[JURIST] The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly [official website] on Wednesday renewed calls [JURIST report] for Russia to abolish the death penalty [JURIST news archive]. Russia recently assumed the rotating chairmanship of the COE's Committee of Ministers [official website]. The Assembly also suggested that if talks to persuade the US and Japan to abolish the death penalty do not progress by the end of the year, the Committee should consider suspending the observer status of the countries.

The recommendation adopted by the Assembly said that:

[The Assembly] urges the Russian authorities to show vis-à-vis public opinion in their country, the same determination and persuasiveness displayed by the other Council of Europe member states, which had the political will and courage to abolish the death penalty despite the potential unpopularity of the measure. ...

[The Assembly] finds it inadmissible ... that both Japan and the United States continue to apply the death penalty and violate their fundamental obligation to uphold human rights.... There have been 1,016 executions in the United States since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977; eight executions have taken place in Japan since 2001.

Progressive politicians in abolitionist and non-abolitionist countries alike need to inform, educate and campaign for the abolition of capital punishment. If they are short of arguments, they are free to use mine. The death penalty is wrong because it is inhuman and degrading. It is dangerous because it may kill innocent people. It is unjustified because it does not deter crime any better than other forms of punishment. And finally, it is pointless because it gets criminals off the hook. When they are executed, they are no longer punished, they are simply dead.

[JURIST] The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] has urged [press release] Nepal's Maoist Communist Party (CPN-M) [BBC profile; Wikipedia backgrounder] to end alleged abductions and other abuses committed by the party. In a letter following up on a meeting last week, the OHCHR warned that any abduction of non-combatants would violate international human rights law. Some of the victims were accused of "crimes" or "offenses" before their alleged abductions by CPN-M cadres, and the OHCHR noted that "These abductions and related investigations and punishment fail to provide even minimum guarantees of due process and fair trial. As a consequence, victims of abductions are vulnerable to other violations of their human rights, particularly their right to life and physical integrity."

Recent political developments in Nepal [JURIST news archive] have led to increased prominence for the communist rebels, culminating with a landmark deal [text; JURIST report] between the government and CPN-M earlier this month on the drafting of a power-sharing constitution allowing Maoist rebels to join an interim government, though Nepalese officials said Wednesday that the drafting of the constitution had been delayed [JURIST report]. Many members of the CPN-M were arrested under Nepal's now-scrapped anti-terror law [JURIST report] but have been freed [JURIST report] by the new Nepalese government following King Gyanendra's fall from power [JURIST news archive] earlier this year. The UN News Centre has more.

[JURIST] A lawyer for Morgan Stanley [corporate website] asked a three-judge panel of the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal [official website] on Wednesday to overturn a "disproportionate" 2005 jury verdict awarded [JURIST report] to billionaire financier and Revlon Chairman Ron Perelman. In oral arguments Wednesday, lawyer Bruce Rogow asserted that the suit should have been tried under New York state law, which has a higher standard of due diligence for parties making contracts, since both parties are from New York. Rogow also urged the panel to reverse the judgment because the trial judge placed the burden of proof on the defendant for failing to disclose incriminating e-mails. Perelman's attorney, Paul Smith, characterized the failure to disclose as willful fraud by Morgan Stanley and focused on Florida's interest in preventing fraud that occurs in the state.

Perelman, who relied on Morgan Stanley's advice in the 1998 sale of his controlling stake in Coleman Co. to Sunbeam Corp. sued the investment bank claiming that its executives had conspired to defraud him by misrepresenting Sunbeam's financial status. The award rose to $1.58 billion after several adjustments [JURIST report] for interest and previous settlements. Reuters has more. Bloomberg News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Wednesday signed off on requirements for obtaining a photo ID card that citizens of Georgia [JURIST news archive] must present to vote in elections. Georgia's State Election Board [official website], which voted last week to clear the rules [summary and text, PDF], will meet Thursday to discuss whether the rules can be implemented before the primary election on July 18. The rules outline the documents that can be presented as proof of age, name, address and voter registration, including student ID cards, nursing home cards, pilot licenses, birth certificates, utility bills and bank statements. A law [text, PDF; bill summary] requiring the ID cards was passed by the Georgia legislature in January and the DOJ approved [JURIST report] the statute itself in April.

The ID cards are free to registered voters because the original version of the law was blocked [JURIST report] by a federal judge last year as an unconstitutional de facto poll tax. AP has more.

[JURIST] Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called for congressional action [statement] on regulation of the hedge fund industry, during a Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] hearing [meeting materials] Wednesday. Blumenthal told the panel that federal oversight was needed to fill a "regulatory void" and said that states would exercise their police powers to regulate hedge funds if Congress hesitates to "toughen federal criminal, civil and administrative penalties to deter and punish fraudulent hedge fund and short selling practices." Former US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] investigator Gary Aguirre testified [prepared statement] that current federal law fails to adequately protect capital markets and their participants from the risk of manipulation and fraud by hedge funds. Aguirre also said that his investigation of a prominent hedge fund management company was stymied last year due to political pressures.

Last week, in Goldstein v. SEC [opinion, PDF], a federal appeals court struck down an SEC rule subjecting hedge funds to routine inspections [JURIST report], ruling that hedge funds are not subject to SEC regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940 [PDF text]. A congressional aide to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee [official website], said Wednesday that the committee is drafting a bill [Reuters report] that would essentially reverse the federal court's decision in Goldstein. Bloomberg has more.

[JURIST] Terry Collins [official profile], director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction [official website] has set forth several changes in Ohio's lethal injection protocol in a report [PDF text] and letter [PDF text] addressed to Ohio Governor Bob Taft made public Wednesday. The changes were prompted by the problematic May execution of Joseph Clark [CantonRep report, registration required], where the execution was delayed for an hour-and-a-half when staff struggled to find a vein to administer the lethal injection cocktail, and the one they did use collapsed before injection.

The report recommended easing "artificial self-imposed time barriers" on execution team members, finding two intravenous sites before the execution begins, reviewing the medical file prior to execution and observing the inmate well before the scheduled execution. AP has more. The Columbus Dispatch has local coverage.

[JURIST] Indonesia is preparing to execute three men convicted in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC report], a spokesman from the Indonesian Attorney General's office said Wednesday. Under Indonesian law, spokesman Wayan Pasek Suarte could not disclose the location or date when the three men will be executed by firing squad, but he indicated that the government had obtained a permit for the execution and moved to change the location of the execution from Bali to Nusakambangan, the jurisdiction where the three men have been detained since their conviction two years ago. Pasek added that the office has received preliminary approval from Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin [ministry website], and were waiting for formal approval. If approved, the three bombers will be executed outside of the Bali resort area where they committed the crime for safety reasons.

A lawyer representing the three bombers said he plans to appeal the executions to the Indonesian Supreme Court, saying the convictions "violated the Constitution Court's ruling that laws cannot be retroactive." The three bombers were convicted under a terrorism law enacted after the 2002 bombings took place. Victims [JURIST report] of the 2002 bombings and other protestors [JURIST report] have previously called on the government to expedite the executions of those involved in the Bali bombings, but under Indonesian law convicts and their families must be given the opportunity to pursue all avenues for appeal [JURIST report] before such a sentence is carried out. The family of one of the three men, Imam Samudra [BBC profile], announced in April that they would not pursue clemency on his behalf [JURIST report]. Last October, all three declined to seek presidential pardons [JURIST report], saying they are prepared to be executed as martyrs. Reuters has more. The Jakarta Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] A UK High Court judge ruled Wednesday that control orders [JURIST report; BBC backgrounder] authorizing the electronic monitoring or house arrest of terror suspects where there is not enough evidence to prosecute or convict them violate Article 5 [text] of the European Convention on Human Rights [PDF text], which protects against indefinite detentions. Mr. Justice Sullivan quashed the control orders of six suspects in his Wednesday ruling [text]. In April, he ruled against [JURIST report] the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 [text] which authorizes the control orders, saying that the Act violates the Human Rights Act 1998 [text] because the suspects held under control orders were not allowed a fair hearing. At the instance of the UK Home Office, the Court of Appeal will consider both rulings next Monday.

The control orders statute has been under fire since it received royal assent in March last year. A UK parliamentary panel issued a report [PDF text] in February stating the use of control orders against suspects not facing prosecution [JURIST report] could violate the human rights convention. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists [press releases] have previously questioned the legality of control orders under international law.

Mr. Justice Jeremy Sullivan has lately been a judicial thorn in the side of the Blair government on a range of rights-related issues. In addition to his two control orders rulings, he recently granted asylum [JURIST document] to nine Afghans convicted of hijacking a plane to the UK in 2002, allowing them to remain in the United Kingdom rather than be deported to Afghanistan. Prime Minister Tony Blair immediately assailed that ruling in public [JURIST report] as "an assault on common sense" and has since directed a review [JURIST report] of the judicial application in the UK of the European Convention on Human Rights through the Human Rights Act 1998. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit seeking an order compelling Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi [official profile] to stop visiting the Yasukuni war shrine [shrine website], a shrine that honors all Japanese war dead, including war criminals. The lawsuit, filed by 137 Japanese and South Korean plaintiffs and a South Korean advocacy group also sought 30,000 yen, or $258, for each plaintiff in damages for mental anguish. The plaintiffs argued that Koizumi and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara [Wikipedia profile] violated the constitution's separation of religion and state when visiting the shrine. Judge Yoshito Abe ruled that the plaintiffs had no grounds for damages, saying that how people feel about the shrine visits depends on "personal and subjective factors," including how they personally perceive the shrine. Abe added that since the visits by Koizumi and Ishihara do not violate the plaintiffs' rights, there is no constitutional issue to rule on.

The Japan Supreme Court ruled in a similar fashion [JURIST report] last week, rejecting a bid by 338 plaintiff survivors of South Korean, Japanese, and Chinese soldiers killed during wars involving Japan, without ruling on the constitutionality of the visits. The plaintiffs in that case argued that Koizumi visited the shrine in 2001 in an official capacity, impermissibly violating Japan's constitutional barriers between religion and state. Koizumi has defended his visits to the shrine [JURIST report], saying that other nations should not make domestic issues of spiritual matters. Last September, Japan's Osaka High Court ruled [JURIST report] that the Prime Minister's visits violate constitutional provisions for the separation of church and state, but an October decision upheld [JURIST report] a lower court ruling [JURIST report] to dismiss a lawsuit against Koizumi. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Human rights groups have condemned the decision of the al-Warraq Misdemeanor Court in Egypt to sentence controversial newspaper editor Ibrahim Eissa [al-Ahram profile] to a year in prison for publishing a report critical of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak [official profile]. The case against Eissa, the former editor of the independent weekly al-Dustour, arose from an April 2005 report on one lawyer's attempt to sue Mubarak and his family for corruption, including the alleged misuse of foreign aid for private gain. Another journalist also received a year-long sentence in the Eissa case. Eissa is free on bail pending appeal.

The Committee to Protect Journalists and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies [press releases] characterized the sentences handed down Monday as an assault on Egypt's independent press. Mubarak has previously pledged to decriminalize press offenses [JURIST report], but has yet to do so. VOA has more.

[JURIST] A London-based civil liberties group has asked data-protection and privacy officials in more than a dozen countries to prevent the further release of confidential financial information [press release] to American authorities. The watchdog group, Privacy International [advocacy website], said Wednesday that it had filed complaints in 13 European nations, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, to ensure that the records are withheld from an CIA anti-terrorism program [JURIST report; PI backgrounder] supervised by the US Treasury Department [official website]. In its complaints [PDF text], Privacy International said the records disclosures had no legal basis and should be suspended "pending legal review."

The monitoring program reviews financial records in an international database owned by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) [corporate website; Wikipedia backgrounder], the financial messaging service that serves as the backbone of the global banking industry. Bush administration officials, including the president [AP report], have criticized the media reports about the program [Snow letter to NYT editor], and at least one member of Congress has called for criminal charges [JURIST report] against newspapers that published them. AP has more.

[JURIST] Nepalese officials have delayed the drafting of an interim constitution, which will allow Maoist rebels to join an interim government, for at least another two weeks, according to Laxman Prasad Aryal, a former Supreme Court Justice and leader of the six-person Nepali Interim Constitution Drafting Committee. The interim government and Maoist rebels negotiated a landmark deal [text; JURIST report] on June 16 to draft a power-sharing constitution within 15 days and dissolve the parliament reinstated by the popular people's uprising [JURIST news archive] against the direct rule of King Gyanendra [official profile] in April.

Aryal said Wednesday that the six-man team has worked on the constitution informally [JURIST report], but has not started a formal drafting procedure [eKantipur.com report] because the interim government has not announced other members of the drafting committee. The interim government reportedly announced plans to add members to the committee, but did not specify who they would add, or how many people. The interim constitution was originally scheduled to be completed by Friday, but will now require two weeks of formal drafting when the government completes the committee membership. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk [official profile] on Tuesday reversed an earlier decision revoking citizenship from former MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali [BBC profile], who was born in Somalia. Ali resigned from the Dutch parliament [JURIST report] in May after Verdonk declared Hirsi Ali's 1997 naturalization invalid because she lied on the application. During her 2002 confirmation hearings, Ali admitted to lying about her name, her date of birth, and her previous residency in Saudi Arabia and Kenya when she applied for Dutch citizenship in 1992. In Tuesday's decision, however, Verdonk said that the application sufficiently identified Ali [press release] in 1997 to qualify for Dutch citizenship and that Ali did not lie when she gave her grandfather's name as her own on the application because such name is permitted under Somali law.

Ali recently accepted a position at the conservative think-tank American Enterprise Institute [think-tank website] and will reside in the US rather than returning to the Netherlands. AP has more.

[JURIST] Former US attorney general turned Saddam Hussein defense lawyer Ramsey Clark [Salon.com profile] told a Washington press conference Tuesday that executing Saddam only would only precipitate more sectarian violence in Iraq. He made the comment only a few days after the New York Times reported that Hussein believes the tribunal will issue a death sentence against him [JURIST report] that the US can use as leverage to persuade him to help end the Sunni insurgency. Taking up familiar themes [JURIST report], Clark said the US has unduly influenced the trial, which he contended has been fundamentally unfair from the beginning because the defense team has been prevented from interviewing witnesses and otherwise investigating the case. Echoing concerns [security requirement memo, PDF] he articulated to the Iraqi High Tribunal in a December filing [PDF], Clark also demanded increased security for the defense team after a third lawyer involved in the trial was murdered [JURIST report] last week. Hussein's lawyers have threatened to boycott the trial [JURIST news archive] unless their security is improved. At the same press conference, Curtis Doebbler [JURIST op-ed], the other American on the Hussein defense team, claimed that there was "an intentional effort...by the United States government to intimidate us and to try to prevent us from even coming to the trial, much less in providing a defense." CNS News has more.

The defense summation is scheduled for July 10. Hussein and his seven co-defendants are charged [JURIST report] with killing, torturing and illegally detaining Dujail residents and with committing other inhumane acts in response to an alleged 1982 assassination attempt on Hussein. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Wednesday held in the consolidated cases of Sanchez-Llamas v. Oregon and Bustillo v. Johnson [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report] that suppression of statements given to the police is not an appropriate remedy when police fail to inform foreign nationals of their right to have their consulates notified of their arrests under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations [text]. The Court also ruled, referring to its 1998 per curiam decision in Breard v. Green [text], that states may treat claims that Vienna Convention rights have been violated "to the same procedural default rules that apply generally to other federal-law claims." The Court did not decide the issue of whether the Vienna Convention conveys individual rights enforceable in US courts.

Read the Court's majority opinion [text] per Chief Justice Roberts, along with a concurrence in the judgment [text] from Justice Ginsburg, and a dissent [text] from Justice Breyer, who was joined in full by Justices Stevens and Souter and in part by Justice Ginsburg. AP has more.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] ruled in Beard v. Banks [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report] Wednesday that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections [official website] could set regulations forbidding the most difficult inmates from reading and possessing general-interest newspapers and magazines, despite arguments that such regulations violated the First Amendment. Plaintiff Ronald Banks, a convicted murderer considered a security risk, sued the Department in 2001 after he was barred from reading the Christian Science Monitor in a now-closed correctional facility in Pittsburgh. A district court dismissed Banks' challenge to the restrictions, but on appeal the Third Circuit ruled [PDF opinion] that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding that the ban was reasonably related to legitimate penological interests. The Supreme Court overturned that decision. Justice Samuel, who had dissented from the Third Circuit ruling when he sat on that court, did not participate in the Supreme Court's consideration of the case.

Read the Court's opinion [text] per Justice Breyer, along with a concurrence in the judgment [text] from Justice Thomas, who was joined by Justice Scalia, a dissent [text] from Justice Stevens, who was joined by Justice Ginsburg, and a separate dissent [text] from Ginsburg. AP has more.

[JURIST] Guards at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] found nooses in prisoners' cells after three detainees committed suicide [JURIST report] earlier this month by hanging themselves using clothing and bed linens, according to the US detention center's commander. Rear Adm. Harry Harris [SourceWatch profile] also said Tuesday that detainees stage have staged suicide attempts and hunger strikes [JURIST news archive] in an effort to undermine the US-led war on terror and described defiance in the detention center as widespread.

A Guantanamo doctor also said Tuesday that detainees hid pills in their clothing weeks before the three suicides, around the time when two other detainees overdosed on medication in an apparent suicide attempt [JURIST report]. Another doctor reported that mental health professionals had examined the three detainees that committed suicide one to two weeks before their deaths, finding no signs of depression or mental conditions that would indicate thoughts of suicide. Harris said the medical examination results imply that the prisoners committed suicide as a political act, but the United Nations, human rights groups and foreign governments have demanded that the US close Guantanamo Bay [JURIST report] because of the harsh conditions in indefinite detention without charge or trial that might have driven the three men to commit suicide. Reuters has more. AP has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] held Wednesday in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry [Duke Law case backgrounder; JURIST report] and three other consolidated cases that only one of the new voting districts created by the 2003 Texas congressional redistricting plan [official website] that helped Republicans gain six seats in the US Congress is invalid under the Voting Rights Act [DOJ backgrounder]. The Court said that the "redrawing of District 23's lines amounts to vote dilution violative" of Section 2 of the Act. Opponents of the redistricting plan had also challenged the plan's validity [case materials] and accused the Texas legislature of drawing oddly shaped districts solely to protect Republican interests, but the Court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to state a sufficient claim of partisan gerrymandering. They also declined to resolve a dispute over whether partisan gerrymandering claims present nonjusticiable political questions.

With respect to the district court decision [PDF text] in the consolidated cases, the Court said:

We affirm the District Court's dispositions on the statewide political gerrymandering claims and the Voting Rights Act claim against District 24. We reverse and remand on the Voting Rights Act claim with respect to District 23. Because we do not reach appellants' race-based equal protection claim or the political gerrymandering claim as to District 23, we vacate the judgment of the District Court on these claims.

[JURIST] Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony [BBC profile] told the Times of London in an interview published Wednesday that he was "not guilty" of atrocities attributed to him, describing himself as a "freedom fighter" rather than a terrorist. Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) [MIPT backgrounder; BBC backgrounder] is wanted [warrant, PDF; ICC materials] by the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on 33 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, sexual enslavement and conscription of children. He was interviewed in a jungle in the Democratic Republic of Congo, surrounded by armed fighters. Kony has recently called for a truce between his rebels and the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni [BBC profile], although he did not explain why in the interview. In recent months, Kony has met with representatives of the southern regional government in Sudan, which wants to mediate the conflict.

The ICC issued Red Notices [press release] for Kony and four other LRA commanders earlier this month, requesting through Interpol [press release] that authorities in 184 countries arrest and detain the men. Museveni has set a deadline of July 31 for Kony to surrender and receive amnesty. Reuters has more. Read the Times' report on the interview. Video of the entire interview is to air Wednesday evening on BBC-TV.

[JURIST] Financial firm Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc [corporate website] on Tuesday agreed to pay a $10 million settlement [SEC press release] to the US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] without admitting or denying allegations made by the SEC that Morgan Stanley failed to protect against potential misuse of insider trading information as required by law. The SEC instituted and immediately settled an enforcement action [opinion text] against Morgan Stanley alleging that the company violated Section 13(f) [text] of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [text] and Section 204A [text] of the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 [text].

Specifically, the enforcement action charged Morgan Stanley with five failures, including not monitoring any employees on a so-called "Watch List" established to identify possible uses of nonpublic material information, and failing to establish clear guidelines on how Watch List surveillance was to be handled. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] on Wednesday clarified vague portions of his national reconciliation proposal [text and press release], saying that no insurgent responsible for the death of Iraqis or coalition forces would be entitled to amnesty. In an interview with several US newspapers, al-Maliki said

The fighter who did not kill anyone will be included in the amnesty, but the fighter who killed someone will not be. This is an international commitment, an ethical committment: Whoever kills is not included in amnesty.

[JURIST] A two-year campaign to pass a physician-assisted suicide law in California [JURIST news archive] has failed by one vote in a legislative committee. The state's Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] voted 3-2 on Tuesday to reject the California Compassionate Choices Act [legislative materials; AB 651 text, PDF; advocacy website], which was modeled on Oregon's Death With Dignity Act [text, PDF]. The bill would have permitted physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs for terminally ill patients who underwent examinations, repeatedly expressed their wishes and abided by a two-week waiting period. Doctors could have refused to prescribe the medication, and patients would have had to administer it themselves.

The committee's two Republican members voted against the bill, but the decisive vote was cast by Sen. Joe Dunn [official profile], a Democrat who said he worried that future legislators would expand the legislation to patients who are incapacitated or incompetent, as the Netherlands has considered [CNN report; Dutch government materials]. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) [official website] has suggested that the issue should be put on the ballot for voters, but the director of Compassion & Choices [advocacy website], a group that lobbied for the failed bill, said a ballot measure would be too expensive and too controversial. Other supporters pledged to try to resurrect the legislation. Reuters has more. The Los Angeles Times has additional coverage.

[JURIST] European Union nations may create additional requirements to family reunification where a child is older than 12 years old and arrives in the member nation as an immigrant before the rest of the family without violating fundamental family rights, the European Court of Justice ruled Tuesday. The ECJ dismissed an action [PDF press release; full text opinion] filed by the European Parliament challenging an EU Council Directive [2003/86/EC text] that allows member states to apply national legislation to family reunification. The opinion held that allowing member states to use a limited amount of discretion in determining requirements for family reunification is a proper balancing test that does not violate the right to respect for family life of the European Convention of Human Rights [text].

The ruling is seen as a victory for EU member nations who wish to have more control over immigration, an increasingly controversial subject in France, the Netherlands, and other states. The ruling permits countries to consider their capacity to accept more immigrants as one factor in whether a family should be allowed to reunite with a child already present in the country. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] The US Justice Department [official website] on Tuesday asked a federal judge in Detroit to dismiss a lawsuit [complaint, DOC] brought by eleven Democrats from the US House of Representatives seeking to halt the implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 [PDF text]. The law was signed by President Bush [press release; fact sheet] in February, but identical versions of the legislation were not passed by both the House and Senate due to a clerical error. The Justice Department argued that the House Democrats, led by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) [official website], lacked standing to challenge the deficit-reducing law because the House Democrats do not rent medical equipment and are not affected by the medical equipment included in the section of the bill containing a clerical error. In the lawsuit, the Democrats accused Republican leaders of abusing the legislative process, saying the Republicans denied Democrats their right to vote on the bill before President Bush signed it into law.

The bill sets the duration of Medicare payments for certain types of medical equipment at 13 months, the figure agreed on by House and Senate negotiators. The House version of the legislation contained a clerical error, setting the relevant time limit at 36 months, but the error was corrected when the bill was transmitted to the president for signature. President Bush signed the Senate version using 13 months, and House leaders certified the final version of the bill before sending it to the White House. House Democrats first brought the challenge in April [JURIST report]. Other challenges to the law are pending, including a lawsuit [PDF complaint; JURIST report] was filed in March by consumer protection organization Public Citizen [advocacy website]. Public Citizen has asked the US District Court for the District of Columbia to declare the law unconstitutional under the Bicameral Clause [text]. AP has more.