The Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act 1993 (amended 2003). Louisiana Revised Statutes 29:721. Excerpt : A. Because of the existing possibility of the occurrence of emergencies and disasters of unprecedented size and destructiveness resulting from terrorist events, enemy attack, sabotage, or other hostile action, or from fire, flood, earthquake, or other [...]

The Louisiana Attorney General's office late Tuesday issued a number of clarifications concerning the "martial law" assertions made earlier in the day by local officials and law enforcement agents in the wake of devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. According to the AG's office, no such term exists in Louisiana state law. The declaration of a [...]

Leading Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, the Arizona Attorney General's office has announced that $101 million it seized earlier this year may belong to failed hedge fund company Bayou Management. The Connecticut Attorney General's office said last week that Bayou may have misplaced $440 million of investors' money . Arizona's AG said the state [...]

The Russian Supreme Court Tuesday overturned the acquittal of four Russian soldiers in the 2002 murder of six Chechen civilians . The acquittal was overturned due to criminal procedure violations, and Judge Alexander Koronets ordered the case sent back to the same military court that has twice acquitted the soldiers. Captain Eduard Ulman and three [...]

Impeachment proceedings in the Philippines House of Representatives tottered on the verge of collapse Tuesday when lawmakers stormed out of a committee hearing, claiming supporters of President Gloria Arroyo were trying to railroad them into a decision that could doom the case against her. Under the Philippine constitution , only one impeachment proceeding against the [...]

In a move officials described as a first among western democracies, the British government Tuesday unveiled plans to outlaw the possession of "extreme pornographic material," described as graphic, sexually explicit material that "contains actual scenes or realistic depictions of serious violence, bestiality or necrophilia." The ban would extend to internet downloads. It is already illegal [...]

Leading Tuesday's states brief, a Baltimore Circuit Court Judge today heard arguments concerning the constitutionality of the state's same-sex marriage prohibition. The plaintiffs allege that a 1973 state law which states that only a marriage between a man and woman is valid violates their constitutional rights, and an American Civil Liberties Union attorney told the [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday expressed "deep concern" over US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in a letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, set to begin his confirmation hearing next week. The rights group urged Senators to "fully consider his legal and judicial philosophy, his approach to decision-making, and his possible impact [...]

A federal judge has said that detainees held in the US terror suspect prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, must be asked for permission to have their names released before the government can release them to the Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request. Earlier this year the government released transcripts of Combatant [...]

Human trafficking of women and children is on the rise worldwide, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Tuesday. Addressing an Asia-Pacific human rights conference in Beijing, Arbour called for closer regional partnerships to combat human trafficking , which Arbour says results in millions of women and children ending up as sex slaves, [...]