Lopez v. Gonzales, United States Supreme Court, December 5, 2006 . Read the court's opinion per justice Souter along with a dissent from Justice Thomas. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Finland's parliament voted to ratify the proposed European Constitution Tuesday, taking steps toward becoming the 16th country to ratify the charter as Finland's six-month presidency of the European Union comes to a close. Parliament members voted 125-39 to ratify the EU constitution, with four MPs abstaining. Finnish President Tarja Halonen must now also approve ratification. [...]

Michael Sata , Zambia's opposition leader and head of the Patriotic Front , was arrested Tuesday for allegedly making false declarations on August 11 concerning his assets in his presidential candidate form. If convicted, Sata faces a minimum jail term of two years. Zambian law requires presidential candidates to declare their assets and liabilities prior [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the Kamehameha Schools , a private school that accepts no federal funding, can utilize an admissions policy that gives priority to Native Hawaiian students before admitting non-Native Hawaiians. The court's majority reasoned that "Because the Schools are a wholly private K-12 educational establishment, [...]

Italian prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to issue indictments for 26 US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents and five officials from the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI) , including former SISMI chief Nicola Pollari, on kidnapping charges for allegedly orchestrating the extraordinary rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr . Nasr, [...]

Flavio Sosa , a leader of the popular uprising in the Mexican state of Oaxaca , was arrested late Monday after arriving in Mexico City for negotiations with the federal government. Sosa, a prominent figure in the People's Assembly of Oaxaca (APPO) , was jailed in a maximum-security facility on five charges, including kidnapping and [...]

In a letter to the chief judge presiding over his genocide trial, Saddam Hussein has said he would not attend further proceedings because he "wasn't given the chance to speak when I tried to clarify the truth." The authenticity of the one-page letter, handwritten in Arabic and dated Monday, could not be confirmed, but it [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that immigrants convicted of conduct that is a felony under state law but is only a misdemeanor under the Controlled Substance Act are not subject to deportation under the Immigration and Naturalization Act . In Lopez v. Gonzales , Jose Lopez, a legal permanent resident in the US, pleaded [...]

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Monday requested the California Supreme Court to grant a petition to review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold a state law prohibiting same-sex marriage . Lockyer, who supports the state ban, noted the importance of settling the issue for same-sex couples in the state. In the appeals court, [...]

The Court of Cassation in Kuwait on Tuesday reversed former Guantanamo Bay detainee Nasser al-Mutairi's conviction on terrorism charges, including endangering Kuwait's foreign relations by taking up arms against a foreign nation. Mutairi, the first of eight Kuwaitis to be freed from the US military facility in Cuba, spent three years in Guantanamo until his [...]