Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, The White House, May 20, 2009 . Read the full text of the memorandum. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A US military judge on Tuesday granted a government motion to postpone hearings for Saudi Guantanamo Bay detainee Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al-Darbi . Chief judge for military commissions Colonel James Pohl granted the government's motion for a continuance until September 24, 2009, reasoning that such a delay will permit the government to implement changes, [...]

Members of the US Senate on Tuesday voted 90-6 to approve an amendment eliminating $80 million from pending legislation intended to fund the closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Introduced by Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and co-sponsored by five Republican senators, the measure prohibits using any funding provided by the Supplemental [...]

A council for the European Union (EU) on Tuesday said that Turkey should do more in terms of judicial reform, protection of citizens' rights, and various other efforts in order to further their request to be granted accession to the EU . The 47th meeting of the EC-Turkey Association Council was held in Brussels on [...]

A judge in the US District Court of New Jersey dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday brought by the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at the Rutgers School of Law alleging that former president George W. Bush violated Congress's constitutional power to declare war by initiating a preemptive war against the nation of Iraq. Granting the government's motion to [...]

Charles N. Davis : "The May 19 federal appellate court decision finding that the White House's Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act is an act of legal finery in bad need of a legislative fix. Indeed, the court's decision is but the latest example of how crabbed judicial interpretation [...]

Disgraced Democratic Party fundraiser Norman Hsu was convicted Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on charges of violating the Federal Elections Campaign Act (FECA) . Hsu was accused of making illegal campaign contributions in other peoples' names in violation of the FECA. According to the indictment , Hsu [...]

The Colombian Senate on Tuesday approved a proposal to hold a referendum on amending the country's constitution to allow for a third presidential term. Passed by a vote of 62-5, the measure would allow current two-term Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to seek a third presidential term in 2010, although a similar proposal passed in the [...]

Judge John Bates of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday on the limits of detaining terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay who are not actual members of terrorist groups under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) , rejecting the Obama administration's "substantial support" standard. The opinion rejected the [...]

The Israeli High Court of Justice on Tuesday ordered the government to fund non-Orthodox conversion institutions. The decision, handed down by a three-judge panel, breaks the monopoly that Orthodox conversion institutions hold over public conversion funding. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism applauded the decision , with Associate Director Mark Pelavin saying is, "ends [...]