[JURIST] Senate leaders announced late Monday that a US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] vote on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito [JURIST news archive] which could have taken place as early as Tuesday will be postponed by a week until January 24, with consideration by the full Senate to follow immediately afterwards. Ranking Democrat Sen. Patrick Leahy said [press release] that he and committee chairman Sen. Arlen Specter had reached an agreement over the weekend that "allows all Senators, Republicans and Democrats, to conclude Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday events without having to rush back to Washington before the Senate returns to session." Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist slammed the delay in a statement, however, calling it "unjustified and desperate partisan obstructionism" on the part of Democrats. The additional week will nonetheless give Judge Alito more time to answer written questions from the committee and theoretically allows senators more time to reflect, although the nomination is expected to be readily approved without any filibuster [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] In a scathing and fiery speech in Washington Monday on eavesdropping and excesses of executive power, former Vice-President and 2000 Democratic Party nominee Al Gore [Wikipedia profile; advocacy website] declared that the US Constitution was in "grave danger" and accused President Bush of repeatedly breaking the law by authorizing warrantless wiretaps on domestic communications. Gore said that the "disrespect embodied in these apparent mass violations of the law is part of a larger pattern of seeming indifference to the Constitution that is deeply troubling to millions of Americans in both political parties":

A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government. Our Founding Fathers were adamant that they had established a government of laws and not men. Indeed, they recognized that the structure of government they had enshrined in our Constitution - our system of checks and balances - was designed with a central purpose of ensuring that it would govern through the rule of law. As John Adams said: "The executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them, to the end that it may be a government of laws and not of men."

An executive who arrogates to himself the power to ignore the legitimate legislative directives of the Congress or to act free of the check of the judiciary becomes the central threat that the Founders sought to nullify in the Constitution - an all-powerful executive too reminiscent of the King from whom they had broken free.

[JURIST] A Bangladesh court Monday sentenced a member of the outlawed Islamist militant group Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen [Wikipedia backgrounder] to 15 years in prison for involvement in a wave of bomb attacks across the country on August 17 last year that killed 2 and wounded 100. The group wants to turn Bangladesh [JURIST news archive], now the third most populated Muslim country and a democracy, into an Islamic state governed by Sharia law. Courts and judges have been targeted in subsequent bombings, which have killed two judges [JURIST report]. The sentencing of Obaidullah Suman is the first since officials detained nearly 800 suspected militants. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Human rights groups Monday voiced objections to Sudan President Omar al-Bashir [profile] becoming the rotating chair of the African Union [official website] for 2006-2007 when African nations hold a summit [agenda] in Khartoum next week. In a letter to African leaders, a coalition of 50 groups expressed concern about Bashir shaping the peace progress in the violence-wracked Darfur region [JURIST news archive] of western Sudan and claimed that letting him preside over the regional body would "deeply undermine and erode the credibility of the AU". The AU does not have clear guidelines on who should hold the position if Sudan does not. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) [official website] announced Monday that it would disregard 227 ballot boxes from the December 15 parliamentary elections [JURIST news archive] in response to 58 serious complaints of election fraud [JURIST report]. Since Iraqis voted at about 6,200 voting centers across the country with an average of 5 ballot boxes each, the 227 boxes to be thrown out represent a negligible amount and should not greatly affect the results of the elections. Election official said that 53 of the boxes were set aside because it was shown that too many votes were cast. Almost half of the election fraud complaints came from Baghdad, the country's largest election district which holds 59 seats in the 275-member parliament. The International Mission for Iraqi Elections [official website], conducting its own investigation [JURIST report], is expected to release its final report Thursday, while the electoral commission hopes to release its uncertified final results shortly after. The commission will then have to respond to any new allegations of election fraud and could release certified results in early February. The governing United Iraqi Alliance will then take on the task of forming a coalition government with Sunni Arab and Kurdish parties. AP has more.

[JURIST] A replacement judge has been named to preside over the Iraqi High Criminal Court [formerly the Iraqi Special Tribunal [official website]] trying ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein following the weekend resignation [JURIST report] of chief judge Rizgar Amin [Wikipedia profile], according to the court's chief prosecutor speaking Monday. Amin deputy Sayeed al-Hamashi [Reuters report] will take over the next session of the Hussein trial [JURIST news archive] scheduled for January 24. Efforts by Iraqi officials, including at least one of Amin's judicial colleagues, to persuade [JURIST report] him to stay on have thusfar been inconclusive, although the government has not made a final decision on whether to accept his resignation. Amin filed his resignation in protest over Shiite leaders' objections to how he was running the trial. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The European Commission [official website] is urging the 25 European Union [official website, JURIST news archive] member states to implement compatible criminal law procedures in the wake of a study showing drastically different legal practices. While the study conducted by the University of Maastricht did not reveal any violations of the European Human Rights Convention [EU backgrounder], it highlighted the fact that EU members differ significantly on how police and courts deal with terrorist suspects and criminal charges. So far, only seven nations - Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Austria, France, Germany, and Spain - have started to share DNA and fingerprint evidence in order to pursue criminals internationally. Other nations, including Germany, have yet to ratify an agreement that will allow Europol [official website] to take part in domestic criminal investigations. European justice ministers meeting over the weekend to discuss the implications of the study promised [press release] that existing institutions relevant to the EU's internal security would be "strengthened, expanded, and made more effective and efficient." AP has more.

[JURIST] Under pressure from the United States, the Israeli Cabinet led by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [official profile] has decided to allow Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem during the January 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections [BBC backgrounder] so long as militant groups are not on the ballot. Israel had threatened to bar [JURIST report] the residents of east Jerusalem from voting locally because Hamas [BBC backgrounder] candidates were running; Palestinian authorities had responded that they would cancel the election if Jerusalem residents were barred. Jerusalem Arabs will now cast absentee votes in local post offices. The compromise was reached by an Israeli cabinet of ministers from the centrist Kadima party [Wikipedia backgrounder] since the ministers from the hard-line Likud party [official website] resigned this week. In the context of the continued hospitalization of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon [BBC profile, official website], Israeli Attorney General Meni Mazuz [official profile] has instructed Olmert to continue as acting prime minister until Israel's March 28 elections.