Boehner to succeed DeLay as House Majority Leader after GOP vote News
Boehner to succeed DeLay as House Majority Leader after GOP vote

[JURIST] In a close vote Thursday, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) [official website] beat out stand-in GOP chief Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) [official website] to win election as GOP House Majority Leader [official website], vowing to move the party away from recent ethics and corruption scandals. Boehner, who beat Blunt 122-109 on a second ballot, said that Republicans would now recommit to "restore the trust between Congress and the American people." Boehner takes over from Rep. Tom DeLay, who formally stepped down [JURIST report] last month while still caught up in a Texas criminal case over campaign finance. One of Boehner's first challenges will be to limit the political fallout from the corruption scandal involving former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff [JURIST news archive], who pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud charges in January. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thurgood Marshall confirmed as US Supreme Court justice

On August 30, 1965, civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice by the US Senate, becoming the first African-American to be approved for the nation's highest tribunal. Learn more about Thurgood Marshall.

ICTY announces genocide charges against Slobodan Milošević

On August 30, 2001, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) informed former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević that he would be charged with genocide in addition to other war crimes. The charges stemmed from Milošević's role in the Balkan civil wars of the 1990s in which Milošević, as President of Serbia and Yugoslavia, attempted to use force to prevent the ethnic dissolution of the Yugoslav Federation. Learn more about the trial of Slobodan Milošević and the charges filed against him from the BBC.