A US military judge ruled Tuesday that the pre-trial punishment of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning , who is accused of leaking confidential documents to WikiLeaks , was illegal and excessive. Army Colonel Denise Lind, who is overseeing the pre-trial hearing, determined that the extended solitary confinement and suicide restraints used on Manning during his detention [...]

The Illinois House on Tuesday voted 65-46 in favor of a bill that would permit immigrants in the country illegally to obtain temporary driver’s licenses if they can provide proof of one-year state residence, an unexpired passport from their country of citizenship or a valid unexpired consular identification document, and a photograph. Applicants would have [...]

A military contractor that was accused in a lawsuit by former detainees of the Abu Ghraib prison of conspiring to torture detainees has paid $5.28 million to detainees held at the prison and other US detention centers in Iraq. The detainees filed suit against two military defense contractors in federal court in 2008 for alleged [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in two cases . In Gabelli v. Securities and Exchange Commission the court heard arguments on the statute of limitations under 28 USC § 2462 and whether it begins tolling when the government can first bring an action against a penalty. The attorney for the Gabelli Global [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that overcrowding in Italy’s prisons violates the basic rights of inmates. Seven inmates at two Italian prisons filed complaints against the Italian government in 2009, alleging that the prison cells were overcrowded and that there was inadequate lighting and a lack of hot water. The court [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday in the combined cases Ryan v. Gonzales and Tibbals v. Carter that there is no right to stay a federal habeas corpus proceeding until an inmate becomes competent. The court held, rather, that the proceeding can continue with only the attorney. Justice Clarence Thomas delivered the opinion [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tuesday in Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council that water flowing through a concrete channel from different points in the river does not create a pollutant under the Clean Water Act (CWA) . Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delivered the opinion. All of the [...]

The former deputy president of the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court on Tuesday announced that she has filed a lawsuit with the court challenging the legality of Egypt’s controversial new constitution . Tahani el-Gebali is the only female judge to sit on the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, and she was removed from her post [...]

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) on Tuesday called on the Nepal government to cooperate with an investigation into allegations leveled against Nepal Army Colonel Kumar Lama. Lama was arrested in the UK last week and is charged with two counts of torture during Nepal’s civil war in 2005. The charges stem from two separate [...]

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on Monday was ordered to release its files on child abuse by its employees with full disclosure on all subject matter, totaling nearly 30,000 pages of documents and more than 200 priests named in the allegations. Judge Emilie Elias of the Superior Court of Los Angeles held that [...]