A federal lawsuit has been filed against the Associated Press by several Navy SEALs and the wife of a US special forces member claiming that the wire service published photos of the servicemembers with Iraqi prisoners without permission and that the publication of the photos endangered the servicemembers' lives. AP ran the photos with a [...]

Federal prosecutors have asked to intervene in the Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against former Hollinger CEO Conrad Black , former company president David Radler, and Hollinger, Inc., confirming for the first time that they are conducting a criminal investigation into the newspaper tycoon and his former company. Last year, the SEC filed civil charges [...]

European leaders are rallying around French President Jacques Chirac and trying to avoid a negative French vote on the European constitution by calling for revisions of European Union economic reform plans at the ongoing Council of the European Union summit. Recent opinion polls in France show that French voters could vote against the EU constitution [...]

Schiavo v. Schiavo, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, March 23, 2005 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

In a 2-1 decision issued early Wednesday morning, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit refused to order that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube be re-inserted. The appeals court agreed with the earlier district court decision that Schiavo's parents "failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims." In [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Wednesday, March 23. The US Senate and US House are in recess until April 4. The European Council session continues today, with the second working session set to begin at 9:30 AM local time . View the session agenda , [...]

Brown v. Payton, Supreme Court of the United States, March 22, 2005 . Excerpt from the Court's opinion by Justice Kennedy: Testimony about a religious conversion spanning one year and nine months may well have been considered altogether insignificant in light of the brutality of the crimes, the prior offenses, and a proclivity for committing [...]

City of Rancho Palos Verdes v. Abrams, Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Scalia, March 22, 2005 . Excerpt: Enforcement of §332(c)(7)through §1983 would distort the scheme of expedited judicial review and limited remedies created by §332(c)(7)(B)(v).We therefore hold that the TCA —by providing a judicial remedy different from §1983 in §332(c)(7)itself —precluded resort [...]

Muehler v. Mena, Supreme Court of the United States, March 22, 2005 . Excerpt from the Court's opinion by Chief Justice Rehnquist: The governmental interests in not only detaining, but using handcuffs, are at their maximum when, as here, a warrant authorizes a search for weapons and a wanted gang member resides on the premises. [...]

Peter Henning, Wayne State University Law School: "An article in the Wall Street Journal…states that two senior American International Group Inc. executives — Howard Smith, the company's CFO, and Christian Milton, a vice president — have been fired because they indicated that they would assert their Fifth Amendment rights in response to the investigation of [...]