Paul Leonard, Julie Leonard v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, August 30, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Leandro Despouy , UN special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, expressed apprehension Thursday over the conviction and sentencing of UN Special Rapporteur Sigma Huda . Huda was sentenced to a three-year jail term by the Bangladesh Supreme Court Monday for her involvement in a corruption scheme headed by her husband, former Bangladeshi [...]

Up to one-fourth of US Department of Justice civil appellate lawyers are refusing to represent the government on the appeals of detainees from Guantanamo Bay , according to a story in US News & World Report. A February court ruling upholding the Military Commissions Act (MCA) put all Guantanamo detainee appeals under the jurisdiction of [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) will likely invoke the state secrets privilege to halt a lawsuit against the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) , the Belgium-based international banking cooperative that disclosed personal information about its customers to third parties, the New York Times reported Friday. The DOJ wants to dismiss the litigation [...]

The Thai government said Friday that it has lifted a five-month ban on the popular video-sharing website YouTube , now owned by Google , after YouTube's site operator agreed to prohibit offensive videos from appearing on the site. Thailand banned access to YouTube and several other websites in April that contained material deemed offensive to [...]

US forces in Iraq will release 50 Iraqi detainees per day during the Muslim religious month of Ramadan, according to an announcement by Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi Friday. The US military confirmed Hashemi's announcement, saying the military has reached a deal with the vice president to begin releasing detainees . Ramadan begins the second [...]

A judge sitting in Polk County , Iowa Thursday struck down Iowa's same-sex marriage ban as an unconstitutional violation of due process and equal protection. Judge Robert Hanson ordered officials to process marriage license applications for same-sex couples despite an announcement by county attorney John Sarcone that the county will appeal Hanson's ruling directly to [...]

The number of executions worldwide increased slightly in 2006 while the number of countries that employ capital punishment decreased, according to a report released Thursday by the Rome-based anti-death penalty group Hands Off Cain . According to statistics compiled from news reports and NGOs, there were 5628 executions in 27 countries in 2006, up from [...]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other senior administration officials should be exempt from testifying about whether they shared classified national defense information with two American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists, lawyers argued at a closed-door court session Thursday. Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, indicted in 2005 under the 1917 Espionage Act for [...]

A preliminary hearing began Thursday at Camp Pendleton , California, in proceedings against US Marine Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich , commander of the platoon implicated in the killing and suspected cover-up of the death of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha in November 2005. Wuterich faces several counts of unpremeditated murder, as well as charges of [...]