Schaffer v. Weast, Supreme Court of the United States, November 14 2005. Excerpt: When we are determining the burden of proof under a statutory cause of action, the touchstone of our inquiry is, of course, the statute. The plain text of IDEA is silent on the allocation of the burden of persuasion. We therefore begin [...]

European Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs Franco Frattini said Monday that although the informal EU investigation into the alleged existence of secret US prisons in European Union nations has revealed nothing, the EU will sanction any country found to house such facilities. Human Rights Watch has issued a statement which alleges that "there is [...]

Human Rights Report, UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Racial animus accounted for more than half of the 7,649 hate crimes reported in the United States in 2004, a 5 percent rise from 2003, according to the FBI's annual FBI Hate Crimes Statistics report . Overall, the nation experienced a slight two percent increase in hate crimes in 2004. The report defines hate crimes [...]

Lawyers in the US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division are leaving their positions in record numbers amid allegations that the current administration is damaging morale and frustrating the efforts of long-time employees, according to a Washington Post report. The report alleges that attorneys in the division, which is charged with enforcing federal civil rights [...]

A Federal Communications Commission order , which sets the date for all broadband and internet-phone providers to modify their systems to comply with a federal law that requires telecommunications providers to cooperate with law enforcement agencies seeking to conduct wiretaps, took effect Monday. The order, adopted in September 2005, widens the scope of the 1994 [...]

Kizza Besigye , the president of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, was arrested and charged with treason and rape in Uganda Monday. Prosecutors allege that Besigye participated in acts of treason to overthrow the government with the radical rebel group People's Redemption Army (PRA), a crime that carries the death penalty. Besigye's [...]

Lawyer Thamer Hamoud al-Khuzaie, who represents two of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants, has fled Iraq and is seeking asylum in Qatar following an attempt on his life. The news was revealed in a letter, obtained by Reuters Monday, written by Khuzaie to Qatar's Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani . "I ask your generous highness and [...]

A document released Monday by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library reveal that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote in 1985 that he was proud of helping the government argue that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion." Part of more than 100 pages on Alito [...]

At the close of a three-day meeting in Brussels Monday, the leaders of eight Bosnian political parties failed to reach an agreement on a new draft constitution for the country. Representatives of the three main nationalities in Bosnia , Muslims, Serbs and Croats, agreed to disagree and to extend negotiations into next week, when they [...]