[JURIST] US District Judge Mark Kravitz Wednesday dismissed [text, PDF] three of four counts of a lawsuit [backgrounder] filed by the state of Connecticut against the US Department of Education [official website] claiming that provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act [PDF text] constitute unconstitutional unfunded mandates. Kravitz rejected the counts on jurisdictional grounds, but refused to grant a US motion to dismiss [JURIST report]. Connecticut filed its initial lawsuit [PDF complaint; JURIST report] challenging the No Child Left Behind Act in August 2005.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal [official website] said Karavitz's ruling should not be regarded as a defeat because of its technical nature. Connecticut will still be able to pursue the fourth count of its complaint, which claims the Department of Education wrongly denied the state's proposal for an alternative testing scheme. WFSB News has more.

[JURIST] California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger [official website; JURIST news archive] signed the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 [text] into law Wednesday, marking the approval of the first US bill designed to restrict greenhouse gas [EPA backgrounder] emissions. Among other provisions, the law aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020 and grants new authority to the California Air Resources Board [official website] to set specific emission targets for various industries. At the signing ceremonies [press release with recorded video] Wednesday, Schwarzenegger reaffirmed his commitment to fighting global warming.

Schwarzenegger had promised to sign the measure to combat global warming [press release] even before the California State Assembly [official website] passed the bill [JURIST report] Sept. 1. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives approved its version of the controversial military commissions [JURIST news archive] bill [HR 6166 text] Wednesday by a margin of 253-168 [roll call] with 160 Democrats voting against the legislation. After passage, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) [official website] combatively commended fellow Republicans for their efforts [press release] in pushing the legislation through:

House Republicans have worked hard to create a system that will protect our troops on the battlefield, while also conforming to international laws and treaty obligations. This is not enough for the Democrats who continue to support rights for terrorists. In fact, Democrat Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and 159 of her Democrat colleagues voted today in favor of MORE rights for terrorists. So the same terrorists who plan to harm innocent Americans and their freedom worldwide would be coddled, if we followed the Democrat plan.

[A] joint criminal enterprise existed throughout the territories of the Bosnian-Serb Republic. There was a centrally-based core component of the group, which included Mr Krajišnik, Radovan Karadžic, and other Bosnian-Serb leaders. . . . The common objective of the joint criminal enterprise was to ethnically recompose the territories targeted by the Bosnian-Serb leadership by drastically reducing the proportion of Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats through expulsion. . . . [T]he evidence shows that the criminal means of the enterprise very soon grew to include other crimes of persecution, as well as murder, and extermination. . . . [Mr. Krajisnik] deployed his political skills both locally and internationally to facilitate the implementation of the joint criminal enterprise’s common objective through the crimes envisaged by that objective. Mr Krajišnik knew about, and intended, the mass detention and expulsion of civilians. He had the power to intervene, but he was not concerned with the predicament of detained and expelled persons. Mr Krajišnik wanted the Muslim and Croat populations moved out of Bosnian-Serb territories in large numbers, and accepted that a heavy price of suffering, death, and destruction was necessary to achieve Serb domination and a viable statehood.

[JURIST] Retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor [OYEZ profile] warned Wednesday against growing efforts at "judicial intimidation" in the United States. In a Wall St. Journal op-ed O'Connor said that a recently-proposed South Dakota constitutional amendment [Amendment E text] to end judicial immunity, promoted in a what she called a "venomous" manner by a national group called JAIL 4 Judges [advocacy website], was but one instance of a troubling trend towards constraining and "scapegoating" the judiciary that has reached into Congress and even into the ranks of judges themselves. O'Connor noted in particular that threats and "inappropriate communications" directed towards judges have more than quadrupled in the last ten years, eroding judges' ability to remain independent and uphold the rule of law: "Judges who are afraid -- whether they fear for their jobs or fear for their lives -- cannot adequately fulfill the considerable responsibilities that the position demands."

Earlier this year, both O'Connor and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg [OYEZ profile] said they had received death threats [JURIST report] after Republican politicians criticized judges for citing foreign law or being "activist" in their rulings. US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has acknowledged that the security of judges is becoming a national concern [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A Belgrade court Wednesday began trial proceedings for ten Serbs charged with hiding former Bosnian Serb military chief and indicted war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] and helping him evade prosecution by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website]. The proceedings will most likely remain closed to the public because of the government's ongoing search for Mladic. The suspects, including several former Bosnian Serb military officials, have been charged [JURIST report] with aiding Mladic and sheltering him in five apartments in Belgrade between June 2002 and January 2006 with the knowledge of his indictment for war crimes.

In late August, chief ICTY prosecutor Carla Del Ponte [official profile] called Belgrade's failure to arrest Mladic "inexcusable," saying he should be on trial with a group of seven Bosnian Serb military and paramilitary officers charged with massacring 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] in 1995. Mladic's fugitive status has been a sticking point in Serbia's membership negotiations with the European Union [JURIST report; EU materials]. The former military leader is believed to be hiding in Serbia, prompting the US to cut off financial aid to Serbia [JURIST report] because of its failure to arrest him. AFP has more.

[JURIST] A federal jury in Louisiana found Merck [corporate website] not liable [Merck statement] Tuesday for the heart attack of plaintiff Robert Garry Smith after he took the company's painkiller Vioxx [Merck Vioxx Information Center website; JURIST news archive] for about four months in late 2002 and early 2003. Merck argued [pre-trial statement] that it acted reasonably in voluntarily added a warning of increased risk of heart attack and stoke on the Vioxx label and it pointed to Smith's already high risk of heart attack. The case is the third federal ruling regarding the controversial painkiller and the first to involve a claimant who began taking the medication after Merck changed the product's label. Merck has emerged victorious from two of the three federal lawsuits and has won four of seven state cases decided so far.

In August US District Judge Eldon E. Fallon, who is presiding over all federal Vioxx litigation [Vioxx multi-district litigation website], overturned a jury verdict [JURIST report] against Merck for over $50 million in compensatory damages and ordered a new trial in a different Vioxx lawsuit. There are over 18,000 Vioxx lawsuits pending against Merck, but the statute of limitations, which is two years in many states, will expire soon since Vioxx was removed from shelves in September 2004. Bloomberg News has more.

[JURIST] Israeli human rights group B'Tselem [advocacy website] issued a report [DOC] Wednesday concluding that the June 28 bombing by Israeli forces of a power plant in the Gaza Strip during the early stages of the 34-day Middle East conflict [JURIST news archive] precipitated by the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers amounts to a war crime under international humanitarian law [press release] as an act of collective punishment, and that Israel must fund repairs and pay compensation. The government of Israel [JURIST news archive] has defended the bombing, saying that it was done to cut power to militants, thereby making it harder to move a soldier abducted by Hamas. B'Tselem, however, maintains that "there was no apparent military basis for the action, and it seems that its intention was to satisfy a desire for revenge."

The bombing destroyed the power plant, cutting off power to over a million Gaza residents. In July, United Nations relief coordinator Jan Egeland said that Israel had used "disproportionate" force in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip and expressed dismay over the destruction the power plant, saying that international law clearly prohibits the destruction of civilian infrastructure [JURIST report] and that the plant was "more important for hospitals, for sewage, and for water of civilians than for any Hamas man." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] An EU panel comprised of European data security officials has decided to delay the release of a final report on a Bush administration program that keeps track of international financial transactions until further investigations into whether the program violates EU privacy law are complete. On Monday, Peter Schaar, head of the European Commission's Article 29 Data Protection Working Party [official website], criticized [JURIST report] the White House-authorized program, doubting its legality under European Law. The data officials are expected to reconvene in November to give a final report on the program and potentially recommend measures to help guard against abuses of privacy.

The New York Times and other papers revealed the once-secret program [NYT report; JURIST report] in June, prompting sharp criticism from the Bush administration, which defended the initiative [press briefing]. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee later encouraged the administration to press criminal charges [JURIST report] against the media for publicizing the program, which allowed the CIA [official website] to monitor international financial transactions processed by Swift [official website], a Belgium-based banking cooperative. A London-based civil liberties group subsequently asked data-protection and privacy officials in more than a dozen countries to prevent the further release of confidential financial information [JURIST report] to American authorities. According to US government officials, the program targets those with suspected ties to Al Qaeda. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Wednesday released Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Naser al-Shaer, detained in August [Reuters report] for his membership in Hamas after Hamas members in Gaza seized an Israeli soldier. Thirty-one Hamas lawmakers are still in detention, and on Monday an IDF military court ordered the continued detention of most of them [JURIST report], reversing a previous decision to free them on bail [JURIST report]. Israel considers the Hamas movement [CFR backgrounder] a terrorist group, and insisted on taking the lawmakers into custody even if they were not directly involved in terrorist activities and despite their status as democratically elected Palestinian officials.

A lawyer for Shaer said a military court had decided that not enough evidence supported the prosecution's case for Shaer to remain in custody. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday that would prohibit federal courts from awarding attorney's fees to plaintiffs challenging the use of "religious words or imagery" in a public building, a veteran's memorial, or on the official seals of the United States. The 244-173 vote [roll call] approving the Public Expression of Religion Act [H.R. 2679 text] is thought to be mostly symbolic, however, as no similar bill is now under consideration in the Senate, nor is one expected in the near future.

Supporters of the bill say that local and state governments often cannot afford to defend against suits brought challenging religious symbols because a losing verdict means that they are responsible for paying the attorney's fees of the plaintiff. AP has more.

[JURIST] The chairman of the US Legal Services Corp. [official website] told a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing [recorded video; chairman's opening statement] Tuesday that the LSC board never discussed firing the inspector general now investigating allegations of fraud and waste [JURIST report; LSC press release; report] in the federally-funded program, whose mission is to provide legal services to the poor. Board chairman Frank Strickland [official profile] said that while the board discussed whether the board should implement a performance review of Inspector General Kirt West [official website], the board never talked about firing West, contradicting secret board meeting transcripts that were read at the hearing by Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) [official website].

Cannon has proposed a Legal Services Corporation Improvement Act [HR 6101 PDF text] that would require 9 of the 11 LSC board members to agree on any measure to remove the inspector general, up from the current simple majority. The legal aid program, which provides legal services to the poor, reported in February that it turns away more than half of those eligible for its services due to a lack of financial resources [LSC press release]. It has claimed that several media reports about its staffers' spending practices are inaccurate [press release]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A spokesperson for Patrick Fitzgerald's Office of Special Counsel [official website] told AP Tuesday that the investigation of the CIA leak case [JURIST news archive] has cost taxpayers $1.44 million through August 31, and the Government Accountability Office [official website] is scheduled to release an official spending report on Friday. By comparison, the investigation of President Clinton's Whitewater and Lewinsky scandals cost taxpayers $70 million, and $20 million was spent on an investigation of former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros [Govinfo biography]. The actual amount of total extra spending on the CIA leak case is $333,000, because the salaries of Fitzgerald and other prosecutors were merely transferred from other government departments.

Former vice-presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense profile] was charged last year with obstruction of justice and perjury [PDF indictment; JURIST report] in connection with Fitzgerald's investigation. Libby has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] and has requested a one-month delay in his trial [JURIST report], which is now scheduled to begin in February. Critics have said that Libby may have told reporters about Plame's identity in retaliation for statements made by her husband that undermined the Bush administration's position that Iraq was seeking uranium for their nuclear weapons program. Columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's CIA affiliation eight days after Wilson went public with his allegations. In late August former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage admitted through his lawyer [JURIST report] that he was the "initial and primary source" for the Novak column that revealed Valerie Plame Wilson's CIA affiliation. AP has more.

[JURIST] A California senior assistant attorney general testified Tuesday that the state of California failed to use a backup IV line during the execution of Crips gang co-founder and convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams [advocacy website] which unnecessarily complicated his execution. The testimony was gathered during a four-day federal court hearing [San Francisco Chronicle report] on whether lethal injection in California constitutes cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment [text] by posing a significant risk of unnecessary and severe pain for the condemned inmate. The backup line helps ensure a steady flow of drugs causing rapid death with minimal suffering.

Though the Tookie Williams execution [JURIST news archive] was not compromised by the mistake, other executions have gained national attention for failing to end the life of the condemned immediately. The botched Ohio execution of Joseph Clark [CantonRep report, registration required], where the execution was delayed for an hour-and-a-half when staff struggled to find a vein to administer the lethal injection cocktail, prompted Ohio's prison director to recommend changes to lethal injection policies [JURIST report]. Earlier this month, A federal judge ordered the state of Missouri [JURIST report] to submit new protocols for carrying out lethal injections and refused to authorize executions until revisions to state policy are approved. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] A Russia military court on Tuesday found a Russian army sergeant guilty of abuse of power and sentenced him to four years in jail for beating and torturing a conscript soldier [RFE report] this past New Year's Eve. Russian prosecutors had sought six years in prison for Alexander Sivyakov, who denied beating Private Andrei Sychev but has admitted to beating two other soldiers in December. Sychev was so badly abused that his legs and genitals had to be amputated and he remains in hospital. After the Sychev reports surfaced prompting widespread public outcry, Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov blamed Russian society for fostering a culture of military abuse [JURIST report].

Following a long national history of military conscription [HRW backgrounder], current Russian law provides for a two-year mandatory draft, but most candidates manage to avoid this by bribery or doctors' certificates, leading to low-quality intake and frustrated officers. Many who are conscripted have to be forcibly detained [HRW backgrounder]. The Russian Defense Ministry [official website] says that in 2005 16 Russian soldiers died of bullying and some 256 committed suicide [MosNews report]. In July, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that shortens the conscription term [JURIST report] from two years to one beginning in 2008 and wipes out five accepted reasons for military draft deferments.

[JURIST] China's Taiwan Affairs Office [official website] Wednesday reiterated the Chinese government's open hostility to Taiwan's intent to change its constitution [JURIST report] to rename the island the Republic of Taiwan. China has already threatened military action against Taiwan in the event Taiwan declares independence, and a Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman said that renaming now being considered by Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party [party website] was a step in that direction.

The current Taiwanese constitution [text], drafted by the Kuomintang party of China in 1947, has been amended seven times and was written 2 years before Taiwan split from China in 1949 after the Communist takeover of the mainland. That constitution declares Taiwan to be the "Republic of China," and formally declares that mainland China is under the control of what is now considered Taiwan. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] There are too many substantive differences between the Senate and House versions of a bill aimed at approving the NSA domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] for legislation to be approved before the November elections, anonymous GOP staffers told reporters Tuesday. The Senate version, the National Security Surveillance Act of 2006 [S 3876 materials], the product of a compromise between the White House and Senator Arlen Specter [JURIST report], places fewer restrictions on presidential authority to conduct wiretaps than the House version [JURIST report], the Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act of 2006 [HR 5825 summary], sponsored by Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM).

President Bush pressed for passage of the surveillance legislation in a press conference [JURIST report] earlier this month, saying "when an al Qaeda operative is calling into the United States or out of the country, we need to know who they're calling, why they're calling, and what they're planning." AP has more.

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives on Tuesday failed to pass the Private Property Rights Implementation Act of 2005 [HR 4772 text, PDF], a bill that its supporters said would provide easier access to federal courts to landowners seeking to challenge governmental actions under the Takings Clause [text] of the Fifth Amendment. The bill summary specifies that it would:

Amend[] the federal judicial code to provide that, whenever a district court exercises jurisdiction in civil rights cases in which the operative facts concern the uses of real property, it shall not abstain from exercising such jurisdiction, or relinquish it to a state court, if the party seeking redress does not allege a violation of a state law, right, or privilege, and no parallel proceeding is pending in state court that arises out of the same operative facts as the district court proceeding.