[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF; merit briefs] Monday in two cases. In Astrue v. Ratliff [oral arguments transcript, PDF; JURIST report], the court heard arguments on whether an award of attorneys' fees and expenses under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) [28 USC § 2412] is payable to the prevailing party rather than to the party's attorneys so that is can be used to satisfy a pre-existing debt owed to the government. The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled [opinion, PDF] that the fees are awarded to the attorneys, shielding them from government debt offset. Counsel for the petitioner argued:

EAJA provides that in an appropriate case a court shall award to a prevailing party fees and other expenses incurred by that party. Every court of appeals to have addressed the question, including the court below, recognized that the plain meaning of EAJA's text directs payment of EAJA fees and other expenses to the prevailing party, not her attorneys.

On 11 separate occasions, Chicago used an unlawful cutoff score to determine which applicants it would hire as firefighters. There is no dispute that the cutoff score had an adverse impact on qualified black applicants and was not job-related.

The only question presented is whether each use of the cutoff score in each of the hiring rounds was a separate violation of Title VII. An affirmative answer to that question is both the best reading of the statute and the soundest policy.

[JURIST] UK Justice Minister Jack Straw [official profile] announced Monday that the government plans to terminate to the inmate early release program initiated in June 2007 to ease prison overcrowding [JURIST news archive]. In remarks before the House of Commons [official website], Straw indicated that inmates eligible for release under the End of Custody Licence (ECL) [text, PDF] scheme on or before March 12 would be set free and that the program would be concluded by April 9. The Conservative Party [party website] has long called for an end to the ECL, and Monday reaffirmed [press release] its stance following Straw's announcement.

Last month, the UK Parliament Justice Committee [official website] released a reinvestment report [text] urging the prison populations in England and Wales to be reduced by a third [JURIST report]. The committee found that incarceration is a relatively ineffective way of reducing crime except for serious offenders and that the amount of repeat offenders could be more efficiently reduced through rehabilitation programs such as housing, employment, education, and drug and alcohol services. The committee admits that the implementation of their proposed strategy would be complex and challenging, but that it is necessary to reduce the UK's heavy burden of prison overcrowding and the reduction of repeat offenders.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on Monday accepted [opinion, PDF] a $150 million dollar settlement agreement between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] and Bank of America (BOA) [corporate website]. In his ruling, Judge Jed Rakoff said he was "reluctantly agreeing" to the settlement, which he called "improved, but far from ideal" and "half-baked justice at best." Rakoff further indicated:

If the Court were deciding that question solely on the merits – de novo, as the lawyers say - the Court would reject the settlement as inadequate and misguided. But as both parties never hesitate to remind the Court, the law requires the Court to give substantial deference to the SEC as the regulatory body having primary responsibility for policing the securities markets, especially with respect to matters of transparency. While such deference can never be absolute - since the Judgment ultimately entered is the Court's and is enforced by the Court's contempt power – the Court would fail in its duty if it did not give considerable weight to the SEC's position.

[JURIST] Two human rights groups released documents [text, PDF] Monday confirming that planes associated with the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) extraordinary rendition program [JURIST news archive] landed in Poland on six occasions in 2003. The Open Society Justice Initiative and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights [advocacy websites] released flight records obtained through a freedom of information act request to the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA) [official website, in Polish]. Those records confirm [report, PDF] at least six plane landings linked to the CIA at the Szczytno-Szymany airport in northern Poland between February and September 2003. The flights' origins included Kabul, Afghanistan, and Morocco. The official records confirm for the first time Poland's association with the CIA's secret detainee program:

There are new and important details contained in the [documents], which provide - at the very least - confirmation of findings made in the June 2007 report of Council of Europe. These details are especially significant because they emanate from a Polish state authority and represent the first time that any agency of the Polish Government has provided public confirmation on the official record that aircraft associated with the CIA landed, repeatedly, at Szymany Airport.

[JURIST] Iranian authorities have released 30 political prisoners from Evin prison, opposition website Cyrusnews [official website, Persian] reported Sunday. The release [AKI report] is being attributed to family members of the imprisoned, who gathered outside the prison for a week demanding their relatives be freed. It is estimated that hundreds of students, activists, and journalists have been arrested as political prisoners following the ongoing anti-government protests that were spurred by last June's controversial presidential election [JURIST news archive] that saw the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [official website]. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] has called for the release of all political prisoners in Iran and condemned [press release] the nation, alleging a general contempt for human rights.

Last week, Iranian official Mohammad Javad Larijani told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website] that Iran is fulfilling its human rights obligations [JURIST report]. The UNHRC was examining Iran's human rights record as part of its two-week Universal Periodic Review [materials] session. AI has criticized [press release, PDF] Iran's report [text, PDF] to the UNHRC, calling its portrayal of the state of human rights in the nation distorted. Earlier this month, former Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh was sentenced to six years in prison for his participation in post-election protests. Aminzadeh is one of the highest-ranking opposition officials to be convicted for protesting the highly disputed presidential election. Last month, Iran's Prosecutor-General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei called for sedition trials [JURIST report] against protest leaders. Earlier this month, Fars News Agency reported [JURIST report] that Iran will soon execute nine people for their roles in the post-election protests. The nine protesters were charged with the capital crime of moharebeh, which means waging war against God. Two others were executed [JURIST report] for the same crime in January.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday ruled [opinion, PDF] in Wilkins v. Gaddy [docket] that excessive force claims must be decided based on the nature of the force rather than the extent of the injury. The district court had dismissed a prisoner's excessive force claim after determining that his injuries were "de minimis." The Supreme Court found that the lower court had incorrectly applied the standard articulated in Hudson v. McMillian [opinion text], which held that "the use of excessive physical force against a prisoner may constitute cruel and unusual punishment [even] when the inmate does not suffer serious injury." The court reversed the decision below and remanded for further proceedings. Justice Clarence Thomas filed a concurring opinion, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, arguing that Hudson was wrongly decided.

Also Monday, the court ruled [opinion, PDF] in Thaler v. Haynes [docket] that there is no precedent requiring a judge to have personally observed a prospective juror rejected for demeanor when ruling on an objection to a peremptory challenge. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had ruled that under Baston v. Kentucky [opinion text], the judge must have personally observed the prospective juror's behavior in order to determine whether he was rejected for demeanor or because of race. The Supreme Court reversed the decision below, finding that the appeals court had read too much into Baston.

[JURIST] US President Barack Obama on Monday released the administration's health care reform proposal [text, PDF], four days in advance of a bipartisan summit on the issue. The proposal seeks to reconcile the versions of the bills passed last year by the House of Representatives legislation [HR 3962 materials; JURIST report] and the Senate [text; JURIST report]. The administration has detailed what it considers to be the key points [WH materials] of the proposal, including the creation of a new state insurance exchange to expand health care coverage to Americans who are not provided health care by their employers and a Health Insurance Rate Authority to review rate increases and other unfair insurance practices. The proposal specifies initiatives to make the health care system more affordable while eliminating the Nebraska federal medical assistance percentages (FMAP) [ASPE backgrounder] provision of the House legislation. The provision would have demanded the federal government fund new enrollees in Nebraska's state health care system.

Obama's proposal is the first major step taken this year in an ongoing health care reform debate [JURIST news archive]. In December, 13 state attorneys general threatened legal action [JURIST report] against the Nebraska FMAP provision included in the House bill. The attorneys general argued that the provision is unconstitutional and "antithetical to the legitimate federal interests in the bill" that "the states share with the federal government the cost of providing such care to their citizens" because it exempts Nebraska from such shared cost. The Senate passed its version of the health care reform bill earlier in December in a 60-39 vote [roll call] that split down party lines. Senate Republicans vowed to continue to fight to amend the bill, arguing that it is too expensive and would violate personal rights [NYT report] by compelling people to buy health insurance. The House of Representatives approved its version of the legislation in November. The two bills must be reconciled before legislation can go to the president for signature.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Monday granted certiorari [order list, PDF] in two cases. In County of Los Angeles v. Humphries [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the court will be asked to address whether a plaintiff must show that a constitutional violation by a public entity was the result of a policy, custom, or practice of that entity before declaratory relief can be granted. The case arose after two parents were unable to have their names removed from California's Child Abuse Central Index [official materials], a database that collects reports of child abuse, after the charges against them were dismissed. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found [opinion, PDF] that the inability to remove "factually innocent" suspects from the database violated their rights under the Fourth Amendment and subsequently awarded $652,000 in attorneys' fees for the appeal. The county challenges the Ninth Circuit's ruling on the grounds that the couple failed to show that the county had adopted a policy or practice that resulted in the constitutional violation, as required by Monell v. Department of Social Services [opinion text] and that their failure to do so meant that they were not "prevailing parties" for the purposes of fee awards under 42 USC § 1988 [text].

In Harrington v. Richter [docket; cert. petition, PDF], the court will consider whether a defense counsel's reliance on cross-examination in lieu of forensic evidence violates the client's Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel. Granting federal habeas corpus review, the Ninth Circuit found [opinion, PDF] in an en banc rehearing that Richter's counsel "failed to undertake the most elementary task that a responsible defense attorney would perform" by not presenting forensic analysis of a blood pool found at the scene of a murder Richter is accused of committing. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, the California Supreme Court, the California Court of Appeals, and the US District Court for the Eastern District of California had all previously rejected the application.

[JURIST] Turkish police on Monday detained more than 40 people in connection with an alleged military plot to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. According to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [official profile, in Turkish; JURIST news archive], the arrests occurred during security operations in which 14 senior military officers, including former air force chief Ibrahim Firtina and former navy chief Ozden Ornek, were taken into custody. The investigation comes after the liberal newspaper Taraf [media website, in Turkish] exposed a plot by a group within the Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) [official website, in Turkish] in January. The newspaper described the Balyoz Security Operation Plan (Sledgehammer plot) [Taraf report, in Turkish] and the 5,000 page document that detailed plans to bomb Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece into shooting down Turkish planes.

The alleged coup plot highlights the continuing power struggle between Turkey's ruling Justice Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish] and the country's secular nationalist establishment. The Sledgehammer plot is similar to the Ergenekon [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] conspiracy, in which the secular group is suspected of planning to overthrow [JURIST report] the AKP. The Ergenekon group is also alleged to be involved in bombings, political assassination plots, and the death of journalist Hrant Dink [BBC obituary]. The probe into the Ergenekon conspiracy has been criticized as an attempt by the AKP to silence opposition and further its imposition of Islamic principles [DPA report; JURIST report] in violation of Turkey's secular constitution [text]. Trials against the Ergenekon group [JURIST report] opened two years ago with more than 200 suspects in custody. The suspects include journalists, academics, army officers, policemen, and Turkish Workers' Party [party website, in Turkish] leader Dogu Perincek [JURIST report].

[JURIST] An Algerian criminal court on Sunday acquitted former Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Mustafa Hemlili of charges of counterfeiting and affiliation to a militant group that is active abroad. Hemlili was released from Guantanamo, along with fellow inmate Hederbash Sufian, after a six-year detention period. The court separated the trials [Bernama report] of the two defendants, stating that the only link between them was the date of their release. Sufian's trial was postponed due to poor health after his lawyers presented evidence showing that he suffers from mental trauma as a result of his treatment at the US naval facility. Hemlili had traveled with family members to Mali, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan without a passport before going to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region [CFR backgrounder] to work with an international relief agency assisting Afghan refugees. After the 9/11 attacks [JURIST news archive], Hemlili was captured [QNA report] in Peshawar, Pakistan, with a forged Iraqi passport.

Last month, two other Guantanamo Bay detainees were transferred to Algeria [JURIST report], the latest in a string of transfers to the country spanning several years. Both were Algerian nationals, bringing the total number of Algerians released from Guantanamo [KUNA report] to 19. The transfer came amid criticisms from Republican Congress members after a Department of Defense [official website] official stated [JURIST report] that one in five detainees have returned to terrorist activities, according to a classified Pentagon report. Another Guantanamo Bay detainee, Ahmed Belbacha [JURIST news archive], was sentenced [JURIST report] to 20 years in prison for being part of an "overseas terrorist group" by an Algerian court in November. The week prior, the court acquitted [JURIST report] former detainees Abdulli Feghoul and Terari Mohamed. Feghoul and Mohamed were repatriated [JURIST report] to Algeria in August 2008 after being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for seven years.