[JURIST] Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani [Wikipedia profile] said Friday that he was astonished at the unanimity of a call by the International Atomic Energy Agency [official website] for Iran to stop enrichment activities, warning Western opposition that the "very tyrannical" resolution will "cost them dearly." The IAEA resolution [PDF text] adopted Thursday urged Iran to re-establish full suspension of all enrichment-related activities [JURIST report], after Tehran removed IAEA seals at a conversion facility in Isfahan. Rafsanjani, who drew chants of "death to America" and "death to Israel," told worshippers "that you could not treat Iran like Iraq or Libya." The resolution did not say Iran should be subject to sanctions by the UN Security Council. Reuters has more. IRNA has local coverage.

[JURIST] JURIST is looking for talented, public-service oriented law students from law schools in the US and abroad to join our team of real-time legal news editors this fall.

From Los Angeles to London, from Chicago to Cairo - if you're a law student looking for intensive research, writing and editing experience and your own byline on a high-profile, mass-audience, volunteer-driven project dedicated to increasing awareness of important national and international legal issues, we may have a position for you!

In particular, we're looking for good writers, skilled Net surfers and fluent English-speakers with a nose for news who can spare at least 10 hours a week - weekdays, evenings and/or weekends - during the law school term to work online with members of our Pittsburgh-based law student staff who power JURIST's Paper Chase legal news weblog every day. Journalistic experience is helpful, but certainly not a prerequisite. Report on the latest legal news in your geographical area, or in your own area of interest. Learn the latest law that matters, make friends across the country and around the world, and gain valuable career and computer skills, all at the same time.

Interested? To apply for an online audition as a JURIST legal news editor, e-mail JURIST@law.pitt.edu

The limited number of JURIST editorial positions will fill up fast with the start of the fall law school term. Applications are already coming in from law students across the country, so contact us now!

[JURIST] Mississippi Judge Marcus Gordon on Friday granted bail to former Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen [JURIST news archive], who, in June, was sentenced to 60 years in prison [JURIST report] for the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers. Gordon granted Killen's release on bond of $600,000 after determining through testimony that Killen, who is 80 and wheelchair bound, was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the public while his appeal is pending. Killen was found at trial to have organized a group to kidnap, assault, and shoot Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney. The three had just arrived in Mississippi to advance black voting rights during the 1964 Freedom Summer [US State Department information] when they were killed. Killen had not posted bond as of early Friday afternoon. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] All eight Democratic members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Friday, asking him to reconsider his decision not to release documents [JURIST report] written by US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts [JURIST news archive] while he was deputy Solicitor General. In their letter [text], the Democrats argue that the requested documents are not privileged and that they should be released because Roberts was a political appointee, making high-level policy decisions:

These documents were prepared by attorneys in the OSG acting for the American people. We are requesting them for use by the Senate in the exercise of the Senate's explicit constitutional responsibility, and they are therefore not subject to the attorney client privilege. ... Indeed, former Senator Fred Thompson, who is helping the White House with this nomination, previously said of the attorney-client privilege that, "[i]n case after case, the courts have concluded that allowing it to be used against Congress would be an impediment to Congress' obligation and duty to get to the truth and carry out its investigative and oversight responsibilities." ...

It is instructive to look at the reasoning of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, when that court declined in 1998 to recognize the attorney-client privilege claim of Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey. The Court emphasized that even the most sensitive conversations between the President and his top advisors may have to be revealed to a grand jury, and the Court further stated that conversations with legal advisers should be treated no differently:

Only a certain conceit among those admitted to the bar could explain why legal advice should be on a higher plane than advice about policy, or politics, or why a President's conversation with the most junior lawyer in the White House ... is deserving of more protection from disclosure in a grand jury investigation than a President's discussions with ... a Cabinet Secretary [W]e do not believe lawyers are more important to the operations of government than all other officials, or that the advice lawyers render is more crucial to the functioning of the Presidency than the advice coming from all other quarters. ... [I]t would be contrary to tradition, common understanding, and our governmental system for the attorney-client privilege to attach to White House Counsel in the same manner as private counsel. In re Lindsey, 158 F.3d 1273, 1278 (D.C. Cir. 1998).

This case makes clear that documents from the White House Counsel's office are not subject to the attorney-client privilege; as to the documents at issue here arising from the OSG, which represents the American people rather than the President specifically, the inapplicability of any privilege is even clearer. ...

You stated in your letter last Friday that OSG documents must be kept confidential in order to protect the free flow of ideas among attorneys within the office. It is important to note, however, that Judge Roberts was not a career attorney within that office. He was a political appointee in a leadership position, politically responsible for making high-level policy decisions. As such, he could not have expected, nor was he entitled to, any confidentiality protection that some argue should apply to the advice of career staff attorneys. ...

[JURIST] Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] has authorized the American Civil Liberties Union [advocacy website] to make public papers it filed on August 3 challenging the Pentagon claim that images of detainee abuse must not be released because they put US troops and officials at risk. The ACLU said the government was seeking to withhold the photos only "to avert adverse reaction," undermining the Freedom of Information Act. The papers [ACLU press release] were filed as part of an ongoing lawsuit by the ACLU to obtain the release of 87 photos and four videotapes taken by a reservist posted at Abu Ghraib [JURIST news archive]. Gen. Richard B. Myers said he believed that "riots, violence and attacks by insurgents will result" if the images were released to the public. Friday's New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Lawyers in Zimbabwe prepared Friday to challenge government-proposed changes to the constitution [text] that will block white farmers from challenging land grabs in court and prohibit people deemed anti-government from traveling abroad. The Zimbabwean government last month published proposed constitutional reforms [JURIST report] that would allow the state to assume ownership of farms immediately following the properties being listed for expropriation, making it impossible for white farmers to appeal the action. The proposals first surfaced when President Robert Mugabe [Wikipedia profile], leader of the ruling Zanu PF party [official website], announced plans to amend the constitution and hold votes on a constitutional amendment to liquidate all private land ownership and convert all productive farmland to government control [JURIST report]. More than 100 lawyers have signed a petition to judges and lawmakers expressing their dissatisfaction with the proposals and they plan to march next week to Parliament and the Supreme Court to hand in the petition as a group. The Mail & Guardian has more. The Standard has local coverage of the controversy.

[JURIST] NARAL Pro-Choice America [advocacy website; press release] said late Thursday that it is pulling a widely criticized television spot [JURIST report] that linked US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to anti-abortion bombers, claiming its efforts to expose Roberts' record have been "misconstrued." Senator Arlen Specter [official website] (R-PA), a pro-choice Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that will question Roberts in September, had called the ad "blatantly untrue and unfair." NARAL President Nancy Keenan [profile] said the group would run a new ad showcasing Roberts' advocacy for overturning Roe v. Wade and his "arguments against using a federal civil rights law to protect women and their doctors and nurses from those who use blockades and intimidation." AP has more.

[JURIST] Sunni Arab leaders on Friday rejected calls for a Shiite federal region to be written into the new constitution [JURIST news archive], claiming the plan would break up Iraq along strict religious and ethnic lines. Sunnis, also fearing they will be cut out of some oil revenues if the country is split into such zones, responded negatively to the demand of a top Shiite lawmaker seeking local Shiite control in parts of southern and central Iraq. The dispute threatens to delay the Monday deadline for completion [JURIST report] of the charter. AP has more.

[JURIST] Terrorist suspect Hilal Abdul-Razzaq Ali Al-Jedda on Friday lost a court battle in his bid to be allowed to return to the UK on the grounds that his human rights had been violated [JURIST report]. Al-Jedda, who has both Iraqi and British citizenship, had been held without charge by British troops in Iraq for nine months since his arrest last October by US soldiers and subsequent handover to British authorities in Basra. Lawyers for Al-Jedda argued that the detention breached his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text] to due process and pushed for him to be allowed back into Britain. London's High Court however ruled that his continued detention was legal. During arguments, the British Ministry of Defence [official website] said that indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial was authorized under a 2004 UN Security Council resolution. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former commander of the military wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement [party website] (SPLM) Salva Kiir Mayardit [BBC profile] was sworn in as a vice-president of Sudan [JURIST news archive] and president of the southern autonomous government Thursday. He replaces John Garang de Maboir [BBC obituary] who negotiated the end to a 21 year civil war [Wikipedia entry] in January then died in a helicopter crash [JURIST report] on July 30. In his inaugural address, Kiir addressed fears that Garang's death would invalidate the peace deal, thus increasing violence in the south, and vowed to continue Garang's path to peace. He stated "I wish to affirm that it is neither my intention to turn from the route of John Garang nor to redefine the objectives of the [Sudan People's Liberation Movement]." He also stated he intended to work for peace throughout Sudan, including the war-torn region of Darfur [JURIST news archive] and eastern Sudan. AP has more.

[JURIST] Bosnian Serb paramilitary commander Milan Lukic is demanding to be taken into custody by the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia [official website; JURIST news archive], and not by Serbian authorities because he fears for his life, a Serbian newspaper reported Friday. Lukic was arrested in Buenos Aires [JURIST report] on Monday at the request of the ICTY and said "I don’t want to go to Serbia... I am afraid I would be killed there," according to a report [text, in Serbian] from the Serbian daily Vecernje Novosti. Lukic was convicted in absentia [JURIST report] by a Serbian war crimes court and sentenced to 20 years for his role in the 1993 abduction and killing of 20 Bosnian Muslims and faces similar charges [case backgrounder; ICTY indictment] at the ICTY. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] passed a resolution [PDF; UN press release] Thursday extending the UN mission in Iraqfor another 12 months in an effort to aid the troubled country in reaching political stability. A few weeks ago, Secretary-General Kofi Annan [official website] sent a letter to the Council pushing to extend the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq [official website] past the expiration date Friday. There are now 260 UN civilians and military staff working in Iraq, and Annan said he expects the number to increase as new facilities open up in Basra and Irbil. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton [official profile], who introduced the resolution, said the United States was encouraged by the result and that the resolution was co-sponsored by the whole of the council. Bolton pointed out the effectiveness of the mission in assisting Iraqis in drafting their new constitution and said the mission will now be able to play a role in the referendum this fall to accept or reject the charter. Read a transcript of Bolton's remarks following the Security Council's vote. AP has more.

[JURIST] Iraq's former deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz [BBC profile] received a ten-minute telephone call in jail from his family Thursday, his first such contact in over two years, and will see them in person next week, his lawyer Badia Aref said. Aziz said through Aref earlier this week that he would not testify [JURIST report] against former dictator Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] in his upcoming trial [JURIST news archive]. The visit with family members set for August 21 may be the first for a high profile Iraqi prisoner. It is not clear whether other key defendants have received family visitors in the past, but there have been no reports that members of Hussein's exiled family have come to see him in jail, or for that matter had been invited or authorized to do so. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US First Circuit Court of Appeals held [PDF opinion] Thursday that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) [text], which updated the Wiretap Act [text] to include electronic communications, should be broadly interpreted to allow an e-mail provider alleged to have read correspondence in transit to customers to be tried on federal charges. The federal government filed suit [Electronic Privacy Information Center backgrounder] against Bradford Councilman, former Vice President of online bookseller Interloc which is now part of Alibris [corporate website], alleging the defendant provided customers with e-mail addresses and then directed employees to write code that would save and copy inbound communications from Amazon.com to those addresses before they were delivered. A three-judge panel narrowly interpreted the ECPA last year, ruling that the act was not violated [PDF opinion] in the instant case because one cannot "intercept" [statutory definition] e-mails, as prohibited by law, when they are in "electronic storage" [statutory definition]. Thursday's 5-2 opinion vacated the earlier panel decision, holding instead that "'electronic communication' includes transient electronic storage that is intrinsic to the communication process, and hence that interception of an e-mail message in such storage is an offense under the Wiretap Act." CNET News has more.

[JURIST] Lord Charles Falconer [official profile], Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor in Tony Blair’s Labour government, said Friday in an interview [recorded audio] with BBC Radio that judges could be given explicit legislative guidance [BBC report] on how to interpret the UK's Human Rights Act in order to guarantee that efforts to deport foreign nationals considered a threat to national security will not be blocked by judges. His comments cam after police detained 10 people [JURIST report] on Thursday, including Abu Qatada, the alleged spiritual leader of al Qaeda in Europe, and vowed to deport them. Judges have disrupted past government efforts to deport foreign nationals saying that the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text], adopted in Britain’s 1998 Human Rights Act [text], guarantees deportees freedom from torture. Falconer said Friday that the "rights of the individual deportee [must be weighed] against the risks of national security." Reuters has more. The Guardian has local coverage.

Also on Friday, Britain blocked radical Islamist Omar Bakri Mohammed [BBC profile], a UK resident for 20 years, from re-entering the country, saying his presence was no longer "conducive to the public good." Earlier this week, Bakri fled to Lebanon [JURIST report] after an investigation was opened into his alleged praise of the London bombers and an alleged statement that Bakri would not reveal future information he learned about plans for future terrorist attacks. Bakri was detained by Lebanese police [JURIST report] Thursday for undisclosed reasons, but was released from custody Friday. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] As anticipated Thursday in JURIST's Paper Chase, the National Archives has released a set of memos [NARA listing] written by US Supreme Court nominee John Roberts [JURIST news archive] while he was a Justice Department aide in 1981. In drafting answers to potential questions for Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Roberts described his approach [memo, PDF] as "to avoid giving specific responses to any direct questions on legal issues likely to come before the court, but demonstrating in the response a firm command of the subject area and awareness of the relevant precedents and arguments." This is expected to be Roberts' tactic when his own hearings begin September 6, where Judiciary Committee Republicans and Democrats, including committee chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA), have stated plans to question him about specific cases [JURIST report]. The Bush administration continues to refuse to release documents relating to Roberts' work in the Solicitor General's office [JURIST report] from 1989-1993. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Former Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] could be put to death after his first trial if he is convicted for his alleged role in a 1982 Shiite massacre [NPR report] in Dujail, an anonymous official close to the trial said Thursday. In June, Hussein reportedly turned down an earlier deal offered by the US [JURIST report] to avoid the death penalty by calling on insurgents to put down their weapons. Iraqi authorities are also building more than ten other cases against Hussein to be tried separately if he is not executed. Those cases include the killing of opposition leaders, the Anfal campaign that left tens of thousands of Kurds dead or homeless and another Shiite massacre after the Gulf War. The official said that a five-judge panel was expected to set a date for the Dujail trial "within the next few weeks," to begin in the fall, though Hussein's daughter, who has been running her father's defense team, has threatened to boycott the trial [AP report] unless a lawyer can meet with Saddam privately. AP has more.