Democrats in the US Senate on Wednesday renewed efforts to pass legislation that would grant temporary legal status to illegal immigrant workers who work in agriculture, after House Republicans stalled bicameral negotiations last year. The Senate passed a bill in May that would set millions of illegal immigrants on a path to potential citizenship and [...]

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in the US District Court for the District of Columbia , seeking compliance with a CREW Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents related to the destruction of White House visitor record logs [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has announced it will rehear arguments on a preliminary injunction imposed last year which prevented South Dakota from enforcing a 2005 abortion law . Enforcement of the law was initially halted in 2005, pending a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the consolidated cases Davenport v. Washington Education Association and Washington v. Washington Education Association , 05-1589 and 05-1657 , where the Court must decide whether a state campaign finance law that prohibits labor unions and their officials from seizing and using the wages of nonmembers for [...]

A federal appeals court heard oral arguments Wednesday on whether the government should be permitted to reinstate a charge against alleged terrorist Jose Padilla . The charge, conspiracy to "murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country," carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, unlike the other charges now against him. In August, [...]

A coordinated hunger strike has halted proceedings before Bosnia's national war crimes after multiple defendants boycotted the court Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, demanding to be tried under the criminal code in place at the time of their alleged crimes, not under the 2003 criminal code which authorizes forty-year maximum penalties for those crimes charged. The [...]

Northern Ireland must abide by a gay rights bill that came into effect January 1 after the House of Lords voted Tuesday to keep the regulations in place. Lord Morrow opened debate on the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 , a bill which prohibits businesses from withholding goods and services, including accommodation, [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the causation standard for railroad negligence under the Federal Employers Liability Act is the same as that for employee contributory negligence under the Act. In Norfolk Southern v. Sorrell , an employee of the railroad sued for injuries suffered and was awarded $1.5 million in damages. The railroad [...]

Peru plans to mount a legal challenge to a decision from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) ordering a $20 million judgment be paid to the families of deceased rebels and calling for the government to publicly honor the rebels, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said Tuesday. The IACHR's November ruling held Peru liable for [...]

US military mental health workers had diagnosed an Army soldier as a homicidal threat three months before he was involved in the alleged rape and murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the murder of her family in the Mahmudiya (also "Mahmoudiya") area in March 2006, AP reported Tuesday. Former US Army soldier Pfc. Steven [...]