US House votes to overhaul Endangered Species Act News
US House votes to overhaul Endangered Species Act

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives Thursday approved by 229-193 legislation that would overhaul the 1973 Endangered Species Act [official website]. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) [official website] steered the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005 (TESRA) [PDF summary] through the House Resources Committee last week [JURIST report]. If enacted, the law will eliminate the designation of "critical habitat" for those areas inhabited by protected species; authorize the Interior Secretary [official website] to determine the standards for scientific data on which agencies would base their decisions; and require the federal government to compensate land owners if the Endangered Species Act prohibits development on their land. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.