The US Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in Ricci v. DeStefano , where the Court will consider whether a government employer may refuse to certify results of a civil service exam that would make disproportionately more white applicants than minority applicants eligible for promotion, because of fears of charges of racial discrimination. Petitioners [...]
A top Norwegian prosecutor said Wednesday that she will look into a compliant filed by Norwegian lawyers accusing Israeli government figures of war crimes during the recent offensive in the Gaza Strip . The chief prosecutor at Norway's National Authority for Prosecution of Organised and Other Serious Crimes Siri Frigaard will investigate the complaint, which [...]
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled 7-2 in Nken v. Holder , retitled from Nken v. Mukasey, that an alien's stay of deportation request pending consideration of his petition for review is governed by the traditional test for stays, not by congressional revisions to the Immigration and Nationality Act reflected in 8 USC § [...]
The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday announced charges against an Afghan of conspiring to finance terrorist activity. Haji Juma Khan, who was already detained on charges of narco-terrorism, is accused of providing the Taliban with proceeds from his drug operation with knowledge that the money would be used [...]
The US Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on Tuesday declassified a November 2008 report detailing the extent of top Bush administration officials' involvement in implementing severe interrogation techniques employed by US military forces against terrorism suspects. According to the report, the interrogation techniques originated from a February 2002 memo signed by former US President George [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Marjorie Cohn of Thomas Jefferson School of Law says that President Obama's expressed intent to immunize CIA employees who violated US laws banning torture and cruel treatment while interrogating prisoners breaches the President’s constitutional duty to "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" and warrants the appointment of a special independent [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Jordan Paust of the University of Houston Law Center says that far from providing real legal cover for CIA harsh interrogations, the newly disclosed second Bybee memo is a "smoking gun" providing further evidence of serial criminality and demonstrating beyond reasonable doubt why a memo writer is reasonably accused of complicity whether [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) might drop charges of disclosing national defense secrets against former pro-Israel lobbyists Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, a senior official said Tuesday. Government sources told the AP that there is still some support for going to trial with the case, which has been delayed repeatedly since the former employees [...]
A Chilean judge has charged three former Pinochet-era military officers as accomplices for their role in the October 1973 killings of 14 leftist political opponents as part of the so-called "Caravan of Death" . Judge Victor Montiglio of the Santiago Court of Appeals indicted and ordered the arrests of General Gonzalo Santelices , Lieutenant Pablo [...]
A lawyer for the relatives of 17 sailors killed in the 2000 al Qaeda attack on the USS Cole said Tuesday that the families will receive compensation from the Sudan government after a judge for the US District Court of the Southern District of New York ordered last week that banks release $13.4 million in [...]
