Australia legislation expands Sydney police powers to cope with rioting News
Australia legislation expands Sydney police powers to cope with rioting

[JURIST] The Parliament of New South Wales [official website] passed laws in an emergency session Thursday allowing Sydney police to "lockdown" parts of the city if necessary in order to stop racial unrest. The new legislation also increases jail sentences for rioting and affray and expands police power, providing the authority to stop and search people and vehicles, ban alcohol, and seize vehicles and mobile phones. The Law Enforcement Legislation Amendment [PDF text; legislative materials] was enacted in reaction to two days of race riots in Sydney [JURIST report] that occurred earlier this week. Though the past two nights have been calm, there have been increased police patrols [NSW police press release] and there are calls for violence this weekend. Reuters has more. From Australia, the Daily Telegraph has local coverage.

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THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.