The US Supreme Court decided two cases Tuesday. The Court ruled in Chambers v. United States that failure to report to prison does not constitute a "violent felony" for purposes of sentence enhancement under the Armed Career Criminals Act (ACCA) . Petitioner Deondery Chambers pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. [...]
Chambers v. United States, US Supreme Court, January 13, 2009 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Human rights groups are concerned about US President-elect Barack Obama's intentions to keep the Guantanamo Bay detention center open for at least 100 days after taking office, according to a Monday report in the Miami Herald. On Sunday, Obama told ABC news in an interview that he would close the base but that doing so [...]
European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso on Monday said that the commission needs to see more results from Romania's effort to fight corruption and reform the judiciary, during a press conference with Romanian President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Emil Boc . Romania is currently subject to increased scrutiny from the commission as a [...]
The US military announced on Monday that the Guantanamo Bay hunger strike has increased to 42 detainees. The number was believed to be 30 last Thursday. The military attributes the increase to the recent seven year anniversary of the facility's opening. Another possible contributing factor is the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama , who [...]
Gerald L. Baliles : "The lineage of the pardon power and executive clemency generally runs to ancient Rome. British practice in the colonial period and before, itself drawing on antiquity, was the immediate precedent for the presidential pardon power found in the Constitution. The power is broad, based on British royal prerogative: "The President…shall have [...]
Advisers to US President-elect Barack Obama said Monday that he plans to issue an executive order during his first week in office closing the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, according to a report by the Associated Press. The report comes after Obama said Sunday in a television interview that he planned to close the base, but [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday began a confirmation of charges hearing against former Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba . Bemba, originally arrested by Belgian authorities in May, faces war crimes and crimes against humanity charges for violations allegedly committed in the Central African Republic (CAR) between October 2002 and March [...]
The Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland ruled Monday that more than $8 million deposited by a former associate of late president Ferdinand Marcos must be returned to the Philippines government. This is the last of the money deposited in Swiss bank accounts before the overthrow of Marcos in 1986. The Philippine government claimed that the [...]
The UN Human Rights Council on Monday adopted a resolution condemning the Israeli occupation in Gaza and demanding the immediate withdrawal of military forces. The council also decided to dispatch a fact-finding mission to investigate possible human rights violations. The resolution passed 33-1, with 13 abstentions. Canada was the only dissenting vote. The resolution comes [...]
