The US Supreme Court issued four opinions Monday. The Court ruled unanimously in Flores-Figueroa v. United States that a federal "aggravated identity theft" statute applies only to individuals who knowingly use another person's identification documents. The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had upheld Ignacio Flores-Figueroa's conviction for using counterfeit social security and [...]
US Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Sunday in an interview with ABC that he hopes to have a replacement for retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter confirmed by the beginning of the Court's 2009 term in October. Leahy said, "It would be irresponsible if we didn't have somebody in place by the [...]
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced Saturday that Iran's judiciary will fairly review the espionage conviction of US journalist Roxana Saberi , adding that "ules and regulations in Iran equally apply to all individuals who violate the law." Mottaki's statement came in response to close public scrutiny of the development of Saberi's case in Iran. [...]
An Iranian woman sentenced to death for a murder committed as a juvenile was secretly executed Friday, drawing criticism from human rights groups. Delara Darabi, a 23-year-old Iranian artist sentenced to death six years ago as a juvenile on a murder conviction, was executed in secret at Rasht Central Prison on Friday morning. Although the [...]
David L. McColgin : "Arizona v. Gant is one of the most significant pro-Fourth Amendment decisions in decades. Overturning the settled law in federal and most state courts, the Supreme Court ruled that police may no longer automatically search the passenger compartment of a car incident to the arrest of one of the car's occupants. [...]
The Obama administration may reinstitute controversial military commission proceedings for Guantanamo Bay military prison detainees in an announcement as early as next week, according to a New York Times report Friday. On his first day in office in January, Obama directed military prosecutors to pursue a 120-day continuance in the military commission proceedings against five [...]
The Pacific Islands Forum on Saturday suspended Fiji's membership in the 16-nation bloc after Fiji's current military government failed to meet a May 1 deadline to schedule elections. Niue Premier and Forum Chairman Toke Talagi said that the suspension stemmed from Fiji's recent rejection of democratic governance and obligations under the Forum's Biketawa Declaration , [...]
Lawyers for former Abu Ghraib guards said the guards intend to appeal their convictions of torture and abuse in light of the recent release of four secret CIA interrogation memos , according to a Friday report in the Washington Post. The lawyers said that the memos raise the possibility that the Abu Ghraib guards were [...]
US President Barack Obama interrupted a press briefing Friday to speak about the retirement of Justice David Souter . Speaking about the nearly two decades of service and dedication that Justice Souter had given to the court, Obama said that he had thanked him on behalf of the American people. Obama then spoke to the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Ed Richards of Louisiana State University Law Center says that in the midst of current concerns about the spread of the H1N1 virus (popularly known as "swine flu"), passing more and stricter public health laws will neither strengthen the public health system nor effectively contain the spread of disease… As this is [...]
