The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday on whether a federal immigration law authorizing deportation can be applied to illegal immigrants who entered the country before its enactment. The case, Fernandez-Vargas v. Gonzales , 04-1376, involves Mexican immigrant Humberto Fernandez-Vargas, who entered the US in the 1970s and after several deportations lived in the [...]

A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case that will determine the constitutional scope of the Detainee Treatment Act (DTA) as it applies to over 300 Guantanamo Bay detainees who have sought habeas corpus review to challenge their detentions. The DTA, signed by President Bush at the end of December, includes terms [...]

AP is reporting that a military jury has sentenced US Army Sgt. Michael J. Smith to six months in prison for abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison by using his unmuzzled dogs to intimidate inmates. Smith was convicted Tuesday on two counts of maltreatment of detainees, conspiring to make a contest of making detainees [...]

A Pentagon spokesman confirmed Wednesday that the US Defense Department is considering a formal written rule that would ban statements made during torture from any proceeding before US military commissions . The Wall St. Journal reported early Wednesday that the rule had already been approved and would be issued later this week, but Bryan Whitman [...]

The Law Lords , the judicial panel of the UK House of Lords that is Britain's highest court, ruled 5-0 Wednesday in favor of a high school's decision to ban a student from wearing a Muslim jilbab , a long garment that covers the entire body other than the face and hands. Student Shabina Begum [...]

Human rights activists around the world were subject to murder, assaults, imprisonment and other forms of repression in 2005 according to a joint report issued Wednesday by the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) . The study revealed more than 1,100 reported cases of repression against [...]

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday reduced the life sentence of former Bosnian Serb mayor Milomir Stakic to 40 years in prison. Stakic was a top official in the Prijedor Municipality in northwest Bosnia during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War and was a prominent member of the [...]

Leading Wednesday's environmental law news, Canadian Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice announced a new plan to improve drinking water in "First Nation communities," i.e., Indian reservations. The plan includes mandatory training for treatment plant operators and standards for the design, construction, operation, maintenance and monitoring of First Nation community water systems. The Canadian Press has [...]

British Judge Advocate John Bayliss ruled Wednesday that Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, the first British officer to face criminal charges after challenging the conflict's legality will face a court-martial on five charges of failing to comply with a lawful order. Kendall-Smith , a medical officer who had served twice in southern Iraq [...]

The British government said Wednesday it would take up the case of one British resident currently held by the US at Guantanamo Bay , but stood by its decision not to intervene on behalf of five others. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) announced it would help Iraqi-born Bisher al-Rawi the same day as [...]