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 [...]
The English Lord Chancellor told a House of Lords committee Tuesday that the scheduled creation of a new Ministry of Justice split off from the traditional Home Office would go ahead later this month without any parliamentary bill and, if need be, over the objections of senior judges. Lord Falconer told members of the Lords [...]
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dismissed a second judge from the Ukrainian Constitutional Court Tuesday, just one day after dismissing judge Valeriy Pshenichny for an "oath violation." Deputy Chairwoman and Justice Syuzanna Stanyk was dismissed Tuesday; Yushchenko has previously accused her of corruption. RFE/RL has more. The court is currently considering the constitutionality of Yushchenko's decree [...]
The Turkish Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that the first parliamentary vote on the only candidate standing for election to the presidency of Turkey was invalid because a quorum of legislators did not participate in the vote as required by the Turkish constitution . Under Article 102 of the constitution, two-thirds of a total of 550 [...]
Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day told the Canadian House of Commons for the first time Monday that the government had in fact heard claims from detainees held by authorities in Afghanistan that they had been tortured in Afghan custody, although he could not say whether those detainees had previously been held by Canadian forces. [...]
A federal judge ruled Monday that a New Hampshire law requiring that prescription information identifiable to particular doctors be kept confidential from pharmaceutical sales representatives violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutional. IMS Health and Verispan filed a lawsuit last year after the law took effect, arguing that the so-called Prescription Restraint Law violates the [...]
Efforts to combat widespread corruption in Iraq are being hindered by security problems and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's reinstatement of a provision of the country's Saddam-era criminal procedure code allowing ministers to block corruption investigations of their own departments, according to a new US auditor's report transmitted to Congress Monday. Special Inspector General for [...]
An internal US Department of Justice order disclosed Monday by the National Journal gave two top aides to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wide discretion to fire and hire political appointees within the Department who were not subject to Senate confirmation. The memo, dated March 2006, authorized then-Gonzales chief of staff D. Kyle Sampson and Gonzales's [...]
