A group of six US states and the District of Columbia, collectively called the "California group," Tuesday requested that the terms of the 2002 Microsoft antitrust settlement be extended from their scheduled expiration this November until 2012. Lawyers for the group, arguing in front of Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the US District Court for the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Tuesday rejected an appeal by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of rulings creating a federal panel to supervise California's overcrowded prison system . In July, two separate district court judges held that while California may appeal specific orders made by a special three-judge panel, the state cannot [...]

A Chinese bank official convicted of corruption was executed Tuesday for taking bribes and embezzling the equivalent of almost $2 million USD. Wen Mengie, the former IT head of the Beijing branch of the Agricultural Bank of China , bought three houses in Beijing with money received during bank purchases of ATM machines and computer [...]

Former British Guantanamo Bay detainee Tarek Dergoul is suing the UK's MI5 (domestic) and MI6 (foreign) intelligence services over complicity with Dergoul's alleged torture, according to a Wednesday report in the Guardian. Dergoul alleges that he was subjected to beatings, sexual humiliation, extremes of cold, and insults to his religion while being held by US [...]

Peruvian President Alan Garcia criticized the Supreme Court of Chile on Tuesday for delaying until after September 19 its ruling on whether to allow the extradition of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori . Garcia said that he was confident the judges would come to the right decision, but expressed disappointment that the verdict has been [...]

The directors of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and National Security Agency (NSA) have said that a July 20 appeals court decision mandating the disclosure to federal appeals courts of all evidence on Guantanamo detainees will pose a serious risk to national security. In court filings, the intelligence officials argued [...]

Tennessee executed a condemned man by electric chair on Wednesday, the first execution by electrocution in the state since 1960. Daryl Holton, who confessed to the 1997 murder of his three sons and their half-sister, chose to be electrocuted rather than to receive a lethal injection, Tennessee's usual method of execution. Tennessee law allows inmates [...]

Ousted Philippines president Joseph Estrada was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after being convicted on "plunder" charges stemming from kickbacks he received while in office. Plunder was formerly a capital offense, but the Philippines abolished the death penalty in June 2006. Estrada said that he was disappointed with the trial , saying that [...]

Ralph Coleman, et al., v. Arnold Schwarzenegger, et al., US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, September 11, 2007 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US President George W. Bush has narrowed the list of candidates to replace outgoing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales , with officials indicating that former Solicitor General Theodore Olson is one of the top candidates for the position. Senate Judiciary Committee member Charles Schumer (D-NY) was quoted in Wednesday's New York Times as saying that Olson's [...]