[JURIST] GOP House Judiciary Committee [official website] Chairman James Sensenbrenner abruptly adjourned a Committee hearing on the Patriot Act Friday, leaving Democrats objecting into dead air after their microphones had been turned off. The hearing [agenda] had been called at the request of Democrats, who had also invited the witnesses, including James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute and Chip Pitts, Chair of the Board of Amnesty International USA. Sensenbrenner said that the testimony, much of which ended up turning on treatment of US terror detainees as Guantanamo Bay, was irrelevant, ended the proceeding and walked out with fellow Republicans in tow. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement afterwards saying that "Chairman Sensenbrenner proved again today that he is afraid of ideas, and that Republicans will stop at nothing to silence Democrats. It is quite ironic that at a hearing on the impact of the Patriot Act on civil liberties, the Republicans attempted to suppress free speech." AP has more. Watch a video clip of the end of the hearing [WMP] via Dem Bloggers.

[JURIST] In Friday's report on law in the states, Circuit Judge P. Kevin Davey of Florida's 11th Judicial District [official website] today dismissed a lawsuit filed by five of Florida's larger school boards over changes in the way the state's education budget is divided. The lawsuit was originally filed by the Miami-Dade school district and was later joined by Broward, Palm Beach, Monroe and Volusia counties. The districts argued that the new formula adopted by the legislature in 2004, which gives more money to districts with a higher cost of living, was "arbitrary, capricious, non-uniform, and discriminatory." After listening to testimony and arguments for two and a half days, Judge Davey found that the districts had not made their case and dismissed the lawsuit. Together, the five districts have lost over 250 million dollars that they would have received had the formula not changed. AP has more.

In other state legal news ...

• The US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals Friday upheld Georgia's payday lending law [text]. The law, passed last year by the legislature and largely supported by military commanders, outlawed short-term, high-interest loans that were largely targeted to military personnel. Eleven companies sued to prevent enforcement of the law, claiming it denied financial protection to military personnel and the poor who need to borrow against future paychecks. Read the opinion [PDF]. AP has more.
  
  
• The Court of Appeals of New York [official website] has upheld the state's "three strikes" law for violent felons. In People v. Rivera [opinion], handed down Thursday, the court rejected the argument that the sentencing proceedings under the law violate a 2000 Supreme Court case. The law allows judges to give longer sentences if the judge finds that "extended incarceration and lifetime supervision will best serve the public interest" based on the "history and character of the defendant and the nature and circumstances of his criminal conduct." Rivera's attorney plans to file an appeal to the United States Supreme Court this summer. AP has more.
  
  
• The Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the state's Sexually Violent Predator Act. The act allows authorities to keep "sexually violent predators" confined in mental hospitals after their prison term expires if the state can show that the offenders have difficulties controlling their behavior and are likely to commit another sex crime. In its opinion [text], the court found Thursday that the Act satisfied the constitutional criteria recently laid out by the Supreme Court. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Friday's international brief, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] has said the the Khartoum government in Sudan has no choice but cooperate with the recently opened investigation [JURIST report] by the International Criminal Court [official website] into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Moreno said that the decision by the UN Security Council to initiate the ICC investigation was binding on Sudan, since it was decided under the mandatory powers of Chapter VII of the UN Charter [official text]. Moreno acknowledged that Khartoum's lack of support would greatly increase the difficulty of his job, but said the ICC Office of the Prosecutor [official website] was committed to gathering as much evidence as possible "on Darfur" and would see later about gathering evidence "in Darfur." Moreno also said that the list of 51 names [JURIST report] gathered by the official UN Commission of Inquiry into Darfur was merely a beginning point for the Office of the Prosecutor, and that further names and charges would be added as necessary. Moreno's statement leaves open the possibility that the crime of genocide, not found by the UN Commission, could still be charged [JURIST Forum op-ed] in the ICC prosecution. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Sudan [JURIST news archive]. The Sudan Tribune has local coverage.

In other international legal news ...

• Recently appointed Chief Justice Pius Langa [official profile] and Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke [official profile] have been formally accredited to serve on the South African Constitutional Court [official website] by a joint session of the South African Parliament [government website]. Their appointements were accompanied by the publication of a written report by South African President Thabo Mbecki [official profile] on the ruling African National Congress official website. In his report, Mbecki praised the past performance of judges on the Consitutional Court and pledged to maintain the complete independence of the judiciary in South Africa [government website]. Mbecki dismissed as irrelevant concerns that have been raised by international aids groups that over three-quarters of the members on the Constitutional Court are also members of the ruling ANC party [official website]. Langa is the first black South African chief justice. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of South Africa [JURIST news archive]. Read Mbecki's report [official text]. South Africa's News 24 has local coverage.
  
  
• The Burundi National Independent Electoral Commission released provisional results Thursday that gave the leading opposition and former rebel militia party CNDD-FDD an absolute majority of the councillors elected 3 June [JURIST report] in the first of four national elections to return Burundi [government website in French] to a democratic government. CNDD-FDD garnered 55.3% of the seats in the council, with FRODEBU, the party of Burundi President Domitien Ndayizeye [Wikipedia profile], securing only 25% of the vote. The final results of the election are expected on 19 June, and parties have four days to lodge any official complaints or protests of the vote. The next vote will be by the councillors just elected and will select Senators for the nation's new upper house. The third vote will be for lower house representatives, and those two bodies will then elect the nation's new president on 19 August. The UN Mission in Burundi [official website] has deployed peacekeepers [JURIST report] to guard polling locations, as well as election observers to monitor the fairness and impartiality of the voting process. IRIN has more.
  
  
• In response to continued use of residential areas as hiding places by terrorists, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono [Wikipedia profile] has ordered all Indonesian govenors to reinstitute the infamous Regional Intelligence Coordinating Agency (TNI), used by General Soeharto [Wikipedia profile] in his decades-long dictatorial rule of Indonesia [government website in Bahasa Indonesian]. The TNI will allow regional govenors access to military and governmental intelligence on terrorism threats and will also serve to inform the government of any "suspicious activity" that occurs in the regional areas. Susilo, who used to work as a section chief in the TNI, has assured the Indonesian public that the intelligence agency would not be used to repress civil liberties, and would be put under the direct supervision of the Indonesian House of Representatives to ensure that abuses did not occur. JURIST's Paper Chase has continuing coverage of Indonesia [JURIST news archive]. The Jakarta Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] The Lahore High Court [official website] in Pakistan released 12 men Friday with ties to a highly publicized gang-rape, including six men who were convicted of rape and 6 members of the village council. The case centers around Mukhtar Mai [advocacy website; BBC profile] who was gang-raped in 2002, allegedly on the orders of a traditional village council after her younger brother offended the honor of a large clan by befriending a female member. Originally, six men were convicted of the crime but five were acquitted on appeal and the sixth had his sentenced reduced to life in prison. Though the provincial government intervened to have the men detained for three months pending an appeal by Mai, the Lahore High Court found no justification for their continued imprisonment. This case has raised international concerns over the treatment of women, as gang rapes and honor killings are common in rural areas of Pakistan. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Illinois pharmacist Luke Vander Bleek has filed suit to oppose a state order that the emergency contraceptive "morning-after pill" be made available immediately. Vander Bleek, a Roman Catholic who owns two pharmacies, claims that the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act [text] that allows health care providers to opt out of procedures they object to for moral reasons, allows him to refrain from selling certain contraceptives. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich [official website] issued a rule April 1, 2005 demanding that pharmacists make the pill available [press release] "without delay." Blagojevich's spokeswoman said that once a pharmacist begins selling some contraceptives he must sell all products in that category regardless of moral beliefs. Two other Illinois pharmacists [AP report] filed a similar suit in April, soon after the order was issued. Vander Bleek is represented in the current litigation by Americans United for Life [advocacy website], who have issued this press release and have posted a copy of the complaint [PDF]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Federal Trade Commission voted 4-0 Friday [FTC agreement, case history] to settle an anti-competitive practices complaint [Chevron press release] against Chevron [press release], allowing it to to acquire the Unocol [corporate website] energy company for $18 billion. The FTC complaint centered on the rights of Unocal to a patent for reformulated gasoline that could have increased gasoline prices by 6 cents a gallon in California, or over a half a billion dollars a year. The settlement includes an agreement by Chevron not to enforce patents of a Unocal subsidiary, Union Oil. AP has more.

[JURIST] An Italian referendum [JURIST report] scheduled for June 12-13 on whether to ease the country's restrictive laws concerning fertility treatment and stem cell research and to redefine the legal language that defines the beginning of life at conception seems likely to fail if the latest polls are correct. With the Catholic Church [JURIST report] and conservative politicians urging people not to vote, surveys suggest a likely turnout of only between 30 and 40% of voters, not enough to reach the 50% turnout necessary to make the results binding. It appears, however, that most voters intending to go to the polls would vote to change the current law, which bans embryonic stem cell research, restricts the use of surrogate mothers and sperm donors, and restricts the number of embryos that can be used in pregnancy attempts to 3. The vote was called after backers of stem cell research, women's rights groups and political parties such as the Radical Party [official website, in Italian], gathered enough signatures to prompt a ballot. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Uganda's Court of Appeals [official website] Friday dismissed an appeal by death row inmates to ban capital punishment in the country but did find that laws mandating the death penalty for certain crimes are unconstitutional and require Parliamentary amendment. In a unanimous decision, Justice Galdino Okello [official profile] said the general death penalty was constitutional because it was "punishment after due process." In a narrower 3-2 decision, the court effectively outlawed mandatory death penalties for some crimes, a small victory that lawyers for the inmates acknowledged. Capital punishment is carried out by hanging in Uganda and the inmates claimed that this method, in addition to long delays prior to execution, amounted to cruel and inhumane treatment. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Rwandan officials announced Friday they will not pursue criminal charges against fugitive Hutu rebels that were aged 14 or younger at the time of Rwanda's 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder]. Children as young as 10 years old took part in the slaughter of about 800,000 Tutsis [Wikipedia overview] and moderate Hutus [Wikipedia overview]. About 10,000 Rwandan Hutu rebels of all ages are currently hiding in the wilderness of the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the rebel Democratic Forces for Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) [backgrounder] have recently said their members wish to return home to re-enter the political process. Rwandan officials vow that these fighters will have to face the law when they return. UN officials estimate between 70 and 80% of the current Hutu rebels were under 15 when they fled Rwanda. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic [official profile] Friday denounced the brutal killing of six Bosnian Muslim youths by Serb paramilitaries recorded on video in Srebrenica in 1995 [JURIST report] and shown on Serbian television after being introduced in evidence last week at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive] at The Hague. Cavic condemned the act saying, "Whoever committed such a crime while perhaps claiming he is doing it in the name of his nation. . . committed a crime also against his own nation." He went on to say that Serbs should seek out the truth of such atrocities "no matter how ugly that truth might be." Aljazeera has more.

[JURIST] A panel of three federal judges Thursday reaffirmed an earlier decision to reject a legal challenge to the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan [official TX redistricting website], concluding the plan was consistent with federal law and the Constitution. In 2004, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas [official website] declared the plan constitutional and the decision was appealed to the US Supreme Court, which remanded the case back for review [JURIST report]. Attorneys for Democrats argue that the GOP-redrawn district map is overly partisan, politically motivated and dilutes minority votes - they plan to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court. Read the latest Texas ruling [PDF]. AP has more.

[JURIST] A father and son who were arrested in Lodi, California [JURIST report] on charges of lying to the FBI about attending an al-Qaida terrorist training camp, are challenging the government for releasing 2 significantly different affidavits to the media and to the court. The details in the first affidavit [CBS News copy, PDF] sent to the news media mentioned potential terrorist targets including hospitals and grocery stores and contained the names of hundreds of suspected terrorist training camp participants, but these allegations did not appear in the final version [US DOJ copy, PDF text] filed in a Sacramento court on Wednesday. A US Department of Justice spokesperson said it was an "unfortunate oversight due to miscommunication," but family defense attorney Johnny Griffin III [law firm website] accused the government of "releasing information it knew it could not authenticate." Los Angeles Times has more.

[JURIST] The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) [official website] Friday denounced [press release] the deportation of four Uzbek men from Kyrgyzstan and appealed to the Kyrgyz government to cease further deportation of asylum seekers until procedures determine if they are refugees according to the UN Refugee Convention of 1951 [PDF text]. The four men have been determined "criminals" by the Uzbek government but the spokesperson noted that this did not justify their return to Uzbekistan without close review of the cases. Another 12 men remain under arrest in the town of Jalalabad near the Uzbekistan border and also face possible deportation. UNHCR said the four deported men had fled the eastern Uzbek city of Andijan against their will after violence broke out on May 13, leading to the apparent deaths of hundreds of protestors at the hands of Uzbek government troops. Reuters has more.

In related news, Uzbekistan said Friday that it will hold an open trial of those responsible for the Andijan violence, which it has characterized as a "revolt." Despite receiving intense international criticism over the casualties [JURIST report] resulting from government suppression of the protests, it nonetheless continues to dismiss demands [JURIST report] for an international inquiry. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] has accused the Uzbek government of attempting to cover-up [press release] details of a "massacre". Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Speaking in San Francisco Thursday, ACLU [advocacy website] national executive director Anthony Romero criticized parts of the Patriot Act and urged judicial review and public scrutiny of any investigations into alleged terrorism. Romero, who was responding in part to a pitch for renewal made yesterday by President Bush [JURIST report], also cautioned against passing judgment too quickly in the recent Lodi investigation [JURIST report] of two men with alleged ties to al Qaeda. Skeptical of the Bush administration's attempts to extend and expand the legislation, Romero said that if new provisions allowed the government to investigate internet or library usage it would concentrate too much power in the executive branch. The Oakland Tribune has more. The ACLU has posted a press release responding to Thursday's Bush speech pressing for reauthorization.

[JURIST] A lawyer for Saddam Hussein said in a BBC interview [RealPlayer audio] broadcast Friday that his legal team had not yet received any list of formal charges, despite the Iraqi government's statement that the former Iraqi president's Saddam Hussein's trial could begin within months [JURIST report]. Issam Ghazzawi, a Jordanian, also said that the defense hasn't yet seen the estimated eight-million documents relating to the case. Saddam Hussein has been allowed to meet with his attorneys only twice since his capture. The complaints cast doubt upon the government's prediction that the trial will begin soon according to a schedule to be set by the Iraqi Special Tribunal [JURIST report]. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The US Senate confirmed Judges David McKeague [official website] and Richard Griffin [official website] to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Thursday by 96-0 [roll call] and 95-0 [roll call] votes, respectively. The confirmations came the same day Senators approved former Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor's permanent appointment [JURIST report] to the Eleventh Circuit. McKeague was appointed as a federal district judge by former President George Bush in 1992 and nominated to the Sixth Circuit by President George W. Bush in 2001. Griffin was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in 1988, re-elected in 1996 and 2002, then nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush in 2002. Votes on both judges were delayed while Democratic Senators Carl Levin [official website] and Debbie Stabenow [official website] protested Republican refusal to hold hearings for two of former President Bill Clinton's judicial appointments to the Sixth Circuit. Levin and Stabenow have offered support for the judges, stating the protest was political, and not based on the qualifications of the nominees. The Detroit Free Press has more.

[JURIST] Senior Vice President at Berkshire Hathaway [corporate website] subsidiary General Re [corporate website] Richard Napier pleaded guilty Friday to helping international insurance giant AIG [corporate website] misstate its finances. Both Napier and former General Re executive John Houldsworth, who pleaded guilty Thursday [JURIST report] to the same charge, worked on a reinsurance transaction with AIG in 2000. Houldsworth's plea agreement indicates that Napier and two others knew AIG intended to distort the policy and may pressure other executives involved to enter similar pleas. US District Judge James Cacheris delayed Napier's sentencing until December 9, 2005 to facilitate his continued cooperation in the probe. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] The Washington-based monitoring group Human Rights First [advocacy website] has released a new report [PDF text; HRF factsheet] detailing a significant rise in violent hate crimes against Jews, Muslims, and immigrants in Europe. In France, anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 63% from 2003 to 2004. In Britain, violent anti-Semitic assaults doubled in 2004. Published to coincide with Conference on Anti-Semitism and Other Forms of Intolerance [overview] held in Cordoba Spain June 8-9 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [advocacy website], the report also documents general disinterest on the part of the 55 OSCE member states in combatting hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender, and disability. The report noted that while it ostensibly covered North America as well, the US and Canadian governments had not compiled systematic national statistics on hate crimes there and thus figures were not available. PressEsc has more.

[JURIST] The leading Sunni Muslim political grouping in Iraq rejected the Shiite-led Iraqi government's offer of an additional 13 seats on the country's constitutional committee Friday, sticking to its demand for 25 seats [JURIST report] and threatening to boycott negotiations on the charter if their demands are not met. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari [Wikipedia profile] had endorsed the offer, which would have increased the committee from 55 to 69 members and raised Sunni representation from 2 to a total of 15, but a spokesman for the Gathering of the Sunni People said "We will not agree and will not concede any seat." Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [Wikipedia profile] had voiced support for Sunni demands Thursday, stating that they would be given as many as 25 seats [JURIST report] on the committee with full voting rights. However, committee membership is a parlimentary issue over which the Iraqi presidency has limited power. Negotiations over committee membership threaten parliament's August 15 deadline to agree upon a text, with a referendum slated to follow two months afterwards. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Financial giant Citigroup [corporate website] said Friday that it will pay $2 billion [press release] to settle a class-action lawsuit over its role in helping to engineer a massive accounting fraud at Enron [JURIST news archive]. The settlement will distribute payments to Enron investors who bought stock in the company during the period when Enron sought bankruptcy protection between 1997 and 2001. Under the terms of the agreement Citigroup denied any legal violations and settled "solely to eliminate the uncertainties, burden and expense of further protracted litigation." The settlement is slightly smaller that the $2.58 billion Citigroup paid to WorldCom [JURIST report] investors in 2004. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] In an apparent dig at the US, a veteran Spanish anti-terror judge emphasized the necessity of international cooperation, law and reason in the pursuit of terrorism Thursday in a special UN-sponsored meeting in New York [RealPlayer video]. Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], an investigating judge for Spain's National Court, said "Terrorism is a crime, it's not a movement ... In a war, we have to defend ourselves, and this is today distorting the effectiveness of the fight against terrorism." Without explicitly naming Washington, Garzon spoke of the lack of response to Spain in its attempt to extradite three Spaniards charged with crimes in Spain and being held at a US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Speaking on the same platform, Chief of the US Department of Justice Counter -Terrorism Section [official website] Barry Sabin responded by agreeing that the threat of terrorism must be pursued through law enforcement, with legal tactics and with international cooperation. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Nevada death row inmate Robert McConnell [advocacy profile] invoked an 11th-hour appeal Thursday night to avoid a scheduled execution at Nevada State Prison [official website], saying he didn't want to die. The former car salesman was sentenced to death for murdering his ex-girlfriend's fiance and told reporters he should have followed through with a plan to murder his ex-girlfriend as well. Deputy Attorney General Gerald Gardner said that McConnell's appeal seemed to be an example of "playing a game with the system." A stay was granted by telephone 34 minutes before the scheduled execution. Nevada's last execution [Nevada capital punishment history] was in August 2004. AP has more. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has local coverage.

[JURIST] A group of US navy veterans who survived a surprise attack by Israeli forces [US DOD photos] against their vessel during the Six Day War [Wikipedia entry] in 1967 are seeking a Pentagon investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. Members of the USS Liberty Veterans Association [official website] claim that the unprovoked attack, which occurred in international waters against the spy ship USS Liberty [US Navy ship's profile], was a violation of the Geneva Conventions [text] and that further violations occured when Israeli fighters fired shots at survivors and rescuers. The group's new 35-page report [PDF text], submitted to the Defense Department Wednesday, calls for a in-depth investigation and outlines the violations of war conduct. Earlier investigations by Israel and the US found no intentional wrongdoing on Israel's part but Israel previously apologized and paid $13 million in damages, a portion of which went to families of the 34 killed and 205 wounded in the attack. AP has more.

[JURIST] In a report [PDF] on the FBI's handling of intelligence related to the September 11 attacks released Thursday, US Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine [official website] concluded that the FBI missed several opportunities to detect and prevent the terror strikes. In particular, the FBI failed to aggressively pursue an agent's theory that Osama bin Laden planned to send students to the US to learn to take down US aircraft and ignored hard evidence with respect to the presence in the United States of eventual hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi [Wikipedia profile] and Khalid al-Mihdhar [Wikipedia profile]. The FBI has responded to the report [press release] by stating that substantial steps have been taken since the attacks to deal with the problems identified. According to the FBI, "no terrorism lead goes unaddressed" and new information-sharing policies facilitate communication among intelligence agencies. AP has more.

[JURIST] Head of Bolivia's Supreme Court Eduardo Rodriguez was sworn in as president of the country late Thursday after the Bolivian Congress accepted the second resignation [JURIST report] of President Carlos Mesa [BBC profile]. Bolivia's third president in less than two years, Rodriguez accepted the position only after the Speakers of both houses of Congress declined to exercise their right to become president. For weeks leftist and indigenous protestors have been demanding nationalization of industry to protect the country's vast natural resources and constitutional changes [JURIST report] to give the poor greater representation. Rodriguez, with strong support from the majority of the protestors, has said one of his tasks will be to "begin an electoral process." Under Bolivia's current constitution [text], an election must be held by the end of the year. Read Rodriguez's acceptance speech [in Spanish]. BBC News has more. From Bolivia, Jornada has local coverage [in Spanish].