Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Tuesday, Feb. 1. The US Senate convenes today at 9:45 AM ET for regular business and to consider the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for attorney general. Watch a live webcast of proceedings. The US House of Representatives will open its [...]

Findings of a new survey of American high school students announced Monday suggest that more than one in three believes that the First Amendment "goes too far" in the rights it grants and protects, while half of the students surveyed said that newspapers should have to receive government approval before publishing its stories. The survey, [...]

Updating an earlier JURIST story, Connecticut has postponed Monday's scheduled execution of convicted serial killer Michael Ross , putting off what would be New England's first execution in 45 years after Ross' attorney filed a motion questioning the killer's competency . The execution is delayed for at least a month after Ross, who had asked [...]

US Central Command said Monday that about 3000 Iraqi detainees held at the Camp Bucca detention facility in southern Iraq rioted shortly after Noon local time, and that the riot was only quelled after US troops opened fire. Four prisoners were killed and six others injured. A Central Command press release said that "the violence [...]

Tribune Co. and the parent companies of CBS, Fox and NBC have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court asking the court to restore the government's new media ownership rules which had been thrown out by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit . At issue is are FCC rules easing ownership restrictions, [...]

The European Union announced Monday that it will temporarily lift a diplomatic freeze imposed on Cuba after the Cuban government jailed 75 dissidents in March 2003. The lifting of sanctions follows the release of several dissidents. The EU had banned high-level governmental visits and participation in cultural events in Cuba and started inviting dissidents to [...]

Attorneys for Basic Rights Oregon filed a lawsuit Monday challenging the constitutionality of Measure 36 , a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage approved by Oregon voters that states "It is the policy of Oregon, and its political subdivisions, that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as [...]

The Vietnamese government has announced plans to release 8,000 prisoners, including religious activists and political dissidents, as part of its annual amnesty accompanying Tet, the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 9. The government releases a number of prisoners every year as part of the Tet celebration. Notably among those freed this year will [...]

Following up on a story that ran earlier today in JURIST's Paper Chase, a much-anticipated and as-yet-unreleased UN investigation into human rights abuses in the Darfur region of Sudan does not characterize them as "genocide", according to a spokesman for the Sudanese government, which has seen the report. The study is expected to be made [...]

In re: Guantanamo Detainee Cases, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Joyce Hens Green, January 31, 2005 .Excerpt: Of course it would be far easier for the government to prosecute the war on terrorism if it could imprison all suspected "enemey combatants" at Guantanamo Bay without having to acknowledge and respect [...]