[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF; merit briefs] Tuesday in McDonald v. City of Chicago [oral arguments transcript, PDF; JURIST report] on 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. In 2008, 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. Counsel for the petitioners argued:

Although Chicago's ordinances cannot survive the faithful application of due process doctrines, there is an even simpler, more essential reason for reversing the lower court's judgment. The Constitution's plain text, as understood by the people that ratified it, mandates this result.

The Second Amendment should not be incorporated and applied to the States because the right it protects is not implicit in the concept of ordered liberty. States and local governments have been the primary locus of firearms regulation in this country for the last 220 years. Firearms unlike anything else that is the subject of a provision of the Bill of Rights are designed to injure and kill.

Congress extended an absolute immunity to officers and employees of the Public Health Service. That provision, reflecting Congress's policy judgment that the immunity was necessary to revitalize the Public Health Service, makes a claim against the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act the exclusive remedy for injury or death resulting from the performance of medical or related function and precludes any other civil action or proceeding against the individuals by reason of the same subject matter.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday ruled [opinion, PDF] unanimously in Mac's Shell Service, Inc. v. Shell Oil Products Co. [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that a service station operator cannot recover for constructive termination under the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act (PMPA) [15 USC § 2801-2806 text] when the operator continues to run the franchise with the same trademark, fuel, and premises. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed [opinion, PDF] a district court ruling that a franchise could recover for constructive termination even if it continues to use the same trademark, fuel, and premises. The First Circuit also reversed the district ruling on constructive non-renewal of an agreement, holding that a franchisee faced with an unlawful lease has to either sign the lease and forgo any potential actions under the act or refuse to sign and bring a challenge to it after receiving a notice of non-renewal. Partially reversing the decision below, Justice Samuel Alito wrote:

We hold that a franchisee cannot recover for constructive termination under the PMPA if the franchisor's allegedly wrongful conduct did not compel the franchisee to abandon its franchise. Additionally, we conclude that a franchisee who signs and operates under a renewal agreement with a franchisor may not maintain a claim for constructive nonrenewal.

[JURIST] Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic [case materials; JURIST news archive] claimed Tuesday that attacks against Bosnian Muslims were "staged," denying any involvement in war crimes. Karadzic was appearing before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] for second consecutive day to continue opening statements in his trial for war crimes allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. In his statement, Karadzic accused Bosnians of planting corpses and embellishing reports about fatalities [Telegraph report]. Karadzic also called the Srebrenica massacre [JURIST news archives] a farce [Guardian report] promulgated by Bosnian Muslims to incite hatred against Serbian forces. Regarding the 1994 and 1995 bombings of Markale market, Karadzic said the attacks were actually carried out by Bosnians who shelled their own people. The court adjourned after Tuesday's hearing, pending an appeal from Karadzic for more time to prepare his defense.

On Monday, Karadzic began his opening statement [JURIST report] by denying [UPI report] any plan to expel Muslims from Serbia, and by blaming [Telegraph report] Muslims and Western countries for triggering the Bosnian civil war. His trial resumed on Monday after a series appeals by the defense, which have been viewed as a way for Karadzic to delay the legal process [BBC report]. Last month, Karadzic appeared before the ICTY seeking access to documents [JURIST report] he claimed showed evidence of weapons smuggling to Bosnian Muslims. Also last month, the ICTY dismissed Karadzic's appeal [JURIST reports] against the imposition of his court-appointed lawyer. In December, the Trial Chamber rejected Karadzic's motion [JURIST reports] challenging the legitimacy of the court. The ICTY began Karadzic's trial in absentia in October after Karadzic failed to appear [JURIST reports] in court. The ICTY has also repeatedly rejected [JURIST report] Karadzic's argument that he should be immune from trial based on an alleged agreement with former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke. In June, the ICTY said that Karadzic's trial, scheduled to be the tribunal's last, is expected to conclude in early 2012 [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Spain's Interior Ministry [official website, in Spanish] announced [press release, in Spanish] Tuesday that national police agents have arrested accused Montenegrin war criminal Veselin Vlahovic in southeastern Spain. Vlahovic, known as the "monster of Grbavica," is wanted on three international arrest warrants, including one for the rape, torture, and murder of more than 100 women and children during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war [JURST news archive]. The police captured [BBC report] Vlahovic after he was accused of several burglaries near his home in Altea. Vlahovic is wanted for a series of additional violent crimes. In 1998, he was imprisoned in Montenegro for armed robbery, but escaped on June 18, 2001. Three days later, he shot a man outside a bar in Serbia and was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in abstensia. He is also wanted in Spain for armed robbery. Bosnia's Presidency Chairman Zeljko Komsic [official website] is requesting that Spain extradite [Reuters report] Vlahovic to Bosnia where he is wanted on charges of genocide. Official documents will be drawn up by Bosnian officials on Wednesday and delivered to Spanish authorities within the same day. Spanish officials stated that Vlahovic would first stand before a local judge for the burglary allegations and would then be taken to the National Court [official website, in Spanish] in Madrid where extradition procedures are handled.

Vlahovic's arrest comes as former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic [case materials; JURIST news archive], stands trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] for alleged war crimes and genocide during the Bosnian War. Karadzic appeared [JURIST report] before the ICTY for the second consecutive day on Tuesday to continue opening statements. In his statement, Karadzic referred to a "holy war" against Bosnian Muslims and accused Bosnians of framing him by planting corpses and embellishing reports about fatalities [Telegraph report]. Karadzic had announced that he planned to boycott [JURIST report] his trial because he had not been given adequate time to prepare a defense. The ICTY has also repeatedly rejected [JURIST report] Karadzic's argument that he should be immune from trial based on an alleged agreement with former UN ambassador Richard Holbrooke. Karadzic faces 11 charges [amended indictment, PDF], including genocide and murder, for war crimes allegedly committed during the 1992-1995 Bosnian conflict. In June, the ICTY said that Karadzic's trial was expected to conclude in early 2012 [JURIST report]. His trial is planned to be the tribunal's last.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday ruled [opinion, PDF] in Reed Elsevier v. Muchnick [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that a federal law [14 USC § 411(a) text] requiring copyright holders to register their works before suing for copyright infringement does not remove federal court jurisdiction if the copyright holder failed to register. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had invalidated [opinion, PDF] a lower court's approval of a settlement in a class action lawsuit on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction. In reversing that decision, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote:

Subject to certain exceptions, the Copyright Act (Act) requires copyright holders to register their works before suing for copyright infringement. In this case, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a copyright holder's failure to comply with § 411(a)'s registration requirement deprives a federal court of jurisdiction to adjudicate his copyright infringement claim. We disagree. Section 411(a)'s registration requirement is a precondition to filing a claim that does not restrict a federal court's subject-matter jurisdiction.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Tuesday ruled [opinion, PDF] 7-2 in Johnson v. United States [Cornell LII backgrounder; JURIST report] that a "violent felony" requires the use of physical force. The court found that the Florida battery offense does not meet the physical force requirement of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) [19 USC § 924 text] to be considered a violent felony for sentencing enhancement purposes. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held [opinion, PDF] that such a battery does constitute a violent felony. In reversing the opinion below, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote:

Section 924(e)(2)(B)(i) does not define "physical force," and we therefore give the phrase its ordinary meaning. The adjective "physical" is clear in meaning but not of much help to our inquiry. ... It is the noun that poses the difficulty; "force" has a number of meanings. ... In more general usage it means "[s]trength or energy; active power; vigor; often an unusual degree of strength or energy," "[p]ower to affect strongly in physical relations," or "[p]ower, violence, compulsion, or constraint exerted upon a person.” Black's Law Dictionary ... defines "force" as "[p]ower, violence, or pressure directed against a person or thing." And it defines "physical force" as "[f]orce consisting in a physical act, esp. a violent act directed against a robbery victim." All of these definitions suggest a degree of power that would not be satisfied by the merest touching.

[JURIST] Turkish prosecutors have charged [Anatolian report, in Turkish] an army general and a state prosecutor with belonging to the Ergenekon [BBC profile, JURIST news archive] network and plotting to uproot Turkey's ruling Justice Development Party (AKP) [party website, in Turkish], according a Monday report by state news agency Anatolian [media website, in Turkish]. General Saldiray Berk [official profile, in Turkish] and prosecutor Ilhan Cihaner were arrested last month in the eastern province of Erzincan following the extensive probe into the secular Ergenekon network. A 61-page indictment charged Berk and Cihaner with plotting to discredit the AKP and other Islamic networks in Erzincan. Berk, the first currently serving officer to face trial in connection with the secular group, was specified as the head of a local Ergenekon group with Cihaner acting as a key collaborator. Cihaner's arrest has increased tensions [Reuters report] between the judiciary and the government, after threats from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan [official profile, in Turkish; JURIST news archive] on Sunday to seek a public referendum [JURIST report] if a constitutional amendment to curb the power of judges cannot be reached.

The indictment of Berk and Cihaner follows last week's arrests and charges of more than 30 military officers in connection with a separate plot [JURIST report] to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. The arrests and charges began after the newspaper Taraf [media website, in Turkish] revealed the 2003 Balyoz Security Operation Plan [Taraf report, in Turkish], or "Sledgehammer plot," in January. The plot included detailed plans to bomb Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece into shooting down a Turkish plane as part of an effort to undermine the government. The Sledgehammer plot [JURIST report] is similar to the Ergenekon 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] The widow of assassinated Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana [Britannica profile], Agathe Habyarimana, was arrested Tuesday in France on suspicions of complicity in genocide and was later released on bail. French police complied with an international arrest warrant issued by the Rwandan government [official website] that accused Habyarimana of helping to plan the 1994 genocide [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] between Hutus and Tutsis in which more than 800,000 people, primarily Tutsis, were killed in the span of 100 days. After her husband's assassination, which led to an escalation of violence that sparked the genocide, Agathe Habyarimana was transported from Rwanda by the French military [BBC report] and has since been living outside Paris, although the French government [official website, in French] has twice refused [2007 text, PDF, in French; 2009 text, PDF, in French] to grant her asylum as a refugee. Her arrest comes only a few days after French President Nicolas Sarkozy [official profile, JURIST news archive] visited Rwanda and said that he would cooperate [JURIST report] in finding those accused of genocide.

In January, the Rwandan government released a report [JURIST report] concluding that the assassination of then-president Juvenal Habyarimana was the work of Hutu extremists. An independent committee of experts, established [JURIST report] in April 2007 by Rwanda's Tutsi President Paul Kagame [official website; BBC profile], found that Hutu extremists, including members of the president's own family, were opposed to the 1993 Arusha Accords [text, PDF], a power-sharing agreement supported by Habyarimana, designed to end his 20-year monopoly on power. The report asserts that Hutus used the assassination as a pretext for the 1994 genocide. As of May 2009, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) [official website; JURIST news archive], established for the prosecution of persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law during the Rwandan genocide, has rendered judgments or has trials underway [completion strategy report, PDF] for 68 suspects, with six suspects awaiting trials, one retrial, and 13 fugitives.

[JURIST] Germany's Federal Constitutional Court [official website, in German] on Tuesday overturned [judgment text, in German] a law requiring telecommunications providers to store information on telephone calls, e-mails, and Internet use for six months for use in possible terrorism investigations, citing privacy issues. The court found [press release, in German] that Section 113 of the Telecommunications Act violates the privacy of German citizens and that the law lacks the controls to ensure the data is secure and properly utilized. The court also ruled that all stored data must be immediately deleted. The law was passed in response to a 2006 European Union (EU) directive [text, PDF] requiring the retention of telephone and e-mail records for use in terrorism investigations. The court, however, stated that the German law exceeded the requirements [Spiegel report] put forth by the EU. The law has been widely criticized in Germany [AP report], with nearly 35,000 Germans filing complaints regarding the law with the court.

The balancing of telecommunications monitoring for security purposes and privacy concerns has been a struggle post 9/11 in both Europe and the US. In January, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official websites] are not required to confirm or deny the existence of electronic surveillance records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text]. In April, the DOJ announced that it had limited [JURIST report] the NSA's electronic surveillance, but maintained that the information being received was still important. In 2006, it was revealed that the NSA [JURIST report] was collecting phone records from major telephone companies to study the calling patterns of millions of Americans in an effort to detect terrorist activity.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] on Tuesday urged [press release] Egypt to investigate the shootings of 60 unarmed migrants since July 2007 on the Egyptian side of the Egypt-Israeli border. The majority of those killed [UN News Centre report] have been Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Sudanese. Pillay stated that "the sheer number of victims suggests that at least some Egyptian security officials have been operating a shoot-to-kill policy. It is unlikely that so many killings would occur otherwise. Sixty killings can hardly be an accident." In February, Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] also urged [press release, PDF] Egypt to take immediate action to quell the excessive force used by its border police and to investigate the policies that encourage such force.

In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [official website; BBC profile] announced the construction of 70 miles of fence [JURIST report] along Israel's border with Egypt in the Sinai in order to combat terrorism and illegal immigration. In explaining the purpose for the barrier, which has an estimated cost of more than $400 million USD, Netanyahu explained that his decision was a strategic move "to ensure the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel." And, that "Israel will remain open to war refugees but we cannot allow thousands of illegal workers to infiltrate into Israel via the southern border and flood our country." Israeli police estimate [Guardian report] that 100 to 200 African migrants enter the country illegally every week from Egypt, mainly in search of employment. The influx of non-Jewish migrants into Israel has caused unease [NYT report] among Jewish Israelis, a group which comprises three-fourths of the Israeli population and wants to maintain the country as the world's only Jewish-majority state.

[JURIST] Several human rights groups and anti-mine activists on Monday urged [press release] the US to join the Mine Ban Treaty [text], marking the eleventh anniversary of the treaty's status as binding international law. Despite initial statements from the US State Department in November that the US would be maintaining its current policy [JURIST report], the US government announced in its first appearance at the December convention [summit website] of states party to the Mine Ban Treaty that the Obama administration has undertaken a review [DPA report] of current US landmine policy. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] Arms Division Director Steve Goose emphasized the importance of the US signing onto the treaty:

The humanitarian and political benefits would be huge, and it would not tie the hands of the US military. Some ask how the US can join when it is at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but both those nations are members of the treaty and are already obliged to reject any use of antipersonnel mines.

[JURIST] The Paris Criminal Court on Monday asked the highest court of appeal, the Court of Cassation [official website, in French], to determine the constitutionality of police custody under article 63-4 [text] of the code of criminal procedure. The request [Nouvelobs report, in French] follows Monday's entry into force of a constitutional amendment [Agenda report] allowing individuals indirectly to seek review before the French Constitutional Council [official website, in French] by appealing to the highest courts of the country. The Court of Cassation will have three months to decide whether the question should be submitted to the Constitutional Council. The application was initiated by an association of Paris bar lawyers [website, in French], which has called for lawyers around France to follow its lead in order to pressure the government to reform the criminal procedure. French Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie [official profile, in French] will present a reform project [Nouvelobs report, in French] to the unions representing judges and lawyers on Tuesday.

The campaign for reform [advocacy website, in French] has gained momentum over the past few months as a result of recent decisions by the European Court of Human Rights [official website] in Salduz v. Turkey, Mooren v. Germany, Koslenik v. Ukraine [judgments], which called a lack of safeguards during police custody a violation of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights [text, PDF]. French lawyers and human rights groups have demanded that all suspects in police custody be given the right to see a lawyer immediately and access to a lawyer during interrogation, as well as be informed of their right to remain silent.

[JURIST] UK police on Monday arrested former Bosnian vice president Ejup Ganic for war crimes in connection with a 1992 attack against Serbian soldiers. Ganic, vice president during the outset of the 1992-1995 Bosnian civil war [JURIST news archive], was arrested [BBC report] by the Scotland Yard Extradition Unit at a London airport on the day he was to return to Bosnia. The arrest was carried out on a Serbian provisional extradition warrant for conspiracy to murder and killing wounded soldiers, in breach of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War [text]. Ganic has been detained pending the completion of Serbia's extradition request, which must be completed within the next 45 days. Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic said she will send an extradition request on Tuesday. Bosnian authorities have expressed outrage over the arrest and view the move as an affront to Bosnian sovereignty that endangers relations with Serbia.

Ganic is the highest ranking official among 19 for whom Serbia has issued an arrest warrant in connection with the Dobrovoljacka Street incident at the onset of the Bosnian conflict. Serbian authorities maintain that Serbian soldiers were attacked by Bosnian forces as they were leaving Sarajevo, resulting in 42 deaths and more than 70 wounded soldiers. Bosnian authorities dismiss Serbian claims surrounding the incident on the grounds that they were defending their own territory and that Serbia is undermining procedures in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website; JURIST news archive].