Terry Kay Rockefeller : "I am a long time opponent of the death penalty, in all cases, for the fundamental reason that I do not want to be the citizen of a state that murders. My views were not changed when my sister, Laura, was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But, having a family [...]

Sierra Club et al. v. Dale Bosworth et al., United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, December 5, 2007 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

J. Wells Dixon : "The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) returned to the United States Supreme Court yesterday for arguments in Al Odah v. United States and Boumediene v. Bush, which will likely decide the fate of about 300 men held without charge or trial in Guantanamo Bay. At stake are questions directly impacting our [...]

Pakistani Attorney General Malik Qayyum has reversed a decision to cut the size of the Supreme Court of Pakistan in the wake of the November 3 declaration of emergency, according to Pakistan's News daily Thursday. Qayyum told the News that he was acting at the behest of new Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, who had [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday approved a bipartisan bill that would allow television coverage of all open US Supreme Court hearings. The Sunshine in the Courtroom Act of 2007 would permit the Supreme Court to televise all open sessions, unless there is a majority vote amongst the justices that coverage in a particular case [...]

Russia has extradited an Uzbek man sought on charges of religious extremism to his native Uzbekistan in defiance of a request by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) , a representative from the Russian advocacy group Civic Assistance said Thursday. The ECHR had formally requested that Russia refrain from deporting Abdugani Kamaliyev until after [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Thursday that Shirley Phelps-Roper, a member of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church , is entitled to a preliminary injunction preventing the enforcement of a Missouri state statute banning protesters from picketing near funerals while the law is under constitutional review. The appeals court found that [...]

International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said Thursday she will work to block a formal signing of the European Union's pre-membership deal with Serbia if the country does not apprehend fugitive former Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic and turn him over to The Hague by December 10. The [...]

US House and Senate negotiators agreed Thursday to remove language that would broaden federal hate crimes legislation from a defense reauthorization bill currently being finalized in Congress. In September, the Senate approved an amendment to the 2008 Defense Reauthorization Bill that would have expanded hate crimes laws to cover violent attacks against people based on [...]

A US Army major testified Thursday at a pretrial hearing to determine whether Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan qualifies as an unlawful enemy combatant , describing the circumstances under which Hamdan was taken into custody in Afghanistan in November 2001. If Hamdan, allegedly a driver for Osama bin Laden before his capture and [...]