German justice minister balks at draft constitutional amendment on hijack shoot-downs News
German justice minister balks at draft constitutional amendment on hijack shoot-downs

[JURIST] A proposed German constitutional amendment supported by Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble [official profile] that would grant the military the legal authority to shoot down a hijacked aircraft drew opposition Sunday from Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries [official profile, in German]. Zypries told Bild that the Social Democratic Party (SPD) [party website] is against involving the military to bolster domestic security. The SPD is the junior partner of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) [party website], Chancellor Angela Merkel's grand coalition government, which would require the SPD's support as a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority in both the Bundesrat and Bundestag, the two houses of the German parliament. Bild has local coverage.

A law permitting the German air force to shoot down hijacked planes [JURIST report] was overturned as being unconstitutional [JURIST report] last February on grounds that the government lacks the right to take the lives of passengers in an attempt to save lives on the ground. Deutsche Presse-Agentur has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

President Johnson signed law against burning draft cards

On August 31, 1965, President Johnson signed a law making the burning of draft cards a federal offense subject to a five-year prison sentence and $1000 fine. In response to the law and in protest of the war in Vietnam, the student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the United States on October 15, 1965. The constitutionality of the federal law was upheld in 1968 by the US Supreme Court in US v. O'Brien.

Gdansk Agreement reached

On August 31, 1980, the communist government of Poland and labor leaders settled the Gdansk Agreement. The accord settled a summer of labor strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, Poland. With the Agreement, Poland became the first communist country to allow the creation of an independent labor union, which was called Solidarity. Solidarity then became the driving force that ended communism in Poland. Learn more about the history of Solidarity.