Ruling on fraud in the Ukrainian presidential run-off of November 21, 2004; Ukraine Supreme Court, December 3, 2004. Read the full text in Ukrainian here, and an unofficial English translation here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Ukraine's opposition and pro-government factions reached a compromise on Monday on changes to election law and constitutional amendments, allowing for a new election on December 26. The Ukraine parliament, which failed to pass an initially-proposed set of electoral reforms Saturday, will vote on the new legislative package Tuesday. AP has more.

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed has officially ordered a manual second recount of the ballots in the Washington governor's race. Republican governor-elect Dino Rossi, who defeated Democrat Christine Gregoire by 42 votes after the machine recount, called the hand recount a "sad and desparate" attempt to change the election results. Democrats have spent $730,000 [...]

Following up this story reported in Paper Chase yesterday, the US military on Monday took disciplinary action against 18 soldiers who refused to go on a mission in Iraq, believing it to be too dangerous. Although the military refused to release details of the sanctions, Article 15 of the U.S. military code of justice gives [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected hearing an appeal by the Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan challenging the constitutionality of New York Penal Law 240.35(4) that bans the wearing of masks at public gatherings. The decision lets stand a January appellate court ruling which reversed a district court decision, [...]

Twelve homosexuals who were expelled from the US military because of their sexual orientation filed a lawsuit in Boston on Monday, challenging the constitutionality of the Pentagon's 11-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The complaint relies in part upon last year's Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which overturned state laws criminalizing homosexual sex. [...]

Mark Godsey, University of Cincinnati College of Law: "On Monday December 6, the Supreme Court will hear an appeal from a Texas death row inmate, Thomas Miller-El, claiming Texas prosecutors improperly struck minorities from his jury.  This is the second time in 2 years the Supreme Court will hear an appeal on Miller-El's behalf on [...]

UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw said in an interview Monday that he believed recently-proposed changes to the UN Charter (reported by JURIST's Paper Chase here) would allow for easier intervention in situations of human rights abuses like those that were taking place in Sudan and Iraq. Straw said that Charter changes would allow the Security [...]

The US Defense Department says that coalition forces have found evidence that mosques, hospitals and cemeteries were used by insurgents in Fallujah as battlegrounds from which to attack Iraqi and coalition forces, contrary to international law rules. At a press briefing Friday, Army Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez cited evidence that he said showed clear violations: [...]

In Monday's corporations and securities law news, the SEC has released a final rule relating to the registration of hedge fund advisors with the agency by February 1. Critics charge that the SEC does not have the legal authority to regulate hedge funds. However, the SEC responds that they have a broad authority to insure [...]