AP is reporting that Saadoun Sughaiyer al-Janabi, a defense lawyer for one of Saddam Hussein's co-defendants who was kidnapped by 10 masked gunmen Thursday evening in Baghdad, has been found dead, according to a senior Iraqi lawyers' union official. Diaa al-Saadi warned "This will have grave repercussions. This will hinder lawyers from defending those held [...]

State v. Limon, Kansas Supreme Court, October 21, 2005 . Excerpt: We conclude that K.S.A. 2004 Supp. 21-3522 , the Kansas unlawful voluntary sexual relations statute, does not pass rational basis scrutiny under the United States Constitution Equal Protection Clause or, because we traditionally apply the same analysis to our state constitution, under the Kansas [...]

Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, October 20, 2005 . Excerpt: We conclude that the District has a compelling interest in securing the educational and social benefits of racial (and ethnic) diversity, and in ameliorating racial isolation or concentration in its high schools by [...]

Notice of temporary emergency amendments to sentencing guidelines, United States Sentencing Commission, October 19, 2005 . Read the full text of the emergency rules here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Letter from US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers to US Senator and ranking Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy, October 19, 2005 . Read the text of the letter . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act 2005, passed in the US House of Representatives October 20, 2005 . Read the full text of the legislation as previously passed by the Senate. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Senators predicted Thursday that the confirmation hearings for US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers , scheduled to begin November 7th , will probably not finish before Thanksgiving as hoped for by the White House. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) , the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee who earlier criticized Miers' questionnaire answers as “incomplete” and [...]

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) , chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee , introduced new legislation Thursday to split the US Ninth Ciruit that would create a new US Twelfth Circuit Court of Appeals covering Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Under the Federal Judgeship and Administrative Efficiency Act of 2005 (HR [...]

The US Sentencing Commission has authorized emergency rules increasing penalties for persons convicted of swapping as-yet-unreleased films over peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus. The emergency regulations, which supplement the current guidelines , allow judges to base sentences on the volume of copyrighted works shared, and expand the definition of infringement to [...]

Robert Amsterdam , international defense counsel for jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky , says that Western governments are turning a blind eye to the deteriorating rule of law in Russia exemplified by his client's prosecution and recent conviction. In a JURIST op-ed published Thursday, Amsterdam argued that instead of insisting that Russia respect fundamental [...]