A Mexican special prosecutor's office designed to investigate past political crimes shut down on Tuesday without ever securing any convictions. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox , who created the department, decided to close it just before leaving office last year. That decision just took effect. All cases being pursued by the special office, including the [...]
Texas Governor Rick Perry Tuesday signed into law a new so-called "shoot first" law , which allows state residents to use deadly force to respond to threats in their homes, cars, and at jobs. The bill, also known as a "stand your ground" law, was approved by large majorities in both houses of the Texas [...]
The president of Vietnam has signed a decree abolishing the power of the government to hold suspected national security threats without judicial hearings, a government official told AP Wednesday. Western officials have praised President Nguyen Minh Triet, who signed the decree last week, but some worry that it may change little for political dissenters in [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in the case of Credit Suisse Securities v. Billing , 05-1157, a case in which investors filed a class action lawsuit against underwriters and institutional investors for their alleged manipulation of initial public offerings. The question presented was whether the plaintiffs' class can maintain their action under [...]
The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted Tuesday to reject proposed legislation which would have effectively ended the death penalty in the state. Had it passed, the proposed law would have set the maximum penalty for capital crimes at life in prison without parole. The debate was emotionally charged by the recent shooting of a [...]
Rockwell International v. US ex rel. Stone, US Supreme Court, March 27, 2007 . Read the court's opinion per Justice Scalia and a dissent from Justice Stevens. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The US District Court for the Central District of California began jury selection Tuesday in the espionage trial of Chi Mak , a Chinese-American engineer charged with conspiring to smuggle sensitive naval intelligence data to China . The US government indicted Mak in November 2005 for both acting as, and failing to register as, an [...]
The Iowa Senate on Tuesday passed SF427 , extending the state's civil rights protections to gay and lesbians. The controversial legislation would officially add gender identity and sexual orientation to the list of groups protected from discrimination in Iowa. The bill now moves to the Iowa House of Representatives, where if passed, it would complement [...]
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR) Tuesday criticized the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) for its terrorist watchlist containing more than 6,000 names. A new LCCR report entitled "The OFAC List: How a Treasury Department Terrorist Watchlist Ensnares Everyday Consumers," said the Treasury Department's [...]
The late former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is under investigation for possibly ordering the murder of former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva in 1982. Although Pinochet died of a heart attack in December, an investigation is underway to determine whether he directed state officials to poison Montalva with mustard gas. Montalva, who served as president [...]
