US President Barack Obama retook the presidential oath of office Wednesday, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts , following minor mistakes the two made in the wording of the oath during Tuesday's inauguration ceremony . White House lawyer Greg Craig addressed the issue on Wednesday, maintaining that Obama was already properly sworn in despite the [...]
The Supreme Court of Uganda on Wednesday ruled that the death penalty is not prohibited by Uganda's constitution because it does not constitute cruel and inhuman punishment. The decision comes on an appeal by over 400 inmates on death row of a 2005 ruling of the Constitutional Court that held the death penalty was legal. [...]
US President Barack Obama on Wednesday issued the first executive orders of his presidency, focusing on White House ethics and transparency. The executive order on Presidential Records grants broader public access to the records of previous presidential administrations, reversing restrictions implemented by former President George W. Bush. The second executive order on Ethics Commitments by [...]
A military judge on Wednesday suspended for 120 days the military commission proceedings at Guantanamo Bay against five alleged 9/11 co-conspirators , including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , granting a request by lawyers acting at the behest of President Barack Obama . In a separate case, another military judge suspended proceedings Wednesday against Canadian detainee Omar [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Shayana Kadidal, senior managing attorney of the Guantanamo project at the Center for Constitutional Rights, says that the timing of military commissions convening authority Susan Crawford's admission in the last days of the Bush administration that a Guantanamo detainee he represents was tortured should not be allowed to open the door [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor Michael Kelly of Creighton University School of Law says the pending closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison by executive order of new US President Barack Obama pointedly leaves open the politically and legally troubling question of what to do with all the detainees… President Barack Obama's executive order to close down the [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in two cases. In Corley v. United States , the Court heard arguments on whether federal statutory and case law require suppression of a confession given more than six hours after arrest but before the defendant is presented to a judge if law enforcement authorities unreasonably delay [...]
A law requiring Romanian telecommunications companies to retain information on all telephone calls, text messages, and emails went into effect on Tuesday. The law requires that basic information like the phone numbers or email addresses involved in the communications be recorded so that prosecutors can access the information if it relates to an investigation, but [...]
Proposed amendments to the Russian Constitution extending term limits for the president and members of parliament officially took effect Wednesday when the text of the updated constitution was published in the state newspaper Rossiikaya Gazeata . Under Russian law, constitutional amendments take legal effect the day they are published in the newspaper. The amendments extending [...]
The Paris prosecutor's office on Tuesday announced that it has opened an investigation into the French business operations of US financier Bernard Madoff , following accusations of abuse of confidence and fraud. The inquiry was sparked by a French citizen's suit against the Swiss firm UBS for fraud and betrayal of trust, after the firm [...]
