The number of domestic wiretap applications granted by US state judges rose 20 percent in 2006 to 1,378, while federal judges granted only 461 applications, a drop of 26 percent, according to a new report filed by the Administrative Office of the US Courts . The figures released Monday in the 2006 Wiretap Report did [...]
The US Senate Intelligence Committee questioned top intelligence officials, including National Intelligence Director John M. "Mike" McConnell and National Security Agency Director Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander , Tuesday at a hearing on the Bush administration's proposed amendments to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) . Committee members appeared skeptical about the proposed amendments , [...]
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two top suspects accused of committing war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan, according to an announcement from the court Wednesday. Ahmad Muhammad Harun , former Sudanese interior minister and current humanitarian affairs minister, faces 20 counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and [...]
A secret court approved a record number of US government requests to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists or other persons for "foreign intelligence" purposes in 2006, endorsing all but one warrant, according to statistics made public by the US Department of Justice Tuesday. According to a three-page letter to House leaders filed under the [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Adam Gershowitz of South Texas College of Law says the principal beneficiary of a new Texas child rape death penalty law will likely be the State of Louisiana, which may see its child rape statute transformed from an unconstitutional outlier to a constitutional model for the rest of the country… Texas is [...]
US President George W. Bush Tuesday vetoed a bill that would have provided $122 billion to pay for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but would have also required US troops to start pulling out of Iraq within four months. Bush has previously promised to veto any proposed legislation that included a timetable for a [...]
The Missouri Supreme Court Tuesday unanimously upheld a 2005 law that allows parents to sue people who help their minor daughters get an abortion without parental consent. Planned Parenthood had challenged the law on the basis that it infringed the group's First Amendment right to free speech by blocking it from disseminating information or counseling [...]
The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday that Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) had no First Amendment right to turn over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters. In 1996, McDermott leaked a recorded telephone conversation in which several Republican lawmakers discussed ethics allegations against then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga) [...]
About 70 lawyers representing some of the top firms in the US Tuesday lobbied various congressional offices to restore the writ of habeas corpus to Guantanamo Bay detainees brought before military tribunals. The lawyers, who also included public defenders and sole practitioners, held over 50 meetings with Washington legislators, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California), [...]
Thousands of protesters rallied in cities across the United States Tuesday for more relaxed immigration laws and facilitated routes to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Marchers took to the streets in Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, Washington DC, and elsewhere but organizers said the range of activities marking May 1 showed the strength and diversity of [...]
