A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Hawaii taxpayers may sue to halt state funding of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for purported discrimination against non-native residents . A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit unanimously overturned a lower court ruling and affirmed standing for any non-Hawaiian who may [...]

US Supreme Court nominee Judge John Roberts has completed the last of ten practice sessions held to prepare him for his confirmation hearings, set to begin next week. The grueling sessions, which have been dubbed "murder boards," involved Roberts answering questions from over a dozen administration lawyers and officials who played the parts of Senate [...]

Four Navy SEALs who filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press (AP) for publishing pictures of the men posing with Iraqi detainees agreed Thursday to drop all claims and not appeal the July dismissal of the lawsuit . The lawsuit claimed that the AP and reporter Seth Hettena violated privacy and copyright laws when they [...]

The Shell Group agreed Thursday to pay $9.2 million to settle lawsuits brought last year by shareholders when the oil company admitted to overstating its oil and gas reserves by 20 percent in 2004. The lawsuits led to an overhaul of Shell's top management and the settlement requires the company to create policies and standards [...]

A Cuban-born anti-Castro former CIA operative withdrew his petition for asylum in the US Wednesday, stating that if he continued to testify, he was afraid he may have to reveal state secrets. Luis Posada Carriles entered the US illegally through Mexico earlier this year. Venezuelan officials have requested the extradition of Carriles , where he [...]

Detainees at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay have started another hunger strike in an effort to "receive a fair hearing and humane treatment," according to human rights lawyers with the Center for Constitutional Rights . The detainees ended an earlier strike on June 28 after the military promised that facility officers would comply [...]

US President George Bush told ABC's Good Morning America Thursday that there should be "zero tolerance" for the looters who have ransacked New Orleans' stores in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, one day after New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared "martial law" to deal with the looting situation . In the Thursday interview , Bush [...]

Three convicted murders were executed in Iraq Thursday, marking the first time the death penalty has been used since Saddam Hussein lost power in 2003. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani opposes the death penalty and refused to sign the men's death sentences after they were convicted of murder, rape and kidnapping, but Talabani's deputy signed on [...]

Martha Stewart will hand over her electronic ankle bracelet to federal authorities Thursday, ending the five-month house arrest portion of her sentence . Stewart was convicted in 2004 for conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of justice. She has already served five months in jail and will be on probation until March 2007. Newsday has [...]

Changes to Military Commission Procedures, US Department of Defense Fact Sheet, August 31, 2005 . Read the full list of changes here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.