entrepreneurs. Small business is the path of advancement, especially for women and minorities, so we must free small businesses from needless regulation and protect honest job-creators from junk lawsuits. Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back, by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims - and I urge Congress to pass legal reforms this year.

Year after year, Americans are burdened by an archaic, incoherent federal tax code. I have appointed a bipartisan panel to examine the tax code from top to bottom. And when their recommendations are delivered, you and I will work together to give this Nation a tax code that is pro-growth, easy to understand, and fair to all.

America's immigration system is also outdated - unsuited to the needs of our economy and to the values of our country. We should not be content with laws that punish hardworking people who want only to provide for their families, and deny businesses willing workers, and invite chaos at our border. It is time for an immigration policy that permits temporary guest workers to fill jobs Americans will not take, that rejects amnesty, that tells us who is entering and leaving our country, and that closes the border to drug dealers and terrorists.

Because courts must always deliver impartial justice, judges have a duty to faithfully interpret the law, not legislate from the bench. As President, I have a constitutional responsibility to nominate men and women who understand the role of courts in our democracy, and are well qualified to serve on the bench - and I have done so. The Constitution also gives the Senate a responsibility: Every judicial nominee deserves an up-or-down vote.

Because one of the main sources of our national unity is our belief in equal justice, we need to make sure Americans of all races and backgrounds have confidence in the system that provides justice. In America we must make doubly sure no person is held to account for a crime he or she did not commit - so we are dramatically expanding the use of DNA evidence to prevent wrongful conviction. Soon I will send to Congress a proposal to fund special training for defense counsel in capital cases, because people on trial for their lives must have competent lawyers by their side.

We will succeed because the Iraqi people value their own liberty - as they showed the world last Sunday. Across Iraq, often at great risk, millions of citizens went to the polls and elected 275 men and women to represent them in a new Transitional National Assembly. A young woman in Baghdad told of waking to the sound of mortar fire on election day, and wondering if it might be too dangerous to vote. She said, "hearing those explosions, it occurred to me - the insurgents are weak, they are afraid of democracy, they are losing. ... So I got my husband, and I got my parents, and we all came out and voted together." Americans recognize that spirit of liberty, because we share it. In any nation, casting your vote is an act of civic responsibility; for millions of Iraqis, it was also an act of personal courage, and they have earned the respect of us all.

One of Iraq's leading democracy and human rights advocates is Safia Taleb al-Suhail. She says of her country, "we were occupied for 35 years by Saddam Hussein. That was the real occupation. ... Thank you to the American people who paid the cost ... but most of all to the soldiers." Eleven years ago, Safia's father was assassinated by Saddam's intelligence service. Three days ago in Baghdad, Safia was finally able to vote for the leaders of her country - and we are honored that she is with us tonight.

[JURIST] The plaintiffs in a major lawsuit against former directors of WorldCom [Wikipedia profile] announced Wednesday that a proposed settlement under which the directors would have personally repaid company investors $18 million of a $54 million total has broken down. The collapse resulted from US District Judge Denise Cote's ruling earlier in the day that conflicted with a key provision of the agreement. The order [PDF] stated that any jury award from the pending trial would not be reduced by considerations of the defendants' ability to pay. The proposed settlement was unusual because it marked one of the few times directors assumed personal liability for company financial damage. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives passed a resolution [THOMAS text] Wednesday urging the federal government to appeal a recent 3rd Circuit opinion [PDF] that struck down a law that prohibited colleges and universities to limit on-campus military recruiting because of its discrimination against homosexuals. The law, commonly known as the Solomon Act [THOMAS text], permits the government to deny funding to colleges and universities if they prevent or limit military recruiting efforts. In November, the federal appeals court said the Act violated the 1st Amendment rights of the colleges; a sentiment echoed in a District Court opinion issued Monday [PDF opinion text part 1 and part 2 via How Appealing]. Supporters of the resolution see the recent opinions as threatening recruitment of highly-qualified candidates to all military branches, especially the Judge Advocate General Corps, which draws candidates from law schools. Opponents see the military's discrimination against homosexuals as driving away able-bodied candidates. The resolution passed 327-84, but is non-binding. AP has more.

[JURIST] Senator John McCain [official Senate website] announced Wednesday that he was launching a new initiative to tighten campaign finance laws [press release] to curb big interest-group donations to congressional and presidential campaigns. McCain appears to have gained an ally in Senator Trent Lott [official Senate website], chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. Lott voted against campaign finance reform in 2002, but changed his opinion after the recent Presidential election. McCain's latest proposal would limit tax-exempt partisan organizations, also known as 527s [Center for Public Integrity FAQ], by requiring registration with the Federal Election Commission [official website] if they raise more than $25,000 a year. The proposal [PDF] known as the 527 Reform Act, must be approved by Lott's committee before it goes to the Senate floor for a vote. AP has more.

[JURIST] Malaysian officials extended Malaysia's amnesty for illegal immigrants [JURIST report] indefinitely Wednesday based on a request from Indonesia, according to Home Minister Azmi Khalid. Indonesia, whose citizens make up a majority of illegal immigrants in Malaysia, asked that the amnesty be extended in light of the recent tsunami disaster [JURIST Hot Topic]. AFP has more However, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Wednesday that the amnesty deadline had not been extended, but said that the government will take a short-term "soft" approach to persuade illegal immigrants to leave on their own. Bernama, Malaysia's national news agency has more.

[JURIST] Members of the Idaho Senate [official website] voted against a proposal to ban same-sex marriages [text] Wednesday for the second consecutive year. The defeated measure would have amended the Idaho Constitution [text] to read:

SECTION 28. MARRIAGE. Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state. This state and its political subdivisions shall not create or recognize a legal status similar to that of marriage.

[JURIST] US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled Wednesday that the Central Intelligence Agency [official website] should comply with Freedom of Information Act [text] requests made by the American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] and turn over its records concerning the treatment of prisoners in Iraq. The CIA had argued that it should not have to comply with the ACLU's FOIA requests due to an exception in the law for national security interest issues or state secrets, but Judge Hellerstein said that the CIA did not follow the procedure required to claim the exception. AP has more. The ACLU has a compilation of government documents obtained through FOIA requests.

6:35 PM ET - Read Judge Hellerstein's ruling [PDF].

[JURIST] Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, Putnam Investments [corporate website], the eighth-largest US mutual fund company, may have to increase the restitution it had agreed to pay investors as part of the massive securities fraud at the company. As part of an agreement with the SEC [official website] and Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin [official website], the firm had agreed to pay more than $10 million in restitution and also allowed an independent consultant to determine the extent of the improper trades. The consultant is now reporting that Putnam may have cost clients more than $100 million, or 10 times as initially believed. Putnam will not comment until the consultant has finished his work. Read the SEC press release about the settlement. Secretary Galvin has more on the Putnam settlement. Reuters has more.

In other news...

• Connecticut's Resources Recovery Authority [official website] has recovered more than $111 million, half of what it lost in a failed energy deal with Enron in 2001. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal [official website] said he is working on recovering the rest of the losses. Read the Blumenthal press release. AP has more.
  
  
• As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, the New York Stock Exchange [market website] released a previously confidential report Wednesday that provides details of former Chairman Richard Grasso's [wikipedia profile] compensation package. Last week, New York Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos ruled [opinion, PDF] that the so-called Webb report was not subject to attorney-client privilege, and the NYSE released the report to avoid "almost endless litigation with regard to its confidentiality." New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [official website] is suing Grasso and the former chairman of the NYSE's compensation committee [complaint, PDF] over the compensation. AP has more.
  
  
• Bradford Bleidt, a businessman accused of stealing millions of dollars from over 140 investors, was found competent to stand trial on mail fraud charges. Bleidt also faces an SEC civil complaint [SEC litigation release]. AP has more.
  
  
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. [official website], the US government's pension insurer, announced it has taken over the pensions of US Airways' [corporate website] machinists and flight attendants at a cost of $2.3 billion. Read the Pension Benefit Guaranty press release. The Street.com has more.
  
  
• Tower Automotive [corporate website], a Michigan-based vehicle parts maker, has filed for Chapter 11 protection citing the squeeze on parts suppliers caused by high costs and a stagnant car market. Read the Tower press release. The Financial Times has more.
  
  
• Fiat SpA [corporate website] announced it has failed to settle with General Motors Corp. [corporate website] over an option to force GM to buy its auto unit. The failure to reach a settlement raises the possibility of a legal battle. AP has more.

[JURIST] A bill seeking to impose stricter standards on federal courts before they can issue subpoenas to reporters was introduced in the US House Wednesday. According to Congressman Mike Pence [official profile, press release on new bill], the Free Flow of Information Act seeks to make mandatory Justice Department guidelines for issuing subpoenas to members of the media and provides protection against compelled disclosure of confidential sources. According to the DOJ standards, prosecutors or courts must exhaust all efforts to obtain information from alternative sources before compelling the testimony of reporters. Pence said the measure is in response to several instances last year of reporters being served or threatened with jail sentences for refusing to reveal confidential sources. AP has more.

[JURIST] The New York Stock Exchange [market website] released a previously confidential report Wednesday that provides details of former Chairman Richard Grasso's compensation package. New York Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos ruled last week [opinion, PDF] that the so-called Webb report was not subject to attorney-client privilege, and the NYSE released the report to avoid "almost endless litigation with regard to its confidentiality." According to the Webb report, Grasso had too much control in setting his $187.5 million compensation package and took advantage of personal connections with the NYSE board of directors. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is suing Grasso and the former chairman of the NYSE's compensation committee [complaint, PDF; JURIST report], seeking to void the compensation package. AP has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Suit against former NYSE chairman Grasso sent back to state court
• Former NYSE head files countersuit
• Grasso to sue for full NYSE compensation and damages for leaks
• Former NYSE head sued over excessive compensation package
• Corporate brief ~ Spitzer prepares suit against former NYSE chief Grasso

[JURIST] The Kansas House of Representatives [official website] has given its preliminary approval to a proposed constitutional amendment [text, PDF] that would ban same-sex marriage and would prohibit the state from allowing civil unions or granting benefits normally associated with marriage to same-sex couples, by a vote of 89-28. A final vote to approve the amendment is scheduled Wednesday, and is expected to mirror the state Senate's approval of the amendment [JURIST report]. With both houses voting in favor of the amendment, the issue will go Kansas voters on April 5. Wednesday's Lawrence Journal-World has more.

2:14 PM ET - The Kansas House approved the marriage amendment Wednesday, setting the stage for an April vote. AP has more.

[JURIST] A European Union [official website] spokesperson said Wednesday that the EU supports the UN proposal [UN Commission of Inquiry on Darfur report, PDF; JURIST report] to try those suspected of committing war crimes in Darfur at the International Criminal Court [official website]. Listen to recorded audio of EU spokesperson Amadeu Altafaj Tardio's remarks. The US does not endorse the UN plan to try Sudanese war criminals at the ICC, and instead has suggested that the UN and African Union should create a special court [JURIST report] in Tanzania. Cihan News Agency has more.

1:53 PM ET - Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and International Development Secretary Hilary Benn released a statement [text] Wednesday, expressing its preference that the UN refer the matter of trying Sudanese war criminals to the International Criminal Court. Straw and Benn note, however, that the decision is ultimately the Security Council's, which includes members who have not ratified the ICC treaty. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Federal appeals judge Michael Chertoff [JURIST report] told a Senate committee Wednesday that if he were confirmed as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security [official website] he would balance "the imperatives of security with the preservation of liberty and privacy." Testifying before the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee [official website; today's agenda] in the wake of news reports that as head of the Justice Departments Criminal Division after 9/11 he had been instrumental in framing the Bush administration's policy on interrogations and torture - allegations which have since been denied by the White House [JURIST report] - he insisted that since the day of the terror attacks "the challenge of our generation has been to defend our country against the evil of terrorism while honoring our fundamental commitment to our liberties and privacy." Chertoff is expected to face stiff questioning from some Committee members, although his nomination at this stage seems politically assured. Read Chertoff's prepared testimony to the Committee [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Outgoing US Attorney General John Ashcroft [official profile, JURIST Newsmakers archive] took some parting shots Tuesday at a recent Supreme Court sentencing ruling and at critics opposed to renewal of the Patriot Act. Addressing a staunchly conservative crowd at Washington's Heritage Foundation [public policy website], Ashcroft argued that the low crime rate reported in the last several years was a direct result of diligent prosecutors and stiff sentencing that had put criminals behind bars. He warned that by setting aside parts of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines [official text], the Supreme Court ruling in US v. Booker [JURIST Gazette report] had jeopardized those gains. Ashcroft also said that Congress needed to renew key provisions of the Patriot Act [PDF text, JURIST Hot Topic archive] set to lapse later this year. Ashcroft said that those provisions were vital to the continuing war on terrorism. JURIST's Monitor has recorded video of Ashcroft's address. Read the full text. CNN has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The American Bar Association has called on President Bush to launch an independent investigation into "hundreds of alleged incidents of torture, even including murder, practiced against Iraqi civilians in U.S. military custody." In a letter to the President Tuesday, the lawyers' group expressed alarm at the reports, noting that the military in many instances had filed no charges against perpetrators or had taken no action at all. ABA president Robert Grey Jr. [official profile] wrote that an independent, bipartisan probe would set the record straight, concluding that "It is incumbent on our nation to preserve the rule of law as the touchstone of our government and of our national honor, both at home and in the conduct of our policy abroad. It would fulfill the mandate and the destiny that you described in your inaugural address, that of spreading democracy throughout the world...". Read the full ABA letter [PDF].

[JURIST] A second guard charged in the torture of inmates at Abu Ghraib [JURIST Hot Topic archive] pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges and was sentenced to prison time. Specialist Roman Krol, a Russian-born US citizen serving as an interrogator for the US Army, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and maltreating detainees before a military court martial. Krol was sentenced to 10 months confinement, was reduced in rank to private, and will receive a bad conduct discharge at the end of his sentence. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, Sergeant Javal Davis also pled guilty yesterday to Abu Ghraib-related charges; his sentencing hearing begins today. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi interim President Ghazi al-Yawer [BBC profile] has said that tens of thousands of would-be voters were unable to vote in the Iraqi elections [JURIST hot topic] because several polling places, including those in Baghdad, Basra and Najaf ran out of ballots. Abdul-Hussein al-Hendawi, head of the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, said that the "The elections took place under difficult conditions, and this undoubtedly deprived a number of citizens in a number of areas from voting." The IECI has established a complaints process [IECI factsheet]. AP has more.

Meanwhile, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Shia coalition, has said that his group has won "a sweeping victory" in Sunday's elections, but hasn't provided evidence of his claim. Hakim said his coalition would include minority groups, including Sunni Arabs, when the parliament begins writing a new constitution for Iraq. The Guardian has more.

9:32 AM ET - The Sunni Association of Muslim Clerics [RFE/RL backgrounder], which had previously called on Iraq's Sunni population to boycott the January 30 election, issued a statement Wednesday saying that the poll lacked legitimacy as large numbers of Sunnis did not vote. The clerics said that the new assembly therefore lacked any mandate to create a permanent Iraqi constitution. AP has more.

[JURIST] Bosnian officials have asked the US government to hand over six men detained at Guantanamo Bay after families of the men staged a protest in Sarajevo [BBC News report]. The six, all Algerians, were arrested in October 2001 on suspicion of plotting an attack on the US embassy in Sarajevo and were turned over to the US despite local prosecutors dismissing the case for a lack of evidence. A Bosnian court has ruled that the handover of the men was illegal and ordered the Bosnian government to compensate their families. However, US District Judge Richard Leon last week dismissed a challenge to the legality of their detention [opinion, PDF; JURIST report]. A Bosnian spokesperson has said that the government will pursue diplomatic means to secure the release of the six. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Wednesday, Feb. 2.

President Bush will deliver his 2005 State of the Union address [White House website] tonight at 9 PM ET, followed by a response by Democratic leaders Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid. AP has a preview of the speech. A live webcast is available via C-SPAN.

On Capitol Hill, the US Senate [official website] will convene at 9:30 AM ET today and continue debate on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for attorney general. Watch a live webcast of proceedings from C-SPAN 2. The US House of Representatives [official website] will convene at 10 AM ET today, with a live webcast available from C-SPAN.

Also today, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs [official website] will hold confirmation hearings for Homeland Security Secretary nominee Michael Chertoff beginnin at 10 AM, with a live webcast of the hearing available.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will deliver a state of the state address today.

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso will hold a press conference today to discuss a commission report on the Lisbon strategy [EU backgrounder]. Watch a live webcast at 2:30 local time [7:30 AM ET].

At the UN, the Security Council's monthly President Joel W. Adechi will hold a briefing on the Council's upcoming work for February. Watch a live webcast of the briefing beginning at 1 PM ET.

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, proceedings in the trial of Slobodan Milosevic [ICTY case backgrounder] have been cancelled today due to an illness of Milosevic. The trial of Fatmir Limaj and others [ICTY case backgrounder] continues today, with a webcast of the trial scheduled for 2:45 PM local time [8:45 AM ET].