The Massachusetts Senate Wednesday approved by an overwhelming margin a bill to loosen restrictions on scientists conducting stem cell research. The measure, which would allow cloning of embryos from which stem cells can be extracted for research, passed by a 35-2 margin. Despite the Senate passage, the bill's future remains uncertain. The bill needs at [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Wilkinson v. Austin , a case where the Court is considering what procedures are needed to protect a prisoner's due process rights when prison officials seek to place the prisoner in a "super-maximum security" facility. Ohio is challenging a 6th Circuit ruling that prisoners are entitled [...]

AP is reporting that the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has again refused to conduct a full court rehearing in the Terri Schiavo case. 3:35 PM ET – The Eleventh Circuit has denied Bob and Mary Schindler's request for a new hearing en banc on whether a feeding tube for their brain-damaged daughter Terri [...]

US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled Wednesday that Ahmed Abu Ali, the man charged with plotting to assassinate President Bush , can be examined by doctors to determine whether there is any evidence that Abu Ali was tortured while being held in Saudi Arabia. Abu Ali has pleaded not guilty to charges that he [...]

Ongoing disputes among Iraqi National Assembly members over governmental nominations could delay the drafting of Iraq's constitution by as much as six months, several lawmakers say. The National Assembly is currently scheduled to have a first draft of a constitution prepared by August 15, but cannot begin work on the constitution until a government is [...]

Sudan's Ministry for Foreign Affairs Wednesday called yesterday's UN Security Council sanctions resolution "unbalanced and inappropriate," saying it "ignored the government's efforts in addressing the political, security and humanitarian aspects of the Darfur conflict." The Security Council voted 12-0 (with China, Russia and Algeria abstaining) to impose travel bans and asset freezes on those who [...]

Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, once the top US commander in Iraq, authorized harsh prisoner interrogation tactics, according to a 2003 memo obtained and released by the ACLU under its ongoing Freedom of Information Act requests for government documents on torture . In his September 2003 memo , Sanchez authorizes 29 interrogation techniques, including the [...]

Leading Wednesday's corporations and securities law news, American International Group Inc. (AIG) announced it will delay its SEC filing of its quarterly results and also that it had found documentation of illegal transactions with General Re Corp, the center of the probes by the SEC and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer . AIG said [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down a decision Wednesday morning in Smith v. City of Jackson , ruling that workers over the age of 40 need not show proof of discriminatory intent in lawsuits brought under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act . Read the court's majority opinion , per Justice Stevens, along with Justice [...]

Hollinger Inc., the Canadian holding company with an interest in the newspaper publisher Hollinger International, filed a $636 million lawsuit Tuesday against former CEO Conrad Black and other former executives. Hollinger is seeking damages for Black's alleged diversion of corporate opportunities , breach of fiduciary duties and oppression and is demanding reimbursement for management fees [...]