[JURIST] Leading Thursday's states brief, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich signed into law [Governor's press release] today a medical malpractice bill that he believes will lower medical malpractice insurance premiums. The bill [bill status] will cap non-economic damages at $500,000 for doctors and $1 million for hospitals, allow the state to moderate the costs of malpractice insurance and require another doctor to certify that a lawsuit has merit and should be brought to court before a case may be brought against a physician or hospital. It is expected that the non-economic damages cap will face court challenges with opponents claiming that the caps deny some victims their right to fair compensation in violation of the state constitution. Administrators at St. Anthony's Health Center in Alton, where the bill was signed, said rising premiums had forced 40 doctors to leave in the last three years. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has more.

In other state legal news ...

• The Utah Supreme Court ruled [PDF text] Thursday that Workers Compensation Fund assets are owned by policyholders and not the state. The court found that Utah has no ownership interest in the Workers Compensation Fund or its assets and "that apart from the Legislature's ability to modify its governing statutes, the state has no managerial, financial or operational control over the Workers Compensation Fund [webpage] or its assets. The ruling upholds previous court decisions. The Insurance Journal has more.
  
  
• Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has asked [AG press release] a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit by the Ottawa Tribe of Oklahoma [tribe website] seeking unrestricted commercial fishing rights off North Bass Island in Lake Erie. The tribe sued the Ohio Department of Natural Resources [official website] saying the state should not be allowed to regulate its fishing rights based on a treaty ratified by the US in 1805. Petro says that the treaty does not apply to the land area at issue, but applies to land south of the area. The tribe plans to file a second lawsuit claiming outright ownership of 300 acres on the northern portion of North Bass Island. The Las Vegas Sun has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge met with Justice Department lawyer Terry Henry Thursday to discuss why the US has not yet released two Chinese Uighur Muslims still held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp [JURIST news archive] after the government determined they posed no threat to the US as enemy combatants [JURIST report]. Henry met with US District Judge James Robertson [official profile] in a closed-door meeting to explain the steps the US is taking to find a country for the men to enter, since they fear persecution if returned to China. Their lawyer is requesting that they be released temporarily to live with a US resident who has agreed to house them. The Chinese nationals were captured from Pakistan in 2001 as they fled from a Taliban military training camp. Read Judge Robertson's order [PDF] from last week regarding the men's status. AP has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that the speaker of the Iraqi parliament has announced a one-day extension for talks on the draft Iraqi constitution [English translation; JURIST news archive], originally scheduled to be voted on Thursday [JURIST report] after being postponed for three days on Monday following a seven-day extension on the original August 15 deadline set down in the country's Transitional Administrative Law. An Iraqi government spokesman had earlier insisted that despite disagreements, the document would be approved by the end of the day [JURIST report].

[JURIST] California's Attorney General Bill Lockyer [official website] said Thursday that the state is suing 39 pharmaceutical companies [press release] for concealing the actual costs of their drugs in an attempt to artificially inflate payments from California's Medicaid program. Lockyer said he added new drug companies [amended complaint] including GlaxoSmithKline and Amgen [corporate websites] to the state's prior complaint which named Abbott Laboratories and Wyeth [corporate websites] as defendants. The companies are alleged to have defrauded California into paying higher reimbursement rates in the Medi-Cal program [official website] for the poor, a practice that Lockyer calls "gouging the public on basic life necessities." Almost a dozen other states have filed similar suits which have been consolidated in a federal court in Boston. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Iran said Thursday that it is working on a new proposal to negotiate with the West [JURIST report] regarding its nuclear program, expressing an interest in negotiating with countries other than Great Britain, France and Germany. The three core negotiating countries cancelled a meeting with Iran scheduled for August 31 after the country resumed its uranium enrichment program earlier this month. Chief Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said that Iran wishes to meet with other board members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) [official website] despite the group's previous request for Iran to cease its nuclear program [JURIST report, IAEA resolution]. Larijani asked that European countries should come to the bargaining table with a "logical approach of mutual interest instead of making obstacles." Reuters has more; from Iran, state-run IRNA has local coverage.

[JURIST] The chief observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission to Ethiopia 2005 (EU EOM) [official website] said Thursday that the country's May 15 parliamentary elections did not meet international voting standards. In the first EU report released since the vote, Ana Gomes said that intimidation tactics of witnesses and arrests of opposition members rose to the level of human rights abuses. After the elections, violence erupted as protestors claimed the voting process was fraudulent and human rights groups say that over 40 individuals were killed when security forces attempted to end the protests. The National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) [official website] is reviewing the EU report and is expected to respond on Friday. Read the EU EOM's preliminary statement on the Assessment of the Electoral Process [text, PDF]. AP has more.

Previously on JURIST's Paper Chase...

• Election abuses lead to revote in 20 Ethiopian districts
• Ethiopia ending ban on election protests
• Ethiopian PM promises fair election investigation
• Ethiopia orders selected poll repeat due to fraud

[JURIST] Two media rights groups called for US Middle East military commander General John Abizaid [Defense Department profile] to release a Reuters journalist being held at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq unless the military can provide a valid explanation for his detention. Paris-based Reporters Without Borders [advocacy website] and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists [advocacy website] have accused US forces [CPJ press release] of holding Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani and other reporters without giving justifications for their arrests. Mashhadani's family said that US Marines conducted a search of the journalist's home earlier this month and the encounter grew hostile after soldiers reviewed images on Mashhadani's cameras and computer. US military officials have not yet responded to the media groups' accusations. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Federal Bureau of Prisons [official website] has denied the request of former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers' [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive] request to serve his 25-year prison sentence in a low-security facility near his Mississippi home, placing him instead in a medium-security prison in Louisiana. Ebbers was convicted earlier this year on nine counts [JURIST report] of fraud, conspiracy and filing false statements with regulators in WorldCom's $11 billion accounting scandal. Ebbers has been ordered to begin serving his sentence on October 11, but his attorneys have submitted a motion "respectfully urg[ing] the court to grant bail pending appeal to prevent the injustice of Mr. Ebbers having to serve any time in the harsh conditions of a medium security facility." Federal judge Barbara Jones has not yet announced when she will decide on Ebbers' motion. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Germany's Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) [official website] ruled Thursday by a seven to one margin that Germany's early parliamentary election scheduled for next month can go ahead. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder [official profile; BBC profile] purposefully lost a vote of confidence in the federal parliament in July, prompting the scheduling of the vote one year earlier than the original date. Two dissenting members of Schroeder's camp came forward with claims that his actions were unconstitutional, but the high court judges backed the German government's decision to move the election forward. Campaigning has already been taking place and current polls show that the opposition conservative Christian Democrats [official website in German], headed by Angela Merkel [BBC profile] are 12-14 points ahead of Schroeder's Social Democrat party [official website in German]. BBC News has more. Deutsche Welle has local coverage.

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke [official profile] Wednesday denounced a statement issued by the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website] Manfred Nowak urging the UK to refrain from deporting Islamic radicals [JURIST report] for fear that they will face torture by their home countries. In an interview with Great Britain's ITV News, Clarke said, "The human rights of those people who were blown up on the Tube in London on July 7 are, to be quite frank, more important than the human rights of the people who committed those acts." British police have detained ten suspected radicals set for deportation and the country is currently negotiating with Middle Eastern and North African nations to create bilateral agreements that promise "humane and proper" treatment of the exiles. Manfred Nowak [UN profile] has argued that these agreements do not provide a complete guarantee against torture [press release], but Clarke said the planned deportation proceedings [JURIST report] will start in the near future. CNSNews has more.

[JURIST] The US has proposed over 750 amendments to the United Nations draft agreement [text, PDF] that 175 countries are expected to sign during a UN General Assembly summit [meeting overview, PDF] on poverty and global security scheduled for next month. US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton [official bio; Wikipedia profile] wrote a confidential letter Wednesday to certain UN envoys calling on the countries to join negotiations over the amendments as soon as possible. The US has expressed concerns over provisions in the current draft document that mandate wealthy countries to deliver 0.7 percent of their gross national product to impoverished countries and language that urges countries to stop nuclear testing. The amendments proposed by the US suggest including more aggressive language on fighting terrorism and spreading democracy. Bolton's letter also reflects US concerns about UN reform [US Mission to the UN materials], including the desire for greater oversight of UN spending and strengthening the UN's human rights office. UN General Assembly president Jean Ping [UN profile] is organizing negotiation meetings for 20-30 core countries in order to attempt a consensus before the summit. Thursday's Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [DOJ profile] Wednesday praised an extradition agreement between the US and Colombia which forces Colombian drug traffickers to face trials in the US. Gonzales spoke [text] at a press conference in Bogota with Mario Iguaran, Colombia's Prosecutor-General, calling the extradition program the "very best in the world." Since Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez [official profile] took office in 2002, approximately 350 Colombians have been handed over to the US to face drug, money-laundering, conspiracy, murder, and kidnapping charges. Gonzales' Bogota visit was prompted after justices on Colombia's Supreme Court voiced concern over US authorities seeking harsher punishments than what Colombians would receive in their own country. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kubba said Thursday that a final version of the Iraqi constitution [JURIST news archive; translated draft, in English] has been completed and that the document will be approved later today. A National Assembly spokesman said earlier Thursday that the parliament had cancelled the scheduled vote [JURIST report] on the constitution set for today, but Kubba said that parliament did not need to formally meet again to approve the draft. According to Kubba, the charter was effectively passed on Monday when the Assembly took delivery of the document from its constitutional drafting committee [official website], despite a three-day extension [JURIST report] allowed for further negotiations on unresolved issues. Sunni members of the drafting committee insist, however, that there has been no agreement on the constitution. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Nine northeastern US states are working on a plan to cap and then reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions from power facilities, an agreement which would see the states breaking with President Bush, who earlier this summer rejected [JURIST report] the Kyoto Protocol [text] on climate change. Each state legislature in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont would have to approve the cap for carbon dioxide emissions, set at 150 million tons a year. Beginning in 2015, the cap would be lowered, and emissions would be slashed by 10 percent in 2020. California, Washington and Oregon are considering a similar agreement. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice [official website] said Wednesday that tobacco companies should be responsible for more than $140 million in US government costs associated with bringing a racketeering lawsuit against the industry for misleading the public about the health effects of smoking. In a filing in federal court the government called the companies' tactics throughout the trial "questionable and vexatious" and said that an award of costs, in addition to the $10 billion sought for a nationwide stop-smoking program, is appropriate. The $10 billion the government is seeking [JURIST report] is considerably less than the $130 billion, 25-year program called for by an important prosecution witness and has been a source of controversy [JURIST report]. The DOJ has documents and background material on the tobacco litigation. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens [Wikipedia profile] has continued to candidly voice his opinions by calling the outcomes of two prominent cases decided by the Supreme Court this term "unwise" while speaking at a bar association meeting in Las Vegas. Justice Stevens wrote the majority opinions in the Kelo v. New London [JURIST report; opinion], which allowed the government to take private homes for public use, and in the Gonzales v. Raich [JURIST report; opinion], which enforced the federal government's narcotics laws over California's medical marijuana plan. Justice Stevens said in both cases he "was convinced that the law compelled a result that I would have opposed if I were a legislator" but despite his personal opinions, Stevens said the US Constitution allowed the resulting decisions. Earlier this month, Justice Stevens also spoke [text] at the annual meeting of the American Bar Association [group website] to offer his opinion on flaws in the current death penalty system [JURIST report]. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] AP is reporting that a parliamentary spokesman has said that the National Assembly will not meet as planned on Thursday to consider Iraq's draft constitution [English translation; JURIST news archive]. The spokesman also said that no date for a new session has been set. Earlier this week, in the face of Sunni objections to proposed terms, the Assembly decided to delay its vote on the draft [JURIST report] until today.

9:46 AM ET - According to the parliament's media spokesman Bishro Ibrahim, there has been no agreement yet on unresolved issues, including federalism. AP has more.

[JURIST] Sunni Arabs are demanding that new elections be held to settle remaining disputes in the Iraqi draft constitution [English translation, JURIST news archive] as the document is anticipated to be approved by parliament Thursday. Hussein Al Falluji vowed that if the draft constitution is approved, Sunnis on the drafting committee will argue before an Iraqi court that the constitution deadline of August 22 was not met since there was an additional three-day grace period [JURIST report] after that date. Falluji said "the draft is illegal and it is a violation of the interim constitution." Sunni members have been negotiating with Shiite Arab and Kurd committee members [JURIST report] this week, opposing more than 20 areas of the draft, including the issue of federalism. Reuters has more.

Meanwhile, Iraqi constitutional delays caused Japan to cancel Thursday a United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) [official website] summit planned in Tokyo this week to discuss restoring marshlands in southern Iraq [UNEP backgrounder]. A UNEP spokesman said the meeting was postponed since Iraqi Environment Minister Nermin Othman was called back to Iraq for constitutional negotiations. The meeting was expected to raise money for Iraq's revival project from countries including the US, Italy, Canada, and Japan. The meeting has not yet been rescheduled. AP has more.

10:06 AM ET - An Iraqi parliament spokesman has now said the Thursday vote on the Iraqi draft constitution has been cancelled [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The Washington State Supreme Court [official website] on Wednesday affirmed a judge's ruling that a recall petition against Spokane Mayor Jim West [official website] can proceed. Shannon Sullivan filed the petition in May, alleging that West used his elected office for personal gain by writing a letter of recommendation to assist someone he believed to be an 18-year-old man get a City Hall internship. The man turned out to be a online expert hired by Spokane's newspaper, the Spokesman-Review [website]. The newspaper had earlier published a series of articles [text] detailing how the conservative Republican had been meeting men online for sex, and Sullivan contends it was implied that sexual favors would be exchanged over the internship. The ruling means recall supporters can begin collecting signatures immediately though Elections Supervisor Paul Brandt said it would be extremely difficult to get the required 12,600 valid signatures in time for a November election. AP has more.

[JURIST] US soldier Glendale Wells was sentenced Wednesday to two months in prison by a military court for his role in abusing an Afghan detainee known as Dilawar [Wikipedia profile], who died in December 2002 at Bagram Control Point [Global Security profile] near Kabul. Wells earlier pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to slamming Dilawar against a wall and failing to intervene as other soldiers at Bagram abused the prisoner. The Afghan government says it is dismayed [BBC report] with what it calls the unexpected leniency shown to American soldiers convicted of abusing Afghan detainees. A spokesman for Afghan president Hamid Karzai says Wells and others should have been severely punished. This is the first custodial sentence given to any US soldier convicted of abuse in Afghanistan since 2001. BBC News has more.