[JURIST] In a joint news conference Wednesday with Moqtada al-Sadr [BBC profile], a militant Shiite cleric and head of the Mehdi Army militia, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [BBC profile] expressed hope for speedy proceedings against former president Saddam Hussein [JURIST news archive] and proclaimed that “God willing the death sentence verdict will be issued soon against the tyrant Saddam and his followers." A verdict is expected in the Dujail crimes again humanity case [JURIST news archive] against Hussein as early as November 5, though a possible execution by hanging could be delayed until after an appeals process and more pending trials. A second trial [BBC timeline; JURIST news archive] of Saddam and cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid [BBC profile] for their role in the alleged genocide of Kurds in the Anfal campaigns [HRW backgrounder] of the late 1980s is already well underway.

Last month, al-Maliki's government criticized and removed {JURIST report] the chief judge in the genocide case for denying that Saddam had been dictator of Iraq [JURIST report], saying the statement sacrificed his neutrality in a trial whose objectivity is already compromised by international pressure and ongoing violence. AP has more.

[JURIST] Members of an Ethiopian inquiry team charged with investigating violent mass demonstrations [JURIST report] following the May 2005 elections and separate protests [JURIST report] about ballot fraud in November 2005 announced Wednesday that 193 civilians were killed by Ethiopian security forces during the violence, nearly three times the official number reported by the government. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi [BBC profile] and other government officials declined to respond to the excessive force claims. Zenawi reportedly told the inquiry team to alter its report in July, just two days before the group had planned to present its findings to the Ethiopian Parliament. At least two members of the 10-person panel have since fled from Ethiopia [JURIST news archive]. AP has more.

Over 100 journalists, lawmakers and human rights activists were initially charged with treason [JURIST report] following the mass protests in 2005, though some may have been granted amnesty [JURIST report] by Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis [official profile] in a surprise move last month.

[JURIST] A US district court judge from the Northern District of Texas [official website] has ruled that the one-year statute of limitations for bringing libel suits in Texas applies equally to articles posted on the Internet and articles in print. In dismissing a lawsuit against the Dallas Morning News [media website], columnist Scott Burns, [personal website], and parent company Belo [corporate website], Judge David Godbey [official profile] held Monday that the statute begins to run the moment an article is published on the Internet and ends a year later, even if the article remains available online. In the opinion, Godbey wrote that he "sees no rational reason for distinguishing between the Internet and other forms of traditional mass media."

Ohio-based Nationwide Bi-Weekly Administration [corporate website] had brought suit claiming that a column [text] by Burns was inaccurate, a charge Burns and the newspaper have repeatedly denied. Nationwide filed its suit within the statutory period but did not properly notify the defendants in time, according to the ruling. Nationwide is reportedly considering an appeal. AP has more.

[JURIST] A military court in Jordan [JURIST news archive] found eight Islamic militants guilty Wednesday of plotting to attack Americans and Israelis in Jordan and of planning to kill US forces being trained in both Jordan and Iraq. The convicted eight, including three still at large, were reportedly part of Al-Taa'efa al-Mansourah [MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, group profile], a group purported to have been formed in 2003 by ringleader Ahmad Shabaneh. Though prosecutors had demanded the death penalty, Shabaneh and the in absentia defendants each received 10-year jail sentences, while the remaining five defendants were sentenced to two to seven years. After the verdicts were read, the chained prisoners shouted at the judge, calling him an "enemy and a tyrant," as they had called for the "slaughter" of US forces at the start of their trial in March [AP report]. Aljazeera has more.

Last month, ten other suspected militants were sentenced by Jordanian military courts on similar charges [JURIST report] and each received 10- to 20-year jail terms. In November 2004, Jordan acquitted four defendants [JURIST report] also charged with terror plots against Americans and Jews in Jordan.

[JURIST] Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] told federal judge Alejandro Solis during a meeting Wednesday that he neither participated in nor was aware of the torture of thousands of citizens at Villa Grimaldi prison [Wikipedia backgrounder], the infamous political detention center allegedly operated by Pinochet’s secret police in Chile [JURIST news archive] between 1974 and 1977. Solis, who reportedly plans to charge Pinochet with the torture and disappearance of political prisoners, questioned Pinochet for the first time Wednesday in conjunction with the Villa Grimaldi investigation. The Supreme Court of Chile [official website, in Spanish] issued a ruling last month in which it divested Pinochet of immunity [JURIST report] in the Villa Grimaldi case and set the stage for potential human rights [JURIST news archive] charges against the former dictator. Reuters has more.

Just last week, the Santiago Court of Appeals [Chilean judiciary website] voted to strip Pinochet's immunity in another human rights case [JURIST report] concerning the kidnapping and murder of a chemist who worked for the secret police.

[JURIST] A civil court in Berlin Wednesday dismissed two claims against a German distributor of the drug Vioxx [JURIST news archive], manufactured by US pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co. [corporate website], citing plaintiffs' failures in both cases to demonstrate a causal connection between the drug and symptoms. The court held that "expressing a vague suspicion is not enough" in dismissing both a €80,000 damages suit and a separate request for information from the company about potential side-effects. The German distributor and both claimants remain unnamed.

Earlier this month, a New Jersey judge rejected [JURIST report] roughly 50 lawsuits against Merck brought by British plaintiffs in the New Jersey state court system, holding that "compensatory damages are available to the plaintiffs in the UK courts." About a dozen related US state and federal [JURIST reports] lawsuits have gone to trial within the last two years against Merck, with the drug manufacturer winning about half of the cases. There are over 18,000 Vioxx lawsuits pending against Merck in the US, but the statute of limitations, which is two years in many states, will expire soon since Vioxx was removed from shelves in September 2004. AP has more.

[JURIST] Plans for the organization of a national human rights commission in Iraq [JURIST news archive] were announced Wednesday by members of the Iraqi parliament [official website] at a workshop sponsored by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) [official website]. The proposed commission, supported by many Iraqi political parties, will employ nine persons selected by the Iraqi parliament to monitor and report all human rights violations in the country. A leading Shiite lawmaker said the commission will be able to address popular complaints about human rights violations which "have taken place over the past three years because of past policies as well as the occupation."

In September, the latest UNAMI Human Rights Report [PDF text] on Iraq called for firm action by the government to address growing human rights concerns. A July UNAMI report [JURIST report] welcomed steps taken towards national reconciliation [proposal text and press release; JURIST report] under the administration of new Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [official website]. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Seventy-eight people have been charged with bankruptcy fraud and related counts as a result of a nationwide federal law enforcement sweep entitled "Operation Truth or Consequences," a top US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] official announced [press release] Wednesday. Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty [official profile] said the charges arose out of 18 separate cases of bankruptcy fraud and involve the use of fake Social Security numbers, concealment of more over $3M in assets, and other unlawful acts. Explaining that the sweep was vital, he observed that "bankruptcy fraud is often the tip of the criminal iceberg, and that makes these prosecutions so important."

"Operation Truth or Consequences" is a partnership investigation and enforcement program joining the DOJ, FBI, IRS, and other federal organizations. CNN has more.

[JURIST] Four US soldiers implicated in the rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl [JURIST news archive] and the murder of her family in the Mahmudiya (also "Mahmoudiya") area in March have been referred to trial by general court-martial, military officials at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, announced Wednesday. Two of the soldiers, Pfc. Jesse Spielman and Sgt. Paul Cortez, could be sentenced to the death penalty if convicted of the murders, while the other two soldiers will not be eligible for capital punishment. Military prosecutors charged [JURIST report] the four soldiers in July; a fifth has been charged with dereliction of duty for failing to report the incident and making false statements. The initial four refused to testify [JURIST report] at their Article 32 hearing [Navy JAG backgrounder] in August. A now-discharged soldier, Steven Green [JURIST news archive], is facing civilian charges in North Carolina in connection with the same incident.

The Mahmudiya case has outraged Iraqi leaders [JURIST report], prompting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [official website] to launch an independent investigation [JURIST report] by Iraqis into the crimes allegedly committed by US troops. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Army Col. Richard Basset traveled to the US prison camp at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] Wednesday to begin an investigation into accusations of abuse [JURIST report]. The US Defense Department last week ordered [press release, PDF] US Southern Command [official website], which oversees the military facility, to investigate allegations that military guards beat detainees and took away their personal items for no apparent reason. The allegations [JURIST report] were described in a complaint filed by Marine Corps Lt. Col. Colby Vokey at the US Department of Defense Office of Inspector General [official website], along with an affidavit from Vokey's paralegal, who heard several guards bragging about beating prisoners.

The US Marine Corps [official website] has ordered Vokey and his paralegal to refrain from speaking to media [JURIST report] about their accusations. Vokey currently represents Omar Khadr [JURIST news archive], the 19-year-old Canadian citizen who has been detained at Guantanamo Bay for more than four years. Basset has approximately 30 days to submit his report to Southern Command. A military spokesman said Wednesday that Basset has the authority to interview anyone part of the military unit that runs the prison, Joint Task Force-Guantanamo Bay [official website], no matter the person's rank. AP has more.

[JURIST] UK Prime Minister Tony Blair [official profile] blamed judges and political opponents for the disappearance of two terror suspects [JURIST report] during his monthly news conference [transcript] on Wednesday, insisting that his attempts to enact stronger terrorism legislation "were prevented by opposition in Parliament and then by the courts in ensuring that was done." The missing uncharged suspects were under so-called control orders [Home Office backgrounder; JURIST news archive] restricting their movements and behavior, instituted after a court held that without an official charge, the government could not continue to detain them.

The UK Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 [text] permits control orders [JURIST report] when individuals are suspected of involvement in terrorist activities, but there is not enough evidence to bring charges against them. In April, a High Court judge ruled [JURIST report] that control orders breach suspects' human rights, but stopped short of saying it was illegal for the Home Office to authorize the orders. UPI has more.

[JURIST] The father of Australian Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee David Hicks [JURIST news archive] has said that Hicks' defense team will challenge the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [text, PDF] signed into law [JURIST report] by President Bush Tuesday. Terry Hicks said Tuesday that the new legislation leaves the previous system for military commissions virtually intact, although it was ruled unconstitutional [JURIST report] by the US Supreme Court [official website] in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Terry Hicks speculated that his son will remain in detention at Guantanamo for at least two years while the appeals process moves forward.

Last week, Australian lawyers denounced [JURIST report] their government's treatment of Hicks, who has been detained without trial at Guantanamo since 2001 as an enemy combatant [JURIST news archive]. Hicks' lawyer David McLeod has been pushing [JURIST report] for his client to be returned to Australia and the Australian Attorney General announced in August that it would also urge Hicks' return [JURIST report] if the United States did not pursue new charges against him; however, new charges are expected to be filed against Hicks in the wake of the passage of the Military Commissions Act. Australia's ABC News has more.

[JURIST] The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) [advocacy website] has filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] against the US Department of Homeland Security [official website] and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [official website], claiming the agencies illegally employed information from databases such as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), which tracks predominantly Muslim visitors, immigrants, and students to the US. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [DOJ materials], requests information regarding the nationalities, but not the identities, of 237 individuals who were arrested in October 2004 on suspicion of immigration breaches. The ADC alleges that the increase of arrests constituted part of a program known as the "October Plan" during which immigration officials ramped up efforts to arrest Muslims during the period before the 2004 Presidential elections. ICE denies any operation targeting Muslims or any other racial, religious, or political group, explaining that the increased arrests simply point to the policy of increasing security as elections approach.

The lawsuit represents a third attempt over the last two years by the ADC to compel Homeland Security and the ICE to release the information. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Russian hockey team Metallurg Magnitogorsk [team website; Wikipedia backgrounder] on Wednesday sued Evgeni Malkin, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the NHL [TSN report] in a dispute over the star hockey player's move from Russia to the National Hockey League, the second such lawsuit to be filed this week by a Russian Super Hockey League team. The lawsuit, seeking an injunction blocking Malkin from playing in the NHL this season, comes the same day that Malkin, injured in a preseason game, is set to make his NHL debut [ESPN preview]. On Tuesday, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl [team website; Wikipedia backgrounder] also filed a lawsuit in US court [Canadian Press report] against the NHL, Calgary Flames, and Edmonton Oilers, claiming that Andrei Taratukhin [team profile] of the Flames and Alexei Mikhnov [team profile] of the Oilers are under contract with them for the 2006-2007 season and also sought an injunction. Neither player has yet appeared in a regular season game; Taratukhin was assigned to the American Hockey League [league website], while Mikhnov hasn't dressed for any games.

The dispute arises from Russia's refusal to sign on to the player transfer agreement [press release] between the NHL and International Ice Hockey Federation [group website]. Under the current agreement, European teams receive up to $200,000 in compensation if one of their players leaves to play in the NHL. Russia objected to that figure as too low.

This battle has been fought before. Dynamo Moscow, the former team of 2004 #1 overall NHL draft pick Alexander Ovechkin [ESPN profile], sued in US District Court in Washington, DC last fall to stop him from playing for the Washington Capitals. The court threw out the case [Washington Post report], holding that it lacked jurisdiction to enforce a Russian arbitrator's ruling that Ovechkin still owed the club a year on his contract; Ovechkin countered that he had signed a new deal with an escape clause. Ovechkin went on to score 52 goals and win the Calder Trophy as the 2005-2006 Rookie of the Year. Proposals were on the table to offer Dynamo as much as $900,000 in transfer fees [Hockey's Future report] for Ovechkin, but they demanded up to $3 million.

Evgeni Malkin [ESPN profile], who was taken right behind Ovechkin in the 2004 NHL Draft, remained in Russia until this season, when he exercised a loophole in Russian labor law [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review report] to walk away from his contract. Again arguing that the transfer agreement would not have provided enough compensation, Metallurg Magnitogorsk executives blasted the move and vowed to go to court to seek damages. The team's General Director Gennady Velichkin called the move "pure sports terrorism" [Reuters report], saying "They all like to talk about democracy, the American way and then they shamelessly steal our best players." TSN has more. The Edmonton Sun has additional coverage.

Read more JURIST coverage of Entertainment & Sports Law...

[JURIST] Canadian Justice Minister Vic Toews [official profile] has defended a new crime bill [C-27 text] introduced by the country's Conservative Party government which could require repeat criminal offenders to convince courts that they are no longer dangerous instead of requiring Crown prosecutors to establish a continuing threat. Toews resisted criticism calling the proposed law unconstitutional, saying the presumption of innocence only applies prior to conviction and pointing out that the bill only applies to individuals who have already been convicted. The bill changes the burden of proof for offenders who have committed violent and sexual crimes for the third time. If they are not able to convince the judge that they are no longer dangerous, they will be given an indeterminate jail sentence with no chance of parole for seven years. CTV has more.

Toews introduced [press release] the bill in the Canadian House of Commons [official website] Tuesday as an amendment to Canada's current Criminal Code [text]. Toews said the measure was a deterrent against future criminal activity and had been reviewed very carefully. Critics of the bill say it will likely face challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. CBC has more.

[JURIST] Defense lawyers acting for Saddam Hussein in his genocide trial [JURIST news archive; BBC timeline] again failed to appear in court Wednesday, despite an agreement [JURIST report] with the chief judge allowing them to rejoin the proceedings. The lawyers have been boycotting the trial [JURIST report] to protest the behavior of Chief Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, appointed by the Iraqi government after the original presiding judge was removed [JURIST report] last month for saying in court that Hussein was not a dictator [JURIST report]. Sapa-AFP has more.

In the absence of Saddam's own legal team the genocide trial nonetheless continued Wednesday with witnesses detailing massacres of Kurds during the so-called "Anfal" campaign [HRW backgrounder] in the late 1980s which resulted in the deaths of more than 180,000 villagers. One witness, who spoke from behind a curtain, recounted being part of a group which was told they were being moved to a new detention facility, but their convoy stopped in the desert and they were fired upon as the group tried to attack their guards before being killed. The testimony ended with the trial being adjourned until Thursday. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Turkish Parliament [official website, in Turkish] on Tuesday passed a resolution condemning a French bill [text, in French] that criminalizes any refusal to characterize the WWI-era mass killings of Armenians [ANI backgrounder] in Turkey as genocide, but did not take any further retaliatory action. The bill passed France's lower house [JURIST report] last week but still needs approval by the French Senate and President Jacques Chirac to become national law. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, meanwhile, has urged the French Senate to reject the bill [press release; AP report] as a violation of free speech principles.

The Turkish parliament has previously threatened retaliation [JURIST report] against the French law by proposing a similar bill [JURIST report] labeling as genocide the French colonial killings of Algerians [JURIST report], and making it illegal to deny the French as culpable. The EU has said the French bill comes at a bad time for EU relations with Turkey [JURIST report] as the two are currently engaged in enlargement talks. French President Jacques Chirac has reportedly apologized [JURIST report] to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan over the row. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] US Army Col. Thomas Pappas [Wikipedia profile] testified Tuesday that the senior officer running the interrogation center at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison [JURIST news archive] was concerned when he was chosen that he did not have the proper training or experience questioning prisoners to assume that role at the facility. At the Article 32 hearing [JAG backgrounder; JURIST report], which will determine whether Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan [Wikipedia profile] should face a court-martial for charges [JURIST report] stemming from the abuse scandal, Pappas said he responded to Jordan's worries by telling him that he was selected for his leadership skills. Pappas was in charge of military intelligence in Iraq at the time of the abuse scandal, but received immunity for testifying against Jordan.

A witness for the defense, Maj. Mike Thompson, said his operations chief told him that Pappas, not Jordan, was actually in charge of Abu Ghraib's Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. Pappas admitted during testimony that he was the lead officer at the facility when some of the abuses occurred, but claimed he did not know about the use of interrogation tactics involving nudity or prisoner humiliation. Jordan's lawyers suggested that overcrowding at Abu Ghraib created stressful working conditions and a poor environment for questioning. The Baltimore Sun has more.

[JURIST] Advocacy groups and policymakers have reacted strongly to the Military Commissions Act of 2006 [PDF text; S 3930 summary], signed into law [JURIST report] by President Bush on Tuesday, calling it a denial of civil liberties while predicting it will fold under court scrutiny. The ACLU said the bill denies due process and constitutional protections [press release] to detainees, placing Guantanamo Bay and other US facilities abroad in a "legal no-man's land." Former Congresswoman Elisabeth Holtzman brought attention to a provision of the law she says grants a pardon [press release] to "President Bush and his top Cabinet officials for any crimes they may have committed under the War Crimes Act of 1996." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who was criticized by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) for placing politics before security by voting against the bill, also reiterated her opposition [press release] to provisions that "allow the President to interpret the Geneva Conventions through executive order."

The Legal Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights predicted [press release; briefing paper] that the bill will be struck down by the Supreme Court because "the provision of the MCA that strips the right of habeas corpus is a direct violation of the suspension clause of the U.S. Constitution because it denies non-citizens a meaningful opportunity to challenge the legality of their detention." To that end, CCR has filed in district court several new challenges to the habeas corpus provisions [JURIST report] of the commissions bill. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) also called the legislation "seriously flawed" [press release], noting that "Its evisceration of the writ of habeas corpus for all non-citizens is almost surely unconstitutional, and so is its attempt to legalize the use of evidence obtained by torture."

The military commissions bill [JURIST news archive] became necessary after the US Supreme Court ruled in June that the commissions, as initially constituted, lacked proper legal authorization [JURIST report]. The law provides statutory authorization for military commission trials for Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] and the Bush administration has promised to immediately take steps toward beginning prosecution [briefing transcript; AP report]. A senior state department official said last week that as many as 80 detainees could face trial by military commission [JURIST report]. AFP has more. CNS News has additional coverage.

[JURIST] The air transportation system used by the federal government to deport illegal immigrants and transfer federal prisoners could be more secure and cost-effective, according to an audit report [PDF text] released Tuesday by the Department of Justice Inspector General. Known as the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System (JPATS) [official website], the system leased jets from Boeing to transport 305,000 prisoners in 2005 to various locations, in and out of the country, at a total cost of $87 million. The audit suggested that as only 13 percent of flights could boast of a better than minimum passenger-guard ratio, more security would ensure that the passengers are never able to overcome security and hijack a plane. The audit also noted that poor logistical planning created too many empty seats, and that significant long-term savings would be realized if JAMS purchased the planes outright, rather than leasing them from Boeing.

The US Department of Homeland Security in July resumed use of its own repatriation program [JURIST report], flying illegal immigrants back to Mexico twice daily. In August, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said that US Border Patrol [official website] officials are now detaining nearly all non-Mexican illegal immigrants [JURIST report; DHS fact sheet] caught crossing the US-Mexico border for an average of 21 days before releasing them to their home countries. AP has more.

[JURIST] The Jewish organization Kahane Chai [CFR backgrounder] was properly designated as a terrorist organization by the US Department of State [official website] in 1997 and former Secretary of State Colin Powell [official profile] in 2003, a federal appeals court held Tuesday. In 2003, Powell also decided that 20 other organizations were aliases for Kahane Chai, including the website Kahane.org. The group argued, in part, that the designation of the website as a terrorist organization was an unconstitutional infringement on First Amendment rights and was religious-based discrimination because no non-Jewish websites were also designated as terrorist organizations, including the websites of well-known Arabic terrorist groups. Kahane Chai also alleged that the administrative record did not support the designations, and that the State Department violated their due process rights under the Fifth Amendment [text] by withholding from the group the non-classified portions of the administrative record.

In the opinion [text], the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the administrative record allowed Powell to "reasonably conclude" that Kahane Chai was a terrorist group because the group was shown to have used explosives or firearms with the intent to endanger the safety of individuals, threatened and conspired to carry out assassinations, and solicited funds and members for a terrorist organization. Kahane Chai has been accused [Guardian report] of plotting to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. As for the website, Chief Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg wrote that the proper inquiry was not whether the State Department had identified other websites as terrorist organizations, but whether the State Department had identified non-Jewish organizations as terrorist groups, which it had. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] The government of the Georgian Republic [official backgrounder] on Tuesday publicly accused Russia [JURIST news archive] of inhuman treatment and committing "gross violations" of international standards while rounding up Georgian nationals for deportation. One Georgian man died at the Moscow airport from an asthma attack after allegedly being denied medical care during five days of detention, according to the Georgian Embassy to Russia, and Russian police teamed with the Federal Migration Service to arrest around fifty Georgians living in Moscow to be deported. Rights groups said such arrests will not dissuade other Georgians from crossing the border into Russia, where they work for low wages and no benefits, yet earn more than is possible in Georgia.

Some say the current immigration crackdown is a reaction [BBC report] to the arrest of four Russian officers on espionage charges [MosNews report] in Georgia earlier in the month. President Vladimir Putin [official profile] then called for stricter immigration laws [JURIST report], and Russian immigration officials responded by proposing harsher penalties for businesses that employ illegal migrants, restrictions on border crossings, amendments to the Criminal Code, and limits on the duration of visas distributed to certain nationalities. AP has more.

[JURIST] A federal judge on Tuesday permitted a lawsuit, filed on behalf of 3,000 emergency workers who allege health problems resulting from the cleanup of the Sept. 11 attacks [JURIST news archive] at the World Trade Center site, to proceed beyond the summary judgment stage against the city of New York, the Port Authority, New Jersey, and hundreds of contractors. The workers filed the class action lawsuit [JURIST report] in 2004, alleging that they should have been provided with better respiratory equipment throughout the cleanup, and better instructions on how to use the gear they were provided, and that as a result, they have suffered permanent lung damage. Defendants have argued that state and federal immunity laws, including the New York State Defense Emergency Act [text], the New York Disaster Act, and common law federal immunity principles, protected their conduct from liability during the course of a response to an enemy attack. The plaintiffs argued that the federal government recognized the liability of the city and other entities when they authorized a damage cap on civil claims against the city as part of the Air Transportation Safety and Air Stabilization Act of 2001 [text], and again when they distributed $1 billion to the city to fund an insurance pool for the city.

In the opinion [text], US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote:

the Defendants are benefited by limited immunity, limited according to time and activity, and that the issues are fact-intensive and cannot be decided on motion at this juncture. My conclusion also expresses some suggestions for the future progression of these cases, to enable the parties to begin discussions of settlements and to prepare for trial.