American Bar Association president Michael S. Greco said Friday that American civil liberties were under stress in a time of conflict, but that policymakers should resist the temptation to "take shortcuts with the Constitution." He made his comments as the ABA released a poll showing that 52 percent of Americans believe the President could not [...]

ACORN v. Blanco, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, February 9, 2006 . Read the complaint . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Revised Interim Guidelines Concerning Free Exercise of Religion in the Air Force, United States Air Force, February 9, 2006 . Read the full text of the guidelines. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Saddam Hussein defense lawyer and former head of the Jordanian Lawyers Association Saleh al-Armouti said Friday that Hussein has claimed that the United States had offered him life in exile "like Napoleon" if he would use his influence to end the Iraq insurgency. Armouti said Hussein made the claim when he visited the ousted Iraqi [...]

The Advancement Project , a Washington, DC-based advocacy group, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging election plans for New Orleans , alleging that the plan puts too much emphasis on absentee voting and would keep blacks out of office. According to the lawsuit , Louisiana's emergency election plan following Hurricane Katrina will disenfranchise or severely [...]

Leading Friday's environmental law news, a California law that makes it illegal to throw away electronic waste went into effect Thursday. Under the law , residents will have to take most consumer electronic equipment, including computers, printers, VCRs, microwave ovens, fluorescent lighting, glass thermometers, old thermostats and batteries, to local household hazardous waste collection centers [...]

Hong Kong High Court Justice Michael Hartmann has ruled that an executive order on covert surveillance operations made last year by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen is unconstitutional. Instead of immediately repealing it, however, he gave the government six months to replace it, declaring that having no law regarding covert surveillance would leave a dangerous [...]

Conrad Black , former chairman of media company Hollinger International , told a US federal judge in Chicago Friday that he would prefer to have a trial soon. Black appeared at a court hearing held to assess the progress of the case against him. In December he pleaded not guilty to criminal charges of fraud [...]

The government of mainly-Muslim Malaysia has imposed a blanket ban on the controversial caricatures of Muhammad , making it an offense to publish, import, produce, manufacture, circulate, distribute or even possess the cartoons originally printed in a Danish newspaper in September and since republished in newspapers around the world. The Malaysian ban is believed to [...]

Initial results from the February 7 presidential election in Haiti indicate that Rene Preval , a former president and ally of ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide has won with over 60 percent of the vote. If the current results are certified the simple majority of votes for Preval will circumvent the need for a second-round vote [...]