A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a lawsuit brought against private contractors by Iraqi plaintiffs alleging torture at the Abu Ghraib prison . The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that federal law concerning "combatant activities" preempted the state tort claims brought by the former detainees. Redefining the test set [...]
The US Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant a request by the state of California to temporarily stay a lower court order to come up with a plan to reduce the number of inmates in its prisons . In a brief order , the Court said that it would not stay an earlier order [...]
Belgian school officials announced Friday that Muslim headscarves will be banned in about 700 schools in the Dutch-speaking northern region of Flanders. The move came after an administrative tribunal ruled Tuesday that individual schools could not impose a ban in response to complaints after two Antwerp schools banned headscarves at the beginning of the shcool [...]
Military lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainee and alleged 9/11 co-conspirator Ramzi bin al-Shibh on Wednesday asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to declare the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA) unconstitutional. Commander Suzanne Lachelier and Lt. Commander Richard Federico of the US Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps argued that [...]
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced Friday that the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) has referred allegations of torture by its officers to Attorney General Patricia Scotland and the Metropolitan Police for investigation. In an open letter to Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague , Miliband called the "scope and handling" of the investigation "a matter for [...]
Steven Emerson : "Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed a career Federal prosecutor from Connecticut to lead a preliminary investigation into whether criminal laws were broken by US intelligence operatives involved in post-9/11 terror suspect interrogations. In April, President Obama went to CIA Headquarters and assured the Agency's career employees that no CIA officers would [...]
US Department of Defense (DOD) general counsel Jeh Johnson said Thursday that the Obama administration remains committed to closing the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay by early next year. Speaking before the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security , Johnson said that the administration was still hoping to meet the [...]
Former Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian was found guilty Friday on corruption charges and sentenced to life in prison. Chen's wife Wu Shu-Chen was also given a life sentence after the pair were convicted on charges of embezzlement, receiving bribes, forgery, and money laundering. A three-judge panel of the Taipei District Court also sentenced their son [...]
Saleh, et al. v. Titan Corporation, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, September 11, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here.
Schwarzenegger, et al. v. Coleman, et al., US Supreme Court, September 11, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on legal issues surrounding California's prisons.
