The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday rejected a First Amendment challenge to a City of Los Angeles ban on billboards. Metro Lights, an outdoor advertising company, argued that the ban on billboard advertising was unconstitutional because the city allowed advertising on bus shelters and other public facilities, a benefit conferred [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday granted the government's motion to hold in abeyance the habeas corpus petitions of two Guantanamo Bay detainees, but only if and when the charges against the pair are referred to military commissions. The detainees, Fouad Mahmoud Al Rabiah and Fayiz Mohammed [...]

Assistant US Attorney Marc Litt on Tuesday urged that Bernard Madoff be jailed, in a brief filed with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York . Litt alleges that Madoff mailed valuable jewelry to family members in violation of a court order prohibiting him from disposing of or concealing any assets. [...]

The Ethiopian Parliament on Tuesday adopted controversial legislation designed to regulate foreign charities. Under the Proclamation for the Registration and Regulation of Charities and Societies, which passed 327 to 79 , foreign aid organizations and local groups that receive more than 10 percent of their funding from foreign entities will be prohibited from involvement in [...]

Zimbabwean Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) on Tuesday announced the release of a revealing and in depth report detailing how lawyers and justice officials within Zimbabwe have allowed the illegal detention and abuse of several political activists. The report points to specific incidents where lawyers for the activists were denied access to their clients and [...]

United States of America v. Jeffrey K. Skilling, US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, January 6, 2009 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday ordered that former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeff Skilling be resentenced for the convictions that stem from his involvement in the collapse of Enron. The three-judge panel upheld all 19 convictions of conspiracy and fraud, but found that the lower court erred in applying [...]

Five indicted Blackwater USA guards involved in the September 2007 killings of 17 Iraqi civilians on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to federal manslaughter and weapons charges. The guards appeared in the US District Court for the District of Columbia Tuesday after a federal judge in Utah ruled last month that the proceedings could not be [...]

A judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday ruled that a lawsuit brought by an Islamic charity that alleged it was the subject of an illegal wiretap by the National Security Agency (NSA) may proceed. Judge Vaughn Walker had previously dismissed the suit , finding that the al-Haramain [...]

Human rights group Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) on Tuesday reported that Chinese activist and blogger Chen Qitang was sentenced last month to two-and-a-half years in prison for impersonation and fraud. According to the group, Chen's wife Zhang Yueqing learned of his sentence when she called the Foshan Court in Guangdong Province in order to [...]