Notes from a series of Pentagon meetings in 2003 show that General Counsel of the Department of the Navy Alberto Mora warned high-level officials that Guantanamo interrogation techniques could expose them to criminal prosecution, according to ABC News. Mora's reluctance to completely support the interrogations at Guantanamo was known earlier, but his warning to some [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved North Carolina judge Terrence Boyle for the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, effectively sending him to the full Senate for confirmation. Boyle survived a close party line vote in the GOP-controlled Committee, an approval that Senate Democrats have warned leaves judicial candidates susceptible to filibuster [...]

The US government Thursday publicly expressed support for expanding the UN Security Council by "two or so" permanent members, saying that a larger expansion could hinder the effectiveness of the group. Review the State Department briefing by US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed expansion in [...]

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica denied earlier reports Thursday that his government was negotiating a surrender with war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic . Two Serbian newspapers and a rights activist claimed that the government was contacting Mladic, who is wanted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in connection with the Srebrenica [...]

Veteran civil servant Donald Tsang was declared the new leader of Hong Kong Thursday after his nomination was supported by roughly 85 percent of the election committee, a 796-member group largely loyal to Beijing. A vote was originally planned for July 10, but the amount of support for Tsang made it unnecessary ; two other [...]

A new poll released by the Pew Research Center shows a reduction in favorable views of the the US Supreme Court on both sides of the political spectrum. According to the poll released Wednesday, 57 percent of Americans now have a favorable opinion of the Court; in January 2001, shortly after the ruling in Bush [...]

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney Thursday announced his support of a drive to put before state voters a proposed constitutional amendment to ban both same-sex marriage and civil unions. Massachusetts is the only US state where same-sex marriages are legal; Vermont, Hawaii, and California have granted same-sex couples limited legal rights. The Massachusetts legislature is already [...]

The New York State Court of Appeals upheld on Thursday a lower court ruling that the state's ban on cameras in trial courtrooms is constitutional. The appeals court ruled that the legislature has the final say on allowing cameras or not, and that banning them does not violate the constitutional guarantee of access to trials. [...]

Lodi (CA) father and son indictment for making false statements to the FBI in connection with terrorist matters, US Department of Justice, June 16, 2005 [indicting a father and son for allegedly lying to the FBI about the son attending a terrorist camp in Pakistan with connections to al-Qaida. Read the full text of the [...]

Orbanski v. the Queen, Supreme Court of Canada, June 16, 2005 . Excerpt: Screening drivers necessarily requires interaction with motorists at the roadside. The scope of justifiable police conduct will not always be defined by express words found in a statute but will sometimes depend on the purpose of the police power in question and [...]