[JURIST] A federal judge in Chicago on Tuesday dismissed [ruling, PDF; press release] a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Illinois [advocacy website] on behalf of state residents against AT&T [corporate website] for allegedly turning over phone records to the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] as part of its domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. US District Judge Matthew Kennelly [official profile] noted that the plaintiffs, including author Studs Terkel [JURIST report], lacked standing to bring the complaint since they had no evidence that their records were given to the NSA. Kennelly based his ruling on preventing the federal government's intelligence procedures from being revealed to terrorists. The US Department of Justice [official website] has previously argued [JURIST report] that the case, as well as others related to the program, be dismissed to protect military and state secrets. Although the ACLU argued that the secrets were already revealed by media reports and congressional discussions, Kennelly asserted that the reports of the program have yet to be substantiated.

In May, the ACLU filed nationally coordinated complaints [JURIST report] against three major phone companies and the attorneys general of 20 states, requesting investigations into the legality of information allegedly provided to the NSA by the phone companies. AT&T has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations [JURIST report] that it participated in the program. AP has more.

[JURIST] A Chinese court has delayed a verdict for the second time in the trial of Zhao Yan [HRIC profile, PDF], a former New York Times researcher accused of providing state secrets to foreigners. According to Zhao's lawyers, the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ordered the delay without giving a reason or setting a new date for the verdict. Zhao's trial was conducted in secret on June 16, closed to both his family and potential defense witnesses. The court delayed the verdict [JURIST report] June 16 in a move that Zhao's lawyer described as common. However, the lawyer contends that by again delaying the verdict, Chinese authorities are holding Zhao illegally.

China indicted Zhao [JURIST report] on the state secrets charges in December, following a 2004 New York Times report [text] that revealed the resignation of Jiang Zemin as head of the military before it was formally announced. Authorities dropped the charges [JURIST report] in March, but they continued to detain Zhao [JURIST report] and eventually reinstated the charges. China [JURIST news archive] has insisted that Zhao's continued detention is legal [JURIST report] under the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law [text]. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge in Houston denied a motion Tuesday from former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling [Houston Chronicle profile] that would have overturned his conviction [JURIST report] on 19 out of 28 securities and wire fraud and insider trading counts [verdict slip, PDF] because of insufficient evidence. US District Judge Sim Lake [official profile], however, has yet to rule on a defense motion to give Skilling access to $60 million in frozen assets. Skilling's lawyers are requesting that the court hold a bench trial on the issue, arguing that because Skilling was acquitted on nine of 10 insider trading charges, the frozen assets comprise legal stock sales and should be released.

In addition to those assets, the federal government has asked Lake to order Skilling to turn over an additional $139.3 million [JURIST report] in property and cash that he allegedly acquired as a result of the Enron scandal [JURIST news archive]. Skilling faces a maximum prison term of 185 years at his sentencing, which has been delayed [JURIST report] until Oct. 23. AP has more.

[JURIST] The retrial [BBC Q&A] of five Bulgarian nurses [JURIST report] and a Palestinian doctor accused of spreading HIV to more than 400 Libyan patients [JURIST news archive] who were mostly children has been postponed yet again to allow the prosecutor to summon defense witnesses who have not yet appeared in court. Judge Mahmud Huweissa ordered a delay until Aug. 8, but he denied requests to release the defendants on bail and to take a second look into a 2003 international probe that found the infections were caused by hygiene problems rather than the defendants. Meanwhile, a defense lawyer and a Bulgarian Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed that the defendants have alleged they were tortured, hoping that the court will order an investigation. According to local media, the nurses, who have been incarcerated for seven years, claim that police forced them to undress, tortured them with insects and dogs, threatened them with HIV infection, withheld water and prevented them from sleeping.

The postponement comes on the first day the trial resumed since Huweissa last adjourned it [JURIST report] early this month after three parents of infected children testified against the defendants. Huweissa adjourned the trial in June [JURIST report] because the prosecution and defense both needed more time to prepare evidence and witness lists, even after he postponed it in May [JURIST report] because the lawyers lacked the proper papers to proceed. AFP has more.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] filed a lawsuit Tuesday to prevent two members of the Missouri Public Service Commission [official website] from gathering information about whether Missouri consumers' telephone records were released to the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] in connection with its domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive]. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in St. Louis [official website], alleges that disclosing the information to the state regulatory commission would cause "exceptionally grave harm to national security." In June, the two commission members subpoenaed AT&T Inc. [corporate website] requesting that it release any judicial or administrative records seeking the consumer information, which the commissioners said is protected by Missouri regulations [text]. After AT&T refused the request, citing federal security laws, the commissioners asked a judge to compel AT&T to comply [AP report].

The DOJ filed another lawsuit last month [JURIST report] seeking to block the New Jersey attorney general from seeking information about the NSA program. The New Jersey and Missouri investigations began after a May USA Today report that the NSA had been collecting phone records from major telephone companies [JURIST report] in an effort to detect terrorist activity. AT&T has neither confirmed nor denied participating, but USA Today has reported that intelligence officials confirmed to lawmakers that AT&T gave the NSA bulk call records [JURIST report]. AP has more.

[JURIST] Two Republican members of the US Congress announced a proposal [summary, DOC] Tuesday to bridge the gap between the Senate and House versions of immigration reform legislation [JURIST news archive]. The plan devised by US Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) [official website] and US Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) incorporates elements of the Senate and House bills by implementing a temporary worker program suggested by President Bush and endorsed by the Senate only after border security measures favored by the House are in place. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Pence said [text]:

I believe Hutchison-Pence is a plan where justice and mercy meet. America is based on the rule of law, and that rule must be enforced. But, the history of our country is also grounded in immigration and in the belief that we treat others, even those who are aliens, with care and compassion. This sentiment is essentially an expression of a moral principal. The ancient words from the Bible, "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him for you were aliens in Egypt," reflect the sentiment of millions of Americans who share this compassionate view of the illegal immigrants in our midst. But, this must be done without amnesty in order to maintain the rule of law.

[JURIST] A bill that would set up a nationwide online database of sex offenders' homes and workplaces is awaiting President Bush's approval following passage Tuesday by the US House. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 [HR 4472 summary; PDF text], named after a Florida boy [Wikipedia backgrounder] who was abducted from a shopping mall and killed in 1981, was approved by a voice vote in both houses of Congress. Sex offenders who fail to register with the database could be charged with a felony punishable by 10 years in prison. Supporters said the database will help families and law enforcement officials protect children. The FBI already operates a more limited National Sex Offenders Registry [FBI backgrounder; query interface], and all 50 states and the District of Columbia have registration systems [FBI list] as well.

Among its other provisions, the bill imposes a mandatory prison sentence of at least 25 years for kidnapping or maiming a child and a sentence of at least 30 years for having sex with a child 12 or younger and for sexually assaulting a child between 13 and 17. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter [text] to House members in March urging them to vote against an earlier version of the bill, which the ACLU said would "create ten new federal death penalties and almost 30 new discriminatory mandatory minimums that infringe upon protected First Amendment speech, effectively eliminate federal and state prisoners' ability to challenge wrongful convictions in federal court, make it more difficult to monitor sex offenders and create more serious juvenile offenders by incarcerating children in adult prisons." AP has more.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] said Tuesday it has appealed the dismissal [ACLU press release] of a highly publicized lawsuit [ACLU case materials] brought by the ACLU against CIA Director George Tenet and other agency officials and employees on behalf of Khalid el-Masri [JURIST news archive], a Lebanese born German citizen who claims that the US Central Intelligence Agency [official website] seized him in Macedonia in 2003 in an instance of extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive]. El-Masri sued the CIA in the United States for allegedly holding him at a secret Afghanistan prison for five months, subjecting him to inhumane conditions and coercive interrogation, and eventually releasing him in Albania in 2004 without charge.

A federal judge in May dismissed the lawsuit [order, PDF; JURIST report] on state secrets grounds, but the ACLU said that it would "continue to pursue a fair hearing" for el-Masri [press release]. ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who will argue the appeal before the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] in Richmond, stated that if the district court decision is left standing, "the government will have a blank check to shield even its most shameful conduct from accountability." Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Democrats in the US Senate are proposing additional exemptions for a bill that would punish those who help a minor cross state lines to receive an abortion [JURIST news archive] without parental consent or notification. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) [official website] plans to offer an amendment to the Child Custody Protection Act [SB 8 summary; PDF text] that would shield "confidants" such as clergy and grandparents from prosecution, while other Democrats want to protect those who help minors who pursue out-of-state abortions because of rape or incest. Abortion opponents contend that the amendments would drastically weaken the bill [LifeNews.com report].

The bill, sponsored by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) [official website; press release] and co-sponsored by 41 senators, already exempts the minors, their parents and legal guardians, and those who facilitate abortions that were "necessary to save the life of the minor." Violations would be punishable by fines and up to a year in prison. The House passed a similar bill [JURIST report; HR 748 summary and PDF text] last year by a vote of 270-157. Only six states and the District of Columbia do not require parental notification before a minor receives an abortion. AP has more.

8:10 PM ET - The Senate passed the bill late Tuesday 65-34 [roll call]. The Feinstein amendment on "confidants" was rejected in floor negotiations, and a measure offered by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to require the government to spend more money on sex education failed 48-51 [roll call]. There are, however, major differences between the Senate bill and a House version of the legislation passed last year, and these will have to be resolved before the bill can go forward to the President for signature. AP has more.

[JURIST] The UK Home Office [official website] announced plans to overhaul Britain's immigration system [press release] Tuesday in a review [PDF text] outlining how the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) [official website] will respond to the impact of globalization, changing travel patterns and evolving international crime and terrorism. The review recommends implementing identification cards, including biometric visas [eGov backgrounder] for foreign nationals by 2008; performing border checks before residents leave their home nations; counting the number of people that enter and exit by 2014; handling 90 percent of asylum claims within 6 months; and strictly enforcing laws banning employers from hiring illegal residents.

Home Secretary John Reid [official profile] told the UK House of Commons [official website] Tuesday that the planned overhaul came in response to weaknesses identified in the IND, particularly when Prime Minister Tony Blair fired former Home Secretary Charles Clarke [JURIST report] after authorities freed more than 1,000 foreign criminals [BBC timeline; JURIST report] at the end of their prison sentences without considering deportation. BBC News has more.

[JURIST] The youngest suspect arrested in June in connection with an alleged terrorist plot to attack Canadian targets [JURIST reports] has been released on bail. The 16-year-old, whose name has not been publicized because he is a minor, was released Monday after a judge spent nearly two weeks deliberating, according to the suspect's lawyer, Michael Block. Details of the suspect's release are subject to a court-imposed publication ban [JURIST report], but Block described the bond posted by his client's family as "substantial" given their "modest means" and the conditions as "very restrictive." Bail has so far been granted to two other suspects [Globe & Mail report], including a minor, and has been denied to four.

The 15 adults and two minors arrested June 2 are suspected of being members of a terrorist cell that planned to attack targets in southern Ontario and Toronto, including the CN Tower and the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. Block said Monday that his client "never really intended anything very grandiose" but nevertheless "became one of the subjects of a lot of attention." Reuters has more. The Toronto Star has local coverage.

[JURIST] Three men convicted in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC report] will likely be executed [JURIST report] in late August, a spokesman from the Bali district attorney's office said Tuesday. Under Indonesian law, head of Denpasar's district attorney office Made Suratmaja cannot disclose the location or date when the three men will be executed by firing squad, but said that the district attorney's office notified the convicts and their families that preparations for their execution have begun. The attorney general's office also said it had received permission from the country's Justice and Human Rights Ministry [ministry website] 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. Indonesia usually executes inmates in the jurisdiction where they committed the criminal act, but safety precautions have prompted the district attorney's office to seek an alternate location.

Suratmaja said the execution may be delayed pending an appeal. A lawyer representing the three bombers has said he plans to appeal the executions to the Indonesian Supreme Court [official website], arguing that 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.

[JURIST] Three men convicted in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings [BBC report] will likely be executed [JURIST report] in late August, a spokesman from the Bali district attorney's office said Tuesday. Under Indonesian law, head of Denpasar's district attorney office Made Suratmaja cannot disclose the location or date when the three men will be executed by firing squad, but said that the district attorney's office notified the convicts and their families that preparations for their execution have begun. The attorney general's office also said it had received permission from the country's Justice and Human Rights Ministry [ministry website] 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. Indonesia usually executes inmates in the jurisdiction where they committed the criminal act, but safety precautions have prompted the district attorney's office to seek an alternate location.

Suratmaja said the execution may be delayed pending an appeal. A lawyer representing the three bombers has said he plans to appeal the executions to the Indonesian Supreme Court [official website], arguing that 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.

[JURIST] The joint UN-Cambodian court that will try former leaders of the communist Khmer Rouge [JURIST news archive] regime that decimated Cambodia's population in the "killing fields" of the late 1970s must move quickly or risk the deaths of more of the aging genocide suspects, the US ambassador to Cambodia said Tuesday. Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli [official profile], speaking to more than 500 Cambodian commune chiefs at the US Embassy in Phnom Penh, urged the Extraordinary Chambers of Cambodia (EC) [trial task force materials; EC backgrounder] to satisfy a "hunger for justice." According to his prepared remarks [text], Mussomeli said:

The Cambodian genocide stands alone as having failed to bring any of the guilty to justice. From the Nuremberg Trials to the more recent international tribunals to try the mass murderers in Serbia and Rwanda, the victims, their families, and the international community have been given some semblance of justice, some degree of retribution. But not Cambodia.

So some argue that expending scarce funding for a 30-year old crime is absurd, but I hope most Cambodians would disagree. In Cambodia those who were responsible for the genocide for the most part live safe, free, even prosperous lives among the very people they terrorized.

[JURIST] Nepal’s reinstated parliament on Tuesday directed the government to ratify [CICC backgrounder] the Rome Statute [PDF] of the International Criminal Court, the new international tribunal established to try crimes against humanity. “Nepali people want an end to impunity," a parliamentary declaration said. "They also want to see human rights perpetrators punished. So this parliament orders the Government of Nepal to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

The order to the Nepalese government comes as peace talks [JURIST report] between the government and the Maoist rebels are going on to end 10 years of strife. The violence has already claimed over 13,000 lives. Nepal human rights organizations and international human rights bodies have been demanding for many years that Nepal ratify the Rome Statute in view of grave human rights violations both by the government security forces and the Maoists. The Rome Statute came into force on June 15, 1998; it has so far been ratified by 58 countries.

Kiran Chapagain is a special correspondent for JURIST writing from Nepal. He is an Assistant Senior Reporter for the Kathmandu Post.

[JURIST] A terror watch list [FBI FAQ] designed to keep suspected terrorist from entering the United States through one of 324 points of entry is vague and ineffective, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [official website] Inspector General Richard Skinner [official profile] said Monday. Skinner released an unclassified version of a report [PDF text] on actions taken to intercept suspected terrorists at US ports of entry, which found that travelers with names similar to those on the watch list can be questioned for hours and that officials often fail to report details of encounters with suspected terrorists, thereby wasting border officials time and harming intelligence analysis of suspected terrorists. Without proper reporting of each encounter with suspected terrorists and people with similar names, innocent travelers become subject to questioning by officials repeatedly [NYT report]. Skinner added that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) [official website] officers do not have the authority to make quick decisions about terror suspects because the lack security clearances to review information on suspects on the list.

Homeland Security spokesman Jarrod Agen disputed Skinner's findings, saying that Skinner's information is outdated and that CBP has already implemented new programs to increase the efficiency of clearing travelers to enter the US. Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) [official website], the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee [official website], expressed disappointment [press release] that "weak leadership" in DHS "has left our border protection agents poorly armed to stop terrorist infiltration." AP has more.

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: Keeping the 'Watch' in Terrorism Watch Lists

[JURIST] Momcilo Mandic, the former Bosnian Serb justice minister in the wartime government under Radovan Karadzic [ICTY case backgrounder], pleaded not guilty [press release] at the War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina [HRW backgrounder] on Tuesday to charges [JURIST report] of war crimes, crimes against humanity, embezzlement and fraud. Mandic was charged in connection with his efforts to offer Karadzic financial support while in hiding and in connection with Mandic's management of correctional facilities in the Serb-controlled area of Bosnia, which allegedly illegally imprisoned many non-Serbs. Officials arrested Mandic last August [JURIST report].

Karadzic and former army chief Ratko Mladic [ICTY case backgrounder; JURIST news archive] are wanted by the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] for alleged crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, including organizing the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslims in Srebrenica [JURIST news archive]. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website], chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Monday defended his proposal to subject the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive] to review by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FJC backgrounder], saying that the court is well suited to consider the program because of its "expertise" and because "Its closed proceedings and unblemished record for not leaking would make full consideration both possible and secure." In an op-ed published in the Washington Post, Specter said his compromise with the administration was designed "to structure a procedure under which the courts can adjudicate the lawfulness of this highly sensitive program while maintaining the secrecy the president contends is so important." Critics have spoken out against the proposal [JURIST report], arguing that the plan concentrates too much power in the FISC.

Earlier this month, Specter said that he had reached a compromise with the White House [JURIST report] after months of negotiations. In addition to allowing FISC oversight of the surveillance program, Specter's proposal [PDF text] would require the attorney general to provide the FISC information on the NSA program, including the criteria used to determine whether intercepted communications are related to terrorist activities, and an expansion of the period where emergency wiretaps can be secured from the FISC from three to seven days. In his op-ed, Specter noted that "negotiations with administration officials and the president himself were fierce" and said that matter must not be left to "drift indefinitely. If someone has a better idea for legislation that would resolve the program's legality or can negotiate a better compromise with the president, I will be glad to listen."

ALSO ON JURIST  Op-ed: No Compromise: Arlen Specter's Surveillance Bill

[JURIST] Native Americans participating in the ten-year-old Indian Trust case [Cobell v. Norton litigation website] involving the alleged mismanagement of American Indian money [DOI Indian Trust Fund website] by the US Department of the Interior [official website] have indicated they may be willing to settle their lawsuit for $8 billion. The $8 billion offer is much lower than the $27.5 billion figure [JURIST report] that the plaintiffs demanded for settlement last year, but the plaintiffs seem ready to end the long court battle. The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit ten years ago, accusing the government of mismanaging an Indian trust [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] in their names for a period of 120 years.

Earlier this month, the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday directed that US District Judge Royce Lamberth [official profile], the outspoken jurist presiding over the case, be removed from the case [JURIST report]. The settlement, if agreed upon, will be included in the Indian Trust Reform Act [HR 4322 summary; Missoulian report], which the Senate has scheduled for markup [Indianz.com report] on August 2. AP has more.

4:22 PM ET - Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the Indian trust case, released a statement [text] Tuesday emphasizing that she does not believe that an $8 billion settlement for the claims is "equitable." Cobell nonetheless said "it would be foolish to ignore political realities while our people continue to go without the basic staples of life. That is why I and the other representative plaintiffs -- in consultation with class members -- are considering this settlement offer. We have not come to any conclusions whether to support this or not. Our deliberations are on-going."

[JURIST] The UN Security Council [official website] on Monday called for renewed efforts [press release] to protect children in areas of armed conflict to build on progress in implementing Resolution 1612 [PDF text], which requires international monitoring of children's rights in seven areas of armed conflict. Though the resolution, adopted unanimously [JURIST report] last July, has already produced results, the Council expressed concern that widespread violations still occur and called for additional efforts to help reintegrate child soldiers into civil society. The Council called on national governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations to help monitor the well-being of children in armed conflict and halt violations.

Last year's resolution requires the UN to monitor the recruitment of child soldiers, the murder of children, the sexual abuse of children, abduction, forced displacement and trafficking of children, and attacks against schools and hospitals. In particular, the resolution called for monitors in Burundi, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nepal, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Sudan. The first monitoring report, on the situation in DRC, was submitted to the UN in June. UNICEF, meanwhile, released a report [UNICEF materials] Monday saying that 600 children in DRC die daily because of violence, disease and malnutrition. The UN News Centre has more.

[JURIST] Thailand's criminal court on Tuesday sentenced three members of the Election Commission of Thailand [official website, in Thai] to four years in jail for violating election law in connection with arrangements for the April parliamentary election [BBC report]. The results of that election have since been annulled [JURIST report] by the nation's highest courts. The three election commissioners - Vasana Puemlarp, Prinya Nakchudtree and Virachai Naewboonnien - were convicted of allowing candidates to switch constituencies in the second round of balloting and other abuses of power in organizing the elections. The second round of voting was required after candidates of the party led by Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile], the Thai Rak Thai party [party website, in Thai], failed to garner the minimum 20 percent of votes necessary to win the election. The three commissioners said Tuesday they would appeal the verdict to the Thailand Supreme Court [government backgrounder].

The Thai government also announced Tuesday that new election commissioners will be appointed within a month [Bloomberg report], before the October 15 parliamentary election [JURIST report]. The three convicted commissioners, however, refuse to resign even though the heads of Thailand's three highest courts recommended that the three commissioners resign [JURIST report] in May. Bloomberg has more. The Bangkok Post has local coverage.

[JURIST] US Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) [official website] announced plans Monday to introduce legislation that will give Congress the power to file court challenges against presidential bill signing statements [1993 DOJ backgrounder] in order to have the signing statement declared unconstitutional. Specter's comments came on the same day that an American Bar Association Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine [ABA materials] released a report [PDF text; JURIST report] concluding [press release] that President Bush's practice of attaching signing statements to new laws "undermine[s] the rule of law and our constitutional system of separation of powers." The report also includes several recommendations to curb Bush's unusually high number of signing statements, which outnumber all other presidents combined, such as urging the president to veto a bill rather than issue a signing statement and legislation similar to that which Specter plans to propose.

White House spokesman Tony Snow defended Bush's use of signing statements [press briefing transcript], saying Bush writes in small questions about constitutionality and never states that the Administration will not enact the law. Specter, who has led the signing statements challenge [JURIST report], began his campaign against signing statements after President Bush challenged provisions of Specter's USA Patriot Act renewal legislation [Boston Globe report; JURIST report] and legislation banning the use of torture on detainees [JURIST report]. AP has more.