LaRoyce Lathair Smith v. Texas, Supreme Court of the United States, per curiam, November 15, 2004 . Read the full text of the opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The UN Security Council voted Monday evening to immediately impose an arms embargo on the Ivory Coast. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, the country is currently experiencing internal strife, and the vote is an effort to cut off the weapons supplies of both government and rebel forces. BBC News has more. 9:31 PM [...]

President Bush has asked national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to replace Colin Powell as Secretary of State. Current deputy national security advisor Stephen Hadley will become the President's new national security adviser. NBC has more.

Iraq deputy prime minister Barham Salih, the former Prime Minister of the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, has suggested for the first time that democratic elections scheduled for January may have to be delayed due to the level of violence in the country. Salih said "olding free and fair elections on time is [...]

The US Justice Department is reporting that the number of people sentenced to death in the United States reached a 30-year low in 2003. Last year, 144 inmates in 25 states were given the death penalty, which is not only 24 fewer than in 2002 but less than half the average of 297 between 1994 [...]

The Hungarian parliament has rejected a proposal to keep its 300 non-combat troops in Iraq until March 31, 2005. The troops were to stay in Iraq until December 31. The Socialist-led government wanted to extend the mission of the transport contingent serving since mid-2003 in Hillah, south of Baghdad, until after Iraq's elections scheduled for [...]

Mark Godsey, University of Cincinnati College of Law: "An article that appeared last year in the Atlantic Monthly about clemency memos written by Alberto R. Gonzales to George Bush while he was Governor of Texas is of renewed importance after Bush last week nominated Gonzales to take Ashcroft's post as AG. The article deals with [...]

Human Rights Watch Monday called on the United Nations Security Council to act quickly to end ethnic cleansing in Sudan's Darfur region. The group is requesting an arms embargo and travel sanctions on Sudanese officials for their failure to disarm the Janjaweed militias. Six other aid agencies have also called for immediate action, saying previous [...]

A report released Monday by the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) says that lawyers' contingent fees in medical malpractice cases are essential in preserving access to justice, and that proposed limitations being considered in Florida and elsewhere risk compromising the availability of the courts to individuals. Among its findings, the [...]

In Monday's corporations and securities law news, Dow Jones & Co. has settled a defamation suit with Australian mining magnate Joe Gutnick. The suit arose out of an online publication of a story which portrayed Gutnick as a schemer given to fraud. This is considered a groundmaking case in Australia as the nation's Supreme Court [...]