Sandra and Roberta Cote-Whitacre, et al. v. Department of Public Health, et al., Commonwealth of Massachusetts Suffolk County Superior Court, May 10, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Drug maker Purdue Pharma LP pleaded guilty Thursday and agreed to pay $634.5 million in fines for misleading the public about the addiction risk of a painkiller it produced. According to prosecutors, Purdue knew in 1995 that doctors were worried that the drug OxyContin was addictive, but hid that information from its sales representatives. In [...]

Churches across the US have agreed to become part of the New Sanctuary Movement , a program to protect illegal immigrants from arrest and deportation and place pressure on the government to make becoming a citizen an easier process. Thus far, churches in five large US cities have plans to protect illegal immigrants, with the [...]

Member nations to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) marked the 10th anniversary of the accord at an unveiling of a memorial dedicated to chemical warfare victims at the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Netherlands on Wednesday. Member states pledged to refocus attempts to persuade North Korea and [...]

The High Court of Ireland ruled Wednesday that the Irish constitution does not prevent a minor girl in state care from traveling to the UK to have an abortion. Lawyers appointed by Attorney General Rory Brady argued that the constitution precluded state employees from assisting the girl, but Justice Liam McKechnie held that this was [...]

Pakistani police have registered a case against unidentified persons for firing at the house of Munir A. Malik, lawyer for suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, early Thursday morning. Malik told GeoTV that the gunmen shot out windows and narrowly missed his daughter when they shot into [...]

A federal judge in Massachusetts has dismissed a lawsuit brought by illegal immigrant detainees over their transfer from Massachusetts to Texas holding centers following a March 6 factory raid in which 360 people were arrested. Lawyers for the detainees argued that the government moved them to Texas to deny the detainees legal aid, but the [...]

Former US Attorney Todd P. Graves was forced to resign from his post with the Western District of Missouri last year after he expressed a difference of opinion with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on politically sensitive cases, Graves told the New York Times Wednesday. Graves said that while he was planning to go into [...]

Syria will take no part in the establishment of a UN tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri if the tribunal acts to undermine the country's sovereignty, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told members of the New People's Assembly Thursday. Assad has continually denied any allegations that Syria [...]

United States v. Luis Posada Carriles, US District Court for the Western District of Texas, Judge Kathleen Cardone, May 8, 2007 . Read the full text of the order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.