Khaled El-Masri , the German citizen allegedly kidnapped by the CIA in 2003, petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) Wednesday alleging he was tortured by the CIA. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) petitioned the IACHR, an autonomous arm of the Organization of American States (OAS) , on behalf of El-Masri, arguing that [...]

Betsy Griffing : "This challenge to the lethal injection protocol is based primarily upon violation of the Montana Constitution, rather than violations of the United States Constitution. We feel that two provisions in the Montana Constitution make this challenge particularly strong. First, we are claiming that the three-drug formula used by the Montana Department of [...]

Timothy Morrison, et al., v. Board of Education of Boyd County, et al., US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, April 9, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Deborah Colson : "In a March 2003 Office of Legal Counsel memorandum, released for the first time last week, John Yoo justified the use of cruel interrogation techniques on "unlawful combatants held outside the United States" – including prisoners at Guantánamo Bay – by claiming that the president's commander-in-chief authority trumps federal and international law [...]

Opposing groups of Pakistani lawyers clashed with each other in the city of Karachi Wednesday, prompting widespread rioting that led to at least seven deaths. Lawyers supporting Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf who gathered to protest the Tuesday lawyers' beating in Lahore of former Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sher Afgan Niazi were confronted after their meeting [...]

The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Tuesday that it will not allow the new UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) envoy on Israeli human rights to enter either Israel or the Palestinian territories after he called current Israeli actions against Palestinians a "Holocaust in the making." In a Tuesday BBC interview, Richard Falk , who [...]

The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a subpoena Wednesday to compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to turn over documents relating to White House involvement in the EPA decision to deny California's request for a greenhouse emissions waiver in December 2007 . In a statement, Committee Chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) [...]

The Nebraska Supreme Court Wednesday rejected a motion for rehearing filed by state Attorney General Jon Bruning asking the court to reconsider its February ruling that execution by electric chair is "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore prohibited by the Nebraska constitution . Bruning said he would appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court [...]

A four-member Iraqi judiciary committee has dismissed terrorism-related charges against Associated Press (AP) photographer Bilal Hussein and ordered his release. Hussein has been held by the US military since his arrest in April 2006 for allegedly possessing equipment to construct roadside bombs. The panel's ruling comes under a new amnesty law passed by the Iraqi [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Wednesday that an Afghan tribal chief charged with conspiring to violate US narcotics laws must face trial even though US officials lured him into the United States. Drug Enforcement Administration officials arrested Bashir Noorzai in April 2005 after agents told [...]