[JURIST] Despite a statement earlier Friday that he would ask a federal judge for an eight-day extension of the deadline for counting overseas military and civilian ballots, PA Gov. Ed Rendell now faces renewed new legal action by the Republican State Committee and the father of a soldier stationed overseas calling for a thirty-day extension. As previously reported in JURIST's Paper Chase, US District Judge Yvette Kane negotiated and approved a settlement between Rendell and the claimants in the original lawsuit, leading to the initially-proposed eight day extension request. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Supreme Court in Abkhazia, a breakaway region in Georgia, reversed its decision Friday regarding the validity of the October 3rd regional presidential election pitting opposition leader Sergei Bagapsh against Prime Minister Raul Khadzhimba. The region’s Supreme Court declared last Thursday that the opposition leader was the winner of the election, but then nullified those results. On Friday, a judge claimed that the nullification should be reversed because it was made while members of the court were held hostage by supporters of Prime Minister Raul Khadzhimba. October’s election was the first openly contested presidential election in in Abkhazia in more than a decade. The region has run its own affairs since 1993, when separatists drove out Georgian government troops, and it has cultivated close ties with Russia, which supported Khadzhimba. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has said that the election was unacceptably flawed. ABC News has more.

[JURIST] A Canadian government study released Friday - one of the first to examine the foreign impact of the USA Patriot Act - concludes that the US anti-terrorism legislation imposes risks on the privacy of Canadians, raising the need to protect their private medical and financial information. The privacy issue arose after the Canadian province of British Columbia signed a tentative agreement to transfer their medical record-keeping operation to a Canadian unit of a US firm, Maximus Inc. Civil libertarians and public employee unions were concerned that these records would be subject to some of the broad provisions of the Patriot Act, giving the FBI authority to extract information from the US firm without telling individual people that they were being investigated. BC privacy commissioner David Loukidelis stated that the "extraterritorial reach of the Patriot Act should raise privacy concerns in other countries." The US Department of Justice denies that the act poses such a risk and notes that there are other treaties that govern the sharing of this kind of information between the United States and Canada. Reuters has more. JURIST’s Paper Chase has additional coverage of the Patriot Act.

UPDATE: The full text of the BC privacy commissioner's report on the Patriot Act is now online here [PDF].

[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday in a 6-3 decision that police do not need to obtain a warrant before conducting infrared surveillance. Though infrared images give a clear picture of thermal radiation from bodies and other heat sources, the Court held that the process did not violate Walter Tessling's Charter right against unreasonable search and seizure because "heat distribution information offered no insight into his private life and its disclosure scarcely affected his 'dignity, integrity and autonomy...'" In 1999, Canadian police, without a warrant, used infrared technology from an airplane to confirm suspicions that Tessling was growing marijuana. In 2001, the US Supreme Court in Kyllo v. United States rejected the warrant-less use of infrared technology as an unreasonable search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] In Friday's environmental law news, the provincial government of Ontario Canada released the draft of a plan that would create a "greenbelt" around Toronto. The Greenbelt Protection Plan sets limits on development and land usage for 1.8 million acres surrounding the city. Areas not currently zoned for urban development would be severely limited by how they could be developed. The plan is governed by the proposed Greenbelt Act. The government hopes to have a final plan by December 16. The official press release is here. Background on the legislation is here. Toronto's Globe and Mail has more.

In other news, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) seeks comments on a proposed rule that would create reporting and monitoring requirements for marine mammal disturbances and deaths incidental to rocket launches from the Kodiak Launch Complex on Kodiak Island, Alaska. The requirements are in accordance with the Marine Mammal Protection Act[PDF]. Comments can be made until December 13 here.... The EPA seeks comments on a final rule that would set tolerance levels on pyraclostrobin, a fungicide. The regulations are authorized under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), as amended by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996.. Comments can be made until December 28 here.... The Agriculture Marketing Service, an agency of the US Department of Agriculture, seeks comments on an interim final rule that would decrease the assessment rate for California's Walnut Marketing Board. The Board is funded through a tax on growers based on the weight of the walnuts. The Board has decreased its budget for the upcoming year, and has requested a corresponding reduction in the tax on growers. The marketing agreement and assessment structure is effective through the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937. Comments can be made until December 28 here.

[JURIST] California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with former Republican Governor Pete Wilson and Democrats Gray Davis and Jerry Brown, appeared together Friday to oppose California's Proposition 66 which will appear on the November ballot. Proposition 66 seeks to limit mandatory sentences under California's "three strikes" law to "serious" third-time felons. In addition, the legislation proposes a resentencing of prisoners by the new standards, which could result in an estimated release of 26,000 inmates. Read the full text here [PDF] and read the current three-strikes law here. The bipartisan group of governors, joined by former California governor George Deukmejian, who sent a statement in support, contends that Proposition 66 will "favor criminals instead of victims." Gray Davis, who was defeated by Schwarzenegger last year, said "It's a rare event when all five governors come together in opposition to a proposition. But we are strongly opposed ... because if Proposition 66 passes, crime will go up." AP has more.

[JURIST] Chief Justice William Rehnquist was released from the National Naval Medical Center following treatment for thyroid cancer, a Supreme Court spokesman announced Friday. Rehnquist, 80, is expected to be present Monday when the Court resumes work following a two-week break. He was admitted to the hospital last weekend and underwent a tracheotomy to allow him to breathe. It has not been disclosed how serious Rehnquist's condition is or what type of thyroid cancer he has. Thyroid cancer is generally treatable, but it can be more serious condition in older people. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US has warned Ukraine that it may take punitive actions if presidential elections in the country do not proceed freely on Sunday. In a statement released late Thursday, the US mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said, "If the election fails to meet international standards, a variety of measures to hold officials responsible for electoral misconduct accountable will be considered." Reports of widespread interference and irregularities have appeared in the run-up to the election, including government interference with protesters and opposition groups. OSCE has more on its Ukraine election mission. BBC News has more on the events in Ukraine. AP has more.

[JURIST] PA Gov. Ed Rendell said Friday that he will seek an extension of the deadline for counting absentee ballots cast by overseas voters. Rendell proposed that any ballots postmarked by Nov. 2 be accepted if received by Nov. 9. Rendell originally opposed seeking an extension, but reconsidered after intense pressure from military voters and Republicans. The controversy arose after two servicemen filed a lawsuit Wednesday, alleging that they did not receive absentee ballots and seeking an extension to submit them. Rendell said one of the ballots went to the address provided by the serviceman, while the other may have been lost in the mail. The PA Department of State has more on voting. AP has more.

[JURIST] In Friday's corporations and securities law news, the University of California announced a $222.5-million settlement with Lehman Brothers in a would-be Enron shareholder class action suit. It is still unclear whether shareholders will receive any money. The Houston Chronicle has more. In other Enron news, deliberations in the trial of four former Merrill Lynch & Co. executives and two former midlevel Enron Corp. executives on trial for conspiracy and fraud began late Thursday. Read the indictment here [PDF]. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of the Enron collapse. AP has more.

In other news, the IRS is probing the NAACP because of comments the chairman of the civil rights group made criticizing President Bush. The IRS is investigating whether this violated the terms of the NAACP's tax-emept status. Reuters has more.... Conrad Black, the embattled chairman and chief executive of Hollinger Inc., is reportedly ready to resign. Bloomberg has more.... The SEC announced a settlement with hedge fund Beacon Hill Asset Management and its four principals. Under the settlement, Beacon Hill and the four principles will pay a total $4.4 million to settle allegations of defrauding investors of more than $300 million. Read the SEC litigation release here. AP has more.

[JURIST] Federal prosecutors in New York have sought to stop a lawyer appointed by the Yemeni government from meeting with a prominent sheik accused in a terror funding case. Prosecutors argue that Khaled al-Ansi, the lawyer appointed to monitor the trial, could pass anti-American messages from Sheik Ali Hassan al-Moayad to his followers. Al-Ansi was cleared to enter the US, but prosecutors sought to stop him from meeting with Al-Moayad at a preliminary hearing earlier this month. Al-Moayad was arrested in Germany last year and extradited to the US to stand trial, while the Yemeni government has said he should be returned to the country, where he is a member of a leading political party. AP has more.

[JURIST] A reservist who claims he fulfilled his military obligations has asked a federal judge to reconsider her ruling to deny an injunction preventing the military from deploying him. A lawyer for Todd Parrish presented new evidence, including two affidavits from military experts arguing Parrish had fulfilled his commitment, in requesting that District Judge Louise W. Flanagan of the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina reconsider her ruling. Flanagan refused to issue an injunction stopping the military from deploying Parrish, citing concern that other reservists may bring similar claims. Parrish claims he fulfilled an eight-year commitment to the Army, but the Army has argued that Parrish was required to notify them at the end of his tenure that he did not intend to remain a reservist. A similar suit was filed by a reservist in New York last week. AP has more.

[JURIST] A lawyer who claims she was forced out of her position with the US Department of Justice after questioning its handling of the John Walker Lindh case has sued the department for retaliating against her. Jesselyn Radack filed the suit Thursday, alleging that DOJ had destroyed internal e-mails she sent concerning interrogations of Lindh, rather than disclose them during Lindh's trial. Radack later gave the e-mails to Newsweek, which published a story on them (reprinted here). DOJ alleged that Radack's disclosure of the e-mails violated attorney-client privileges and opened a criminal investigation that was later closed without charges being filed. Radack said her actions were protected under federal whistleblower laws. Radack also claimed she cannot obtain a job in the area after DOJ reported her disclosures to the DC and Maryland bar associations. The New York Times has more. The American Lawyers recounts part of Radack's saga here in an article from September 2003. The March/April 2004 issue of the Brown Alumni Magazine (Radack is a 1992 Brown graduate) offers more about "the women who knew too much".

[JURIST] Groups representing victims of a 1984 gas leak in Bhopal, India, that killed 15,000 are appealing a $330 million award issued by the Indian Supreme Court earlier this week. The groups argue that the award should be quadrupled to provide enough compensation for each of the 572,173 people that the court ruled were eligible. Union Carbide, which owned the plant where the leak occurred, settled with the Indian government in 1989 for $470 million, but the Supreme Court only ordered the remaining funds to be released earlier this week. The groups challenging the award argued that the number of eligible victims had quadrupled in the time since the 1989 settlement due to births and newly reported cases, and the award should match that growth. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the award. AP has more.

[JURIST] Following their convictions on Monday, six men have now been sentenced to up to six years in prison for rapes and sexual assaults that took place on Pitcairn Island, a British colony. Sentences for the six, who represent half of the island's male population, were suspended while they appeal. Pitcairn Mayor Steve Christian, who was convicted of five rapes, was sentenced to three years in prison, while others were only sentenced to community service. If jailed, the men will likely have to be released periodically during their terms to help man longboats that ferry supplies to the island from passing ships. JURIST's Paper Chase has background on the trials. AP has more.

[JURIST] Eleven Afghan men were sentenced Thursday following murder convictions relating to the brutal killing of 11 Chinese workers in Afghanistan working for the China Railway Construction Shisiju Group Corporation. Three of the individuals sentenced, including General Mohammad Akbar, a former officer of the Northern Alliance, were given the death penalty. All of the convicted have the right to appeal to a higher court and, eventually, to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Reuters has more.... Three Nigerian Naval officers were charged Thursday in the disappearance of an oil tanker that had been impounded. The officers are undergoing a military court martial, which was adjourned until Nov. 1 by Judge Rear-Admiral Joseph Ajayi. If convicted, Rear Admiral Anthonio Bob-Manuel, Rear Admiral Francis Agbiti and Rear Admiral Samuel Kolawole face jail time and loss of rank or dishonorable discharge. The tanker was rediscovered under the operation of a Russian civilian crew. The 13 men arrested there are facing charges in the Federal High Court. AllAfrica has more.... The UN General Assembly Thursday passed a resolution condemning US sanctions against Cuba for the 13th year in a row. The sanctions have been in place for over four decades since a failed coup attempt at the Bay of Pigs backed by the Kennedy administration. The vote was overwhelmningly against the US, with only three other nations voting against the condemnation and one abstention. European countries renewed their protest against the penalties imposed by the sanctions against non-US companies that trade with Cuba. Read the official UN press release. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A British lawyer has been convicted for leading a scam that falsely claimed millions in Legal Aid fees during the early 1990s. Tim Robinson, who led the firm Robinson's Solicitors, was convicted along with 21 other employees, it was announced Friday after a court lifted reporting restrictions on the case. Investigators claimed members of the firm inflated bills and made up clients for 17 million pounds of claims submitted to the Legal Aid Board, now the Legal Services Commission. Five others in the case were acquitted, and two cases have been postponed. Robinson has already served half of a seven-year prison sentence. The Legal Services Commission has a press release. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The Federal Election Commission has said that new campaign financing laws do not bar candidates from receiving unlimited individual donations to cover potential recount costs. By a 4-2 vote, the commission issued an informal ruling that maintained the practice used by presidential and congressional candidates in the 2000 election. The Kerry campaign had sought a ruling by the FEC on the issue. Read the FEC's draft advisory opinion [PDF]. AP has more.... The Department of Justice has announced that it will send more than 1,000 election monitors to polling stations in 25 states next week, more than three times as many as 2000. DOJ is authorized to send observers under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Battleground states Pennsylvania and Michigan are both on the list of states to receive monitors. Read the DOJ press release. AP has more.... Ohio Republicans have sought to appeal to the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals an order [PDF] by a lower court temporarily blocking challenges to about 23,000 voter registrations. The US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio had been scheduled to hold a hearing in the case today. AP has more.... The 6th Circuit has ruled that judicial candidates in Kentucky may express their political views in the days preceding the election, despite a state judicial canon that says candidates may not commit to a stance on an issue that may be heard by the court. The Family Trust Foundation sued the state Judicial Conduct Commission and bar association after many judicial candidates refused to respond to a survey it issued. The Lexington Herald-Leader has more.... A group of black voters in Cincinnati have sued Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, alleging that the practice of challenging voters at the polls causes blacks to be disenfranchised unfairly. Documents are available here from Election Law at Moritz.... Absentee ballots in Broward County, FL, may have been mishandled by the postal service, according to an internal e-mail sent by a postal official. The US Postal Service had publicly denied losing 58,000 absentee ballots from the region. Some ballots have now been returned, but many are still missing, election officials said. From Florida, the Sun-Sentinel has more.

UPDATE: The 6th Circuit has upheld an injunction issued by a district court halting voter registration challenges by Ohio Republicans. The court said that it would be too difficult to hold hearings on all the challenged registrations before the election. Read the court's order [PDF].

UPDATE2: An AP story on the 6th Circuit ruling is now available.

[JURIST] European Union leaders have signed the new European Constitution (official website and text here), agreed upon this past June, at a lavish ceremony in Rome. The document is still subject to national ratifications and referenda. JURIST carried the webcast of the signing ceremony live on our front page this morning; we will provide recorded video as soon as it becomes available from the EU.

UPDATE: BBC News has more on the signing.

[JURIST] Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Friday, October 29.

The National Press Club is hosting a forum on the prospects for legal challenges nationwide to the outcome of the Nov. 2 election. Panelists include Doug Chapin, Executive Director of electionline.org and Paul DeGregorio, Commissioner of the US Election Assistance Commission. Watch a live webcast beginning at 9:30 AM ET (via C-SPAN).... University of Tulsa College of Law is hosting a conference on the Supreme Court's 2003-2004 Term: Building Bridges or Constructing Barriers Between National, Foreign and International Law? The conference features panel discussions on detaining "enemy combatants" in Guantanamo and at home, Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain and the Alien Tort Claims Act, and the rule of international law in constitutional jurisprudence. Read the conference's schedule of events and watch a live webcast beginning at 9:30 AM ET.... Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law will host a symposium examining legal issues surrounding the treatment of individuals detained by the US government. The symposium begins with remarks by former Nuremberg prosecutor Henry T. King. Watch a live webcast beginning at 11 AM ET.

The trial of Momcilo Krajisnik continues today at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague. Watch a webcast beginning at 9:30 AM local time (3:30 AM ET); the webcast is on a 30-minute tape delay. The ICTY has background on the case.

At the United Nations, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea will hold an 11 AM ET press conference. Watch a live webcast.... Hilde Frafjord Johnson, Minister of International Development of Norway, will hold a 3 PM ET press conference on UN reform, Sudan and the Millennium Development Goals. Watch a live webcast.