Bush administration seeks dismissal of Oregon NSA surveillance suit News
Bush administration seeks dismissal of Oregon NSA surveillance suit

[JURIST] Lawyers for the US Department of Justice Thursday asked the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] to reverse a ruling [JURIST report] of Judge Garr King of US District Court in Portland to allow a lawsuit by the US branch of the Saudi Arabia-based Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation [Wikipedia profile] to proceed against the US government over the warrantless wiretapping [JURIST news archive] of communications between the foundation and its attorneys. Earlier this month, King denied the government's motion to dismiss [opinion, PDF], rejecting contentions [JURIST report] that the proceeding would reveal state secrets.

The Oregon lawsuit, filed [JURIST report] by the now-defunct foundation in February, claims that the NSA had illegally wiretapping several conversations between the charity and its attorneys, having failed to get a court order as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) [official materials]. 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.