[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Wednesday agreed to hear [order list, PDF] a controversial case dealing with gun rights and another dealing with a terrorism law. In McDonald v. Chicago [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will decide whether the Second Amendment [text] right to keep and bear arms is incorporated as against the states by the Fourteenth Amendment's Privileges or Immunities or Due Process Clauses. The appeal challenges a ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, which upheld a Chicago handgun ban. Last year, the Supreme Court struck down a similar handgun ban in the District of Columbia in District of Columbia v. Heller [opinion, PDF; JURIST report], but circuit courts have so far refused to extend that ruling to other municipalities' handgun bans.

In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project [docket; cert. petition, PDF] and Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the Court will consider the constitutionality of a federal law [18 USC § 2339B(a)(1)] that prohibits providing material support to terrorism. The US Department of Justice has used the provision to prosecute about 120 individuals, with approximately half of the prosecutions resulting in convictions. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down [opinion, PDF] parts of the law and upheld others, leading both parties to appeal.

The Court also granted certiorari in eight other cases.

[JURIST] Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. [official website] said Tuesday that charges would be dropped against four University of Pittsburgh [academic website] students arrested during protests [JURIST report] of last week's Pittsburgh Group of 20 (G-20) Summit [official websites; JURIST news archive]. Zappala indicated that some of the students may have been used as pawns [WTAE report] by protesters and those looking to cause damage. Police have also said they are looking into the arrest of reporter Sadie Gurman from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette [media website]. Zappala commented that reporters doing their job should not have been arrested, but they must have obeyed orders from police to disperse. It is believed that 190 people were arrested [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report], 51 of whom were University of Pittsburgh students. There are currently 50 preliminary hearings scheduled for Wednesday at the Municipal Courts Building, and it is expected that there will be more arrests as surveillance videos are reviewed.

Last Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] and other civil liberties groups accused [JURIST report] police of using unnecessary force to disperse demonstrations at the summit. Witold "Vic" Walczak, Legal Director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU-PA) [advocacy website] said that police deployed throughout the city acted in a manner that prevented lawful demonstrations [AP report], suppressed free speech, and failed to prevent criminal activity. ACLU-PA is collecting complaints about law enforcement activities during protests against the G-20 meeting, and has already filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] on behalf of Seeds of Peace and Three Rivers Climate Convergence (3RCC) [advocacy websites] alleging that police violated their constitutional rights. The ACLU is also taking complaints about police conduct [press release] at the university.

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Tuesday asked [press release] the Supreme Court [official website] to rule that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) [official website] is authorized to issue decisions regarding the Nation Labor Relations Act (NLRA) [text] when three out of five board seats are vacant. US Solicitor General Elena Kagan [official profile] filed a petition for certiorari in one case and a reply brief [texts, PDF] in another, asking the Court to uphold all decisions issued by the current two-member board, which consists of Democrat chair Wilma Liebman, and Republican member Peter Schaumber [official profiles]. The ruling would resolve a circuit split in which the the US Courts of Appeal for the First, Second, and Seventh Circuits [official websites] have upheld the board's decisions, and the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] has invalidated [opinion, PDF] them.

The NLRB has been operating with only two members since December 2007 when the terms of two previously appointed members expired. During this time the two-member board has issued more than 500 decisions, some of which have been appealed. US President Barack Obama nominated [AP report] three new members to board in August, but the appointees have not yet been considered by Congress. The NLRB was created in 1935 in order to administer the provisions of the NLRA, with each member's term lasting five years, staggered so that one term expires each year.

[JURIST] The Obama administration on Tuesday called for Congress to enact legislation to tighten chemical and toxin regulations. In a speech [text] before the Commonwealth Club [organization website] in San Francisco, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) [official site] administrator Lisa Jackson [official profile] said that existing laws were outdated and ineffective:

Our oversight of the 21st century chemical industry is based on the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act. ... But over the years, not only has TSCA fallen behind the industry it's supposed to regulate - it's been proven an inadequate tool for providing the protection against chemical risks that the public rightfully expects. ...

Today I'm announcing clear Administration principles to guide Congress in writing a new chemical risk management law that will fix the weaknesses in TSCA.

[JURIST] Paris prosecutors requested Tuesday that charges of embezzlement and corruption against former French president and Paris mayor Jacques Chirac [official profile; BBC profile] be dropped. As mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995, Chirac is alleged to have placed 45 people on his office payroll [AP report] who had no real jobs in Paris City Hall. The charges were filed in 2007 after Chirac's presidency ended and he no longer had judicial immunity. The prosecutors' request has been given to Judge Xaviere Simeoni, who is expected to make a decision this week about whether to continue with proceedings. In an interview given soon after his term as president ended, Chirac denied all wrongdoing [Le Monde report, in French].

The formal investigation into these allegations against Chirac was opened in 2007 [JURIST report]. Earlier that year, Chirac's lawyer Jean Veil indicated that judges would likely question Chirac [JURIST report], but emphasized that the Chirac would not answer questions concerning scandals that allegedly occurred during Chirac's tenure as president of France because the French Constitution grants judicial immunity to the president. In July 2007, French investigating magistrates questioned Chirac as a material witness [JURIST report] in their probe of the corruption allegations.

[JURIST] Suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Prosecutors from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] have said [LAT report] that they have significant information to use against Zazi, while his lawyer has countered that the prosecution cannot prove Zazi's guilt unless they identify the other conspirators. At Tuesday's hearing in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website], Zazi was denied bail and ordered to remain in jail until his December 3 court date.

Zazi was indicted [indictment, PDF; JURIST report] last week with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, and could could face up to life in prison if convicted. Zazi, a native of Afghanistan, was arrested [BBC report] by FBI agents earlier this month in Colorado. He was originally charged with making false statements to the FBI, but those charges were dropped in light of the new charge. Zazi's father, Mohammed Zazi, and a third man, Ahmad Wais Afzali, were also arrested. Mohammed Zazi and Afzali have both been released on bail.

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] on Tuesday upheld [opinion, PDF] a mandatory anthrax vaccination program [official website] for some members of the military. The appeals court affirmed a February 2008 district court ruling that dismissed [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] a lawsuit brought by members of the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] seeking to make an anthrax vaccine optional rather than mandatory. The lawsuit challenged the determination of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [official website] that there was sufficient evidence of the vaccine's effectiveness since it had been based on a single study conducted in the 1950s with an earlier generation of the anthrax vaccine. The appeals court deferred to the FDA's determination, finding that it was:

a scientific judgment within its "area of expertise," the kind of judgment to which this court gives a "high level of deference." Moreover, as the plaintiffs themselves concede, there is no scientific evidence in the administrative record to contradict that judgment. In the absence of such evidence, we must defer to the FDA's judgment that [the anthrax vaccine] is effective.