[JURIST] Huang Songyou [official profile] was removed from his position [Xinhua report] as vice president of China's Supreme People's Court [official website, in Mandarin] Tuesday in a vote by Chinese legislators. No explanation was given for the action, but earlier this month, Huang was reportedly detained by party officials [South China Morning Post report] in an alleged corruption scandal. AFP has more.

Huang was noted for promoting judicial enforcement of constitutional rights, writing [text, PDF] in a 2001 opinion that the Supreme People's Court's had reached a milestone in ruling that citizens' basic constitutional rights should be protected. In 2004, Huang said changes to China's Criminal Procedure Law [JURIST report] were needed because China had adopted a human rights clause in its constitution.

[JURIST] Former spokesperson for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Florence Hartmann [book publicity interview] declined Monday to enter a plea on two counts of contempt she faces for allegedly releasing restricted information regarding court rulings in the case of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic [JURIST news archive]. Hartmann was the former official spokesperson for chief ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte [BBC profile]. At the hearing, Hartmann lawyer William Bourdon said Hartmann was invoking her right to defer her plea for 30 days while she awaits the decision of the tribunal on whether she will be required to pay her own legal costs. In public statements, Hartmann has maintained that she operated within her rights and that the accusations against her threaten freedom of speech and transparency in the affairs of international organizations such as the ICTY. Reuters has more. Le Monde has additional coverage, in French.

In August, the ICTY issued an Order in Lieu of an Indictment [text, PDF; JURIST report], charging that Hartmann knowingly revealed confidential decisions in the Milosevic case in her memoirs [Amazon book profile], published in September of 2007, and in subsequent public statements. Hartmann has continued to draw media attention, repeating allegations [JURIST report] that the US, France, and Russia obstructed the capture of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [BBC profile, JURIST news archive], and that the ICTY helped hide information about the Srebrenica massacre [BBC backgrounder, JURIST news archive]. Karadzic was indicted earlier this year and is currently challenging criminal charges in the ICTY in reliance on an alleged immunity deal with the US.

[JURIST] Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko [personal website] on Monday withdrew a lawsuit she had brought against president Victor Yushchenko [official website; JURIST news archive] and the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) [official website, in Ukrainian] challenging Yushchenko's plan to dissolve parliament and hold new elections. Tymoshenko said the challenge was dropped because Yushchenko last week suspended his plan [press release; AFP report] to hold elections on December 4, citing the need for the sitting parliament to take action on financial difficulties [press release] facing the country. Shortly after suspending the plan and reconvening the parliament, Yushchenko said he now plans to hold the elections by no later than Decemeber 14 [press release]. It is unclear whether Tymoshenko will challenge that plan. RIA Novosti has more.

Earlier this month, before suspending the plan, Yushchenko issued a decree [decree 922/2008 text, in Ukrainian; JURIST report] abolishing a Kiev court after it tried to block [JURIST report] his order dissolving parliament and directing parliamentary elections in the wake of the collapse of the governing coalition. Ukraine's leadership is divided in the wake of the 2004 Orange Revolution [Foreign Affairs backgrounder] that brought Yushchenko to power as president. The populist Tymoshenko was originally a Yushchenko ally, but more recently has become disaffected, leading to the collapse of the government [press release] over disagreements on both domestic and international issues.

[JURIST] Reports of hate crimes dropped approximately one percent in 2007 from the previous year but incidents of sexual-orientation bias crimes increased by six percent, according to the 2007 Hate Crime Statistics [report; press release] released by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) [official website] Monday. The FBI reported 7,621 single-bias hate crime incidents -- those in which one or more offense types are motivated by the same bias -- in 2007, down from 7,720 in 2006 [FBI report; JURIST report]. The drop does not necessarily reflect an actual decrease in hate crimes perpetrated in the US as the number of law enforcement agencies that participate in the study varies from year to year, though more agencies participated this year than last. Racial discrimination accounted for 50.8 percent of all reported hate crimes, followed by religious bias with 18.4 percent and sexual-orientation bias with 16.6 percent. Crimes motivated by ethnicity/national origin (13.2%) and disability bias (1%) were also reported. AP has more.

Last year, the US Senate approved an amendment to the 2008 Senate Defense Reauthorization Bill [HR 1585 materials] that would expand federal hate crimes legislation to include violent attacks against people based on their gender or sexuality. The White House threatened to veto [policy statement, PDF] the legislation, arguing [AP report] that there was "no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement." Last December, congressional negotiators agreed to remove the language [JURIST report] from the bill.

[JURIST] Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. [corporate websites] on Monday settled an antitrust suit with Discover Financial Services [corporate website] for $2.75 billion. Under the settlement, $1.8875 billion was apportioned to Visa [press release] and $862.5 million to Mastercard [press release] under a judgment-sharing agreement. This settlement is the result of a 2004 lawsuit filed by Discover after a US Department of Justice [official website] suit [opinion, text; complaint, text] determined Visa and Mastercard were in violation of section 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act [text] by prohibiting banks from using Discover's services. Reuters has more.

American Express [corporate website] recently finalized antitrust settlements with Visa and Mastercard [press releases] for $2.25 billion and $1.8 billion, respectively, that arose out of a similar complaint [JURIST report]. Visa and Mastercard were involved in another antitrust suit [JURIST report] in 2005 regarding interchange fees.

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW)[advocacy website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday called on Laos [HRW press release] to release leaders of the ethnic minority Hmong [materials] who were forcibly repatriated from Thailand and imprisoned in Laos for their roles in a June protest demonstration Thai refugee camp, denouncing the move for "confirm[ing] the fear many Hmong asylum seekers and refugees have expressed of being persecuted if returned to their native country." The detainees allegedly led the protest [HRW report], and over 800 of the protesters were subsequently deported to Laos. In addition to calling for the prisoners' release, HRW also asked Thailand to allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees [official website] to investigate claims of mistreatment towards the Hmong. Laos is a signatory of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights [text], which prohibits, among other things, arbitrary detention. Though Thailand has not signed the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees [text], which prohibits refoulement [CW backgrounder], HRW called the Thai repatriation efforts a "clear violation of international refugee law" and argued that customary international law creates an obligation to protect against repatriation that would jeopardize safety or freedom. AFP has more.

The Hmong have been engaged in conflict with the Laos government since the Vietnam War, during which they supported the US [DWB backgrounder, PDF]. Over 300,000 Hmong fled Laos to Thailand in the early 1970s, where several thousand still remain. In 2004, Thailand began forcibly repatriating [BBC report] Hmong refugees to Laos, where refugees reportedly fear reprisal. Some of the leaders arrested after the June protests were released after a three month detention, but five leaders are still missing.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the Central District of California [official website] Monday sentenced Steven Schulman and David Bershad, two former partners of the law firm now known as Milberg LLP [firm website], to six months in prison each for their role in a scheme to pay lead plaintiffs illegally in class-action lawsuits brought by the firm. Under the scheme, the firm agreed to pay class-action lead plaintiffs a portion of the attorneys' fees if the firm won a case. Bernshad pleaded guilty [plea agreement, PDF] to charges of conspiring to obstruct justice [18 USC § 1503 text] and make false statements under oath [18 USC § 1623 text] in July 2007, and Schulman pleaded guilty [WSJ report] to a racketeering [18 USC § 1962 text] conspiracy charge in October 2007. Both men already agreed to forfeit profits derived from the cases and each pay a $250,000 fine. Prosecutors in the case said that information obtained as part of the men's plea agreement was instrumental in prosecuting firm co-founder Melvyn Weiss [JURIST news archive] for his role in the scheme. AP has more.

Weiss pleaded guilty in April to one count of racketeering conspiracy related to the alleged kickback scheme, and in June was sentenced to 30 months in prison [JURIST reports] and ordered to forfeit more than $10 million in proceeds. In April, Reuters reported that Milberg LLP had entered into negotiations [JURIST report] with federal prosecutors to settle accusations. Three individuals pleaded guilty in connection with the scheme in May 2006 after a federal grand jury indicted [JURIST reports] the firm.

[JURIST] The US presidential campaigns of both Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain [campaign websites] are recruiting large numbers of lawyers to monitor and protect voters' rights in the upcoming national election, according to a New York Times report [text]. The Obama camp initiated its Voter Protection Program [volunteer website] targeting lawyers and law students at the start of the campaign to promote voter education, and it will deploy the volunteers to the polls on election day. The McCain camp is likewise seeking [volunteer website] volunteer lawyers and law students to help during election day, and the campaign has also established a Lawyers for McCain [advocacy website] group. These campaign-specific efforts are in addition to nonpartisan efforts by groups such as Election Protection [volunteer website], which has already recruited 10,000 people and which actively seeks lawyers, law students, and paralegals to work election protection hotlines, gather voting irregularity data and to run voter protection programs. Such efforts to involve lawyers in the election process increased following the contested 2000 presidential election [Supreme Court oral argument transcript] that pitted now-president George W. Bush [official website] against former vice president Al Gore [personal website].

Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that thousands of eligible voters in at least six swing states had been removed from voter rolls [New York Times report; JURIST report] against federal voting law. That report added to growing controversy over voting laws and procedures in the run-up to November 2008 voting. In early October, both the Ohio Supreme Court and the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official websites] rejected Republican challenges [JURIST report] to a directive by the Ohio secretary of state that would co-mingle absentee and regular ballots. Last month, voting rights advocates and elections officials expressed fears [JURIST report] that a lawsuit [complaint text, PDF; press release] brought by the Wisconsin Department of Justice [official website] will effectively disenfranchise thousands of voters there by causing chaos at the polls in November. Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen [official profile] filed suit against the state's Government Accountability Board [official website], seeking to force the elections agency to cross-check the identities of recently registered voters against names in other state databases pursuant to the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) [FEC materials].

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri [official website] on Monday preliminarily enjoined parts of a new state law [SB 714 s. 589.426 text, PDF] requiring registered sex offenders to avoid most Halloween activities, suggesting that parts of the law as written are too broad and vague. The law, which was passed in June, requires that on October 31, registered sexual offenders avoid Halloween-related contact with children, stay inside their homes between 5 PM and 10:30 PM unless there is just cause to leave, turn porch lights off, and post a sign reading "No candy or treats at this residence." The judge upheld the last two provisions but said that the first two appeared to be unduly restrictive and might not allow for registered sexual offenders to participate in activities such as celebrating the holiday with their own children or traveling out of town during the holiday. Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt said [press release] of the ruling:

I am disappointed that some of the tough provisions we enacted to protect Missouri children on Halloween may not be enforced, but I am pleased that the courts agree overall this law is an important step towards further protecting our children from harm. An appeal has been filed and I strongly encourage the Court of Appeals to reverse this decision.

[JURIST] A jury for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Monday convicted Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) [official website] on seven counts of making false statements [18 USC s. 1001(a) text] relating to an alleged corruption scheme and for falsifying his Financial Disclosure Forms. Stevens had been charged [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] with accepting approximately $250,000 in gifts over an eight-year period from the founder of oil services and engineering company VECO Corp. [corporate website]. According to the indictment, the gifts included home improvements, vehicle trades and other smaller gifts. In exchange he reportedly used his influence in Washington to improperly benefit the company and its employees. Stevens has said he plans to appeal his convictions and to continue his current bid for re-election [campaign website]. Stevens stepped down [AP report] from his position on the Senate's Commerce and Appropriations Committee [official website] when he was indicted, and would have to be voted out by two-thirds of the Senate to be removed from office early. The Senate Ethics Committee [official website] has said that it will wait until the case is concluded before deciding whether to independently investigate the charges. AP has more. AFP has additional coverage.

In August, Stevens had requested that his trial be moved to Alaska so that he could continue to campaign in the state, but the presiding judge refused his request [JURIST report]. Last year, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service searched Stevens' home [JURIST report] as part of a continuing investigation into corruption in Alaska. The Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that so far seven politicians and lobbyists have been convicted in connection with the investigation, including former Alaska state Representative Tom Anderson [JURIST report]. In October 2007, Anderson was sentenced [JURIST report] to five years in prison for accepting nearly $26,000 he believed to be from private correctional facilities firm Cornell Industries [corporate website] in exchange for Anderson's influence on then-pending measures on halfway houses.

[JURIST] Judge Richard Leon [official profile] of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Monday ruled [order, PDF] that in order to be validly held as an "enemy combatants," Guantanamo Bay detainees [JURIST news archive] must have directly supported hostilities against the US or its allies. Leon made the ruling as a preliminary step in considering habeas corpus petitions filed by several detainees challenging their detention at the base. In his order, Leon wrote that courts should generally defer to the political branches of government on such issues, and that the key question was whether or not they had provided a definition of "enemy combatant" that comported with the President's constitutional war powers [US Const. Art. II text] and the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force [PDF text]. He said such a definition had been provided in a 2004 Order Establishing Combatant Status Review Tribunal [PDF text], and he adopted it for use in the cases:

the term "enemy combatant" shall mean an individual who was part of or supporting Taliban or al Qaeda forces, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners. This includes any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported hostilities in aid of enemy armed forces.