A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by business groups challenging the Legal Arizona Workers Act , saying that the law does not overstep the federal government's authority to regulate immigration. Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the lawsuit in [...]

New Jersey pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck has agreed to pay $671 million to settle claims that it defrauded Medicaid and improperly marketed three of its drugs to doctors, federal prosecutors said Thursday. The settlement stems from two separate lawsuits filed in Philadelphia and New Orleans. The Philadelphia case alleged that Merck overcharged the federal Medicaid program [...]

Amnesty International Canada, et al., v. Chief of the Defence Staff for the Canadian Forces, et al., Federal Court of Canada, February 7, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Katherine Triantafillou : "Too bad the news piece on Parker v. Hurley misstated the holding of the case, but perhaps we shouldn't be surprised as those of us from Massachusetts are used to being misunderstood and denigrated for our progressive ways. Consider the criticism heaped on Horace Mann, a lawyer, the "father of public education" [...]

The French Senate and National Assembly Thursday approved the new EU reform treaty , properly known as the Treaty of Lisbon . The treaty now goes to French President Nicolas Sarkozy for signature. France's opposition Socialist Party had pushed for a national referendum regarding the ratification of the treaty, but the National Assembly Wednesday voted [...]

Canadian Federal Court Justice Anne Mactavish Thursday refused to issue an interlocutory injunction that would have prohibited the Canadian military from turning over detainees to Afghan authorities. Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) had requested the injunction, alleging that detainees may be subjected to torture in Afghan custody and that [...]

Former Yukos executive and lawyer Vasily Aleksanian will be transferred from jail to a civilian clinic for medical treatment, Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service said Thursday. The announcement apparently reverses a Wednesday Russian court ruling denying Aleksanian temporary medical release . The European Court of Human Rights has called on Russia three times to move Aleksanian [...]

The UK Home Office Thursday approved the extradition of Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to the United States on charges of supporting terrorism. Abu Hamza, currently serving a seven-year sentence in the UK for urging his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims, faces US charges of attempting to establish terrorist training camps in Oregon, [...]

Lawyers for Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan argued at a preliminary hearing Thursday that the charges against Hamdan should be dropped because his alleged crimes were not considered violations of the rules of war at the time they were committed and that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was not intended to create [...]

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey Thursday rejected Democratic calls to launch a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into the CIA's admitted use of waterboarding on three terror detainees. In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Mukasey said that because the CIA had relied on a DOJ opinion that found waterboarding to be legal, it would [...]