[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] on Tuesday hailed [press release] a decision [text, PDF] by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] not to revisit an earlier decision requiring the Department of Defense (DOD) to disclose photographs of alleged detainee abuse. The Bush administration filed a request for rehearing either by panel or en banc in November in response to a Second Circuit ruling [JURIST report] that the DOD must release the photographs of Iraqi and Afghan detainees after redacting personally identifying information. Endorsing Tuesday's decision, ACLU staff attorney Amrit Singh said that:

This decision is a stinging rejection of the Bush administration's attempt to keep the public in the dark about the widespread abuse of prisoners held in U.S. custody abroad. These photographs demonstrate that prison abuse was not aberrational and not confined to Abu Ghraib. Release of the photographs would send a powerful message that the new administration intends to make a clean break from the unaccountability of the Bush years.

[JURIST] The appellate chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] on Tuesday partially reversed the conviction and reduced the sentence [judgment summary, PDF; press release] of former Bosnian Serb parliamentary leader Momcilo Krajisnik [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] from 27 to 20 years. Krajisnik was initially convicted [judgment, PDF; JURIST report] in 2006 on charges of persecution, extermination, murder, deportation, and forced transfer of non-Serb civilians during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. The appellate chamber affirmed the trial chamber's ruling that Krajisnik had the intent to engage in deportation, forced transfer, and persecution of non-Serbs. It went on to hold that the trial chamber did not have any evidence that he intended to engage in crimes of murder and extermination and overturned the convictions for expanded crimes of murder, extermination, and persecution with the exception of the underlying acts of deportation and forcible transfer.

At Krajisnik's 2006 trial, the ICTY found him not guilty on a charge of genocide for which prosecutors had requested a life sentence [JURIST report]. He was instead sentenced to 27 years imprisonment. Krajisnik was initially indicted together with Biljana Plavsic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive], the former Bosnian Serb president, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2003 after testifying against Krajisnik. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive], with whom Krajisnik worked closely, was arrested last year [JURIST report] and currently faces war crimes charges before the ICTY.

[JURIST] The Vermont State Legislature [official website] on Monday began a series of week-long hearings on a bill [S.0115 text, PDF] that would allow same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] in the state. The bill, "An Act to Protect Religious Freedom and Promote Equality in Civil Marriage," sponsored by Vermont State Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin and State Senators John Campbell and Claire Ayer [official profiles], changes the definition of marriage to "the legally recognized union of two people." Supporters and those opposed to the bill have come to the State House in Montpelier to to voice their opinions [NECN report]. The Vermont Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to conduct a hearing on S.0115 [materials] on Wednesday.

Vermont became the first state to offer civil unions to same-sex couples when then-Governor Howard Dean signed H.B.847 [text] into law in April 2000. If S.0115 were to become law in Vermont, that state would be the fourth to legalize same-sex marriage. In October, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that the Connecticut Constitution requires that same-sex couples be allowed to marry. In May, the California Supreme Court held [JURIST report] that California marriage statutes that limited marriage to opposite-sex couples violated the California constitution. However, in November, Proposition 8 [JURIST news archive] was passed [JURIST report], amending the California constitution to define marriage as between a man and putting the status of same-sex marriages in California in doubt. In 2004, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts held in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health [opinion; JURIST report] that barring an individual from marriage based on the spouse's gender violated the Massachusetts Constitution.

[JURIST] Chief judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] Royce Lamberth [official profile] criticized the US Senate [official website] on Monday for politicizing the federal judicial confirmation process. Lamberth accused both political parties [AP report] of causing harm to the federal judiciary by delaying the confirmation of federal appointees based on the clients they have previously represented. Lamberth was particularly critical of the recent delays in the confirmation of President Barack Obama's selections for positions at the Justice Department, David Ogden [professional profile] and Thomas Perrelli. Ogden, the nominee for Deputy Attorney General, went before the Senate Judiciary Committee [committee website] last month to defend his past representation [JURIST report] of parties opposing anti-pornography and pre-abortion parental notification laws. Lamberth said that such a partisan, divisive process has and will continue to discourage highly qualified individuals from seeking positions within the judiciary.

Last week, the Senate confirmed Ogden [JURIST report] as the new Deputy Attorney General by a vote of 65-28. Perrelli was also confirmed [Bloomberg report] as Associate Attorney General in a 72-20 vote by the Senate last week. Ogden and Perrelli were among the four former Clinton-era attorneys that were nominated [JURIST report] for high-level positions in the Obama administration in January. Both former president George W. Bush and the Senate Republican Committee [JURIST reports] have also criticized the confirmation process, citing vacancies that would last for years as nominees waited to be voted on, or were forced to withdraw their names.

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea [JURIST news archive] Vitit Muntarbhorn [UN appointment release] said Monday that he found there to be a "broad range of egregious human rights violations" [press release] in the country. In a report to the UN Human Rights Council [official website], he criticized the country for using access to food as a method of controlling its population and for using torture in its prisons despite a formal ban. He also cited several areas in which the country needed to improve in both the short and long term, and called on the country to cooperate with the UN to improve the situation:

Of special importance for the country, in the short term, is the need to ensure effective provision of and access to food and other basic necessities for those in need of assistance, and to enable people to undertake economic activities to satisfy their basic needs and supplement their livelihood without State interference; to end the punishment of those who seek asylum abroad and who are sent back to their country; to terminate public executions and abuses against the security of the person, and other violations of fundamental rights and freedoms; to cooperate effectively to resolve the issue of foreigners abducted by the country; and to respond constructively to the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur.

In the longer term, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea should seek to modernize its national system by instituting reforms to ensure greater participation of the people in the process and compliance with international human rights standards; reallocate national budgets, including military budgets, to the social sector; take more extensive food security-related measures; and guarantee personal security and freedoms by dismantling the pervasive surveillance and intelligence system, reforming the justice and prison system, and abiding by the rule of law.

[JURIST] Top officials from the Obama administration met with leaders from the European Union (EU) [official website; JURIST news archive] Monday to discuss plans to transfer detainees from Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] to European countries. US Attorney General Eric Holder [official profile] met with the delegation headed by European Justice and Security Commissioner Jacques Barrot [official profile] and Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer [official profile, in Czech] to encourage the EU's cooperation in closing the Guantanamo Bay facility by the end of the year. The US officials assured the EU that the US will provide background information [NYT report] pertaining to each prisoner to allow European countries to decide whether to accept them. EU members had previously expressed concern [JURIST report] over accepting detainees without first examining potential safety and security implications. The US is seeking European cooperation because of potential legal issues associated with keeping Guantanamo Bay detainees on US soil after the facility closes. The leaders remained in Washington Tuesday to continue discussions.

Last month, the European Parliament encouraged EU member nations to accept former Guantanamo prisoners soon after President Obama ordered the closure of the detention center [JURIST reports] in February. Spain, Ireland, and Portugal [JURIST reports] have already expressed their willingness to host detainees. Other EU members, including Poland [JURIST report], Sweden, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic [Financial Times report], have expressed strong reservations to doing so.

[JURIST] The Greek government announced Monday that it will seek to overhaul its police force in the wake of the December riots [BBC backgrounder] and last week's vandalism [Kathimerini report]. The Greek Interior Ministry [official website, in Greek] has enlisted the help of British police in order to streamline the Greek police force [Kathimerini report] and make it more effective. Both Scotland Yard and the City of London police force have promised aid, and former head of the London City police Ian Blair [BBC profile] and Scotland Yard official Christos Kalamatianos will lead the reorganization [UPI report]. The plan is to follow the model of British police forces by creating 30 rapid response teams of 12 officers each, with each team equipped with the latest technology and transportation.

The Greek police have been accused of being both ineffective and unnecessarily violent [JURIST op-ed], following the accidental shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in December 2008. The police were then unable to contain the riots that followed in the Athenian neighborhood of Exarcheia for over a week. Attempts to control the protesters, students who were quickly were joined by local anarchist groups, ended in isolating Exarcheia entirely [BBC report] until the demonstrations subsided. Police found it equally difficult to subdue a spree of vandalism on Friday in Kolonaki, another Athenian neighborhood, and Greek island Thessaloniki which ended with more than forty stores looted and several banks attacked. The youths responsible for the attacks dropped pamphlets [AP report] that pledged their allegiance to anarchist groups.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] on Monday upheld [opinion, PDF] the constitutionality of a Texas law mandating daily observance of a minute of silence in public schools. The three-judge panel affirmed the ruling of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas that deemed constitutional the 2003 amendments to § 25.0821 of the Texas Educational Code [text, PDF] which provide for the enforcement of a minute of silence during which prayer is an enumerated suggested activity. The appellants argued that the statute has a religious purpose, pointing to legislative history including a statement by a legislator about the lack of school prayer. The Fifth Circuit applied the standard set forth by the Supreme Court in Lemon v. Kurtzman [opinion text] to find that as long as the statute serves a plausible secular purpose, it does not violate the Establishment clause and an individual legislator's religious motivation for supporting the statute does not alter its constitutionality:

[O]ur review of legislative history is deferential, and such deference leads to an adequate secular purpose in this case. While we cannot allow a "sham" legislative purpose, we should generally defer to the stated legislative intent. Here, that intent was to promote patriotism and allow for a moment of quiet contemplation. These are valid secular purposes, and are not outweighed by limited legislative history showing that some legislators may have been motivated by religion.

[JURIST] Computer chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) [corporate website] revealed Monday in a filing [text] with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] that rival chip designer Intel Corp. [corporate website] is threatening to cancel licenses granted to AMD in a joint venture between the two firms. Intel has alleged in correspondence with AMD that AMD is in breach [Intel press release] of a 2001 cross-licensing patent agreement, and if the breach is not corrected within 60 days, Intel will terminate AMD's licenses and rights under the agreement. AMD has responded to the allegations by denying the existence of any breach, and has alleged that the controversy has been manufactured by Intel [Forbes.com report] to draw attention from a number recent of antitrust lawsuits [JURIST news archive]. The dispute between the two chip makers focuses on whether Global Foundries [corporate website], a chip foundry organized in a joint venture [Forbes.com backgrounder] with the government of Abu Dhabi, is a subsidiary of AMD.

Intel and AMD have been embroiled in legal controversies recently, particularly over Intel's business practices, which AMD has alleged are anti-competitive and amount to monopolization of the computer chip market. In July, the European Commission announced it was filing new charges [JURIST report] against Intel for providing "substantial" rebates to one computer retailer on the condition that it only use Intel processors, and that it had both paid a computer manufacturer to delay selling AMD-based devices and offered the manufacturer similar exclusivity rebates. In June, the US Federal Trade Commission [official website] launched an investigation [JURIST report] into Intel's business practices. Earlier that month, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) levied nearly $26 million in fines [JURIST report] against Intel after a KFTC probe [JURIST report] found that the company had engaged in anti-competitive practices. In January, the state of New York opened an antitrust probe [JURIST report] into Intel's actions, and AMD has also filed [JURIST report] a civil suit [complaint, PDF; Intel response] against the company.

[JURIST] Members of the Pakistan lawyers' movement [JURIST news archive] on Monday welcomed the reinstatement [JURIST report] of Pakistan Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive], hailing the move as a major victory. Lawyers' movement supporters rallied at Chaudhry's home [Geo TV report] Monday, where the Chief Justice thanked the crowds for their support in the fight for reinstatement. Ali Ahmad Kurd, the president of the Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) commented favorably [NYT report] on the restoration, calling it a success for the country. Lawyers' movement leader Aitzaz Ahsan [JURIST news archive] celebrated the reinstatement, and called for Chaudhry's judicial neutrality [Dawn report] upon his return to the bench. The decision to reinstate Chaudry was also met with relief and positive statements from the European Union, the UK, and the Association of Pakistani Lawyers [Daily Times reports], a UK lawyers' group. A number of individual supporters of the lawyers' movement expressed their gratitude [Washington Post report] for Chaudhry's reinstatement, hailing it as a positive step for democratic rule in Pakistan.

Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani [BBC profile] announced early Monday that the government will reinstate Chaudhry in response to recent protests by members of the lawyers' movement and opposition politicians and supporters. Gilani also ordered government officials to release [Dawn report] anyone arrested during the past week's so-called "long march" [JURIST reports], which began Thursday. Reports first surfaced late Sunday that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari [BBC profile; JURIST news archive], leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) [party website], had agreed to reinstate Chaudhry and other judges ousted by Zardari's predecessor Pervez Musharraf [JURIST news archive] in November 2007 after his declaration of emergency rule. Fomer prime minister Nawaz Sharif [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) [party website] have actively campaigned [JURIST report] for Chaudhry's reinstatement, leading a similar "long march" last summer. Chaudhry has always maintained that he is still chief justice [JURIST report] under the Pakistani constitution [text].