UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Leandro Despouy Tuesday expressed doubts about the fairness of Uzbekistan's ongoing trial of 15 alleged rebels accused of precipitating the violent May uprising in the town of Andijan that allegedly led to hundreds of casualties when government troops opened fire on protestors. Despouy has requested [...]

New York Times reporter Judith Miller , recently released from an 85-day prison term for contempt after refusing to testify about her sources to a grand jury investigating the Valerie Plame leak, announced Tuesday that she would press for federal shield legislation. Speaking at a conference of the Society of Professional Journalists , Miller defended [...]

Geoffrey Nice, the lawyer prosecuting former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) , on Tuesday voiced his concern that the trial against the deposed leader will take another four to five years if the court continues to provide Milosevic with further extensions to present his case. Milosevic, [...]

A judge for the US District Court in Northern Georgia granted a temporary injunction Tuesday against the enforcement of a Georgia law that requires voters to show photo identification before casting a ballot. Georgia officials argued the rule, which the governor signed into law in April was necessary to prevent voter fraud. Based on the [...]

Iranian Justice Minister Jamal Karimirad announced Tuesday that his country has sent its own indictment against former dictator Saddam Hussein to the Iraqi government, charging the former dictator with atrocities allegedly committed during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. The new charges come one day before Hussein is due to appear in Iraqi court to face the [...]

US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers' responses to the US Senate Judiciary Committee nomination questionnaire, released October 18, 2005. Read the full text of the answered questionnaire . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Two Cheers for Harriet Miers | Op-ed: In Praise of Treachery: The Relevance of Prior Judicial Experience

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff promised Senators Tuesday that he would no longer allow non-Mexican immigrants who have entered the United States illegally to be released back into the US if they are apprehended. This so-called "catch and release" policy has allowed tens of thousands of non-Mexican illegal immigrants to remain within the United [...]

Though the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is disappointed with Monday's denial of certiorari by the US Supreme Court in the damages aspect of its suit against the tobacco industry , US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says that the administration "continue to believe very strongly in case." The high court refused the government's appeal of [...]

A tax panel commissioned by President Bush endorsed on Tuesday an income tax system that would drastically simplify the way Americans file their taxes. However, the amount taxpayers pay under the proposed system would not significantly change from the current tax system. Members of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform say the plan [...]

A ten-day old California law barring the sale of violent video games to minors is being challenged by trade groups associated with the entertainment industry. The Entertainment Software Association and the Video Software Dealers Association filed suit Monday seeking to enjoin enforcement of the law. The state law bans the sale and rental to minors [...]