[JURIST] MasterCard [corporate website] announced late Friday that a security lapse at CardSystems Solutions [corporate website], a third-party processing company in Tuscon, Arizona, has potentially exposed more than 40 million cards to fraud, and that it has notified banks of the problem. Some 13.9 of the cards affected carry the MasterCard brand. In a statement, Mastercard said that "vulnerabilities allowed an unauthorized individual to infiltrate their network and access the cardholder data", although it emphasized that "[n]o highly sensitive information, such as social security numbers or dates of birth or the like, are stored on MasterCard cards." The statement did not identify who the "unauthorized individual" was or is thought to be.

Credit card fraud [MSNBC report] and identity theft [MSNBC report] have become major consumer concerns in recent months, dramatically heightened by dangers associated with hacker exploitation of online systems. On Thursday, the US Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing [prepared testimony; recorded audio] to examine federal legislative solutions to data breach and identity theft. MasterCard said in its statement that it was urging Congress

to enact wider application of Gramm-Leach-Bliley [FTC backgrounder], the act that includes provisions to protect consumers' personal financial information held by financial institutions. Currently, GLBA only applies to financial institutions providing services to consumers, including MasterCard. MasterCard urges Congress to extend that application to also include any entity, such as third party processors, that stores consumer financial information, regardless of whether or not they interact directly with consumers.

[JURIST] Leading Friday's states brief, the Iowa Supreme Court today refused to address the ruling of a lower court that dissolved a Vermont civil union [VT statute text]. The Supreme Court did not judge the merits of the legal claim made by conservative challengers, but instead found that the Iowa Family Policy Center, a church and several state legislators had suffered no injury and did not have standing to challenge the lower court's decision. In its opinion [text], the Court said, "We fail to see how the district court's action in dissolving a civil union of another couple harmed in any specific way these plaintiffs' marriages and for this reason, they have shown no legally recognized interest or personal stake in the underlying action." District Court Judge Jeffrey Neary [biography] ruled to terminate the civil union after one partner petitioned for divorce. AP has more.

In other states news ...

• The state of Oregon has resumed its Medical Marijuana Program [official website]. State Attorney General Hardy Meyers issued an opinion [PDF text] Friday saying that the state program was not invalidated by last week's US Supreme Court decision in Gonzales v. Raich [PDF text]. In that decision [JURIST report], the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government may prosecute people who smoked marijuana with a doctor's prescription. Patients will be warned that they may be subject to federal prosecution even though they are protected under state law. AP has more.
  
  
• The California Supreme Court [official website] has ruled that operators of roller coaster rides and similar attractions are legally liable for the same standards of care for passenger safety that apply to buses, trains and other modes of public transportation. The Supreme Court's decision in Gomez v. Superior Court [PDF text] found that thrill rides could be classified as "common carriers" and as such the operators must use "the utmost care and diligence." The court rejected the theme park's argument that they should be held to a "reasonable care" standard. The lawsuit was filed by the family of a tourist who died after riding a ride at Disneyland. AP has more.
  
  
• The Supreme Court of California has set guidelines for implementing the US Supreme Court decision in State Farm v. Campbell [PDF text] which placed constitutional limits on juries' ability to award damages that far exceed the actual losses incurred. In Simons v. San Paolo [PDF text], Justice Kathryn Mickle Werdegar said a punitive-to-compensation ratio greatly above 9-1 or 10-1 is unconstitutional unless there is a "special justification." In a second case [PDF text], the Supreme Court said that juries can still consider a defendant's wealth in deciding whether punitive damages are large enough to deter future wrongdoing as there is a need for a "meaningful deterrent." The San Francisco Chronicle has local coverage.

[JURIST] Texas Governor Rick Perry [official profile] Friday signed into law [Governor's press release] legislation which creates a new life-without-parole sentencing option in state capital murder cases. Previously, Texas juries have only had the option of sentencing offenders to death or life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years. The widely supported bill [JURIST report], which goes into effect on September 1, provides an alternative that eliminates the possibility of parole. Texas leads the nation in number of executions - of the 38 states that execute offenders, only Texas and New Mexico lacked a life-without-parole option. The Dallas Fort-Worth Star-Telegram has more.

[JURIST] A UN panel has expressed "great concern" at the increase in unsentenced detainees in Canadian prisons following recent federal sentencing reform [Justice Canada backgrounder]. There are currently in Canada more incarcerated persons awaiting trial or sentencing than there are persons actually serving a sentence. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention [official website] visited 13 detention centers across the country, spoke with government officials and representatives of non-governmental agencies, and interviewed approximately 150 detainees. The Group will present its final report, detailing its 15-day trip [UN press release] to Canada, to the UN Commission on Human Rights [official website] in Geneva next March. UN News Centre has more.

[JURIST] The lower chamber of the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature [official website] approved a ban of the morning-after pill [Wikipedia backgrounder] on state college campuses Thursday, sending the bill to the state Senate. The proposed legislation [bill text] would ban University of Wisconsin System health centers from advertising, prescribing, or dispensing emergency contraception to its more than 161,000 students on 26 campuses. The drug [FDA FAQ], which requires a prescription, was approved by the FDA in 1998 and blocks pregnancy in the days after sex. Democratic Governor Jim Doyle [official profile] has promised to veto the measure if it reaches his desk. AP has more.

[JURIST] Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer [Wikipedia profilie] has been sued by the US Department of the Treasury's Comptroller of the Currency [official website] and by the Clearing House [corporate website], a group representing national banks. The suit is an effort to stop Spitzer’s office from subpoenaing information from banks over accusations of discriminatory interest rates on home mortgages. The complainants argues that states do not have the authority to regulate national banks. In a Friday press release, Spitzer called the suit "shameful". The Comptroller of the Currency has a press release on its action. AP has more.

In other corporations and securities news...

• As reported earlier by JURIST’s Paper Chase, former Tyco [JURIST new archive] CEO Dennis Kozlowski [Wikipedia profile] has been convicted of grand larceny. Tyco’s former finance chief, Mark Swartz, was also convicted. Kozlowski was accused of stealing millions of dollars from the company in addition to selling inflated stock and taking out improper loans. Bloomberg has more. The proceeding was a re-trial; the first trial of Kozlowski and Swartz ended in disarray last April after outside pressure was put on a juror [JURIST report].
  
  
• An SEC [official website] report released this week says that off-books accounts like those in the Enron [JURIST Hot Topics archived coverage] scandal still exist. The 115-page report outlines existing problems and possible solutions for dealing with illegal book-keeping. The SEC has a press release with a link to the complete report. The Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] Under new guidelines [DOD press release], US military health professionals are permitted to observe and advise on "lawful" interrogations of detainees, but may not participate in questioning and must report any inhumane treatment. The guidelines, contained in a June 3rd Pentagon memo, differentiate between those providing health care to the detainee from those who are involved in "non-treatment activity." Medical professionals that provide any treatment to detainees are barred from participating in interrogations. Pentagon Chief Medical Officer William Winkenwerder [profile], said Thursday that military healthcare professionals must "be guided by professional judgment and standards similar to those that would be applied to members of the U.S. armed forces, including duty to protect the physical and mental health of the detainee." The US Army Surgeon General Kevin C. Kiley [official profile] is conducting a separate investigation into whether military health care professionals failed to report or took part in abuses uncovered in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] By a vote of 221-184 the US House of Representatives has passed the United Nations Reform Act of 2005 [PDF text] calling for broad reforms at the UN and allowing the US to withold up to 50 percent of funding if reform goals are not met. Republican Congressman Henry Hyde [official website], chair of the House International Relations Committee, introduced the legislation in the House Tuesday. The Act alleges that the United Nations is rife with fraud and waste, citing the recent Oil-for-Food scandal [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive] as one example, and would permit the US to withold 50 percent of its UN dues based on what it perceives as poor performance in specific areas. Hyde denounced the current UN for its "gratuitous anti-Americanism" and castigated the UN Commission on Human Rights [official website] for allowing Cuba and the Sudan to "act as arbiters of human rights" despite their own troubling records. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Tyco [JURIST news archive] CEO Dennis Kozlowski and former CFO Mark Schwartz were convicted Friday of grand larceny in connection with huge bonuses and other compensation amounting to over $150M they improperly received while in charge of the company. They were both convicted of 12 counts of grand larceny, one count each of conspiracy and violation of business law, and eight counts of falsifying records. Earlier proceedings in April 2004 ended in a mistrial [JURIST report] because of outside pressure on one of the jurors [JURIST report]. The government has requested mandatory jail time of 15-30 years. CNN has more.

[JURIST] Ethiopian officials announced Friday that 336 detainees seized in the wake of post-election protests [JURIST report] have been freed. A government spokesman said that any additional prisoners found not to have been involved in the protests would be released. Some human rights groups estimate that the number of people arrested [Human Rights Watch press release] was in the thousands. At least 36 people were killed in the protests after police opened fire on crowds protesting election results [JURIST report] in the first of four polls designed to reintroduce democracy for the first time in decades. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel [official profile] has approved the settlement of a civil rights lawsuit [materials] between Ford Motor Company [corporate website] and its black employees, granting these employees access to an apprenticeship program. In February, the court granted preliminary approval of the class action settlement and finalized the deal on Wednesday following a June 1 fairness hearing. The lawsuit, filed in 1998, alleged discrimination against black employees who took an application test for the apprenticeship program, which trains unskilled laborers for higher paying and more secure jobs. Under the agreement, Ford denies any liability or discrimination and agreed to set aside 279 positions in the program for blacks and to pay $2,400 to 3,400 current and former Ford employees. BusinessWeek has more.

[JURIST] Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos [BBC profile] has asked the Angolan Supreme Court to rule on whether portions of the country's new election laws passed in May are constitutional [Angolan Constitution text]. Dos Santos has not yet specified which section of the law, which his own government promulgated, may be problematic. The request has raised concerns that the country's first general election since 1992, which is scheduled for 2006, will be delayed. The opposition UNITA [Wikipedia profile] party says it doubts that the election would now proceed on time, although a spokesman insisted that the vote was "vital to normalising Angola" after 30 years of war and was necessary to hold governmental officials accountable. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Croatia on Friday arrested 10 people suspected of committing war crimes against Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s. The arrests were made in eastern Croatia, an area with a large ethnic Serb population and where several former members of the Serb paramilitary group Scorpions live; they follow Monday's Croat detention of Scorpion member Slobodan Davidovic [JURIST report] following the public release of an amateur video [JURIST report] made in 1995, which proved Serbian forces participated in the war in Bosnia. Reuters has more.

Also Friday, another Scorpion member, Sasa Cvjetan [Reuters report], was sentenced by a Serbian court to 20 years in prison for a separate charge of murdering 14 Kosovo Albanians in 1999. Cvjetan was found guilty in March 2004, but the the Serbian Supreme Court overturned [IWPR report] the verdict because of technical omissions and ordered a retrial. Judge Biljana Sinanovic said the evidence presented proved that Cvjetan and members of the Scorpions had particpated in the murder of women and children in the city of Podujevo. During the trial, 5 children who survived [survivor profile] the attack testified against Cvjetan, including one who picked Cvjetan out of a lineup, saying he looked familiar.

[JURIST] To head off a revolt among members of his government over what are increasingly seen as unduly-harsh immigration laws, Australian Prime Minister John Howard [official website] has loosened rules for mandatory detention of immigrants who enter the country without visas. Families with children will now be hosted by the community rather than held in detention centers. The change follows media coverage of a small child suffering from mental health problems [BBC report] who had spent nearly her whole life in a detention center. Amnesty International Australia [advocacy website] praised the changes but has expressed concern over the lack of specificity in the new arrangements. The government is also examining hundreds of cases of possible wrongful detention and Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone [official website] is weighing whether to release details of that inquiry. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] A private contractor for Zapata Engineering [corporate website] Peter Ginter - himself an ex-Marine with eight years service - has claimed he was abused by US military personnel while detained for three days. Gintner is the second to speak out among 19 US and Iraqi security contractors who were taken into custody by Marines on May 28 after allegedly firing from SUVs on Iraqi civilians and US troops [JURIST report]. Gintner claims he was knocked down, punched, threatened with a dog, and grabbed painfully in the testicles during his ordeal. A Marine spokesman denied any abuse and maintained that the contractors directed fire at Iraqis and US forces. Zapata president Manuel Zapata claims his employees fired only warning shots [press release] into the air when they noticed they were being followed by some vehicles. Gintner's lawyer said he is contemplating taking legal action. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad [BBC profile], whose 22 years in office until 2003 made him one of Asia's longest-serving political leaders, Friday urged transparency and fairness in the trial of Saddam Hussein while announcing the launch of the so-called Emergency Committee for Iraq, co-chaired by himself, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark [Wikipedia profile], former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella [Wikipedia profile] and former French foreign minister Roland Dumas [Wikipedia profile]. Mahathir warned "if it is accepted that the people who launch a war, (and) capture heads of governments can then put this head of government on trial, then other heads of governments will face this danger." Mahathis also spoke of the need to question President Bush's policy in Iraq, stating "otherwise he is going to get away with murder because he does anything he likes...on the basis that he is very strong therefore no one should even comment on what he does." AKI has more.

[JURIST] Detroit high school student Andrew Osantowski has been convicted under a post 9/11 Michigan state anti-terror law of two counts of threatening terrorism against fellow students at his Chippewa Valley High School [school website]. The case could be the first application in the US of terror laws to prosecute threatened school violence, and is the first instance of such an application in Michigan. Critics say that laying of terror charges in cases like this is inappropriate [Detroit Free Press report] and is not what the framers of that legislation intended. Osantowski's arrest followed the turning over of threatening messages he posted in an Internet chat room; authorities later found weapons and Nazi paraphenalia in his home. The Detroit News has extensive local coverage.

[JURIST] The US Army Thursday charged staff sergeant Alberto B. Martinez of the New York National Guard 42nd Infantry [official website] with the murders of his two commanding officers at an army base near Baghdad. An initial military investigation concluded that the officers were killed by a mortar round, but it was later ruled that the "blast pattern" at the scene of the crime was not consistent with a mortar attack. A military official said Martinez is believed to have used a device such as a grenade to carry out the premeditated attack. Read the US military press release on the charges. This is believed to be the second case during the Iraq conflict of a US soldier intentionally killing superiors - a practice that became known in the Vietnam war as "fragging" [MPs in Vietnam backgrounder] - and the first such case to take place in Iraq itself. In April 2005 Sgt. Hasan Akbar was sentenced to death [JURIST report] for a grenade attack that killed two officers and fourteen others at a US military base in Kuwait. AP has more.

[JURIST] Sweden, Finland and Portugal have joined Britain, Denmark, Ireland [JURIST report] and the Czech Republic in postponing their ratifications of the EU constitution after European heads of governent Thursday agreed to extend the ratification deadline [JURIST report] into 2007. Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said Friday [PA report] in a Swedish radio interview that if France and the Netherlands were not prepared to go back to their citizens for revotes after failed ratification referenda there was no point in Sweden starting a ratification process. All 25 EU member states must ratify the charter before it can come into force. Persson went on to say, however, that the constitution was urgently needed: "Without this constitution the union is in total crisis. The constitution must be realised, because the union is growing with new member states, and the constitution regulates how to take decisions in such a situation." BBC News has more.

[JURIST] In a rare federal case involving gay marriage, a US District Court judge on Thursday ruled that the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act [text] passed by Congress does not violate the Constitution. Judge Gary Taylor declined to rule on whether California's ban on same-sex marriage violates the civil rights of a gay couple from Orange County because of a separate legal challenge to the state law currently in the state court system. Taylor upheld the 1996 Act signed by President Clinton by noting the government's valid desire to promote procreation and "stability" in spite of disproportionate effects on homosexuals. Read the full text of Taylor's opinion [PDF]. A lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund hailed the decision [ADF press release] for allowing voters to express their view that marriage "was and always will be between a man and a woman" while a lawyer for the Lamda Legal Defense and Education Fund [advocacy website] said the decision was "illogical" for equating denial of marriage to one group with an increase in procreation in another group. AP has more.

[JURIST] Senate Democrats refused a Republican compromise over the nomination of John Bolton [JURIST report] as US ambassador to the UN Thursday, demanding more information than GOP leadership offered on his pre-Iraq war assessments of several countries' weapons programs. Democrats want materials from preparations for Bolton's Congressional testimony on Syria's weapons and classified National Security Agency intercepts, basing their demands on the "Downing Street Memo" [London Times copy], leaked in the British press in May and subject of an unofficial hearing held Thursday [Pacifica Radio MP3 audio archive] by House Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat John Conyers. The memo raised questions about the amount and quality of intelligence the US and UK actually had before invading Iraq. According to Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, "Concerns about this administration hyping intelligence and Great Britain hyping intelligence cannot be dismissed lightly . . . [it] is no small matter for us to learn whether Mr. Bolton was a party to other efforts to hype intelligence." Republicans hope that, because of the continued delay of the Bolton vote [JURIST report], the Democrats will be seen as obstructionists. Observers say Republicans need two more votes to in order to end the debate on the nomination. Following that procedural vote, a simple majority would confirm Bolton. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Prominent humanitarian aid groups are meeting Friday with International Criminal Court [official website] prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, currently investigating war crimes in Darfur [ICC press release]. The unusual meeting was called by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation [foundation website] in New York and talks are expected to include "opportunities. . . for cooperation" between the prosecutor and represented aid groups like CARE USA, World Vision and Oxfam America which are concerned about maintaining perception of neutrality while protecting the safety of workers on the ground, as well as of villagers. Two weeks ago Sudan detained two workers [JURIST report] with Medecins Sans Frontieres and charged them with publishing a false report on rape in the region. Despite earlier hopes, the charges against those workers have not yet been dropped [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense has awarded Kellogg Brown and Root Services [corporate website], the engineering and construction arm of Halliburton [corporate website; JURIST news archive], the contract [DOD announcement] to build a planned $30 million permanent detention facility [JURIST report] and security fence at the US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] Thursday. The facility, to be completed by July 2006, will be a two-story, 220-man, air-conditioned building with day rooms, exercise areas, medical and dental spaces and a security control room. The announcement comes in the midst of heated debate [JURIST report] among lawmakers, the military, human rights organizations and others over the legality and necessity of the existing facility and the treatment of detainees. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Taiwan's Supreme Court Friday rejected an opposition appeal to overturn the result of a disputed 2004 presidential election won by Chen Shui-Bian [official website] in a close race. In the March election Chen defeated Nationalist Party candidate Lien Chen [BBC profile] by fewer than 30,000 votes out of 13.5 million cast. Lien had charged election irregularities [JURIST report] and contended that a shooting that occured one day before the election [JURIST report] in which Chen was slightly injured by an unknown assailant was a ploy to win sympathy and votes. Lien also charged that emergency steps taken after the shooting prevented thousands of soldiers and police from casting their votes. In the weeks following the election results hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched around Taipei to protest the result. The Supreme Court ruling Friday upheld a December 2004 High Court decision [JURIST report] that found no widespread irregularities in the voting. AFP has more.