The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected a challenge to Louisiana's anti-abortion license plates, saying that federal courts lack jurisdiction in the dispute because the case amounts to a tax dispute that belongs in state court. Abortion rights groups challenged Louisiana's "Choose Life" plate, which are available for an extra fee with [...]

The UN Commission on Human Rights has called on the international community to take action against the defamation of religions, especially the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities after the September 11th attacks. In a resolution adopted Tuesday by a 31-16 vote, with five abstentions, the Commission expressed deep concern that Islam was frequently [...]

Stephen Johnson , President Bush's nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency , received approval from the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday. The committee's 17-1 vote in favor of Johnson's nomination sends the nomination to the full Senate for consideration. Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., the lone dissenter in Wednesday's vote, has said that [...]

Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) , the largest US grocery union, has filed a complaint against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to determine whether the company bribed employees to block union activities. The complaint follows a Wall Street Journal report that former [...]

Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski and a bipartisan group of state senators introduced legislation Wednesday that would recognize civil unions for same-sex couples and would outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. The text of Senate Bill 1000 is not yet available online, but Kulongoski says the bill would: Amend Oregon's existing non-discrimination laws to prohibit discrimination [...]

A British court Wednesday convicted suspected al Qaeda operative Kamel Bourgass of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance by the use of poisons and/or explosives to cause disruption, fear or injury in a plot to spread ricin and other poisons in Britain. British authorities suspect that Bourgass' work was part of a larger plan to [...]

Eric Rudolph , who last week agreed to plead guilty to the Atlanta Olympic bombings, pleaded guilty Wednesday to the 1998 Birmingham abortion clinic bombing , which killed two people and left over 100 wounded. Under the plea agreement, Rudolph will receive four consecutive life prison terms, but will not face the death penalty. Following [...]

Senator Arlen Specter , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , has criticized Justice Department and FBI officials for failing to provide the committee details about their demands for records and their use of roving wiretaps and secret search warrants authorized under the USA PATRIOT Act . The Judiciary Committee held a closed-door briefing Tuesday [...]

Lawyers for six Guantanamo Bay detainees filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday asking a judge to force the Department of Justice and Department of Defense to comply with their Freedom of Information Act requests for documents, including medical and psychiatric records, on its treatment of the detainees. The six men, all Algerian, were arrested in Bosnia [...]

AP is reporting that the UN General Assembly has approved the text of a draft global treaty designed to prevent nuclear terrorism. 11:35 AM ET – The approval of the text comes at the end of a seven-year negotiating process characterized by tensions between nuclear and non-nuclear powers. Under the draft, states are obliged to [...]