Lisl Brunner, Author at JURIST

Spain extradites Argentina ex-naval officer to face ‘Dirty War’ charges

April 1, 2008 07:34:00 am

Former Argentinean naval officer Ricardo Miguel Cavallo was extradited Monday from Spain to Argentina, where he will face trial for crimes committed during Argentina's 1976-83 "Dirty War" ....

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Guatemala adoption agency lawyers on trial in ‘human trafficking’ case

Lisl Brunner

March 25, 2008 01:14:00 pm

Lawyers for Guatemalan adoption agency Casa Quivira have been charged with human trafficking as a result of irregularities discovered in the agency's records, the defendants' lawyers said Monday. The investigation began in August, when...

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Colombia president threatens to charge Chavez at ICC for aiding ‘genocide’

Lisl Brunner

March 5, 2008 12:36:00 pm

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe declared Tuesday that his country would bring charges against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for allegedly "sponsoring and financing...

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Guatemala panel to declassify documents on civil war-era rights abuses

Lisl Brunner

February 26, 2008 01:10:00 pm

Guatemala on Monday announced plans to declassify documents describing human rights abuses committed by its military during the country's 1960-1996 civil war . Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has created a panel...

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Argentina woman sues parents in ‘Dirty War’ abduction

Lisl Brunner

February 20, 2008 12:03:00 pm

An Argentinean woman has brought charges against her adoptive parents for kidnapping her and falsifying her identity during Argentina's "Dirty War" . While several other cases have dealt with the abduction of children ...

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Castro resignation could prompt suits over rights abuses

Lisl Brunner

February 20, 2008 06:09:00 am

The resignation of Cuban President Fidel Castro could prompt lawsuits against him in Spanish courts for crimes against humanity, Spanish human rights lawyers indicated on Tuesday. In December, the Spanish Audiencia Nacional dismissed a claim against...

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El Salvador judges protest judicial corruption allegations

Lisl Brunner

February 1, 2008 09:14:00 am

Hundreds of judges and lawyers in El Salvador marched to the Supreme Court of Justice on Thursday to protest challenges that the Attorney General has made to the rulings of four judges. Last week,...

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Mexico human rights commission denounces military abuses

Lisl Brunner

January 25, 2008 07:54:00 am

The Mexican military has committed grave human rights abuses, including the torture, rape and murder of civilians, according to a report from the Mexican National Human Rights Commission submitted to the Mexican National Congress. According...

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Peru brings maritime dispute with Chile before the ICJ

Lisl Brunner

January 17, 2008 10:28:00 am

Peru filed an application with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Wednesday over its ongoing maritime boundary dispute with Chile. Peru has been threatening to bring the case before the ICJ since the court resolved...

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Bolivia president proposes confidence referendum amid protests over new constitution

Lisl Brunner

December 6, 2007 11:02:00 am

Bolivian President Evo Morales has proposed a national referendum on whether he and the country's nine provincial governors should remain in office in response to accusations that the process of creating a new constitution ...

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THIS DAY @ LAW

Nixon nominated Harrold Carswell to the US Supreme Court

On January 19, 1970, President Richard Nixon nominated Judge G. Harrold Carswell of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to the US Supreme Court. The nomination became intensely controversial after a reporter discovered the text of a 1948 political campaign speech by Carswell in which he said "segregation of the races is proper." The Senate eventually rejected the nomination 51-45.
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Afterword
In November 2004, a JURIST reader wrote with regard to this entry:
You are factually correct. The speech is accurately quoted. But the most significant part of it wasn't that quote -- which, after all, reflected the law of the land through Brown v. Board of Education.
The most significant part was Carswell's avowal of his "firm, vigorous belief in the principles of white supremacy." I recall this because I was the reporter who discovered the speech, in the basement of the Wilkinson County courthouse in Georgia, where it was preserved as lead story in The Irwinton Bulletin, a weekly Carswell edited, which was kept because it was the legal paper of record."
Edward RoederRoeder later added: "just to ensure the accuracy of my quote from the speech -- including capitalization and punctuation -- let me check it. At the moment, I'm at the Library of Congress, a couple of blocks from my home where I have a photograph I took of the speech as printed in 1948 in the weekly newspaper.
Another great quote spawned by that confirmation battle was by Sen. Judiciary Committee Ranking Republican Roman Hruska, in response to the charge that Carswell was "mediocre." Hruska famously told the cameras staked outside the hearing room:
"Even if he was mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers . . . They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance? We can't have all Brandeises and Cardozos and Frankfurters and stuff like that there."...
One other aspect of that nomination might be worth noting. After Carswell's defeat, the seat went to Harry Blackmun. A year and a half later, he wrote Roe v. Wade," probably the most controversial and far-reaching SCOTUS decision since Brown."And finally:I found and reviewed my photo of Carswell's 1948 speech. First, it may be helpful to provide a bit of context for the part you quoted. The graf read, "I Am A Southerner By Ancestry, Birth, Training, Inclination, Belief And Practice. I Believe That Segregation Of The Races is Proper And The ONLY Practical And Correct Way Of Life In Our States."
The first letter of each word is capitalized, the the word ONLY is in all caps.
The "white supremacy" quote, two grafs later, is as strident: "I Yield To NO MAN, As A Fellow Candidate, Or As A Fellow Citizen, In The Firm Vigirous Belief In The Principles Of White Supremacy, And I Shall Always Be So Governed." Again, the first letter of each word is capitalized, and NO MAN is in all caps. "Vigorous" is misspelled in the newspaper.JURIST thanks Mr. Roeder for sharing his recollections - and his role in a fascinating snippet of Supreme Court history.

Tribunal established for Japan war criminals

On January 19, 1946, General Douglas MacArthur promulgated the Charter for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, creating a court in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals after World War II. Pursuant to Article 7 of the Charter, the Court's Rules of Procedure were set three months later. The judges and prosecutors represented the allied nations of the United States, U.S.S.R., China, Holland, Canada, France, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and India.
Article 6 of the Charter divided the accused War Criminals into three classes. Class A war criminals were those guilty of crimes against peace. Class B war criminals were those found guilty of actual war crimes. The highest level war criminals fell into Class C for crimes against humanity. Court prosecutors indicted over 5,700 people in Japan for Class B and C War Crimes. When the tribunal's final judgment was issued two years later on November 1, 1948, 984 of the defendants were convicted and sentenced to death. 475 of them were convicted and sentenced to life in prison, while 2,944 received lesser prison terms. Finally, 1,297 Japanese defendants were either acquitted, not tried, or not sentenced.

Many of Japanese defendants were indicted for their actions during the occupation of China. Read the indictment of Class A war criminals involved in the Rape of Nanking.

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