US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to deliver a stern message to leaders in Europe when she heads there Monday, telling them in effect to "back off" from their criticism of US treatment of terror suspects and the existence of alleged secret CIA prisons. Rice, who has been largely silent on the detainee [...]
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In court papers filed Friday, US Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said certain details of his investigation into the CIA leak case , including grand jury testimony and documents identifying witnesses, must remain secret, implying that the probe continues to move forward and that further charges may be forthcoming. Fitzgerald did not object, however, to further [...]
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle Friday vetoed legislation that would have capped the amount of money victims in medical malpractice lawsuits could be awarded for pain and suffering at $450,000 for adults and $550,000 for minors. Doyle said in a press statement that the adult cap was just $5,000 more than that set in previous Wisconsin [...]
The 100-nation governing body of the International Criminal Court (ICC) Friday authorized an independent board to award funds to victims of war crimes through administration of the international Victims Trust Fund . Member states and private groups have reportedly donated over $1 million to the fund, but disbursement to victims of genocide and crimes against [...]
US District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois ruled Friday that an Illinois law restricting the sale and rental of violent or sexually explicit video games to minors is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. The law was set to go into effect January 1 and would have been the first [...]
The UN Security Council agreed Friday to a US request to discuss human rights violations in Myanmar for the first time. The UN discussion was announced after Myanmar's military-led government extended for yet another year the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi , and amid human rights group reports of the nation's "brutal and [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Tom Mayo, professor of law at Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University, and Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, says that the Terri Schiavo case earlier this year changed the ground-rules for medical decision-making on behalf of others… As most of the world knows, fifteen [...]
Brendan MacWade et al. v. Raymond Kelly, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Richard Berman, December 2, 2005 . Read the full text of the decision and order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Voting Rights Act Section 5 Recommendation Memorandum, US Department of Justice staff, December 12, 2003, disclosed December 2, 2005 . Read the full text of the memorandum . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
A panel of judges from the Santiago Appeals Court ruled Friday that human rights charges against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet can proceed, rejecting the defense's arguments that Pinochet is too ill to stand trial. Pinochet was charged last week in connection with the kidnapping and disappearance of six dissidents in 1974 after they were [...]
