[JURIST] US Solicitor General nominee Elena Kagan [profile] said Tuesday that she was committed to being "true to the rule of law" in confirmation hearings [committee materials] before the Senate Judiciary Committee [committee website]. Kagan, currently the Dean at Harvard Law School [official website], said that if confirmed she would do "everything in her power to live up to" the Solicitor General's obligation to all three branches of the federal government. She praised the work of the three Bush-era Solicitors General, saying they "[served superbly] during ... a time of some difficulty for the Justice Department." Although she is expected to be confirmed, Committee member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) [official website] expressed concern about Kagan's nomination, citing [transcript] her participation in a lawsuit challenging the so-called Solomon Amendment [text], which makes federal funding for universities conditional on cooperation with military recruiters. Kagan said the amendment violated the school's policy [JURIST report] prohibiting recruiting by employers who discriminate based on sexual orientation. Kagan served as Associate Counsel and Domestic Policy Advisor under former president Bill Clinton [JURIST news archive].If confirmed, Kagan would be the first female Solicitor General.

President Barack Obama announced Kagan's nomination [JURIST report] to the position last month. It was reported in January that Kagan's Harvard colleague Cass Sunstein [professional profile] will be appointed as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs [official website]. The Solicitor General serves in the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website], under Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] who was confirmed in a Senate vote on Monday [JURIST report].

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] urged the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] Monday to refrain from addressing the definition of an enemy combatant [response, PDF], an exercise which the DOJ argues could force the Court to unnecessarily decide the scope of the President's military detention authority over prisoners at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. Responding to last month's order [text] in which the Court invited the government "to submit any refinement of their position on the appropriate definition of 'enemy combatant,'" the DOJ said President Barack Obama had ordered [executive order, text] a comprehensive, inter-agency review of the disposition of all detainees being held at Guantanamo and recommended that the Court deal with future detainee matters on a case-by-case basis, explaining:

This...approach is consistent with longstanding practice of courts to decide only the narrow issues before them. It avoids holdings that are potentially unnecessary or unnecessarily broad concerning difficult and important questions. Particular cases may be subject to resolution without reaching broad questions about the scope of detention authority.

[JURIST] Italian lawmakers have said they still plan to vote [Corriere della Sera report] on legislation [draft text, in Italian] that would make it a crime to remove a feeding tube from a comatose patient, despite the death Monday of Eluana Englaro [materials, in Italian], the woman whose case gave rise to the bill. Following the announcement of the death [JURIST report], Italian health minister Maurizio Sacconi [official profile, in Italian] said debate and voting on the bill was still important to prevent the death from "being in vain." Englaro's death, which was reportedly earlier than expected given the removal of her feeding tube on Friday, is now being investigated [ANSA report] by the Italian Medical Association [official website, in Italian], but a spokesperson for the group said it was too early to determine if her doctors had acted appropriately. In reaction to the news of her death, organizations in other parts of Europe have also called for their governments [Deutsche Welle report] to create more definite rules on end-of-life decision making.

The removal of Englaro's feeding tube followed the refusal [JURIST report] of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano [BBC profile] to sign an order prohibiting the action. Napolitano said he could not issue the order given a decision [JURIST report] by the country's Court of Cassation [official website, in Italian] allowing removal of the tube. Euthanasia [JURIST news archive] is currently illegal in Italy [JURIST report], but the Court of Cassation distinguished between the removal of a feeding tube and more affirmative steps to end a patient's life.

[JURIST] US Senate Judiciary Committee [official website] chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [official profile] Monday called for a South Africa-style truth commission [transcript] to investigate controversial actions by the George W. Bush administration, including justifications for the Iraq war, the treatment of military detainees, and the warrantless wiretapping [JURIST news archives] program. Speaking at Georgetown University, Leahy said there was a need to find balance between exposing Bush administration mistakes in order to avoid repeating them, and the desire to move forward rather than cast blame. Leahy suggested that a truth commission could accomplish that goal and that:

[Lawmakers] could develop and authorize a person or group of people universally recognized as fair minded, and without axes to grind. Their straightforward mission would be to find the truth. People would be invited to come forward and share their knowledge and experiences, not for purposes of constructing criminal indictments, but to assemble the facts. If needed, such a process could involve subpoena powers, and even the authority to obtain immunity from prosecutions in order to get to the whole truth. Congress has already granted immunity, over my objection, to those who facilitated warrantless wiretaps and those who conducted cruel interrogations. It would be far better to use that authority to learn the truth.

[JURIST] A special panel of federal judges tentatively ruled [opinion; PDF] on Monday that California must reduce its prison population in order to relieve overcrowding. Based on the evidence presented, the panel concluded that overcrowding has resulted in the state's failure to deliver constitutionally-adequate mental and physical health care to inmates. The panel found that a release order is the only appropriate remedy [18 USC § 3626] for the unconstitutional prison conditions, stating:

Other forms of relief suggested by various participants are without adequate evidentiary support or appear infeasible as well as incapable of curing the violations presently existing in the California prison system.

[JURIST] An Albania Supreme Court [official website] judge was shot four times outside his home in the capital Tirana, according to local police Monday. Ardian Nuni [official profile], a former law professor nominated to the high court in 2007, was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries to his shoulder and leg. The attack, which took place over the weekend, was described by the Supreme Court in a press release as

a serious attack not only against the Supreme Court, but also against the judicial power of the Republic of Albania. This event, but also some others that have occurred in recent years against judges, court personnel, family members and their property, are a great concern not only for judges but for Albanian society as a whole, interested in the normal rule of law.

[JURIST] The Mexican government published a law [draft text, in Spanish] Monday that will create a database of mobile phone users in the country, including vital information and fingerprints, once it takes effect in April. The law, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation [official website, in Spanish], amends certain provisions of the Federal Telecommunications Act, and was passed into law by the Mexican Congress last year. According to the draft law, the database will be established to combat extortion, threats, kidnapping, organized crime, and drug trafficking. The law will require mobile telecommunications firms to provide authorities with the name, address, nationality, identification number, and fingerprints of customers, as well as the type of communication utilizing the provider's network, in some cases. It is unclear [Reuters report] whether the Mexican government will provide any funding for the establishment of the database.

The Mexican law comes as governments worldwide attempt to reconcile free and open communications with the security threats presented by terrorism and organized criminal activity. In November, the UK government dropped [JURIST report] from its immediate legislative agenda a controversial security database bill that would have required telecoms to keep records of all domestic phone calls, e-mails, and Internet activity. Also in November, the lower house of the German parliament approved a new law that expanded the power [JURIST report] of the German federal police to undertake online and telephone surveillance. In June, the Swedish parliament passed a controversial wiretapping law [JURIST report] that gave the country's electronic surveillance agency broad authority to monitor international telephone and electronic communications passing through the country. In October 2007, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) refused to investigate [JURIST report] the involvement of US telecommunications firms in the US National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program [JURIST news archive].

[JURIST] Wu Shu-Chen, the wife of former Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of money-laundering and forgery, but denied charges that she embezzled from the presidential state affairs fund. Wu claims the money was a political donation [Taiwan News report], and was not for personal use or bribery. Tuesday marked Wu's first appearance since she was initially indicted in 2006 [JURIST report]. The court had excused her due to health concerns after she collapsed at the onset of the proceedings in 2006. The trial is one of many tied to the administration of the former president, who was indicted [JURIST report] last year by Taiwanese prosecutors on charges including embezzlement, receiving bribes, forgery, and money laundering.

In addition to charging Wu and Chen, prosecutors have indicted their son and daughter-in-law, three former presidential aides, and eight other associates and family members. Last week, Chen's sister-in-law pleaded guilty [JURIST report] to charges that she had forged documents and transferred money to bank accounts upon orders from Chen and Wu. Chen has been detained since his arrest in November, and last month Taiwan's High Court rejected his appeal of the decision to detain him [JURIST reports] while he awaits trial.

[JURIST] US financier Bernard Madoff [JURIST news archive] consented to a partial judgment [SEC press release] with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] Monday over civil charges brought by the SEC to obtain a preliminary injunction and asset freeze against him. According to the SEC, the agreement will continue the previously imposed preliminary injunction, but in consenting to the agreement, Madoff will neither admit nor deny the SEC's allegations. The agreement between the SEC and Madoff must be approved by Judge Louis Stanton of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [court website]. Criminal securities fraud charges [JURIST report] filed against Madoff are not affected by Monday's agreement. Also on Monday, SEC Division of Enforcement Director Linda Thomsen announced she was stepping down from her post [SEC press release]. Thomsen had been with the SEC since 1995 and had recently given testimony [JURIST report] before the US Senate Banking Committee concerning SEC enforcement and the Madoff scandal.

In the week following Madoff's charges, SEC Chairman Christopher Cox [official profile] said that he would launch an immediate investigation [press release; JURIST report] into how the fraud allegedly perpetrated by Madoff went undetected for so long. In December, then-President-elect Barack Obama [official profile] named [press release] Mary Schapiro [professional profile] as the SEC Chairman, replacing Cox. Madoff was charged with securities fraud in December for allegedly violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 [texts]. UK financial firm Bramdean Alternatives Limited [corporate website] raised concerns [statement, DOC; JURIST report] about the US financial regulatory process after its value dropped by more than 35 percent following news of its exposure to the fraud.