[JURIST] The Center for Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law posted an Illinois death row roster [PDF] Friday showing the jurisdiction, Illinois Department of Corrections custody date, race of the defendant, number of victims, race of the victims, and final case disposition for each defendant sentenced to death in Illinois between 1977, when capital punishment was restored in the state, and 2003, when Governor George H. Ryan commuted all Illinois death sentences.

[JURIST] The Center for Public Integrity released Friday a hitherto-confidential Department of Justice analysis of a potential Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 [PDF text] which would significantly extend domestic intelligence, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives granted to the government by the USA Patriot Act of 2001 while limiting public disclosure and judicial review. The Justice Department issued a statement [PDF text] in response to the release insisting that no final proposals have been presented to the Attorney General or the White House.

[JURIST] The US Government Friday applied for a stay in the trial of suspected terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui until a number of outstanding procedural issues are resolved by an appeals court. Read the notice of appeal [PDF text] to the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the stay application [PDF text]. Press reports have suggested that one issue may be whether Moussaoui should be allowed to question fellow al Qaeda prisoner Ramzi Binalshibh, captured last year in Pakistan.

[JURIST] The Associated Press and other media organizations filed a motion with the Fairfax County Circuit Court Friday requesting that still photography be allowed at trial and pre-trial proceedings for DC sniper suspect Lee Malvo. Read the memorandum in support of the motion [PDF text]. Judge Jane Marum Roush ruled on January 27 that no cameras would be allowed in the courtroom until further notice. A previously-filed motion to record and telecast [PDF text] trial and pre-trial proceedings will be heard by Judge Roush on March 3.

[JURIST] Stanford law professor Richard Banks speaks Friday to a Faculty Colloquium at the University of Texas School of Law. Read his paper The Anti-Racial Profiling Campaign and the Functions and Limits of the Anti-Discrimination Framework.

[JURIST] The University of Florida announced Friday that University of Missouri law professor Robert Jerry has been named dean of the University of Florida's Fredric G. Levin College of Law, effective July 1. Jerry succeeds Jon Mills, who will remain on the law faculty and with the college's Center for Governmental Responsibility, which he directs. More about Professor Robert Jerry [UF Law press release] from the University of Florida College of Law.

[JURIST] University of Colorado law professor Marianne "Mimi" Wesson spoke on "Pornography and Civil Rights" as part of the Dorothy L. Thompson Civil Rights Lecture Series at Kansas State University on Thursday. She proposed that creators of pornographic material should have the same liabilities as other companies that market potentially-harmful products. Read more about Professor Wesson's lecture [Kansas State Collegian report].

[JURIST] The Department of Defense announced Friday that it was establishing an internal oversight board and an external advisory board to provide oversight of the Total Information Awareness project, the program designed to develop tools to track terrorists.The boards "will help ensure that TIA develops and disseminates its products to track terrorists in a manner consistent with U.S. constitutional law, U.S. statutory law, and American values related to privacy." Read the full DoD press release. In response, the ACLU said Friday that an external advisory board in particular "is a good compliment to Congressional scrutiny, but it should not serve as a substitute for action on Capitol Hill." Read the ACLU press release.

[JURIST] Professor Jody Armour of the University of Southern California School of Law spoke Thursday at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law on aspects of racism in American society, focusing in particular on the impact of "unintentional" racism. Read more about Professor Armour's lecture [Pitt News report].

[JURIST] Read an official transcript [White House press release] or watch recorded video [via C-SPAN] of Friday's briefing by Attorney General John Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller announcing the raising of the terrorist threat level from "Elevated" to "High". The Department of Homeland Security has released a list of federal agency actions [DHS press release] that would be taken in response to the increased alert level.

[JURIST] Judge Morris Arnold of the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals explored the cultural assumptions and misunderstandings that have historically burdened relations between whites and Native Americans during a talk at the University of Virginia School of Law on February 5. Read more about Judge's Arnold's talk [UVA Law press release].

[JURIST] The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [official website] released a report Thursday indicating that charges alleging employment discrimination in the private sector increased to 84,442 in Fiscal Year 2002 (which ended September 30), up 4.5% from the previous year. Most of the increase involved charges of religious, age and national origin discrimination. Read the EEOC press release. Review the EEOC's Enforcement and Litigation Statistics.

[JURIST] The full transcript of Thursday's debate in the Senate on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals is now online from the Congressional Record [debate transcript], with a continuation here [debate transcript] (thanks to Howard Bashman for tracking down the latter). Debate resumes next week.

[JURIST] The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website] reversed a lower court Friday and voided injunctions against a web designer, initially granted to stop him from using six internet domain names that allegedly violated trademarks of the plaintiff company. The appeals court ruled that the web designer's use of the domain names was not "in connection with the sale or advertising of goods or services," and there was no likelihood of confusion among consumers. Read The Taubman Company v. Webfeats [opinion text].

[JURIST] The Heritage Institute released a new research paper Thursday on the ramifications of the proposed Total Information Awareness cybersecurity program for civil liberties. Read The Need to Protect Civil Liberties While Combating Terrorism: Legal Principles and the Total Information Awareness Program [text]. An executive summary of the paper is also available.

[JURIST] The Federalist Society and Pepperdine Law School sponsored a panel discussion Thursday on the topic "Combating Terrorism and the Impact on Civil Liberties," featuring former US District Court Judge and State Department legal advisor Abraham Sofaer, Professors Robert Pushaw (Missouri) and Karl Manheim (Loyola Los Angeles), and outgoing ACLU California President Stephen Rohde. The Federalist Society has posted a full transcript [PDF] of the panel discussion.

[JURIST] FindLaw, the public legal information portal now owned by West, has redesigned its website. For those who might be disoriented (or put off by the tightly-packed fine print...), the old version of the FindLaw home page is still available, however.

[JURIST] Brooklyn Law School's Center for Health Law and Policy hosted a forum [event information] January 30 to consider whether proposed government plans to ensure the public health of US citizens in the face of a bioterror attack threaten our civil liberties. Featured speakers were Professor Lawrence Gostin (Georgetown) and Barry Steinhardt, Director of the Technology and Liberty Program at the American Civil Liberties Union. Recorded video from the forum is now online.

[JURIST] “A Crisis of Law? Reflection on the Church and The Law Over the Centuries” was the topic of remarks by Harvard law professor Charles Donahue delivered at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law on February 4. Read more about Professor Donahue's lecture [CUA press release].

[JURIST] Elections of judges to the new International Criminal Court [UN backgrounder] stalled at the UN Thursday when the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute [text] establishing the Court failed in three rounds of secret balloting to elect any judges to the seven slots still open on the 18-judge tribunal. Read a UN press release on the elections. Earlier this week, the Assembly elected 11 judges, including six women. Balloting resumes Friday and will be webcast live on JURIST.