[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on Thursday upheld [opinion, PDF] an Indiana law requiring voters to show photo identification [Indiana SOS backgrounder, PDF] before casting a ballot. In its ruling, the court upheld a lower court decision [PDF text; JURIST report] that the law does not put an undue burden on the right to vote and therefore does not violate the US Constitution. The Indiana Democratic Party and the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana had appealed [JURIST report] the district court's decision, but during oral arguments [JURIST report] Judge Richard Posner, who wrote the appeals court ruling, was skeptical of the plaintiffs' contention that the law would prevent voters from casting ballots. AP has more.

The US Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion [PDF text] last October ruling that Arizona could enforce its voter ID law [JURIST report], which requires voters to show government-issued ID cards [JURIST news archive] at the polls. Similar voter ID laws have been upheld in Georgia and Pennsylvania [JURIST reports], though the Missouri Supreme Court struck down a law [JURIST report] last year requiring voters to show ID cards at the polls. A lawsuit over Ohio's voter ID legislation ended just before last November's mid-term election in a settlement [JURIST report] requiring future Ohio absentee voters to show proof of ID when applying for absentee ballots, but allowing absentee ballots already obtained without ID to be counted.

[JURIST] Government officials in Myanmar [government website; JURIST news archive] have granted amnesty to nearly three thousand prisoners, releasing them early in celebration of the country's Independence Day Thursday. Some 20 political prisoners were among the 2,831 released because their "moral behaviour and spiritual values have improved," according to a report in Myanmar's state-run newspaper the New Light of Myanmar [media website]. According to Myanmar's military government, a total of 23,147 prisoners have been granted amnesty since 2004.

Although accounts vary on the exact number of political prisoners released [Reuters report], it is clear that several prominent political prisoners, including National League for Democracy [Wikipedia backgrounder] leader Aung San Suu Kyi [advocacy website; BBC profile] and her deputy Tin Oo were not released. AP has more.

[JURIST] White House legal counsel Harriet Miers [official profile; JURIST news archive] resigned from her post Thursday effective January 31. Press Secretary Tony Snow gave no specific reason for her departure except to say that she has been working at the White House for six years. In a White House press briefing [transcript] he added:

Harriet is a very special person in this White House. She is beloved not only because she is a really good human being, she's an extraordinarily wonderful human being, but also somebody who is a very careful and scrupulous lawyer, a ferocious defender of the Constitution, and somebody who was also deeply loyal to the President, and just somebody who is a delight to work with. So it is one of these things where everybody really -- it's very bittersweet, and you can get that from the tenure of the -- tenor of her note. She has decided that it's time to move on. She and [White House Chief of Staff] Josh Bolten have had a series of conversations in recent days about this, and she made her decision yesterday.

[JURIST] A Chilean appeals court has dropped tax evasion charges against the widow and two children of former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet [JURIST news archive]. In a decision Wednesday, the Santiago Court of Appeals [Chilean judiciary website, in Spanish] upheld charges against Pinochet's youngest son and two of his lawyers and also dropped other charges against Pinochet's relatives for acting as accomplices in the use of false passports.

Pinochet, his wife, four of his children, daughter-in-law, former attorney and secretary were indicted [PDF text] in early 2006 on charges of filing false tax returns [JURIST report]. Pinochet died [JURIST report] last month without ever facing trial in either the tax evasion case or on multiple human rights charges. AP has more.

[JURIST] The government of France [JURIST news archive] has said that it will recognize a citizen's legal right to housing [press release, in French]. In a statement Wednesday, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin [official website, in French; JURIST news archive] said a draft law would implement the right in two stages, for the most needy by the end of 2008 and for others with insufficient housing by 2012. Sources say the French Parliament may vote on a draft law as early as next month. An advocacy group known as Les Enfants de Don Quichotte (translated as "The Children of Don Quixote") [advocacy website, in French] drew attention to the issue of homelessness in France as members began camping out in red tents in Paris last month.

French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile; BBC profile] and Socialist Party presidential candidate Segolene Royal [BBC profile] have also expressed their support for fighting homelessness in France. Sarkozy and Royal are the prime candidates to replace French President Jacques Chirac in elections scheduled for spring 2007. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] conducted criminal background checks of adverse witnesses ahead of US Senate confirmation hearings for the late William Rehnquist [JURIST news archive] in respect of his nominations as Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court [official website] and later Chief Justice at the behest of two Republican administrations in the 1970s and 1980s, according to new documents released by the FBI. The FBI was forced to disclose the information in response to several Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text; DOJ materials] requests filed by news agencies and academics after Rehnquist's death [JURIST report] in 2005.

In 1971, the Nixon administration reportedly asked the FBI to turn up information on witnesses before the US Senate [official website] who opposed Rehnquist's initial nomination to the Supreme Court, while US Department of Justice [official website] officials in the Reagan administration reportedly asked the FBI to provide similar criminal background checks on witnesses who were scheduled to testify in opposition to Rehnquist's nomination for Chief Justice in 1986. AP has more.

[JURIST] Two Iraqi Justice Ministry guards are now being questioned in connection with the taping and release of a camera phone video [WARNING: graphic images; JURIST report] showing the execution [JURIST report] of Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive], according to Iraqi lawmaker Sami al-Askeri. Iraqi officials said Wednesday that an official who supervised the execution was also arrested [JURIST report] in connection to making the video, but further details are not yet available. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] launched an investigation [JURIST report] earlier this week into who made the video and how it was distributed.

The video, apparently shot with a cell phone camera by a witness to the hanging, shows witnesses taunting Hussein before he was hanged and depicts Hussein's body dropping through the trap door of the gallows. A separate, authorized video released by Iraqi state television did not include any audio recording and did not show Hussein's actual death. AP has more.

Iraqi officials have been criticized for their handling of Hussein's execution, with a US military spokesman saying Wednesday that the US would have handled the hanging differently [JURIST report], but an adviser to al-Maliki insisted Wednesday that the execution had been done appropriately. Sadiq al-Rikabi said in a statement reported by the New York Times that Iraq's conduct of the execution "has been mischaracterized for political purposes." Al-Maliki's office, meanwhile, has also confirmed that the US embassy in Baghdad pressed for a delay [JURIST report] of the execution over unresolved legal issues, but legal adviser Maryam al-Rayas called the decision to push forward with the hanging "a victory for the Iraqi government." The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Members of the 110th Congress sworn in Thursday are preparing for votes [calendar, PDF] on numerous pieces of key legislation scheduled by incoming Democratic leaders of the new US House of Representatives [official website] for their first 100 legislative hours in office beginning next Tuesday. Most notably, incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) [official website] and incoming House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) [official website] have slated votes for next week on implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission [official website], progressively raising the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour, and expanding embryonic stem cell research [JURIST news archive]. Democrats plan to take action on these items, fulfilling their pre-election, 100-hour pledge [AP report], in advance of President Bush's State of the Union Address scheduled for Jan. 23. The New York Times has more. The Boston Globe has additional coverage.

President Bush previously vetoed [JURIST report] the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act [PDF text; HR 810 summary] in July after its passage by the House [JURIST report] and Senate [JURIST report]. Democrats now hope they will have the two-thirds supermajority votes needed to survive a presidential veto.

[JURIST] The executions of two Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] co-defendants, former chief judge of Iraq's Hussein-era Revolutionary Court Awad Hamed al-Bandar [Wikipedia profile] and former Iraqi intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim al Tikriti [GlobalSecurity profile; BBC profile], have been postponed. The hangings were originally expected Thursday [JURIST report], but an official in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said the delay was the result of "international pressure." It is now unclear when the hangings will be carried out; one Iraqi lawmaker has predicted that al-Bandar and al-Tikriti will be executed Sunday [Reuters report]. Another lawmaker has suggested that the hangings will be delayed until there is a final decision from the Iraqi High Tribunal [official website] on the sentence of former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan [Trial Watch profile]. In the appeals chamber's December 26 decision upholding Hussein's death sentence [JURIST report], the court accepted the prosecution's argument that a life sentence for Ramadan was too lenient and ordered the trial court to re-sentence him. AFP has more.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour [official website] has urged Iraq not to execute al-Bandar and al-Tikriti [UN News report], who were convicted and sentenced to death [JURIST report; BBC verdict summary] in November alongside Hussein for crimes against humanity committed in the village of Dujail in 1982. According to a statement [text] from Arbour's office:

On 28 December 2006, alongside the confirmation of the death sentence of Saddam Hussein, the death sentences of two other co-defendants, Awad Hamad Al-Bandar and Barzan Ibrahim Al-Hassan, were also upheld on appeal. "International law, as it currently stands, only allows the imposition of the death penalty as an exceptional measure within rigorous legal constraints. The concerns that I expressed just days ago with respect to the fairness and impartiality of Saddam Hussein's trial apply also to these two defendants", the High Commissioner said. "I have therefore today directly appealed to the President of the Republic of Iraq to refrain from carrying out these sentences."

The High Commissioner also noted that under Iraq's international obligations, it is bound to afford Awad Hamad Al-Bandar and Barzan Ibrahim Al-Hassan the opportunity to seek commutation or pardon of the sentence.

...as we have exhausted all legal avenues both internationally and in the US without any response....

As you know every independent expert who has reviewed the Dujail trial before the Iraqi Special Tribunal has found it to be seriously flawed and unfair. An execution after an unfair trial--even in a country that has the death penalty--is illegal as a summary, extrajudicial and arbitrary execution and torture, cruel or inhumane treatment or punishment.

Although the chances of stopping these executions is very slim we owe it to each of these gentlemen, to our commitment to the rule of law and justice, and to the value of justice for all Iraqis to do everything we can in the next few days to stop these unlawful executions.