[JURIST] The Obama administration said Tuesday that it plans to purchase [presidential memoranda] the Thomson Correctional Center (TCC) [DOC backgrounder] in northwestern Illinois to house inmates from Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive]. In a letter [text, PDF] to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn [official website], the secretary of state, secretary of defense, attorney general, secretary of homeland security, and director of national intelligence said that the facility will house both Guantanamo detainees and other federal inmates. According to the letter, no detainee will be released onto US soil:

The President has no intention of releasing any detainees in the United States. Current law effectively bars the release of the Guantanamo detainees on U.S. soil, and the Federal Government has broad authority under current law to detain individuals during removal proceedings and pending the execution of final removal orders.

[JURIST] The Council of the District of Columbia [official website] on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would allow same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive] to be performed in Washington, DC. The Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Amendment Act of 2009 [text, PDF] passed with a vote of 11-2, despite opposition from the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington [organization website], which has pledged to end social services [JURIST report] if the bill becomes law. The bill will now go before DC Mayor Adrian Fenty [official profile], who has promised to sign it [Washington Post report], after which the US Congress would have 30 legislative days to veto it under the Home Rule Act [text, PDF]. If Congress fails to act, the bill will then become law at the expiration of that time. Council members Marion Barry and Yvette Alexander [official profiles] cast the dissenting votes.

Last month, the District of Columbia Board of Election and Ethics [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that the Jury and Marriage Act (JAMA) [text, PDF], which allows DC to recognize same-sex marriages performed legally in other jurisdictions, could not be challenged by a ballot initiative because overturning the law would violate the DC Human Rights Act [text]. JAMA took effect [JURIST report] in July after congressional inaction. If the marriage bill becomes law, DC will become the sixth US jurisdiction to recognize marriage between same-sex couples. Same-sex marriage is currently legal in four states in the US - Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont - and will be legal in New Hampshire [JURIST reports] starting January 1.

[JURIST] A judge for the Canadian Federal Court [official website] on Monday struck down a security certificate [IRPA text; PSC Backgrounder] that deemed Syrian-born Toronto resident Hassan Almrei a threat to national security. The security certificate law, which is used to arrest and deport non-Canadians considered threats to national security, has become controversial in recent years because it relies on evidence heard in secret, and detainees are not informed in full detail of the allegations against them. Almrei was arrested more than eight years ago by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) [official website] on terror suspicions. Justice Richard Mosley concluded [CP report] that the evidence presented by CSIS did not hold up under scrutiny, and admonished both CSIS and the federal ministers of public safety and immigration for breaching their duties of good faith by not thoroughly reviewing their information before issuing the certificate. The court issued a private opinion regarding the information and evidence heard in private sessions, which will only be released to the ministers and special advocates.

The ruling is the latest assault on the certificate program. Earlier this week, it was reported that the Canadian government has begun reviewing [JURIST report] its security certificate system. Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan [official profile] said the government is considering making significant changes to the law or abolishing it completely. In September, the government withdrew [Globe and Mail report] a certificate against Moroccan-born Montrealer, Adil Charkaoui, in lieu of subjecting its evidence against him to review in court.

[JURIST] The African Court on Human and People's Rights (AfCHPR) [official website] issued its first decision [judgment, PDF] Tuesday, finding that it lacks jurisdiction to hear a case against Senegal on whether charges against former Chadian president Hissene Habre [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] should be dropped. Chadian national Michelot Yogogombaye filed a petition with the court last year seeking to suspend the planned Senegalese trial of Habre. The court unanimously dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction:

Consequently, the Court concludes that Senegal has not accepted the jurisdiction of the Court to hear cases instituted directly against the country by individuals or non-governmental organizations. In the circumstances, the Court holds that ... it does not have jurisdiction to hear the application.

[JURIST] British government lawyers argued Monday that two UK High Court judges acted irresponsibly when they ruled [judgment text] last month that the details of the detention of Binyam Mohamed [JURIST news archive] in Pakistan in 2002 must be released [JURIST report]. Lawyers representing Foreign Secretary David Miliband [official profile] were appealing the latest in a series of back and forth rulings on whether redacted materials regarding Mohamed's detention should be disclosed. An October interim ruling [JURIST report] by Lord Justice Thomas and Justice Lloyd Jones resulted in a redacted release, which the High Court indicated it would revisit after receiving submissions from both the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) [official website] and Mohamed. In handing down its most recent decision ordering disclosure, Thomas and Jones said that in making public details of a detainee's treatment, "we were not in the judgment 'giving away the intelligence secrets of a foreign country' or making public 'American secrets.'" Both justices were critical of Milliband's efforts to keep the information classified [BBC report], noting that the US had already released similar information on the treatment of Abu Zubayah. The appeal is being heard [Guardian report] by Lord Judge, Lord Neuberger, and Sir Anthony May.

Also last month, a separate judge on the High Court ruled that, in Mohamed's separate suit for damages, information relating to his treatment at Guantanamo Bay may be withheld [JURIST report] under a "closed material procedure." Mohamed was returned to the UK in February, after charges against him were dismissed in October 2008 [JURIST reports]. Mohamed had been held at Guantanamo Bay for four years, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit terrorism [JURIST report].

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Monday denied [transcript, PDF] Yemeni Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Musa'ab Al-Madhwani's petition for habeas corpus, ruling that the government may continue to detain him. Judge Thomas Hogan excluded from evidence statements made to interrogators, finding them to be the product of abusive techniques, but admitted statements made during military hearings because they were given years after the alleged abuse. Hogan found that while he does not believe that Madhwani poses a threat, the government met its burden [Washington Post report] of proving that he was a member of al Qaeda. Madhwani has been detained at Guantanamo since October 2002.

Monday's ruling marks the ninth victory for the government in a habeas proceeding, while the court had ordered the release of 31 detainees. In September, a judge denied [JURIST report] the habeas petition of Algerian Guantanamo Bay detainee Sufiyan Barhoumi, bringing the total number of government victories to eight.

1/6/10 - A written ruling is now available here [opinion, PDF].

[JURIST] The Colorado Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Monday that a raid of tax-preparer's office in order to build identify theft cases against suspected illegal immigrants was a violation of the immigrants' Fourth Amendment [text] rights. In 2008, investigators raided [Denver Post report] Amalia's Tax and Translation, which caters to Spanish speakers, and searched through 5,000 files for instances of immigrants using fake Social Security numbers. The raid resulted in 100 arrests, with charges filed against 70 immigrants. Although about 60 cases were dismissed after a judge excluded the evidence obtained in the raid, about 30 immigrants had already pleaded guilty [LAT report] to identity theft and been turned over for deportation. The court ruled 4-3 to affirm the lower court's decision, finding:

The warrant in this case permitted an unbridled search conducted, as the trial court described, "with the hope of uncovering evidence of criminal activity, which practice seems more in line with the writs of assistance in colonial America." We hold that the warrant here contravenes basic freedoms guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. We also hold that the good faith exception does not apply because this warrant was so lacking in indicia of probable cause that no reasonably well-trained officer could have relied upon it. Hence, we affirm the trial court's suppression order, and we return this case to the trial court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

[JURIST] A British magistrate court issued an arrest warrant Monday for Israel's opposition chairwoman on war crimes charges relating to Israel's Gaza offensive [JURIST news archive] earlier this year, but withdrew the warrant after discovering she wasn't in the country. Former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni [official website, in Hebrew] was scheduled to speak at the Jewish National Fund Vision 2010 conference in London over the weekend, but quietly canceled her travel plans, apparently fearing possible arrest. [Haaretz report]. Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [official website], are outraged [AP report] at the action and fear the move will hamper Britain's role in Middle East peace negotiations. Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) [official website] issued a statement [press release] condemning the warrant. According to the statement, the MFA is concerned the action "seriously compromises Britain's ability to play the active role in the Middle East peace process that it desires." It also expressed Israel's desire for future compromises with the country saying Israel and Britain are "both engaged in a common struggle against the forces of international terror."

In October, Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon [official profile] decided to call off [JURIST report] a scheduled trip to attend a fundraising event for the Jewish National Fund after legal advisers from the Israeli MFA said that he may be arrested over his involvement in a 2002 airstrike that killed Hamas leader Salah Shehadeh and 14 civilians. Just one week earlier, Palestinian officials attempted [Jerusalem Post report] to have Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak [official profile, in Hebrew] arrested on charges of war crimes while he was in Britain for a meeting with UK government leaders, but the British court rejected the petition citing Barak's diplomatic immunity. Israeli officials are concerned about the possibility of being charged with war crimes in Britain and other foreign countries based on the theory of universal jurisdiction [AI backgrounder], which allows a country to prosecute serious crimes against humanity no matter where the activity takes place.

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU-PA) and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy websites] announced [press release] Monday that they are extending and continuing a lawsuit against the City of Pittsburgh for allegedly violating the rights of two protest groups during September's Group of 20 (G-20) Summit [official website; JURIST news archive]. According to the amended complaint [text, PDF] filed Friday in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania [official website], Pittsburgh police officers repeatedly violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment [text] rights of Seeds of Peace and Three Rivers Climate Convergence (3RCC) [advocacy websites] by "deliberately adopt[ing] a strategy to harass, intimidate, discourage and ultimately prevent the plaintiffs ... from exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly." The lawsuit names as defendants Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Director of Public Safety Michael Huss, Chief of Pittsburgh Bureau of Police Nathan Harper and Assistant Chief William Bochter, Assistant Director of Pittsburgh City Parks Michael Radley, and police officers to be named later. The suit seeks a declaration that defendants violated plantiffs' rights, as well as compensatory and punitive damages.

The ACLU-PA and CCR originally filed the lawsuit [JURIST report] in September. Both groups claimed that police searched and seized members of the groups and their property and that police retaliated against members for exercising their right to free speech. Seeds of Peace also claimed that police detained their bus without cause, illegally searched and impounded the bus, and conducted a warrantless raid on the property on which the bus was being stored. Pittsburgh has also been criticized for its handling of other protesters. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) [advocacy website] questioned [JURIST report] the methods used by police during protests in the Lawrenceville and Oakland [JURIST reports] sections of Pittsburgh and also noted that individual officers lacked visible identification, frustrating the work of NLG and ACLU legal observers. Ravenstahl has, however, praised police for showing restraint [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report] and credited them with providing for a peaceful summit.

[JURIST] The Constitutional Court of Romania [official website, in Romanian] on Monday declared [press release, PDF; in Romanian] incumbent Traian Basescu [official website, in Romanian] winner of the country's disputed presidential election. The court unanimously rejected a complaint by Basescu's opponent, Social Democrat Mircea Geoana [campaign website, in Romanian], to declare the results of last week's runoff election invalid because of allegations of voter fraud and bribery. After the first round of elections in November produced no clear winner, Basescu and Geoana faced a runoff election. Official results showed that Basescu had won by a mere 70,000 votes, garnering 50.3 percent of the total votes, and the court ordered election officials to recount [JURIST report] 138,000 voided ballots on Friday. After the recount, Basescu was still determined to be the winner, and the court refused to annul the results. While Geoana said Monday that he accepted [AFP report] the court's decision, he is seeking a parliamentary inquiry into how the election was conducted.

Basescu's administration will now be tasked with resolving Romania's financial crisis and repairing its image as the most corrupt member of the European Union (EU). In February, the European Commission (EC) [official website] reported [text, PDF] that Romania has not made sufficient progress in its anti-corruption campaign since its accession [JURIST reports] to the EU two years ago. In June 2007, the EC issued a progress report [JURIST report], saying that Romania needed to do more to achieve judicial reform, and combat corruption and organized crime. In July 2008, Romania was again criticized [EU report] for its failure to address the same issues.

[JURIST] US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton [official profile] on Monday announced [remarks; video] the Obama administration's human rights agenda, emphasizing human rights, democracy, and development. Speaking at Georgetown University just days after US President Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize, Clinton said that "a commitment to human rights starts with universal standards and with holding everyone accountable to those standards, including ourselves." Clinton also said that the US must be "pragmatic and agile" in its approach without compromising its principles and that the administration would "support change driven by citizens and their communities." Clinton said the US must "widen [its] focus" and concluded by saying:

In the end, this isn't just about what we do; it is about who we are. And we cannot be the people we are – people who believe in human rights – if we opt out of this fight. Believing in human rights means committing ourselves to action, and when we sign up for the promise of rights that apply everywhere, to everyone, that rights will be able to protect and enable human dignity, we also sign up for the hard work of making that promise a reality.