Iraqi lawmakers said Saturday that new discussions on the text of the Iraqi constitution are underway, following calls for national unity after a Baghdad stampede of Shiite religious celebrants incited by the rumor of a suicide bomber that killed nearly 1,000 earlier this week. Among other things, Sunni leaders want new wording declaring Iraq part [...]
AP is reporting that Chief Justice William Rehnquist has died, according to a US Supreme Court spokeswoman. He was 80 and had been suffering from thyroid cancer; his last high-profile public appearance off the bench was in January this year when he administered the inaugural oath to President George W. Bush at his second inaugural. [...]
The American Bar Association heads a growing list of lawyers groups organizing legal aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina . Bar associations from across the US are donating funds to support the provision of legal help to the hundreds of thousands of displaced citizens reconstructing their lives in the aftermath of the disaster; they're also [...]
Saddam Hussein's Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi told Reuters Saturday that the October 19 trial date for his client indicated Friday by an Iraqi government source unconnected with the Iraqi Special Tribunal set up to try Hussein was too early, and that "years" were needed to assess what he called the "36 tonnes of files" in [...]
Federal and state officials said Saturday that with an influx of more National Guard troops and state police, civil authority had been restored to the New Orleans streets after a wave of crime and looting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but admitted that the justice system still faced difficulties. In remarks at the state [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union charged Friday that Georgia had raised the fees for its new controversial voter ID cards without notice to the US Justice Department as required under federal law. The office of Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue denied the allegation, saying that it had submitted the notice of the fee hike to the [...]
New papers by US Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. released by the National Archives Friday indicate that as a young White House lawyer in 1984 he had some doubts over American ratification of the 1948 Genocide Convention which he feared might be used by some as a device to prosecute US military personnel, [...]
The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals , serving Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi from the John Minor Wisdom Courthouse in New Orleans, is moving to temporary quarters in Houston, according to Chief Judge Carolyn King. King said Friday that although its 70 court staff would have preferred to shift immediately to Baton Rouge Louisiana in [...]
The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday refused a request by Virginia Attorney General Judy Jagdmann to have the full court rehear a June ruling by a three-judge panel striking down Virginia's law against late-term abortions because the law lacked an exception based on the health of the mother. The Court cited the 2000 [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Craig Bradley, a former law clerk to the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, says that Rehnquist's thirty-three year legal legacy is complex and must be examined from multiple perspectives… No one person can adequately assess Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s thirty-three year-plus legal legacy. It's necessary to break that down into different areas [...]
