The US House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday examined the effects of mandatory minimum sentences in advance of consideration of three proposed bills intended to provide more discretion to judges during sentencing. Representatives of the Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM), the US Judicial Conference and Americans for Tax Reform urged the Subcommittee on Crime Terrorism, and [...]

US Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday defended her judicial record and emphasized her reliance on precedent when deciding cases in response to confirmation questioning by the US Senate . Sotomayor defended a now overturned decision in Ricci v. DeStefano that she joined while serving on the US Court of Appeals for the Second [...]

A federal judge on Monday granted class-action status to approximately 400,000 immigrants from Central America who allege that a separate service fee for immigration applicants violates a federal law . Judge Thelton Henderson of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the complaints could be brought as a class-action suit [...]

Zbaraz, et al. v. Madigan, et al., US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, July 14, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on abortion law.

USA v. Moussaoui, US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, July 14, 2009 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more on Zacarias Moussaoui.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) on Tuesday sentenced former Rwandan Armed Forces Colonel Tharcisse Renzaho to life imprisonment after convicting him of crimes in connection with the 1994 Rwandan genocide . Renzaho was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and violations of the Geneva Conventions . The court found that he supported [...]

A former CIA counter-terrorism agent alleges that top al Qaeda suspect Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded prior to the issuance of legal memos justifying the practice, the BBC reported Monday. John Kiriakou, who was part of the CIA team that captured Zubaydah in Pakistan, said that the detainee was subject to the controversial interrogation technique prior [...]

Former Liberian president Charles Taylor on Tuesday denied war crimes allegations while testifying for the first time at his trial in the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) . Taylor faces 11 counts of crimes against humanity, violations of the Geneva Conventions , and other violations of international humanitarian law stemming from a "campaign to [...]

The UK House of Lords on Monday approved a measure to create an independent commissioner for terrorism suspects, which must now go before the House of Commons. The Lords voted 145-103 on an amendment to the Coroners and Justice Bill offered by Lord Lloyd, over the objections of members of the Labour Party of Prime [...]

Members of Congress on Monday called for an investigation into a secret Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program designed to kill al Qaeda members. The call follows the recently publicized information that former vice-president Dick Cheney directly ordered the CIA to withhold information about the program from Congress and kept it secret for eight years. The [...]