An assembly of Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday submitted an immigration reform bill in the US House of Representatives that would give undocumented immigrants an easier path to seek legal status in the country. The proposed legislation, which is titled the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP) , was [...]
Galleon Group hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam and former hedge fund consultant Danielle Chiesi were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Manhattan on insider trading charges. The 17-count indictment includes charges of conspiracy and securities fraud for their alleged role in the largest hedge fund insider trading case in US history. Rajaratnam has [...]
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that police must obtain a warrant before searching data stored in a cell phone, in the first ruling of its kind by a state high court. The court ruled 4-3 that a warrantless search of the contents of a suspect's cell phone violates the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable [...]
State of Ohio v. Smith, Supreme Court of Ohio, December 15, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on 4th Amendment rights.
The Obama administration said Tuesday that it plans to purchase the Thomson Correctional Center (TCC) in northwestern Illinois to house inmates from Guantanamo Bay . In a letter to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn , the secretary of state, secretary of defense, attorney general, secretary of homeland security, and director of national intelligence said that the [...]
The Council of the District of Columbia on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would allow same-sex marriages to be performed in Washington, DC. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 passed with a vote of 11-2, despite opposition from the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington , which has pledged [...]
A judge for the Canadian Federal Court on Monday struck down a security certificate that deemed Syrian-born Toronto resident Hassan Almrei a threat to national security. The security certificate law, which is used to arrest and deport non-Canadians considered threats to national security, has become controversial in recent years because it relies on evidence heard [...]
The African Court on Human and People's Rights (AfCHPR) issued its first decision Tuesday, finding that it lacks jurisdiction to hear a case against Senegal on whether charges against former Chadian president Hissene Habre should be dropped. Chadian national Michelot Yogogombaye filed a petition with the court last year seeking to suspend the planned Senegalese [...]
British government lawyers argued Monday that two UK High Court judges acted irresponsibly when they ruled last month that the details of the detention of Binyam Mohamed in Pakistan in 2002 must be released . Lawyers representing Foreign Secretary David Miliband were appealing the latest in a series of back and forth rulings on whether [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday denied Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Musa'ab Al-Madhwani's petition for habeas corpus, ruling that the government may continue to detain him. Judge Thomas Hogan excluded from evidence statements made to interrogators, finding them to be the product of abusive techniques, but admitted [...]
