Frist, Reid working toward compromise on judicial nominees News
Frist, Reid working toward compromise on judicial nominees

[JURIST] Senate leaders Bill Frist [R-Tenn.] and Harry Reid [D-Nev.] have been meeting privately in hopes of reaching a deal in which Senate Democrats would allow confirmation of at least two of President Bush's seven disputed nominees for appellate judgeships, but only as part of a larger agreement in which Republicans would end their attack on judicial filibusters. Democrats insist that in exchange for their cooperation regarding the disputed nominees, the so-called "nuclear option" of ending judicial filibusters must be taken out of consideration by Republicans. In a press release Monday Frist criticized what he called a Democratic "shutdown" of the Senate over the judicial nominee flap. Reid's official website contains releases from his perspective. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

South Africa becomes first country on continent to legalize same-sex marriage

Same-sex marriages became legal in South Africa on November 30, 2006 as the country's Civil Union Act, 2006 went into effect, making South Africa the only country on the African continent to legalize same-sex marriage. Read the Civil Union Act, 2006.