Bush signs intelligence reform bill into law News
Bush signs intelligence reform bill into law

[JURIST] President Bush signed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 [PDF] into law Friday, implementing a series of intelligence reforms recommended by the 9/11 Commission and authorizing the broadest re-working of the US intelligence structure since President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947. The new legislation was approved by the House and Senate earlier this month after the two bodies negotiated a conference compromise that allowed the bill to go forward while severing from it highly controversial provisions on immigration, most of which had been originally introduced by Republican House members. Read a transcript of the President's remarks at this morning's bill signing here, and watch recorded video from the White House. Bloomberg has more. Among other pieces of subordinate legislation the intelligence reform package includes the Anti-Atrocity Alien Deportation Act, which gives the Justice Department expanded powers to investigate and deport aliens who took part in war crimes and human rights abuses in their own countries. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.