The city council of Farmers Branch, Texas Monday unanimously approved revisions to a city ordinance requiring apartment renters to show proof of US residency and penalizing landlords who rent to illegal immigrants . The original ordinance was set to take effect earlier this month, but a judge issued a temporary restraining order after the Dallas [...]

The head of Catholic bishops in Italy Monday denounced a plan by the Italian government to give same-sex couples many of the rights that heterosexual couples enjoy. Cardinal Camillo Ruini spoke to a conference of Italian bishops and said same-sex unions went against the basic purpose of marriage – to produce children. The proposed legislation [...]

US Army Col. Michael Steele has been formally reprimanded for giving improper orders to soldiers in Iraq, leading to the deaths of four unarmed Iraqi civilians near Samarra last May, according to recent reports by two US Defense Department officials. Military documents indicate that Steele, a subject of the book and movie Black Hawk Down [...]

Kahle v. Gonzalez, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, January 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Initial Response to Representative Mark Foley's E-mails to a Former Page, US Department of Justice, January 22, 2006 . Read the full text of the report. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Cunningham v. California, US Supreme Court, January 22, 2006 . Read the Court's opinion per Justice Ginsburg, along with a dissent from Justice Kennedy and another dissent from Justice Alito. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A twelve-person jury was selected Monday to sit in the CIA leak trial of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby . Even though jury selection began last Tuesday and was supposed to conclude Thursday the process was extended as too many of the original 60 jurors were dismissed on the grounds that they [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Monday dismissed a challenge to the constitutionality of changes to copyright law made in the 1990s. The Court affirmed a lower court's dismissal of Kahle v. Gonzales , in which the plaintiffs argued that the move from an "opt-out" rather than an "opt-in" system of copyright [...]

President Bush Monday celebrated his administration's anti-abortion record in a telephone address to pro-life marchers demonstrating in Washington DC on the anniversary of the 1972 Roe v. Wade US Supreme Court ruling. Bush told the gathering that "we're making progress":We promoted adoption, support parental notification laws, ended federal funding for abortions overseas, and are funding [...]

A lawyer for Saddam-era Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan has filed an appeal with the Iraqi High Tribunal (IHT) arguing that the Tribunal's Appeals Chamber was not authorized to effectively direct its trial court to deliver a death penalty for Ramadan after originally according him a life sentence. Ramadan was convicted in November in [...]