BREAKING NEWS ~ Federal judge orders release of Abu Ghraib photos News
BREAKING NEWS ~ Federal judge orders release of Abu Ghraib photos

[JURIST] US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has ordered the release of photographs and videotapes of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive], despite government arguments that the images could damage America's image in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ruling comes in an ACLU lawsuit [ACLU case backgrounder] seeking information on the treatment of detainees in US custody and the transfer of prisoners to countries known to use torture. During arguments, Hellerstein expressed hesitation over ordering the photos' release [JURIST report], but in his ruling [PDF text] Thursday, Hellerstein wrote that "fear of blackmail is not a legally sufficient argument to prevent us from performing a statutory command." The new photos and video will not be released immediately, however; at the very end of his ruling Hellerstein stayed his own order 20 days to allow either side to appeal. AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.