Parties invoke race in judicial filibuster fight News
Parties invoke race in judicial filibuster fight

[JURIST] Leaders of both parties brought race into the equation Thursday in the continuing Senate floor fight over President Bush's judicial nominees [JURIST report] and the Senate's own filibuster rules. GOP Majority Leader Bill Frist [official website] held a news conference accompanied by the chairman of a group of black pastors, Bishop Harry Jackson, who admonished the Democratic party for disparaging treatment of federal appeals court nominee Janice Rogers Brown [court profile]. Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid [official website] meanwhile said that doing away with the filibuster is "nothing short of clearing the trees for the confirmation of an unacceptable nominee to the Supreme Court." Reid joined leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus in a letter to Frist urging Republicans not to upset traditional checks and balances [Reid remarks announcing letter]. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.