[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday in favor of three organizations that had challenged the denial of a visa to a controversial Swiss Muslim scholar, reviving their claim. Tariq Ramadan [ACLU materials; JURIST news archive] had been invited to teach at the University of Notre Dame in 2004, but the government denied his visa, citing Ramadan's contributions to a charity, the Association de Secours Palestinien (ASP), which provided some financial support to Hamas [JURIST news archive]. The government claimed this rendered him inadmissible under the Immigration and Nationality Act [USCIS backgrounder] for having "engaged in a terrorist activity" by providing "material support" to a "terrorist organization." The Second Circuit vacated a district court decision [opinion, PDF] that granted summary judgment to the defendants, the director of Homeland Security and the secretary of state. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website], which filed suit on behalf of plaintiffs, welcomed [press release] Friday's decision, saying:

We're very pleased with the appeals court's decision. The court properly found that the exclusion of foreign scholars like Ramadan implicates the First Amendment rights of Americans, that the judiciary has a role in policing the government's exclusion of foreign scholars, and that in this case the government simply has not offered a constitutionally adequate justification for its actions.

[JURIST] Chinese officials from Beijing's Civil Affairs Bureau on Friday shut down [press release, in Chinese] the legal research center of the Gongmeng [advocacy website, in Chinese] human rights group. Officials confiscated computers and other equipment, telling staff that the center was not properly registered [AP report]. A lawyer for Gongmeng said that the research center was part of Gongmeng, which is properly registered. A statement from Gongmeng called the Civil Affairs Bureau's actions "illegal." Also this week, the Chinese government suspended the licenses of 53 lawyers [press release, in Chinese] in Beijing, including prominent human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong, for failing to pass an assessment or failing to register. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] condemned the action, saying:

There are only a tiny group of lawyers left in China who are brave enough to take the risk of representing victims of human rights violations. A further crackdown against human rights lawyers is a major blow not only to these legal professionals but to the human rights defence [sic] movement in China.

[JURIST] Finance expert William Brodsky [FIA profile] on Friday called for the merger [testimony, PDF] of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) [official websites]. Brodsky and others testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services [official website] to discuss Obama administration proposals for financial regulatory reform. The Chicago Board Options Exchange [corporate website] CEO maintained that merging the two financial regulators was necessary to account for "increasingly sophisticated technology." Brodsky argued that the failure to modernize the current regulatory system has resulted in unregulated gaps, market congestion, and a lack of regulatory perspective. He agreed with the proposal's recommendation that a single authority should be assigned to supervise firms that potentially pose a risk to financial stability:

It has become increasingly clear over the part two decades that our system of regulating securities and futures under two distinctly different statutory structures - with separate regulatory agencies and different congressional committees - causes needless legal uncertainty and delay, impedes innovation and competition, and imposes unnecessary costs on our financial markets.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Pakistan [official website] on Friday acquitted [judgment, PDF] opposition leader Nawaz Sharif on charges of hijacking a plane carrying General Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archives] in 1999. The conviction had barred Sharif from running for office, although the court lifted the ban [JURIST reports] in May. It was alleged that then-prime minister Sharif ordered Musharraf's return flight to the country not to be permitted to land and to be diverted to another country after replacing him as chief of the Army Staff. The order came during a coup against Sharif that ultimately succeeded. The country's anti-terrorism court in 2000 acquitted all of the defendants in the case except Sharif. The Supreme Court ruled that, "looking at the case from any angle," hijacking or terrorism charges do not stand against Sharif.

After his conviction, the ruling was suspended [JURIST report] after Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] petitioned the court to review the decision [JURIST report]. Earlier this year, Sharif and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] led a protest march [JURIST report] against Zardari and his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) [party website] as part of the Pakistan lawyers' movement [JURIST news archive]. In March, Zardari formed a parliamentary committee [JURIST report] to review key terms of the Pakistani Constitution, and reinstated [JURIST report] Supreme Court chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], who was ousted in 2007 after then-president Musharraf declared a state of emergency rule.

[JURIST] Former Boeing [corporate website] engineer Dongfan "Greg" Chung was convicted [DOJ press release] Thursday of stealing corporate trade secrets related to the US Space Shuttle program and turning them over to China in the first ever trial under the Economic Espionage Act [DOJ backgrounder]. Chung, a native of China, was tried in the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website] in a non-jury trial and convicted on charges [indictment, PDF] of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, six counts of economic espionage to benefit a foreign country, one count of acting as an agent of the People’s Republic of China, and one count of making false statements to the FBI. Chung was remanded into custody to await sentencing, which is scheduled for November 9. Prosecutors plan to recommend a 15- to 20-year prison sentence [Los Angeles Times report].

Chung was arrested [DOJ press release; JURIST report] in February 2008. He worked for Rockwell International from 1973 until its defense and space unit was acquired by Boeing in 1996, and he continued to work for Boeing as an employee and then as a contractor through 2006. Chung's arrest resulted from an investigation into the case of Chi Mak [CI Centre backgrounder; JURIST report], a Chinese-American engineer convicted [BBC report] in 2007 of conspiring to smuggle sensitive naval intelligence data to China and sentenced [JURIST report] to more than 24 years in prison.

[JURIST] The US Senate [official website] approved a bill [S 909 materials] Thursday that would expand hate crimes law to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation or gender. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act would provide federal assistance to state and local authorities to prosecute hate crimes and would allow the federal government to prosecute such crimes that state or local prosecutors do not pursue. Current hate crimes law only protects crimes motivated by race, religion, color, or national origin. The measure was applauded [press release] by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) [official website], who called its approval a "victory for all Americans." Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) [official website] opposed the bill on the Senate floor, arguing that the wording of the legislation shows an intent to prosecute speech [official blog] "if it is part of the broader prosecution of an action that could be perceived as a hate crime." DeMint and others have also raised equal protection concerns for hate crime legislation.

The US House of Representatives [official website] considered similar legislation [HR 1913 materials] in April, approving the measure [JURIST report] by 249-175. Both the House and Senate bills include crimes motivated by disabilities as well as gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. In 2007, the House and Senate [JURIST reports] passed similar legislation but the broadened language was ultimately removed [JURIST report] during House and Senate negotiations.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a suit against Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton [official profile] for allegedly misusing FBI background records to obtain information on Republican White House employees during Bill Clinton's presidency. US District Judge Royce Lamberth removed Clinton as a defendant [AP report] in the case [materials] because there was no legal basis to require Clinton to submit to an oral deposition. The controversy, known as "Filegate," stems from a Clinton administration request for FBI background checks on White House employees, which included Republican political appointees of prior administrations. The administration has defended itself by claiming that it was trying to reconstruct personnel files that were kept by former president George H.W. Bush. The lawsuit was brought by White House employees of prior administrations who alleged that the FBI and Clinton White House violated the Privacy Act [5 USC § 552a text] and that Hillary Clinton and others committed common law invasion of privacy. The Office of the Independent Counsel conducted an investigation into the matter and reported [press release] in 2000 that there was "no substantial and credible evidence" that Hillary Clinton was involved in seeking the FBI reports.

The plaintiffs in the Filegate suit have been represented by Judicial Watch [advocacy website], which filed suit [complaint, PDF; materials] earlier this year against Hillary Clinton in an unrelated case. The group alleges that the Article I, § 6 [text] "ineligibility clause" of the Constitution prohibits Clinton from serving as Secretary of State. The provision states that "[n]o Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time." Judicial Watch recently filed an opposition to Clinton's motion to dismiss [texts, PDF], asking the court to declare Clinton ineligible to serve as Secretary of State.

[JURIST] The Greek Parliament [official website, in Greek] voted Wednesday to approve legislation that would create a DNA database and allow the use of surveillance cameras in fighting crime. The measure, supported by the ruling conservative New Democracy [party website, in Greek] party, would allow for the collection of DNA samples from all criminal suspects. Upon acquittal, the sample would be destroyed, but upon conviction, even for a misdemeanor [Ethnos report, in Greek], the sample would be stored for the rest of the defendant's life. The legislation also allows for surveillance camera footage to be stored for seven days. The measure was strongly opposed by members of various opposition parties, including the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) [party website, in Greek], which cited UK surveillance programs [JURIST news archive] to argue that surveillance cameras do not improve public safety [Ta Nea report, in Greek]. The legislation was also opposed by the Athens Bar Association [association website, in Greek], which argued [press release, in Greek], "[t]he constitutional principle of proportionality requires the legislature to restrict the taking of DNA material only to serious crimes such as homicide, organized crime, drugs, etc."

The new legislation comes partly as a result of last December's violent protests [BBC backgrounder] in Athens and other parts of the country, which were sparked when police officers shot and killed 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos [BBC report]. Reports indicated that Grigoropoulos and other youth were throwing stones at a police car and that the police believed he was throwing explosives. Demonstrations and riots protesting the shooting took place for weeks after Grigoropoulos' death. Last month, a council of judges in Athens ordered two police officers to stand trial [JURIST report] for Grigoropoulos's murder. In March, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] said that Greek authorities were not doing enough to ensure that the nation's police respect human rights [JURIST report], and urged the government to investigate and address "long-standing problems of policing." AI said allegations of human-rights abuses, including torture, the use of excessive force, arbitrary detentions, and denial of prompt legal assistance, continue to be lodged against Greek police. Earlier that month, the Greek government said that it would revamp its police force [JURIST report] in light of the riots. The Greek police have been accused of being both ineffective and unnecessarily violent [JURIST op-ed] in their response to the protests.

[JURIST] Former US Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel [official website] lawyer John Yoo [academic profile; JURIST news archive] defended warrantless wiretapping [WSJ report] in an essay published Thursday by the Wall Street Journal [media website]. Yoo was responding to a report [text; JURIST report] released by five government agencies that alleged that the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program relied on flawed legal analysis and produced results of questionable effectiveness, possibly in violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [text]. Yoo claims that a "wall between domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence" created by FISA contributed to the government's failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks. Calling FISA obsolete due to the fact that it was written with the Cold War in mind, Yoo contends that the law was not enacted to address "live war with an international terrorist organization." Since the legislature is too slow to be effective, Yoo argues, only the executive branch can effectively act in emergency circumstances to protect the public. Yoo discussed the supposed shortcomings of FISA:

Under FISA, to obtain a judicial wiretapping warrant the government is supposed to show probable cause that a specified target is a foreign agent. Unlike, say, Soviet spies working under diplomatic cover, terrorists are hard to identify. Yet they are vastly more dangerous. Monitoring their likely communications channels is the best way to track and stop them. Building evidence to prove past crimes, as in the civilian criminal system, is entirely beside the point. The best way to find an al Qaeda operative is to look at all email, text and phone traffic between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the U.S. This might involve the filtering of innocent traffic, just as roadblocks and airport screenings do.

[JURIST] Lawyers for ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] challenged the Thai government's decision to seize $2.2 billion of Thaksin's assets during a hearing Wednesday before Thailand's Supreme Court Criminal Division for Political Office Holders. The attorney general [official website, in Thai] claims Thaksin is unusually rich [Nation report] and accused him of making his fortune through abuse of his power. Thaksin's family made a great deal of their money by selling stock [Bangkok Post report] in Shin Corporation [corporate website] just three days after the government raised the maximum foreign ownership of telecommunication companies from 20 percent to 49 percent. Prosecutors claim Thaksin never paid taxes on the sale. Lawyers for Thaksin claim that the attempt to seize the assets is politically motivated and that Thaksin was not given an opportunity to call witnesses on his behalf before the Assets Examination Committee decided to seize his money.

In April, a Thai court issued an arrest warrant [JURIST report] for Thaksin, who fled Thailand last summer, a day after he called for the government to be overthrown. In October, a Thai court found Thaksin guilty [JURIST report] in absentia on corruption charges and he was sentenced to two years in prison. Last August, Thai prosecutors asked the Supreme Court to seize over $2 billion [JURIST report] from Thaksin's frozen accounts and holdings in relation to the charges. Last July, the Thai Attorney General's Office filed corruption charges [JURIST report] against Thaksin for his role in a 2003 resolution reducing fees paid by mobile phone companies to state telecommunications agencies. Later that month, Thaksin's wife, as well as her step brother and secretary, were convicted of tax evasion [JURIST report] as a result of her transferring $16.3 million worth of stock to the two. Also that month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear additional charges against Thaksin and 47 other for alleged misconduct [JURIST reports] related to the country's lottery system. Thaksin was ousted from power [JURIST report] in a 2006 military coup.