Does v. Bush, et al., Petition for writ of habeas corpus, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, February 11, 2005 . Excerpt: Petitioners are being held under color and authority of the Executive, in violation of the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States as well as customary international law. This [...]

Gideon's Broken Promise: America's Continuing Quest for Equal Justice, American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, February 11, 2005 . Excerpt: Overall, our hearings support the disturbing conclusion that thousands of persons are processed through America's courts every year either with no lawyer at all or with a lawyer who does [...]

British Army Corporal Daniel Kenyon denied all allegations of his involvement in the abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners during testimony at a court martial at a British military base in Germany Friday. Overwhelmed with emotion, Kenyon told the panel, "I'm telling you that there's just no way, no way that I would have [...]

A lawsuit seeking the release of over 500 unnamed terror suspects detained by the US government at Guantanamo Bay has been launched by the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights . The lawsuit, which joins over 70 separate cases already pending in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, was filed Thursday following [...]

In Friday's environmental law news, the Washington State Supreme Court has ruled that local health boards cannot ban smoking in bars and restaurants. The Court, in Entertainment Industry Coalition v. Tacoma-Pierce Co. Bd. of Health , held that a county board's resolution, "by imposing a complete smoking ban, prohibits what is permitted by state law: [...]

A Bosnian court Friday acquitted eleven Serb policeman who had been linked to the murders of a Catholic priest and his parents during the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. Tomislav Matanovic and his parents disappeared in 1995 and their corpses were found in 2001 with close-range gunshot wounds. In the verdict, Banja Luka district court [...]

The Norwegian government Friday proposed a new copyright law that will make it illegal to copy music from legally purchased CDs onto MP3 players. The proposal, meant to bring Norwegian law in line with EU rules , will also allow fines and a maximum sentence of three years in jail for violating copyrights and engaging [...]

Britain's Law Society has written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for an independent probe into the treatment of Svetlana Bakhmina, deputy general counsel of Russian oil company Yukos . Bakhmina was arrested in December and was allegedly subjected to harsh interrogation in breach of international law. Bakhmina, who remains in custody, has [...]

French President Jacques Chirac is set to join Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero in Barcelona Friday at a rally for the "Yes" side in Spain's upcoming referendum on the European Constitution, slated for February 20. The 25-nation constitution signed on October 29, establishes a permanent president and foreign-policy chief, creates an EU diplomatic [...]

Peter Friedman, Case Law School: "I'm disappointed in Diane Feinstein's and Barak Obama's support of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, which the Senate approved yesterday (with House approval and presidential signature anticipated) and which provides that large multistate class action lawsuits like the ones that have been brought against tobacco companies could no [...]