[JURIST] Federal prosecutors argued Monday that it would be in the public interest for former Enron [corporate website; JURIST news archive] CEO Kenneth Lay [Wikipedia profile; Lay defense website] to face trial this summer - no later than June - on bank fraud charges. The government cited Lay's repeated assurances that he is prepared to stand trial and hopes for a speedy resolution to his legal fight. Despite his earlier public requests for a trial separate from others charged in the Enron scandal, Lay has since proposed that his bank fraud trial take place two months after the conclusion of the larger conspiracy and fraud trial of Lay and his Enron co-defendants. AP has more.

[JURIST] California's Third District Court of Appeal Monday rejected a challenge to the state's domestic partnership law [text] granting same-sex partners a body of rights almost identical to those enjoyed by the state's married couples, including automatic parental status and responsibility for each others debts. The suit, brought by the Alliance Defense Fund [advocacy website] and other conservative groups, argued that the new domestic partnership law violates the state's Defense of Marriage Act [Proposition 22 text], passed by voters in 2000. The Court held:

the plain and unambiguous language of Proposition 22 shows that the initiative was intended only to limit the status of marriage to heterosexual couples and to prevent the recognition in California of homosexual marriages that have been, or may in the future be, legitimized by laws of other jurisdictions. The words of Proposition 22, and also its ballot pamphlet materials, do not express an intent to repeal our state’s then-existing domestic partners laws or to limit the Legislature’s authority to enact other legislation regulating such unions. If this were the intention of proponents of Proposition 22, the electorate was not given the opportunity to vote on that undisclosed objective, and courts are precluded from interpreting Proposition 22 in a manner that was not presented to the voters.

[JURIST] The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) [official website] has confirmed that prisoners at Camp Bucca [Wikipedia entry], a US-run detention camp in southern Iraq, rioted on April 1 despite an initial US military denial of any incident. An ICRC delegation was at the camp conducting a regular prisoner visit the day of the riot. The Red Cross said it would follow up on the situation. The riot was first reported by a representative of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr [BBC profile] who said detainees had rioted after one of them had been denied medical treatment and also accused US soldiers of firing rubber bullets at detainees, wounding an undetermined number. This is the second reported riot at Camp Bucca [JURIST report] this year; inmates, relatives and human rights groups have complained of overcrowding at this and other US-run Iraqi detention centers, especially since security sweeps done in advance of the January 30 elections. AFP has more.

7:40 PM ET - The US military said late Monday that four guards and twelve detainees at Camp Bucca were injured when prisoners protested the transfer of several "unruly" detainees by throwing rocks and setting tents on fire. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill denied allegations that detainees were deprived of medical treatment, and stated that he did not know whether guards opened fire during the disturbance. AP has more.

[JURIST] In Monday's environmental law news, the California legislature [official website] is considering revisions to the 35-year-old California Environmental Quality Act [text](CEQA). The revisions are prompted by increased housing costs in the rapidly growing state. The CEQA requires a variety of environmental reviews of new development projects. Governor Schwarzenegger is pushing for trimming some environmental reviews that slow housing projects and mandating that local agencies approve enough homes to meet demand. More than two dozen CEQA-related bills are currently being considered. The San Diego Union-Tribune has more.

In other news,

• The EPA [official website] is seeking comments on a proposed rule [text] that would implement an 8-hour ozone national ambient air quality standard. While most of the issues involved in the new standard have been addressed previously, the EPA specifically seeks comments on whether it should interpret the Clean Air Act [text] to require areas to retain major new source review (NSR) requirements that apply to certain 1-hour ozone nonattainment areas in implementing the 8-hour standard, and whether the EPA properly concludes that a State's request to remove 1-hour major NSR programs from its State Implementation Plan (SIP) will not interfere with any applicable requirement within the meaning of Section 110(l) of the Clean Air Act. Comments can be made here until May 4.

[JURIST] The Florida Attorney General's office [official website] has filed its first lawsuit under the state's new anti-spam law [statute text, PDF]. Civil suits seeking up to $24 million in fines were filed Monday [complaint text, PDF] against Scott Filary, 25, and Donald Townsend, 34, who are accused of masterminding a spam operation which sent over 65,000 deceptive e-mails. Under the state law, violators face a penalty of up to $500 for every illegal e-mail message they send to Florida residents. The Attorney General thanked Microsoft for helping to track down the spammers. Microsoft used dummy Hotmail accounts to track the spam campaigns. Microsoft's anti-spam team has also helped law enforcement initiate suits in New York, Texas, and Washington. Read Monday's statement statement from Florida's Attorney General. CNET has more.

[JURIST] Kansas voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to approve a constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage. Kansas law already prohibits gay marriage but supporters claim the ban must be put into the Kansas Constitution [text] to avoid any legal challenges. The chief argument in favor of placing the ban in the Kansas constitution is the recent decision by a San Francisco judge who ruled California's ban of gay marriage violates California's constitution [JURIST story]. If the ban is approved, Kansas would become the 18th state with a prohibition of gay marriage in its constitution. Amendment opponents [Kansans for Fairness advocacy website] claim the new measure is oppressive. Voters are expected to approve the ban overwhelmingly. The Wichita Eagle has local coverage. Read the text of the proposed amendment. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, Fannie Mae [official website] regulator the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) [official website], has announced it is investigating Fannie's use of trusts which it set up to sell securities. Specifically, OFHEO is determining whether the company accounted for trusts as "qualifying special purpose entities" to keep the trusts' assets and liabilities off the corporate balance sheet. Fannie Mae has been the subject of a massive accounting probe which so far could result in a profit restatement of more than $11 billion. Reuters has more.

In other news...

• New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [official website] released a statement [text] today indicating a civil resolution to his investigation of insurer American International Group Inc. (AIG) is possible. Spitzer said the AIG board is fully cooperating in the investigation. Reuters has more. In related AIG news, new AIG CEO Martin Sullivan, in an attempt to reassure shaky investors, said in a letter [PDF] to shareholders that the company is cooperating fully with regulators. AP has more.
  
  
• The Wall Street Journal is reporting [subscription req'd] Starr International Co., a private company that controls about 12 percent of American International Group Inc.'s [corporate website] shares, has fired seven AIG executives from its board, including new AIG CEO Martin Sullivan and AIG Executive Vice Chairman Donald Kanak. One of Starr's owners is former AIG chairman and chief executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg which creates a potential conflict of interest as the fired AIG executives continued to rely on Greenberg for a large portion of their pay. Greenberg, however, has offered to sever all of Starr's remaining ties to AIG to avoid these conflicts of interest. Bloomberg has more. The Journal also reported [subscription req'd] the Financial Services Regulatory Authority [official website], Ireland's insurance watchdog, is cooperating with US investigations into a insurance transaction between AIG and General Re Corp. Dow Jones has more.
  
  
• Foamex International [corporate website], maker of foam products, announced the SEC [official website] has started an informal inquiry related to the company's internal controls. Foames, which said it is negotiating a settlement on the matter, will use the 45-day extension granted by the SEC to file assessments of internal controls as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [PDF]. Read the Foamex press release. The Philadelphia Business Journal has more.
  
  
• Thailand's SEC [official website] announced Thai Military Bank PCL's [corporate website] securities sales operations will be put on probation for one year starting April 1 over an improper distribution of Thai Oil PCL's IPO last October. The bank failed to comply with the share allocation method indicated in the Thai Oil prospectus. Dow Jones has more.
  
  
• ChevronTexaco Corp. [corporate website] announced it will buy rival Unocal Corp. [corporate website] for about $16.4 billion. The move, which gives ChevronTexaco the number five global oil company by market capitalization, expands the company's drilling reach in undeveloped areas in Asia and strengthens its position in the Gulf of Mexico. Read the ChevronTexaco press release. Reuters has more.
  
  
• Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. [corporate website] announced it has a new financing deal worth $225 million in credit in place. The lenders include Silver Point Finance LLC, Wells Fargo Foothill Inc. [corporate website], and Credit Suisse First Boston [corporate website]. Read the Krispy Kreme press release. AP has more.
  
  
• The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website] has dismissed all claims brought by Paycom Billing Services, Inc. [corporate website] against MasterCard International [corporate website] over potential antitrust claims as a result of MasterCard's rules or policies. Business Wire has more.

[JURIST] Microsoft [official site] announced Monday that it will comply with EU demands and make software blueprints available to competitors and offer lower licensing fees. Last month, the EU had threatened Microsoft with new fines if it did not make it easier and cheaper for competitors to access its source code. In a March 2004 antitrust decision [opinion text, PDF], the EU ordered Microsoft to share its source code with competitors who make server software so that their products can work better with Windows computers. Additionally, the EU ordered Microsoft to sell a version of Windows without the Windows Media Player, which Microsoft has complied with [Microsoft statement] even as it plans to appeal the decision. AP has more.

[JURIST] Key portions of the USA PATRIOT Act which will expire at the end of this year are set to come up for review this week before the House Judiciary Committee [official site] and the Senate Judiciary Committee [official site]. The Patriot Act, which gave the executive power sweeping law enforcement and investigatory authority, has been controversial since its adoption in the immediate wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks; this week's hearing are expected to feature lively debate over whether to keep or modify the existing provisions. Senator Arlen Specter [official site], who supported a partial repeal of the Patriot Act last year, will preside over the Senate hearings. Representative James Sensenbrenner [official site], chairman of the House Committee, has previously commented [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel report] that allowing the expanded police powers granted by the Act to remain permanent "will be done over my dead body." The Senate will have a hearing on Tuesday, and the House is set to begin hearings on Wednesday. CNET has more. The American Bar Association has established Patriot Debates, a blog containing thoughtful essays on whether specific provisions should be renewed.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court Monday unanimously ruled in Rousey v. Jacoway [case backgrounder from Duke Law School] that Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) can be exempted from a bankruptcy estate, allowing bankruptcy filers to retain their IRAs rather than forcing them to divide the assets among their creditors. The Rouseys claimed an exemption but their bankruptcy trustee objected, arguing that 11 U.S.C. s. 522(d)(10)(E) grants exemptions for annuities, stock options and other such plans only if the payments are made “on account of illness, disability, death, age or length of service”; this, the trustee argued, excluded IRAs from shelter because such funds can be accessed at any time if holder is willing to pay the associated taxes and penalties. The Supreme Court disagreed in an opinion [PDF] by Justice Thomas, reversing the Eighth Circuit opinion [PDF] and resolving a three-way circuit split.

Also Monday, the Court resolved a circuit split on a timing question under federal habeas law in a 5-4 opinion [PDF] written by Justice Souter in Johnson v. United States [case backgrounder from Duke Law School]. The Court ruled that where a prisoner challenges a federal sentence on the grounds that a state conviction used to enhance it was vacated, the one-year filing deadline for habeas under 28 U.S.C. 2255 begins to run when the prisoner receives notice that the prior conviction has been vacated. In a dissent [PDF] Justice Kennedy, joined by Justices Stevens, Scalia and Ginsburg, disagreed with the Court's parallel finding that the prisoner must use due diligence to obtain the vacatur in the first place or else risk having his enhanced sentence maintained despite the vacatur.

Finally on Monday, the Court granted certiorari in Central Virginia Community College, et al., v. Katz, raising a state imunity issue under the Eleventh Amendment in connection with a bankruptcy court's discharge of an unpaid student loan. Review the Court's full Order List [PDF].

[JURIST] Sudan [government website] over the weekend formally rejected UN Security Council [official website] Resolution 1593 [official text] authorizing the International Criminal Court [official website] to conduct investigations and prosecutions of individuals alleged to have committed war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan. Sudan had previously expressed its displeasure [JURIST report] with the resolution, claiming that it could conduct valid war crimes trials in-country. On Sunday Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir presided over a Cabinet meeting that issued a statement of rejection on the resolution and created a government committee, which he will chair, to address "how to deal with this situation." The international community has been suspicious of Sudan's capability to hold meaningful war crimes trials on Darfur, as the report of the UN International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur [PDF text] implicated the government along with other groups as being responsible for war crimes in the Darfur region. It is unclear if Sudan has the legal authority to reject a valid Security Council resolution authorized under Chapter VII [official text] powers, but the rejection may complicate the issue of ICC jurisdiction under the Rome Statute [official PDF text]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.

[JURIST] Former Serbian police general Sreten Lukic was delivered Monday to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia [official website] in The Hague. It is as yet unclear whether he surrendered, or was arrested and forcibly transferred. Eyewitnesses reported seeing Lukic approached by government officials Monday after a medical check-up. Lukic has chronic heart problems and underwent a second heart surgery in March. Lukic had previously indicated he would surrender following approval from his doctors, but had been accused of stalling. The ICTY reportedly assured Serbia that Lukic's health would be carefully monitored. Lukic is accused of overseeing the murder of over 12,000 Kosovo Albanians in 1999. Lukic is the 10th indicted war crimes suspect to be turned over to the ICTY this year, as Serbia attempts to improve its image in preparation for a membership feasibility report due out next week from the European Union [official website]. Read Lukic's ICTY indictment [official text]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of the ICTY [JURIST news archive]. Read the official ICTY press release on Lukic's transfer. Reuters has more on the Lukic transfer. Serbia's B92 Radio has local coverage.

[JURIST] As anticipated [JURIST report], former Kyrgyzstan President Askar Akayev [official profile] signed resignation papers Monday in Russia, removing himself from the highest office in the recently troubled Central Asian republic. Akayev, accompanied by long-time political opponent and current Parliament Speaker Omurbek Tekebayev [BBC profile], signed the requisite legal documents papers in the Kyrgyz Embassy in Moscow. He fled Kyrgyzstan [DC Embassy website] following protests that erupted in response to allegations of his manipulating parliamentary elections, originally going to Kazakhstan and then to Russia, where it is expected he will remain. His resignation takes effect Tuesday, clearing the last legal hurdle for the nation to hold the new national elections promised by Interim President Kurmanbek Bakiyev [BBC profile], tentatively scheduled for June 26. Electionworld.org has a backgrounder on Kyrgyzstan. AP has more.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Monday, April 4.

The US Senate [official website] resumes its session at 2 PM ET today. Watch a live webcast of the session. The US House [official website] will return from its Easter recess Tuesday, April 5.

The Committee for Justice [advocacy website] is holding a press conference today in support of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist's efforts to end the filibuster. Watch a live webcast of the event via C-SPAN at Noon ET.

At the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the trial of Momcilo Krajisnik [ICTY case backgrounder] continues today at 9:30 AM local time [3:30 AM ET]. Also today, the trial of Fatmir Limaj and others [ICTY case backgrounder] continues today at 2:45 PM local time [8:45 AM ET]. Watch a webcast of proceedings.