The US Commission on Civil Rights failed Friday to approve a controversial report on the rights record of the Bush administration when the 8 member panel split 4-4 on the vote to adopt the draft document. The Commission came under heavy scrutiny when it published a draft of the unapproved report, heavily critical of the [...]

Peter Henning, Wayne State University Law School: "New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer dropped another shoe from his closet on an insurance company, although it was not Aon Corp., about which there was some speculation when Spitzer announced that another suit was coming on Friday morning (Nov. 12).  This time, the target is Universal Life [...]

Jack Balkin, Yale Law School: "From Newsday: Departing Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday lashed out at federal judges who have dealt setbacks to President George W. Bush's anti-terrorism and wartime policies, accusing them of "invasive oversight and micromanagement." "The danger I see here is that intrusive judicial oversight and second-guessing of presidential determinations in [...]

Dagestani native Magomed Salikhov was brought to Russia on Saturday after his arrest in Azerbaijan for alleged involvement in a 1999 bombing in Buinaksk that killed 64 people and helped instigate Moscow's more recent military campaign in neighboring Chechnya. Two other men, including Salikhov's brother Alisultan, were convicted in 2001 for their involvement in the [...]

The imprisoned leader of Palestinian uprisings, Marwan Barghouti, has decided to run in the upcoming Palestinian elections to replace Yasser Arafat. A source close to the jailed politician said Barghouti would seek the position of president only with the backing of the ruling Fatah movement. Barghouti is serving multiple life sentences in an Israeli prison [...]

State of Arizona, Office of the Attorney General, Attorney General Opinion re: State and Local Public Benefits Subject to Proposition 200, November 13, 2004 . Read the full text of the Opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Governor John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, et al. v. Ruth D. Holmes, et al., Florida District Court of Appeal First Circuit, Judge Van Nortwick, November 12, 2004 . Excerpt: As did the trial court, we recognize the salutary public policy supporting the OSP legislation to enhance the educational opportunity of children trapped in substandard schools. Nevertheless, [...]

Proposition 200, the Arizona state initiative aimed at keeping illegal immigrants from receiving public benefits, is limited to certain welfare-related programs, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard ruled Friday. Goddard wrote an advisory legal opinion to clarify some of the confusion regarding the reference to "state and local public benefits" in the text of the Proposition. [...]

Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue announced Friday that his country will seek the arrest of exiled former president Jean Bertrand Aristide, now in refuge in South Africa. An international warrant will be issued as soon as possible, based on allegations of fraud and political crimes. Latortue created a commission to look into the diversion of [...]

FedEx Corp. stated Friday that it would challenge an order by the US Department of Transportation to pay back part of the federal money it received as a result of the post-9/11 Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act . The Act was created to provide financial relief to US air carriers after the terrorist [...]