JURIST Guest Columnist Brian J. Foley of Florida Coastal School of Law says that the greatest threat posed by President Bush's domestic surveillance program is not to the privacy of ordinary Americans but rather to the independence of potential political rivals, journalists, and activists who would balance, constrain or oppose executive power… Most of the [...]

Finnish leaders hinted over the weekend that they would like to put the European Constitution back on the table for discussion at the October summit of European Union leaders scheduled during Finland's six-month presidency of the regional group. Although the document seemed to be dead after the French and the Dutch voted against it last [...]

Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) , a Republican member of the US Senate Intelligence Committee , Sunday questioned the legitimacy of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program , casting doubt on its legality in the absence of judicial or Congressional authority. Notwithstanding legal defenses of the intercepts by President Bush , Vice President Cheney , and [...]

The UK plan for national identification cards received another setback Sunday when Lord Carlile , the Liberal Democrat peer appointed by the British government as an independent reviewer of its anti-terror laws, said that the ID cards would be of "limited value" against terrorism and would not have prevented the London bombings in July. Carlile, [...]

Several detainees involved in the continuing Guantanamo Bay hunger strikes are close to death, according to lawyers acting for the detainees. Despite force-feedings by the US military, there is concern for two emaciated Yemenis and a hospitalized Saudi prisoner. Reprieve , an international prisoners' rights group, is set to release a report Monday on the [...]

The Saddam Hussein trial resumed briefly Sunday under new Kurdish chief judge Ra'uf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman but was adjourned again after Hussein, defense lawyers, and two co-defendants left the courtroom protesting the earlier removal of Saddam's half brother and co-defendant Barzan al-Tikriti. Abdel-Rahman, who replaced Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin earlier this month, opened the proceedings [...]

Walgreens is being sued by four Illinois pharmacists who claim that they were illegally fired for refusing to sign a pledge promising to dispense the morning-after birth control pill. Walgreens asked the pharmacists to sign the pledge because of an Illinois state rule which requires pharmacies that sell contraceptives to fill prescriptions for emergency birth [...]

Lebanese government officials have called "fruitful" initial consultations with visiting UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs Nicolas Michel on the establishment of an international tribunal for suspects in the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri . A UN spokesperson also described the meetings constructive and positive . Lebanon Justice Minister Charles Rizk is [...]

A US court-martial Saturday found Army Specialist James Hayes guilty of mistreating detainees in Afghanistan at the end of a brief trial . The court-martial which convicted Hayes on one count of conspiracy to maltreat and two counts of maltreatment demoted him to the rank of private and sentenced him to four months in detention [...]

In his weekly radio address Saturday President Bush urged the US Senate to vote on his nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court, insisting that senators had a "constitutional responsibility" to do so and implicitly warning against any Democratic Party filibuster. Democratic Massachusetts Senators John Kerry and Edward Kennedy have planned a [...]