Former federal judge and US Attorney General nominee Michael B. Mukasey will forbid US Department of Justice (DOJ) employees from discussing sensitive cases with outside agencies if he is confirmed as attorney general, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said Thursday. In a private meeting with Leahy, Mukasey reportedly assured Leahy that any DOJ employee [...]
Private security contractors operating in Iraq work largely above the law due to legal loopholes, according to a Thursday New York Times report on the aftermath of Sunday's shooting death of at least eight Iraqi civilians at the hands of private security contractor Blackwater USA . The Iraqi Interior Ministry withdrew Blackwater's operating license in [...]
A federal judge ruled Thursday that two New Jersey students can protest against a school uniform policy by wearing buttons that depict uniform-clad Hitler Youth . Judge Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. of the District of New Jersey relied on the 1969 Supreme Court decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District that allowed [...]
A Canadian environmental advocacy group has sued the Canadian government over the 2007 Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act , alleging that the government's current compliance plan for the 2005 Kyoto Protocol does not meet the act's minimum requirements. The application for judicial review , filed by Friends of the Earth Canada , seeks both a declaration [...]
A display featuring the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse passes constitutional muster because it does not promote religion, a federal judge held in a ruling released Wednesday. Judge Karl Forester of the Eastern District Court of Kentucky ruled against a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Kentucky , finding that [...]
Former Khmer Rouge official Nuon Chea has expressed his desire to cooperate fully with the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) , the court established to try former Khmer Rouge leaders, an ECCC judge told the press Wednesday. You Bunleng, a Cambodian investigating judge of the ECCC, told Reuters that Chea "has no [...]
France's National Assembly , the lower house of the French parliament, passed a new immigration bill aimed at increasing the ratio of skilled to unskilled immigrants entering France by a 91-45 vote Thursday. The bill has sparked controversy, both in France and abroad, for a provision that permits officials to test the DNA of an [...]
Iran released on bail Iranian-American consultant Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh from prison Wednesday, according to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. Tajbakhsh, employed by the Open Society Institute, will not be allowed to leave Iran without judicial approval. Tajbakhsh and Iranian-American scholar Haleh Esfandiari were arrested in May after alleged involvement in a plot against the [...]
The UN on Wednesday again rejected Taiwan's 15th bid for UN membership , as a UN committee balked at placing the issue on the General Assembly's agenda. Taiwan, which officially refers to itself as the Republic of China (ROC), was kicked out of the UN in 1971 by General Assembly Resolution 2758 and replaced by [...]
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Tennessee's execution procedures constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment, derailing plans to execute a death row inmate next week. US District Judge Aleta Trauger held that revised death penalty protocols , devised by the Tennessee Department of Corrections in April at the request of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen , do [...]
