Overturning a lower court ruling, the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a split decision Monday that the sale to a private organization of land containing a Ten Commandments monument in a La Crosse Wisconsin public park did not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. Circuit Judge Daniel A. Maion wrote:The City [...]

In an apparent effort to address growing concerns about scandal and corruption in the United Nations system UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Monday announced the appointment of UN Development Program head Mark Malloch Brown as his new Chief of Staff, the number three position in the UN structure after Annan and Canadian Deputy Under-Secretary Louise Frechette. [...]

A top advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin who publicly voiced concerns about the Russian government takeover of Yukos, free speech limitations and Russian policy towards Ukraine has been stripped of his responsibilities as Russia's envoy to the G8 industrial nations, according to a Kremlin statement issued Monday. No official reason was given for the [...]

Two court-martials of US soldiers accused of killing or abusing Iraqis in separate incidents are set to take place this week at Fort Hood, Texas. On Tuesday, Sgt. Tracy Perkins will stand trial in the deaths of two Iraqis allegedly pushed into into the Tigris River north of Baghdad in January 2004, and on Friday, [...]

Thai government officials have announced a program of legal assistance for victims of last week's tsunami that killed over 4000 people in Thailand and left thousands more in the country homeless. A senior spokesman for the Thai Ministry of Justice was quoted Monday as saying that the Ministry will set up a special legal center [...]

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Monday that an autonomy plan passed by Basque lawmakers last week is doomed for failure and called the proposal secessionist, unconstitutional and an anomaly in a Europe moving to become more united. Last Thursday, the Basque regional legislature approved a plan seeking to amend the 1970 charter [...]

Survivors and families of victims of last week's tsunami disaster in South Asia are falling prey to thieves, rapists, kidnappers and hoaxers. Sri Lanka's Women and Media Collective said Monday that they "have received reports of incidents of rape, gang rape, molestation and physical abuse of women and girls in the course of unsupervised rescue [...]

Scotland's Tory leader David McLetchie is calling for public debate over Scotland's proposed ban on smoking in public places, saying the ban is tougher than that proposed in a UK white paper, published in November (JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the UK proposal). The Scottish plan, approved by the Scottish Executive last November, would [...]

Reacting to reports of a US government plan to detain some suspected terrorists for life (see this previous report on JURIST's Paper Chase), Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Carl Levin have suggested that the proposal was unconstitutional. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Lugar called lifetime detentions without judicial [...]

Michael Froomkin, University of Miami School of Law: "The US holds maybe hundreds of non-citizens, all captured abroad (we are told), incarcerated in Guantanamo and in other secret prisons around the world. The Bush administration plans to hold them up to forever. Of course, there is a difference between the Soviet Gulag, which was aimed [...]