[JURIST] AP is reporting that Chief Justice William Rehnquist [Wikipedia profile; JURIST news archive; JURIST essay] has died, according to a US Supreme Court spokeswoman. He was 80 and had been suffering from thyroid cancer; his last high-profile public appearance off the bench was in January this year when he administered the inaugural oath [JURIST video] to President George W. Bush at his second inaugural. He was originally sworn in as an Associate Justice in 1972.

11:35 PM ET - Spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said in a statement that Rehnquist had died Saturday evening at his home in Arlington Virginia surrounded by members of his family. The statement said that he "continued to perform his duties on the court until a precipitous decline in his health the last couple of days." AP has more.

Rehnquist was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1971 by President Nixon and confirmed later that year. He began his judicial career in January of 1972 and became Chief Justice in 1986 under President Reagan [History Channel recorded audio of Reagan remarks at swearing-in ceremony]. Rehnquist was considered the most conservative of Nixon's Supreme Court appointments and the most conservative Supreme Court member until the additions of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Rehnquist is one of the few Supreme Court Justices to have been appointed from a career other than being a judge at some other level; he worked as Assistant Attorney General for President Nixon's Office of Legal Counsel before being nominated for the Supreme Court.

In anticipation of Rehnquist's possible retirement, legal scholars gathered at conferences earlier this year to consider his legacy. Watch recorded video of a Hoover Institute panel discussion [transcript] in May 2005. New York Times Supreme Court correspondent Linda Greenhouse addressed [JURIST video] a similar scholarly conference on Rehnquist's jurisprudence at Indiana University Bloomington in April.

President Bush will now have to appoint a second Justice to the Supreme Court, following the prior retirement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor [JURIST report] and will also need to name a new Chief Justice. Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin next week [JURIST report] for Judge John Roberts, Bush's nomination to replace O'Connor.

[JURIST] The American Bar Association heads a growing list of lawyers groups organizing legal aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive]. Bar associations from across the US are donating funds to support the provision of legal help to the hundreds of thousands of displaced citizens reconstructing their lives in the aftermath of the disaster; they're also calling for volunteers to offer free legal services to those filing insurance claims, applying for federal aid, registering for new identity documents, getting death certificates completed, etc.. The American Bar Association currently offers the most elaborate online Katrina legal aid resource, providing general information for victims and their families, lawyers affected by the disaster, lawyers wanting to personally volunteer their services, and military personnel needing legal help. The ABA has teamed up with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to open 24-hour toll-free legal help lines. The numbers are:

For Louisiana residents: 1-800-310-7029

For Mississippi residents: 1-866-255-4495

For Alabama residents: 1-800-354-6154

Callers will be connected with lawyers from local bar associations who will answer legal questions and provide assistance for problems resulting from the disaster.

Bar associations in New York [NYSBA press release], Virginia [VSB notice] and Illinois [ISBA press release] have also launched major fund and volunteer drives. Locally in the Gulf Coast region, the Louisiana State Bar has set up its own disaster relief fund and legal assistance project [LSBA information] as has the Mississippi Bar [official website], and the Alabama State Bar [press release].

Additional legal aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina is being offered by:

• Alaska Bar Association
  
• District of Columbia Bar
  
• The Florida Bar
  
• State Bar of Michigan
  
• Minnesota State Bar Association
  
• New Hampshire Bar Association
  
• State Bar of New Mexico
  
• Ohio State Bar Association
  
• Oregon State Bar Association
  
• Tennessee Bar Association
  
• State Bar of Texas
  

[JURIST] Saddam Hussein's Iraqi lawyer Khalil Dulaimi told Reuters Saturday that the October 19 trial date for his client indicated Friday by an Iraqi government source unconnected with the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website] set up to try Hussein was too early, and that "years" were needed to assess what he called the "36 tonnes of files" in the case. It became apparent earlier this week {JURIST report] that the government wants to move on the potentially-incendiary trial days after the scheduled referendum on the draft Iraqi constitution presented to parliament [JURIST report] last Sunday, and well before parliamentary elections scheduled to follow in mid-December. In recent days, Sunni protestors [JURIST report] against the constitution have begun to march publicly with Saddam's picture on placards. Reuters has more.

Meanwhile in Jordan, a legal adviser to Hussein's eldest daughter Raghd said Saturday that the defense team for her father had been completely reorganized. During the summer the vast 2000+ Jordanian-based defense committee was essentially fired by the family [JURIST report] and replaced by Dulaimi alone, but Abdel Haq Alani told reporters that a new team had now been formed that "includes prominent American, European, Asian and Arab lawyers who were chosen on the basis of competence and merit." The first charge Saddam faces [JURIST report] relates to the 1982 killings of dozens of Shiites in the village of Dujail after a failed assassination attempt on the then-Iraqi president. Iraqi officials have said that they expect Saddam to be found guilty and quickly sentenced to death [JURIST report], although Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said again last week that he would not sign any death warrant for him [JURIST report]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Federal and state officials said Saturday that with an influx of more National Guard troops and state police, civil authority had been restored to the New Orleans streets after a wave of crime and looting in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but admitted that the justice system still faced difficulties. In remarks at the state Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge carried on WWL-TV [WWL-TV Katrina blog] in New Orleans, US Attorney Jim Letten [official profile] said that he brought a message from the President of the United States and the US Attorney General: "The city of New Orleans belongs to its citizens and not the thugs who have attempted to terrorize the citizens." He told reporters that federal prosecutors were on their way to Louisiana and would work "around the clock" to find, arrest and imprison people breaking federal law. "New Orleans is a city which does not have a traditional gang problem," Letten said. "But small groups of individuals almost exclusively involved in the drug trade have been controlling small pieces of blocks and buildings through ruthless violence. These are the individuals we are going to hunt down." The New Orleans Times-Picayune has more. James Bernazzani, the FBI Special Agent in charge of Louisiana, said that FBI tactical teams were moving around New Orleans working to secure vital locations, and that a gang task force was en route to help restore order.

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti and state Department of Corrections Secretary Richard Stalder meanwhile announced that a temporary holding facility had been set up in New Orleans for prisoners transferred from Orleans Parish Prison and for persons arrested for looting and violence in the aftermath of the hurricane. Prison records, however, have to be reassembled. Said Stalder, "There are 7,100 people in our state prisons we don't know a lot about." Trials and prosecutions will also be problematic for a while. Foti said some misdemeanor trials might be able to start again in a couple of weeks, but "we will have some problem with trials by jury and locating witnesses." Letten nonetheless insisted that "the entire federal criminal justice system is open and operating... This is something extremely difficult, but difficult doesn't mean impossible." The Shreveport Times has more.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union charged Friday that Georgia had raised the fees for its new controversial voter ID cards [GA Department of Driver Services information] without notice to the US Justice Department as required under federal law. The office of Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue [official website] denied the allegation, saying that it had submitted the notice of the fee hike to the DOJ as part of a package of information it filed with Washington when the legislation requiring a state photo ID for voters was initially proposed. A spokesman also noted that the fees - $20 for five-year ID cards and $35 for 10-year cards - would be waived for poor residents. The ACLU countered that the Justice Department had only approved a $10 fee for a four-year card, and that the fee waiver procedure was elaborate and would discourage potential applicants from getting their cards, resulting in their disenfranchisement. Civil liberties groups have assailed the Georgia law [civilrights.org press release] signed by Governor Purdue [JURIST report] in April; the federal Voting Rights Act [US DOJ backgrounder] requires Georgia and other states with records of racial discrimination in voting to get federal approval for voting law changes. The Justice Department approved the Georgia voter ID law [JURIST report] in late August. The NAACP has already annouced that it will launch a court challenge [press release]. AP has more.

[JURIST] New papers by US Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. [JURIST news archive] released by the National Archives Friday indicate that as a young White House lawyer in 1984 he had some doubts over American ratification of the 1948 Genocide Convention [text] which he feared might be used by some as a device to prosecute US military personnel, but that he ultimately advised President Reagan to go ahead with ratification to avoid international embarrassment to the United States. The US was one of the original signatories to the treaty, but even with the Reagan administration behind the Convention the US Senate did not ratify it until 1988 [PFAW backgrounder], and even at stage only with certain reservations and understandings. Roberts' reservations may provide ammunition for Democrats exploring his stance on international legal issues and US obligations under international law during his confirmation hearings, scheduled to start Tuesday. More revelations may eventually be forthcoming from this latest collection of Roberts-related White House documentary materials, totaling some 18,000 pages. The National Archives has released a number of Roberts documents directly online [accession list]. A confirmation hearings witness list released Friday by Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats suggests they will focus most of their attention on Roberts' civil rights record, which has already been sharply criticized by the ACLU [JURIST report] and other rights organization. Saturday's Washington Post has more.

[JURIST] The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website], serving Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi from the John Minor Wisdom Courthouse [US GSA historic federal buildings register] in New Orleans, is moving to temporary quarters in Houston, according to Chief Judge Carolyn King. King said Friday that although its 70 court staff would have preferred to shift immediately to Baton Rouge Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina [JURIST news archive], housing for them was not available, but the federal courthouse in Houston that is home to the Southern District of Texas [official website] had been able to make appropriate arrangements. The appeals court nonetheless expects to move again to Baton Rouge in two months. Court operations will resume September 14, and King said it would be back to "full speed" in a month. The court was forced to cease operations after flooding in New Orleans made its downtown courthouse inaccessible. King said that although electronic documents were backed up on remote servers and most paper documents were moved upstairs to the second floor, some records may have been damaged. Read the latest official court information notice for staff and attorneys. The Houston Chronicle has more.

[JURIST] The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Friday refused a request by Virginia Attorney General Judy Jagdmann [official website] to have the full court rehear a June ruling by a three-judge panel [JURIST report; PDF ruling] striking down Virginia's law against late-term abortions because the law lacked an exception based on the health of the mother. The Court cited the 2000 US Supreme Court ruling in Stenberg v. Carhart [opinion] striking down a Nebraska "partial-birth abortion" ban on similar grounds. In a statement [press release] afterwards, Jagdmann said:

We are disappointed by the Court's decision in this serious matter. We note Judge Niemeyer's well-reasoned dissent [in the original panel decision] clearly appreciates that Virginia’s statute is distinct and distinguishable from any previously considered by the United States Supreme Court. Our office is carefully reviewing the opinion and reviewing our options.