[JURIST] US President George W. Bush issued an executive order [text and materials] on Thursday which gives the country's Director of National Intelligence [official website] the authority to coordinate information sharing between different US and foreign intelligence services, a duty previously held by the Central Intelligence Agency [official website]. The Director will also be authorized to make funding decisions for the various US agencies. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a statement that the order would implement reforms authorized by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 [PDF text] and create a more unified national intelligence-gathering network, but members of the House Intelligence Committee protested [press release] the substantial changes being without their consultation. VOA has more. AP has additional coverage.

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which implemented a series of intelligence reforms [JURIST report] recommended by the 9/11 Commission [official website], authorized the broadest re-working of the US intelligence structure since President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act [text] in 1947.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Thursday rejected arguments [opinion, PDF; CREW press release] that senior White House officials are protected from congressional subpoena by executive privilege, ruling that former White House legal counsel Harriet Miers [official profile] must testify before a House committee regarding the US Attorneys firing scandal [JURIST news archive]. Judge John Bates did find that Miers may claim executive privilege in response to certain questions, but he ordered Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten [official profile] to turn over all documents requested by the subpoena and a list of any documents withheld under executive privilege. Bates wrote:

[E]xecutive privilege is not absolute even when Congress -- rather than a grand jury -- is the party requesting the information. And a claim of absolute immunity from compulsory process cannot be erected by the Executive as a surrogate for the claim of absolute executive privilege already firmly rejected by the courts. Presidential autonomy, such as it is, cannot mean that the Executive’s actions are totally insulated from scrutiny by Congress. That would eviscerate Congress’s historical oversight function.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit [official website] on Wednesday granted [order, PDF] prosecutors' petition for an en banc rehearing on whether the insider trading conviction of former Qwest Communications [corporate website] CEO Joseph Nacchio [JURIST news archive] should be overturned. In March, a Tenth Circuit panel struck down [ruling, PDF; JURIST report] Nacchio's conviction and ordered a new trial, finding that US District Judge Edward Nottingham improperly excluded testimony from defense witness Daniel Fischel [academic profile], a corporate law and markets expert scheduled to present information on public disclosure requirements for Nacchio's stock sales. Nacchio had appealed his April 2007 insider trading conviction [JURIST report] for selling $52 million of Qwest stock in 2001 based on non-public information shortly before the stock sharply dropped in value. AP has more.

Federal prosecutors indicted Nacchio in December 2005 on 42 counts of insider trading [JURIST report]. He and other former Qwest executives still face civil fraud charges [JURIST report] brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] on allegations that Qwest improperly reported approximately $3 billion in revenue that eased its 2000 merger with US West. Another former Qwest employee, ex-vice president Marc Weisberg, pleaded guilty to wire fraud [JURIST report] in December 2005 and helped prosecutors build their case against Nacchio.

[JURIST] The South African Constitutional Court [official website] on Thursday rejected a motion [opinion, PDF; opinion summary] by politician Jacob Zuma [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] to exclude evidence from his upcoming corruption trial. Zuma had argued [JURIST report] that evidence seized in 2005 raids by the Directorate of Special Investigations [official backgrounder; BBC report] should be thrown out because the raids violated his rights to privacy and a fair trial. The court upheld the validity of the warrants used in the raids, confirming a November 2007 decision [JURIST report] by the South African Supreme Court of Appeal, explaining:

[T]he application for the warrants, the terms of the warrants themselves, and their subsequent execution were lawful, in view of the applicable common-law, statutory and constitutional principles. For that reason, although the applications for leave to appeal are granted, the appeals themselves are refused and the judgments of the Supreme Court of Appeal appealed against are confirmed.

[JURIST] The Alabama Supreme Court [official website] voted 5-4 on Wednesday to indefinitely stay the execution [order, PDF] of Thomas Arthur [advocacy website], who had been sentenced to death by lethal injection for a 1982 contract killing. Arthur would have been executed on Thursday. The court did not disclose its reason for the stay, but the decision comes after lawyers for Arthur filed an affidavit in which another prisoner, Bobby Ray Gilbert, confessed to the murder [Times Daily report], and an assistant attorney general said the state could not find evidence that the defense had petitioned to test for DNA. The Innocence Project has petitioned [advocacy website] Alabama Governor Bob Riley to order DNA testing of the evidence, if found, in order to potentially clear Arthur of the charges. The New York Times has more. The Birmingham News has local coverage.

Arthur's execution would have been Alabama's first since the end of the national de-facto moratorium [JURIST report] on the death penalty, during which states ceased executions while the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] considered Baze v. Rees [Duke law case backgrounder; JURIST report], a case which challenged the legality of Kentucky's lethal injection protocol. The Court upheld the procedure, ruling that it did not violate the Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. In January, the Court stayed the execution [order, PDF; JURIST report] of another Alabama death row inmate as it considered the case and a circuit court stayed the sentence [JURIST report] of a third in October 2007 for the same reason.

[JURIST] California Attorney General Jerry Brown [official website] formally notified [letter, PDF; press release] the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official website] Thursday that the state would file a lawsuit against the agency if it refused to issue rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions from ships, aircraft, industrial and agricultural machinery, and other vehicles. Brown said that California had petitioned the EPA three times seeking a regulatory ruling, but that the EPA had disregarded the requests other than to issue an "Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" (ANPR) [EPA materials] on July 11. The letter notes:

Describing the petitions and soliciting comments does not suffice as a response to petitioners' requests. Moreover, although the ANPR includes various feasible mechanisms for reducing emissions from marine vessels, aircraft and nonroad vehicles and engines, the recommendations are inadequate responses to our petitions. EPA suggests only that these tools are available, but does not recommend that any of the measures be adopted. EPA’s unresponsive actions evade the rendering of a judicially reviewable final action on the petitions simply to avoid accusations of delay. [Citations omitted]

[JURIST] Officials for United Airlines [corporate website] filed a lawsuit [press release] Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois seeking to ban pilots' union Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) [official website] and four pilots from causing flight cancellations. The suit alleges that ALPA and the pilots have organized sick-leave abuse movements in protest to United plans [press release] to reduce the size of its fleet and lay off employees in response to increasing fuel prices. The movements have reportedly contributed to a summer increase of as much as 103 percent in first-officer sick leave time, and United asked the court for an injunction against such actions. United executive vice president Pete McDonald commented:

It is absolutely irresponsible for ALPA to promote unlawful behavior, particularly in this environment, when the industry is taking unprecedented actions to offset record fuel costs. Our employees are working hard to make our company successful. We are going to ensure the integrity of our operation and will not allow the actions of ALPA and certain pilots to continue to harm our customers, our employees and our company.

[JURIST] Bosnian Serb leader and former fugitive Radovan Karadzic [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] Friday refused to enter a plea [VOA report] and denied the assistance of counsel in his first appearance [ICTY video, ASX] before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official site], where he faces war crimes charges [amended indictment; case materials]. Karadzic was originally indicted [text] by the court's prosecutor in 1995, but had been in hiding under an assumed identity until his arrest earlier this month [JURIST report]. Karadzic is accused of numerous acts of genocide and crimes against humanity for overseeing the Srebrenica [JURIST news archive] prison massacre and other killings of Bosnian Muslims and Croats during ethnic conflicts in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Karadzic had earlier said he will represent himself [JURIST op-ed] in defending against the charges, and faces life in prison if convicted. AFP has more.

Karadzic was transfered to the ICTY Wednesday, after his lawyer's tactic to delay sending the appeal [JURIST report] failed to prevent his extradition from Serbia, where he had been hiding. His capture has been a major goal of the ICTY [press release], and follows the June arrest [JURIST report] of former Bosnian Serb police commander Stojan Zupljanin [Trial Watch profile]. ICTY Chief Prosecutor Serge Brammertz [ICC profile; JURIST report] had long criticized Serbia for its failure to find and capture [JURIST report] Karadzic and other war crimes suspects. Brammertz has vowed to try all war crimes suspects [JURIST report] before the expiration of the ICTY's mandate in 2010.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced Wednesday that a Native American prisoner in Wyoming had settled his lawsuit [ACLU press release] against the Wyoming Department of Corrections after Department officials agreed to allow the man to keep up to four eagle feathers in his cell for religious purposes. Andrew John Yellowbear, a member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, was incarcerated in the Wyoming State Penitentiary (WSP) [official website] in 2006 after receiving a life sentence [Star-Tribune report] for the murder of his daughter. He alleged in his suit [docket] that he was only allowed one eagle feather in his cell even though Department policy [text, PDF] allows for more, and that WSP officials confiscated that one feather after he filed the lawsuit, all in violation of the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) [texts]. The ACLU agreed to represent him [press release] earlier this month, and ACLU staff attorney Stephen Pevar said of the settlement:

The fact that officials at WSP will now ensure that American Indian prisoners have access to eagle feathers is a great victory for religious freedom. The feathers are used to communicate prayers to the Creator and to receive answers to prayers. Denying Mr. Yellowbear these highly spiritual feathers was akin to denying Catholics access to a rosary or crucifix.

[JURIST] A Thai court on Thursday convicted Pojamarn Shinawatra [JURIST news archive], the wife of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], of tax evasion for transferring $16.3 million worth of stock to her step-brother and secretary, who were also convicted. Pojamarn and step-brother Bannapot Damapong were each sentenced to three years and her secretary was sentenced to two years imprisonment for the crime. Pojamarn has said the transfer was exempt from taxation as a gift, and all three have been released on bail while they appeal the ruling. Pojamarn also faces a number of corruption charges made by the country's Assets Examination Commission. In April, she pleaded not guilty to charges [JURIST reports] of conflict of interest and malfeasance stemming from a 2003 agreement with the government-directed Financial Institutions Development Fund [official website] to purchase land said to be worth three times more than the $26 million she paid for it. AFP has more. The Bangkok Post has local coverage.

On Tuesday, the government brought its latest charges [JURIST report] against Thaksin, alleging that he and 47 others were involved in misconduct related to the country's lottery system. Earlier this month, the Thai Attorney General's Office filed other corruption charges [JURIST report] against Thaksin relating to a 2003 resolution that reduced fees paid by mobile phone companies to state telecommunications agencies. Lawyers for Thaksin have been jailed [JURIST report] for attempting to bribe court officials in one of Thaksin's cases, and current Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej [BBC profile] is facing possible impeachment proceedings [JURIST report] due in part to his party's close association with Thaksin . Thaksin and Pojamarn had been in self-imposed exile from Thailand after Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006, but returned to the country earlier this year [JURIST reports].