The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Friday denied the petition of former Alabama governor Don Siegelman (D) and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy for an en banc rehearing of their convictions on charges of corruption. The petitioners cited as grounds for rehearing the court's alleged misinterpretation of 18 USC § 1512(b)(3) [...]
The government of Myanmar has disbarred a lawyer who sought to represent jailed democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi in her upcoming trial. The government cited Aung Thein's previous four-month jail term for contempt of court as the reason for the disbarment. Aung Thein was jailed for allowing his clients, student activists and members of [...]
Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Leon Panetta on Friday defended information the CIA gave to Congress on the use of interrogation techniques during the Bush administration. In response to statements made by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) , in which she claimed to have been misled by the CIA, and the [...]
Texas Border Coalition v. Napolitano, et al., US District Court for the District of Columbia, May 15, 2009 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday called on the US government to make "fundamental changes to reduce civilian casualties" in Afghanistan after attacks last week reportedly left more than 140 civilians dead. HRW said that a review announced by chief of the US Central Command General David Petraeus must result in "measures that genuinely minimize [...]
US officials said Friday that Algerian Guantanamo Bay detainee Lakhdar Boumediene has been released and sent to France . Boumediene was the named plaintiff in the US Supreme Court case Boumediene v. Bush , in which the Court held that Guantanamo detainees could challenge their imprisonment in federal court through the use of habeas corpus [...]
US President Barack Obama announced Friday that he is reinstating the controversial military commission system to try some Guantanamo Bay detainees. Obama said that there will be changes to the system to increase defendants' rights, including barring statements obtained under harsh interrogation methods and making it more difficult to introduce hearsay evidence. The administration will [...]
CACI International, Inc., et al. v. St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co., US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, May 14, 2009 . Read the full text of the decision . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged the US Wednesday to hold accountable those accused of committing torture under the Bush administration. Pillay welcomed the US as a new member of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and lauded decisions by US President Barack Obama to ban torture and close CIA prisons and [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Thursday that the insurance company for defense contractor CACI International’s has no duty to defend or indemnify CACI against claims of torture at Iraq prisons such as Abu Ghraib . CACI conceded that its insurance policy from St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Co. generally [...]
