California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday vetoed the Free Curriculum Act , a bill designed to add protections against discrimination in schools by prohibiting teaching or textbooks that "reflect adversely" on students based on their sexual orientation. The bill passed both the state Senate and Assembly last month. Schwarzenegger argued that existing law already "provides [...]

The US Justice Department filed a motion Wednesday requesting US District Judge Simeon T. Lake III defer a ruling on vacating the criminal record of former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay until former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling is sentenced on October 23. Lay and Skilling were convicted of fraud and conspiracy charges in May but Lay [...]

US District Court Judge Ewing Werlein has set either February 5 or September 4, 2007 as the trial date for three former British bankers , known as the Natwest Three, who face fraud charges related to the Enron scandal . Defense lawyers argued for a late trial date in order to allow sufficient time to [...]

An amendment to the FY 2007 Department of Defense Appropriations bill which would prohibit the US military from using cluster bombs in proximity to civilians was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 70-30 on Wednesday. The Cluster Munitions Amendment , introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) , would [...]

US Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said Wednesday that negotiations in Congress to implement comprehensive immigration reform will be streamlined to focus on border security and worksite enforcement. Both houses of Congress have passed immigration reform bills and the two versions must be reconciled and voted on before a final bill can be presented [...]

Military Commissions Act of 2006, White House, September 6, 2006 . Read the full text of proposed bill . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

FM 2-22.3, Human Intelligence Collector Operations, US Army, September 6, 2006 . Read the full text of the manual . The major revisions are here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Back from their summer recess, US House and Senate lawmakers are considering bills this week that address the legality of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program , which involves warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency . The House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Wednesday considered a bill proposed by US [...]

The Belgrade District Court announced Wednesday that a new presiding judge has been named in the trial of 13 suspects charged with the March 2003 assassination of former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic . Judge Nata Mesarovic will fill the presiding judge position, vacated by Judge Nata Mesarovic last week without comment, when the trial [...]

Twenty-eight days after initially detaining five British Muslim men among almost two dozen others arrested early last month in connection with an alleged terror plot to blow up US-bound planes over the Atlantic, Scotland Yard has formally charged two of the still-jailed suspects, Donald Douglas Stewart Whyte and Muhammed Usman Saddique, with "preparing an act [...]