The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Marshall v. Marshall , 04-1544, that federal courts can in some cases decide disputes which involve state probate laws. In overturning a decision from the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Court handed a victory to model Anna Nicole Smith (Vickie Lynn Marshall) in her [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in three cases, including Holmes v. South Carolina , 04-1327, where the Court struck down a South Carolina rule which prevented Holmes from introducing evidence that a third party committed the crimes for which he was on trial. The South Carolina Supreme Court upheld a trial court ruling that [...]

A federal judge has sentenced former University of South Florida computer science professor Sami Al-Arian to another 18 months in prison before being deported after Al-Arian pleaded guilty in the terrorism case last month. US District Judge James S. Moody formally imposed the maximum penalty of 57 months, but credited Al-Arian with time already served [...]

Shiite leaders in Iraq have indicated that they are willing to give up control of the Iraqi Interior Ministry, beleaguered in recent months by allegations of prisoner abuse and death squads . During negotiations on the formation of a new Iraqi government, Shiite representatives offered to give up control of the ministry, which controls police [...]

The Constitutional Court of Thailand agreed Monday to consider a petition to void the country's April 2 general election after Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej called on the court last week to take a more active role in resolving the country's ongoing election crisis . Court Secretary-General Paiboon Varahapaitoon said the 14-judge panel will rule soon [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour headed to Darfur Monday as she continued a five-day visit to Sudan to press the government to end the violence and address rights abuses in the region. UN spokesman Jose Diaz says reports indicate that the situation there has remained the same or even worsened in some [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist Roberto Iraola, a former prosecutor now with the US Department of the Interior, says that Cuban migrants reaching American shores after fleeing the oppressive regime of Fidel Castro should be given the benefit of the legal doubt when it comes to their eligibility to apply for US permanent residency status… Around [...]

Former US Senator John Danforth has called a Republican-sponsored constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage "silly," saying the Republican party's stance calls for them to interpret the constitution narrowly rather than expansively. Speaking over the weekend to the Log Cabin Republicans , a group which supports gay rights, Danforth cited prohibition as a previous attempt [...]

Jury selection will begin Monday in the second trial of John Allen Muhammad , who was convicted of one sniper shooting in Virginia but now faces six murder charges for killings in Maryland that occurred during the three-week shooting spree in the Washington, DC area in 2002. The trial is taking place in Montgomery County, [...]

The jurors in the sentencing trial of Zacarias Moussaoui are set to resume deliberations Monday after spending a weekend at home. The Alexandria, Virginia, jury stopped work Friday in the wake of an admonishment from Judge Leonie Brinkema against doing "outside research", prompted by one of the jurors looking up the potentially-key word "aggravating" in [...]