[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has for a second time in three days rejected an appeal from Terri Schiavo's parents to have her feeding tube re-inserted pending federal review of her case. The ruling this time was unanimous; in a separate concurrence, Judge Charles Wilson, the dissenter in the first federal appeals ruling on Wednesday [JURIST report], wrote:

I concur in the result for the reason that the plaintiffs have been unable to come forward in their second amended complaint with any new claims palpably alleging the denial of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

[JURIST] In a startling turn of events in the Schiavo case that could be taken as either revelation or desperation, attorneys for Terri Schiavo's parents argued at a late Friday emergency hearing by telephone with a Florida circuit court judge that she told them last Friday - after her feeding tube was removed [JURIST report] - that she wanted to live. Attorney Barbara Weller claimed in a supporting affidavit [text] that she had been interacting with Schiavo and that at one point she told Schiavo that the matter could end if Schiavo could just say “I want to live.” Weller claimed that Schiavo responded to her, articulating the sounds "Ahhhhhhh" and "Waaaaaaaa". but could not continue. When asked by Judge George Greer why something had not been said about this earlier, principal Schindler attorney David Gibbs said he had been busy preparing for federal trial of Schiavo's case. Michael Schiavo attorney George Felos dismissed the contention that Terri Schiavo had communicated, calling it outrageous, a stall tactic and not reflective of any intent. Late this afternoon the Schindlers' attorneys also filed to have Judge George Greer removed from hearing any further motions in the Schiavo case on the grounds that he had persistently ruled against them over the past seven years and could not be impartial. Greer immediately denied that motion and said he would rule on the other motion on Schiavo's alleged statement by Noon Saturday. ABC WTSP-TV in Tampa has more.

[JURIST] The Nebraska Supreme Court [official website] Friday upheld a state law which requires mandatory blood testing of newborn infants. The opinion [PDF text] rejected an appeal brought by a fundamental Christian couple, Josue and Mary Anaya. The Anayas argued that the test infringed their religious beliefs and might shorten their baby's life. The test [screening program website], which requires pricking an infant's heel to draw five drops of blood, detects several disorders such as sickle-cell anemia and thyroid malfunctions. Nebraska Supreme Court Judge John Wright [official profile] wrote that the testing "does not unlawfully burden the Anayas' right to freely exercise their religion, nor does it unlawfully burden their parental rights." While the Court noted that parents have the right to make decisions concerning their child, it stated that Nebraska may intervene on the compelling governmental interest of preventing disease. Nebraska is one of five states that have no religious exception to such blood tests. AP has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers for Yahoo! Inc. [official website] have appeared before the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking legal protection for US Internet portals displaying content which is illegal in foreign countries, but is domestically protected by the First Amendment [text]. The hearing, held Thursday before an 11-judge panel, concerned fines imposed on Yahoo by a French court [CNN report] four years ago for allowing web-users in France to buy and sell Nazi memorabilia via Yahoo! France [website in French]. While the sale of Nazi memorabilia is protected in the US by the First Amendment, French law prohibits such transactions. At the hearing, Yahoo! specifically asked the Court to prevent the collection of the fine, which now totals $15 million and grows by up to $15,000 per day. While some judges recognized the need for a legal shield, others expressed concerns that the action is premature, since the two French human rights groups that sued have not attempted to collect. Yahoo lawyer Robert Vanderet remarked that all US-based Internet portals, when developing their websites, need to know the possible ramifications for liability imposed by foreign courts. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker will co-chair the newly-formed Commission on Federal Election Reform [AU press release], a private, bipartisan panel whose members include former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, former House Minority Leader Bob Michel, and former US Representatives Lee Hamilton and Susan Molinari. The commission will be staffed by American University's Center for Democracy and Election Management [official website] and is charged with investigating inclusion and integrity problems that arose during the 2004 election [JURIST news archive]. The panel will also examine the implementation of the Help American Vote Act [text] and propose recommendations to improve the electoral process. The commission's report is expected to be released in September. AP has more.

[JURIST] Washington's Supreme Court has ruled that a businessman cannot sue a TV reporter for defamation simply for omitting facts from a news report that could have made the plaintiff look better. KXLY-TV [media website] in Spokane, Washington ran a report in 1998 about the prosecution of man with Down's syndrome for allegedly harassing Eliot Mohr's business. Mohr sued the station for defamation, saying that the report unfairly portrayed him as a bully. Mohr argued that the omission of key facts, including threats made by the man with Down's syndrome, amounted to libel. In a 6-3 decision, the state Supreme Court said that defamation by omission is possible, but that "Merely omitting facts favorable to the plaintiff or facts that the plaintiff thinks should have been included does not make a publication false and subject to defamation liability." Media organizations supported the TV station, arguing that "the plaintiff would require courts to become 'super editors' by sifting through a reporter's research and interviews and imposing damages on a truthful publication simply because the reporter has failed to 'spin' the facts reported in the story in favor of the plaintiff's viewpoint." Read the court's full opinion [text] along with a concurrence [text] and a partial concurrence and dissent [text]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UK parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee [official website] released its annual report on human rights Friday, accusing the US of committing "grave violations of human rights" against prisoners in Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive], Afghanistan and Iraq. The committee has recommended that the British government "make it clear to the United States administration, both in public and private, that such treatment of detainees is unacceptable." The report also calls on UK officials [AP report] to clear up whether it uses intelligence passed on by other countries that may have been gathered by torturing suspects, saying that "to operate a general policy of use of information extracted under torture would be to condone and even to encourage torture by repressive states." The committee's report is not yet available online. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that Terri Schiavo's parents have now filed arguments in their appeal of this morning's federal district court denial of their second emergency request [JURIST report] to reconnect their daughter's feeding tube. In court papers they have told the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals that their brain-damaged daughter's due process and religious rights are being violated.

1:37 PM ET - AP now has more. Bob Schindler, Terri Schiavo's father, earlier made a brief statement to reporters on their Eleventh Circuit case [ABC WTSP-TV video report].

8:31 PM ET - Read the Schindler's appeal brief [PDF].

[JURIST] Results of a French poll to be published in Saturday's Marianne magazine [media website] show that 55% of French voters intend to vote against approving the European constitution [official website; treaty text]. This is the third survey in recent weeks that indicate that French voters could reject the EU constitution [JURIST report] in the upcoming May referendum. The percentage of those against approving the document is growing, despite efforts to avoid a negative French vote [JURIST report] made this week by the Council of the European Union [official website]. The EU constitution must be ratified by all 25 EU member states by November 2006 before it can take effect. AFP has more.

[JURIST] In Friday's international brief, Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro [official profile] told a press conference Thursday that despite a harshly worded 'letter to the people' [official text] released by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun [official profile] Wednesday, Japan would not respond aggressively to the current dispute over the ownership of the Dokdo/Takeshima islets; Chief Cabinet Secretary Hosoda Hiroyuki [official profile] mentioned the International Court of Justice [official website] as a possible solution to the diplomatic dispute. Disputes cannot be considered by the ICJ unless both parties agree to the jurisdiction of the court. South Korea [government website] has made no announcement concerning its positon on using the ICJ. Roh's letter announced a 'diplomatic war' against Japan and included references to Japan's current consideration of a military force capable of being deployed outside Japanese territory and warned that the resumption of military power was reminiscent of Japan's actions in the Russo-Japanese war, in which Japan imposed a colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. View South Korea's Dokdo issues page. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Japan and South Korea [JURIST Country news archives]. The Japan Times has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• An opposition candidate in the upcoming Zimbabwe [government website] national elections was arrested Thursday while distributing campaign literature in her district. Trudy Stevenson [official information], a member of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change [official website], currently holds the Harare North seat in Zimbabwe's Parliament [government website]. She was arrested while passing out campaign flyers with her son and five other party supporters when police arrested her for 'obstructing traffic.' Stevenson was held for six hours and had to pay an admission of guilt fine before she could leave. The arrest is one of many that have occurred, targeting members of the MDC opposition party in the build-up to the March 31 election. Harare was the scene of a near riot Thursday when police forces openly aided members of the ruling Zanu PF party attempting to place posters on the commuter busses, even allowing members to threaten drivers that tried to refuse. Human Rights Watch recently published a report [JURIST report] questioning the fairness of the upcoming elections, alleging that the government had undertaken a systematic effort to harrass and discredit opposition candidates. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Zimbabwe [JURIST Country news archive]. ZimOnline has local coverage.
  
  
• Deposed president of Kyrgyzstan [embassy website], Askar Akayev [official profile], spoke for the first time Friday following his reported flight from the nation during sever protests that ultimately resulted in the populace storming government buildings Thursday. In a statement released to the government news agency Kabar, Akayev denied that he had resigned and stated that his absence was temporary. Following several conflicting reports [JURIST report], former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Kurmanbek Bakiev announced Thursday that the Kyrgyzstan parliament had appointed him as interim President and Prime Minister. Bakiev announced that fresh elections would be held in June, but did not announce a specific date. Chairman-in-Office Dimitrij Rupel of the Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe travelled to the region Friday, planning to discuss possible solutions to the revolution and a restoration of peace and democracy in the country. Read the latest OSCE press release on Kyrgyzstan. BBC News has more.
  
  
• A UN report on last month's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri [BBC report] has called for an international investigation into the murder, saying that Lebanon's own internal investigation was flawed. Lebanese President Emile Lahoud responded to news of the report by encouraging the UN to "do what is necessary" to find the killers. Syria's ambassador to the UN expressed displeasure over the report however, calling it one-sided rhetoric and stating that the internal investigation was sufficient. Deputy Irish Police Commissioner Peter Fitzgerald authored the report, stating that the Lebanese investigation lacked sufficient support and resources to create an actual finding of fact. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] President Bush signed SB 384 [bill summary] into law Friday, extending the existence of the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group [official website] by two years, through March 27, 2007. The panel was established under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 [PDF text], and is charged with declassifying federal documents pertaining to Nazi war criminals. The new legislation is in response to the CIA's reluctance to release information related to the agency's Cold War espionage against the former Soviet Union. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A French court Friday ordered former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST Hot Topic] prisoner Ridouane Khalid jailed, and former Gitmo detainee Khaled ben Mustafa, who was already in custody, to remain behind bars. Both men were detained at the US military prison since 2002 until their transfer to France earlier this month [JURIST report]. Mustafa was taken into custody by France's counterterrorism agency [government backgrounder in French], shortly after his return. Both men have been under surveillance since their release from Guantanamo, and are being held on charges that they pose a threat to public order. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Army [official website] has announed that it has reopened an investigation into the death of Mohammad Munim al-Izmerly, an Iraqi scientist who died after 10 months in US custody. Al-Izmerly was alleged to have experimented with the use of poisons on prisoners during Saddam Hussein's regime. When his death came to light last May, the US military initially refused to discuss the circumstances of his death. Several people, including al-Izmerly's family, suspected that he was beaten to death [Los Angeles Times report]. A family commissioned autopsy reportedly revealed that the death was caused by a blunt force trauma to the head. AP has more.

[JURIST] The New York Court of Appeals [official website], the state's highest court, ruled Thursday that the New York City Fire Department [official website] must release portions of audiotapes and transcripts from 911 calls related to the 2001 terrorist attacks. Specifically, it held that the Fire Department must release the operator's side of the conversations, but due to privacy concerns, should edit out words spoken by callers. Additionally, the Fire Department only should release dispatches consisting of factual statements, as opposed to opinions or recommendations. Th court said the Fire Department could go to court on a case-by-case basis if it believed that specific information, although meeting the above criteria, should not be released because it would cause pain or embarrasment. The ruling came in response to a New York Times request to examine the tapes. Read the opinion [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council Thursday unanimously voted to send over 10,000 peacekeepers to Sudan [JURIST news archive] in an effort to monitor a peace deal [JURIST report] intended to end a 21-year civil war. The resolution sidesteps issues regarding sanctions for war crimes in the country's Darfur region. In late January, a UN backed council declared that crimes against humanity, but not genocide, had occurred in Darfur. Agreement on how to proceed [JURIST report] in Darfur, however, has been complicated because of US reluctance to refer criminal cases to the International Criminal Court [official website], a body that the US opposes. Although the peacekeeping resolution is not directly tied to Darfur, the Council is hopeful that the move will reinforce "the effort to foster peace in [the region]." AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge James Whittemore has denied a second emergency request from Terri Schiavo's parents to reconnect the brain-damaged woman's feeding tube. Whittemore denied a first request on Tuesday [JURIST report; PDF ruling], but after that was unsuccessfully appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court [JURIST report] lawyers for the Schindlers filed an amended complaint [PDF] on new legal grounds and sought a further stay authorizing tube re-insertion pending trial. Observers expect this latest ruling to be similarly appealed all the way up the line, although chances of success at any of these subsequent stages appear very slim.

8:05 AM ET - An AP story is now available here.

8:50 AM ET - Read Judge Whittemore's order [PDF], rejecting the Schindlers' contentions under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Eighth Amendment.

9:20 AM ET - AP is reporting that the Schindlers have filed an appeal, as expected.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Friday, March 25.

Today is Good Friday, and most UN, EU and many US government offices and courts are closed for the holiday.

The US Senate and US House [official websites] are in recess until April 4.