[JURIST] Lawmakers in Connecticut's House of Representatives [official website] have introduced a health care reform bill [text] aimed at providing coverage to the state's uninsured. The initiative introduced Tuesday positions Connecticut within the growing ranks of states that have recently proposed health care reform plans for their poor and uninsured residents. Massachusetts became the first state to require health care coverage for nearly all state residents last year when then-Governor Mitt Romney signed a mandatory health insurance bill [JURIST report].

The $900 million Connecticut plan would include tax credits for those small businesses employing substantial numbers of uninsured employees. Funding for the program would come, in part, from tobacco litigation settlements and from "provider" taxes on formerly tax-exempt entities such as hospitals, doctors and laboratories. "Vanity" sales taxes would also be levied against plastic surgery services and cigarettes. In addition, the program seeks federal reimbursement for Medicaid spending and health care coverage of uninsured children. Officials of state hospitals and physicians within the Connecticut State Medical Society [official website] are among the opponents to the plan, arguing that taxing physician services will not increase patient access to quality care. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] David Iglesias, former US Attorney [DOJ backgrounder] for the District of New Mexico [official website], told reporters [McClatchy Newspapers report] Wednesday that he received two phone calls in October from federal lawmakers pressuring him to speed up indictments of local Democrats under investigation for a kickback scheme in time for the November elections. Iglesias and six other US Attorneys, who had been probing corruption among Republicans, subsequently received phone calls on December 7 saying that they were being fired, without explanation. Iglesias says he was fired for his failure to rush the indictment. Another US Attorney in Michigan announced her resignation last week [Washington Post report], reporting that she also received a call in December. The firings have sparked arguments about the power of the US Attorney General to indefinitely appoint replacement prosecutors, and also allegations that the firings were politically charged. Democrats announced Wednesday that they would seek testimony from the eight US Attorneys fired [AP report]. Iglesias' allegations will likely cause the Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] to call on him to testify.

During a hearing [testimony] last month, Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty denied that the firings were politically motivated [JURIST report], although he did admit that several were fired without cause. Also last month, the US Senate Judiciary Committee voted to send a bill to the Senate floor [JURIST report] which would permit US district courts to appoint temporary US Attorneys when those spots become vacant, reversing a provision in the Patriot Act reauthorization [JURIST report; HR 3199 text, PDF] that allowed the US attorney general to replace fired US Attorneys indefinitely. The Washington Post has more. The Albuquerque Tribune has local coverage.

[JURIST] US Defense Secretary Robert Gates [official profile] has rejected a plan by the US military to construct a $100 million courthouse at Guantanamo Bay [DOD news archive; JURIST news archive]. The complex proposed last October [JURIST report], would have included three new courtrooms, a new high-security area for detainees awaiting trial, and other adjunct facilities. The compound would have accommodated up to 1,200 people, including lawyers, witnesses, translators, and journalists. In testimony before the US Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday Gates said that current and temporary facilities would be used instead, bringing the cost down to one-tenth of the proposed $100 million, though he did not state a dollar amount. Currently, the Guantanamo prison facility houses some 400 detainees, of which 60 to 80 [JURIST report] are scheduled to face military commission trials [DOD materials; JURIST news archive] for alleged terrorist activities.

Currently, Guantanamo has only one courthouse, which raises concerns that already delayed trials [JURIST report] would be delayed even more. California Senator Dianne Feinstein [official profile], who last year criticized the Department of Defense for attempting to go through with the $100 million proposal without explicit Congressional approval, praised Gates' decision [press release] on Wednesday. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Marcia Cooke [official profile] ruled Wednesday that alleged terrorist Jose Padilla [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] is competent to stand trial, rejecting defense arguments that he often cannot assist his attorneys because he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [NIMH backgrounder] due to nearly four years of incarceration in a military brig. Cooke noted that Padilla understands "legal nuances" and that he has been able to discuss his case with his lawyers. Prosecutors argued that Padilla purposely refused to cooperate at times, following resistance methods he allegedly learned at an al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Last week, forensic neuropsychiatrist Dr. Angela Hegarty testified that Padilla's PTSD rendered him incapable of assisting in his defense [JURIST report], but admitted on cross examination that on some portions of her tests Padilla scored zero on PTSD. Previously, the US Bureau of Prisons [official website] evaluation that concluded Padilla was fit to stand trial [JURIST report].

Padilla, a US citizen, was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and subsequently detained as an "enemy combatant" [JURIST news archive] at a Navy military brig in Charleston, South Carolina. Initially accused of planning to set off a radioactive "dirty bomb" [NRC factsheet] in the United States, Padilla went from enemy combatant to criminal defendant when he was finally charged [JURIST report] in November 2005 on unrelated counts of supporting terrorist activity. He was transferred to civilian custody [JURIST report] in January 2006 and has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to the charges. AP has more.

[JURIST] Hawaii legislators have shelved a proposal [HB 908 summary; text] to create civil unions [JURIST news archive] for same-sex couples, indicating that the state legislature did not have enough votes to pass the law. The state House Judiciary Committee [official website] declined to vote on the proposal after hours of testimony Tuesday without explaining the reasons for deferring debate. Hawaii was one of the first states to consider same-sex marriage when the Hawaii Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion] in 1996 that same-sex couples cannot be denied marriage, but a 1998 constitutional amendment [Hawaii constitution] defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey each recognize civil unions for same-sex couples, while Massachusetts [JURIST report] is the only US state to legally recognize same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive]. Earlier this month, New Jersey became the first state to recognize [JURIST report] same-sex marriage and civil unions from out of state jurisdictions. AP has more. The Honolulu Advertiser has local coverage.

[JURIST] US State Department Legal Advisor John Bellinger [official profile] told reporters in Brussels Wednesday that European investigations into allegations of CIA misconduct in Europe may dampen intelligence sharing efforts between the US and European countries. He also said that allegations of torture by the CIA [official website] are unsupported by hard evidence. AP has more.

Earlier this month, the European Parliament approved a report [JURIST report] condemning member states for cooperating with the CIA in operating illegal secret prisons and extraordinary rendition flights [JURIST news archives] in Europe. In June, a Council of Europe (COE) study [PDF text] submitted by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty [personal website; JURIST news archive] reported that 14 European countries collaborated with the CIA [JURIST report] by taking an active or passive role in a "global spider's web" of secret prisons and rendition flights. On Sunday, Egyptian cleric Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr [JURIST news archive] said he was tortured by the CIA when he was kidnapped [WP timeline] and taken from Milan to Egypt in 2003. Earlier this month an Italian judge indicted 26 American CIA agents [JURIST report] for their alleged role in Nasr's abduction. While Italy is unlikely to press for extradition [JURIST report] in the case, Bellinger indicated Wednesday that the US would refuse any such request [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF] Wednesday in Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation [Duke Law case backgrounder; merit briefs], 06-157 [docket], where the court must decide whether taxpayers have standing under Article III [text] of the Constitution to challenge federal support for "faith-based" religious initiatives. The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFR) [advocacy website] sued US Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao [official profile], complaining that government funds should not be used to promote President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community Initiatives [official website]. After the district court held that FFR did not have standing to sue and dismissed the case, the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled [opinion text, PDF] in January 2006 that taxpayers have standing to challenge a program created by a Presidential executive order, alleged to promote religion, and which is financed by a congressional appropriation. On Wednesday, Justice Breyer questioned a White House lawyer on whether a taxpayer would be able to challenge a law in which Congress sets up a church at Plymouth Rock. Justice Scalia took the opposite stance and asked a lawyer for FFR whether taxpayers would be able to sue over the use of security money for a presidential trip in which religion was discussed.

The outcome of the case may depend on a 1968 Supreme Court decision [opinion] which created an exception to the general prohibition on taxpayer challenges to the government spending of tax revenue. In that case, Board of Education v. Allen, the Court allowed taxpayers to challenge congressional spending for private religious schools. AP has more.

[JURIST] US Department of State Legal Adviser John Bellinger [official profile] said Wednesday the US will not honor any request by Italy to extradite CIA agents [JURIST reports] wanted for their alleged role in the February 17, 2003 abduction [JURIST news archive; WP timeline] and extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] of alleged terror suspect Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive]. Bellinger noted that no extradition request has been received from Italy but even if one was, the US would not comply. He further said the threat of criminal charges against the agents could harm cordial relations between the US and Italy.

Italian Judge Caterina Interlandi issued indictments [JURIST report] on February 16 for 31 US and Italian intelligence agents in connection with the kidnapping. Prosecutor Armando Spataro has alleged that 25 Americans working for the Central Intelligence Agency, one United States Air Force colonel, and five Italians from Italy's Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) [official websites] colluded to kidnap Nasr from Milan. Nasr was then allegedly transferred to Egypt and turned over to Egypt's State Security Intelligence (SSI) [Wikipedia backgrounder], where he was allegedly tortured before being released [JURIST report] on February 12. The trial is slated to begin June 8. Spatero has said that if the US agents are not extradited, he will try the US agents in absentia [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi [personal website], who won a confidence vote [BBC report] in the Italian Senate Wednesday after losing a key vote on a foreign policy issue last week, has asked senators to strike down an unfavorable election law that was enacted [BBC report] by predecessor Silvio Berlusconi [BBC profile] prior to the contested Senate elections [JURIST report] of April 2006. Prodi opposes the Berlusconi election law because it grants Senate seats based on the proportion of the national vote won by each party, giving Prodi's Olive Tree Federation [party website, in Italian] a mere two-seat majority in the Senate.

Prodi is expected to easily survive an upcoming confidence vote in Italy's lower house, scheduled for later this week. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] The Law Lords [official website], the judicial panel of the UK House of Lords which is Britain's highest court, Wednesday dismissed [opinion] an appeal by a suspect in the 2004 Madrid bombings [JURIST news archive] contesting his extradition to Spain. Moutaz Almallah Dabas, a Syrian-born Spanish citizen, was arrested in London [BBC News report] in March 2005 for his alleged involvement in the Madrid bombings that killed 191 people in March 2004. Dabas' defense lawyers say he was arrested under an invalid extradition warrant [JURIST report] and may face torture and other abuse if extradited to Spain. The court concluded that the extradition proceedings complied with European law and unanimously voted to dismiss Dabas' appeal, thereby paving the way for his extradition back to Spain. Bloomberg has more.

The trial of 29 people [JURIST report] suspected of involvement in the Madrid bombings began February 15 in the National Court of Spain. The defendants [BBC backgrounder], mostly of Moroccan descent, are charged with 192 counts of murder and upwards of 1,800 counts of attempted murder related to the March 11, 2004 bombings, which prosecutors say were motivated by al-Qaeda's demand that Spain be punished for supporting the Iraq war.

[JURIST] US District Judge George B. Daniels [official profile] on Tuesday approved a proposed settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by Holocaust [JURIST news archive] survivors against Italian insurance company Assicurazioni Generali [corporate website]. Under the terms of the settlement, the insurance company will accept new claims until March 31, 2008. The deadline might be extended to August 31, 2008 when the Bad Arolsen Archive [BBC backgrounder] in Germany is opened, if documents are revealed that give rise to additional claims. According to the class action website, the suit against the company alleged that it has refused to honor insurance policies sold to the Holocaust era victims prior to and during the Holocaust. Generali has already paid an estimated $135 million to settle claims related to the class action. AP has more.

US federal courts have presided over several other significant Holocaust settlements in recent years. In April 2005, a district judge approved a $21.9 million award [JURIST report] to heirs of families whose bank holdings were allegedly concealed and stolen by Swiss banks looking to gain favor with invading Nazis, and a district judge in March 2005 approved a $25.5 million settlement [JURIST report] between Hungarian Holocaust survivors and the US government over a train seized by the US Army in 1945 that was filled with gold, art, and other property, valued at the time between $50 million and $200 million.

[JURIST] Two Guantamano Bay detainees petitioned the US Supreme Court [official website] Tuesday to expedite its review of the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA) [PDF text; JURIST news archive], which contains a "court-stripping" provision that prevents federal courts from hearing habeas challenges. The motion to expedite [PDF text] filed by joint appellants Salim Ahmed Hamdan and Omar Khadr [Trial Watch profiles] asks the Court to review the habeas-stripping provision as it was applied in two separate cases: earlier this month, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld the dismissal of several habeas cases [JURIST report], and last December, a district judge dismissed Hamdan's habeas appeal [JURIST report], finding the district court lacked jurisdiction due to the court-stripping provision. Lawyers for the detainees argued in their motion Tuesday that the habeas-stripping aspect of the Act raises "issues of extreme public and constitutional significance" warranting expedited review. The actual petition for writ of certiorari will be filed later this week. Tuesday's motion essentially asks the Court to decide quickly whether to grant certiorari to the consolidated appeal. AP has more. SCOTUSblog has additional coverage.

President Bush signed the MCA into law [JURIST report] last October and shortly afterwards the US Justice Department sent letters [JURIST report] to the DC district and appeals courts, saying they no longer had jurisdiction over some 200 pending cases filed by Guantanamo detainees.

[JURIST] The former general counsel for computer security company McAfee [corporate website] was indicted Tuesday by the Department of Justice for concealing an illegal stock option backdating scheme. The DOJ charged [PDF indictment] Kent Roberts with six counts of mail fraud, wire fraud, and filing false SEC documents. The indictment alleged that as part of the scheme to defraud McAfee (formerly known as Network Associates), its investors, the SEC, and the public, Roberts:

fraudulently granted himself extra compensation by causing the grant date for his stock options grant to be changed in Network Associate's books and records so that the exercise price of the grant would be lower and so that it appeared that the grant was made on the new fabricated grant date.

[JURIST] The FBI [official website] has started investigating 10-12 civil rights era suspicious death cases [press release], according to FBI Director Robert Mueller [remarks] and US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales [official profile] Tuesday. Although officials declined to comment on which cases have been re-opened, they did confirm that the lynching of four sharecroppers in 1946 on Moore's Ford Bridge in Georgia were among the cases. Investigators would not comment on whether the cases also included the shooting death of Maceo Snipes [AP backgrounder] in 1946, right after Snipes voted for the first time in Georgia. Investigators did confirm that most of the civil rights cases [FBI backgrounder] being investigated stem from suspicious deaths in the South. Working in conjunction with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the National Urban League [advocacy websites], the FBI has identified 100 cold cases that may warrant further investigation.

Tuesday's announcement falls in line with a recent trend in settling unfinished civil rights cases. Last month, the US Justice Department charged [press release; JURIST report] James Ford Seale with kidnapping and conspiracy in relation to the deaths of Charles Eddie Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee in Mississippi in 1964. Also on Tuesday, a Mississippi grand jury refused to indict [JURIST report] Carolyn Bryant on manslaughter charges for the 1955 kidnap and murder of Emmett Till [JURIST news archive], citing insufficient evidence. The US Justice Department re-opened the Till case [JURIST report] in 2004, but later turned the case over to the local Mississippi district attorney after deciding not to bring federal civil rights charges [JURIST report]. Gonzales noted that, like the Till case, the federal government may not have jurisdiction over the re-opened cases. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) [advocacy website] filed a complaint Tuesday against the Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking the release of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [FJC backgrounder] order that authorized government surveillance of transmissions coming into or going outside of the country where one party was suspected of association with a terrorist organization. The EFF filed their complaint under Section 552(a)(4)(B) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which grants the federal court "jurisdiction to enjoin the agency from withholding agency records and to order the production of any agency records improperly withheld from the complainant." The EFF complaint [PDF text; press release] alleges that the DOJ denied the EFF's January 23, 2007 FOIA request seeking:

copies of all Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court...orders referenced by the Attorney General in his letter to Sens. Leahy and Specter, and all FISC rules and guidelines associated with such orders and/or referenced by Mr. Snow in the January 17 press briefing.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Mexico [official website] released a decision Tuesday overturning a law that banned those with HIV from serving in the military, finding the law an unconstitutional infringement on principles of equality. The military may now only expel soldiers if a doctor certifies that their condition prevents them from performing their duties.

Tuesday's decision immediately reinstates four of the eleven soldiers with HIV who challenged their dismissals. The Supreme Court on Thursday will consider five cases where the soldiers challenging their dismissals have developed AIDS. A lower Mexican court found the law unconstitutional [IPS report] in 2004. Reuters has more. El Universal has local coverage, in Spanish.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled Wednesday that its earlier decision in Crawford v. Washington [text; Duke Law case backgrounder], which established that out-of-court statements are inadmissible unless the witness is unavailable and the defendant has an opportunity to cross-examine her, does not apply retroactively. In Whorton v. Bockting [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report], Bockting was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to life imprisonment based on the statements of the sole witness to police. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled [opinion text, PDF], however, in Bockting's habeas proceeding that Crawford applied retroactively because it is a watershed rule of criminal procedure that provides a fundamental principle affecting the outcomes of cases.

The Supreme Court reversed the Ninth Circuit, reasoning that its decision in Crawford "announced a 'new rule' of criminal procedure and that this rule does not fall within the Teague exception for watershed rules." In order for a rule of criminal procedure to be deemed a "watershed" rule, it must "implicat[e] the fundamental fairness and accuracy of the criminal proceeding" - that is "the rule must be necessary to prevent 'an "'impermissibly large risk'"' of an inaccurate conviction. [citations removed] Second, the rule must 'alter our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements essential to the fairness of a proceeding.'" Read the Court's unanimous opinion [text] per Justice Alito.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] held [PDF opinion] Tuesday that the Bush administration is permitted to deny funding to nonprofit AIDS awareness and advocacy groups that fail to publicly advocate against sex trafficking and prostitution. Judge A. Raymond Randolf held that the First Amendment rights of AIDS groups are not diminished by placing such requirements on the receipt of federal monies. In his opinion, he wrote that these requirements do "not compel [groups] to advocate the government's position on prostitution and sex trafficking; it requires only that if [the organization] wishes to receive funds it must communicate the message the government chooses to fund."


DKT International Inc. [advocacy website] brought a lawsuit against the US Agency for International Development [official website] in 2005, stating that any law requiring them to advocate for the government's position infringed on their freedom of speech. The lower court held [PDF opinion] that the government requirements amounted to a violation of First Amendment rights, writing that "by mandating that DKT adopt an organization-wide policy against prostitution, the government exceeds its ability to limit the use of government funds." AP has more.

[JURIST] The White House said Tuesday that President Bush will veto a new anti-terror bill [S.4 summary] if it contains a provision which would allow Transportation Security Administration airport screeners to unionize. While other federal employees already have similar union abilities, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff [official profile] said that allowing screeners to do so is against the best interest of the country. Likening the screeners to Marines in Iraq, Chertoff told reporters that "we can't negotiate over terms and conditions of work that goes to the heart of our ability to move rapidly in order to deal with the threats that are emerging." The American Federation of Government Employees [union website] called such reasoning "an insult to the hundreds of thousands of dedicated public safety officers with collective bargaining rights - from border patrol agents to firefighters to the Capitol Hill police." Congressional Republicans have already vowed that if Bush vetoes the bill, they will not allow a congressional override, which would require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses.

Beyond tightening anti-terror controls and the labor talks, the bill also includes provisions designed to enhance intelligence sharing between state and federal government agencies, and would provide additional visa waivers for favored countries. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Catholic Diocese of San Diego [official website] filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy [petition, PDF] on Tuesday putting a stop to an upcoming sex abuse trial and becoming the largest US diocese to file for bankruptcy thus far. The diocese had been engaged in settlement talks with plaintiffs' attorneys in the lawsuits over clergy abuse [JURIST news archive], however, after those talks failed to come to any resolution, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 reorganization [SEC backgrounder]. As Bishop Robert Brom explained [statement], the diocese "decided against litigating our cases because of the length of time the process could take and, more importantly, because early trial judgments in favor of some victims could so deplete diocesan and insurance resources that there would be nothing left for other victims." David Clohessy, director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests [advocacy website], told AP that the filing is not due to concerns for the victims, but rather "its for their own self-preservation."

The diocese told parishioners last week that it was considering declaring bankruptcy [JURIST report; PDF letter] in light of the more than 140 pending lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. In January 2007, the Catholic Diocese of Spokane [diocesan website] agreed to settle molestation claims [JURIST report] against priests for $48 million as part of its Chapter 11 reorganization plan [diocesan materials]. The Archdiocese of Portland filed for Chapter 11 [JURIST report] in 2004, and the dioceses of Tuscon, Spokane, and Davenport soon followed suit in the wake of hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits [JURIST news archive] against clergy. Last month, the Portland archdiocese filed a new bankruptcy plan [JURIST report] including a $75 million settlement of the sexual abuse claims. AP has more. The San Diego Union-Tribune has local coverage.