US Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urged state legislatures to support the federal Real ID Act at the annual meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) on Thursday. The legislation, drafted after the September 11 attacks and designed to discourage illegal immigration, attempts to make it more difficult for terrorists to [...]

Leaders of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) , the Mexican political party led by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador , the leftist candidate challenging the results of Mexico's disputed July 2 presidential election , said Thursday that while they do not expect the Federal Electoral Tribunal to order a full recount of the disputed [...]

An Israeli military court has authorized the continued detention of Palestinian parliament speaker Aziz Dweik until August 22. Dweik was arrested at his home in Ramallah on August 5 for being a senior leader of Hamas , which Israel contends is a terrorist organization. He was hospitalized last week for chest pains and breathing problems, [...]

US federal prosecutors on Thursday charged former Hollinger CEO Conrad Black with additional counts of tax evasion in connection with the $2.1 billion sale of several hundred Canadian newspapers and alleged abuse of corporate perquisites at Hollinger. After going before a grand jury, prosecutors filed a second superseding indictment in the criminal case to replace [...]

The Court of Appeal division of the Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia on Friday quashed the conviction of Joseph Terrence "Jihad Jack" Thomas , the first Australian jailed under the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism Act 2002 . The court ruled that authorities interviewed Thomas against his will and without access to a [...]

Human Rights Watch on Friday said that "the Iraqi High Tribunal is presently incapable of fairly and effectively trying a genocide case in accordance with international standards and current international criminal law" and called on the tribunal to "improve its practices" during Saddam Hussein's second trial, scheduled to begin Monday . HRW based its statement [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Peter Shane of Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University, says that even in the wake of a federal court injunction, meaningful restrictions on the executive's domestic surveillance program require that both the judiciary and the legislative branches of government assert themselves against presidential overreaching… If the United States is still celebrating [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnist H.A. Hellyer of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations, University of Warwick, UK, says that if Britain must now fight "enemies within" in its escalated war on terror, it should be sure to fight the right ones, lest it hand victory to the very forces it seeks to defeat… After [...]

US Marines involved in the death of 24 civilians in Haditha last November concealed and destroyed evidence relating to the incident, the New York Times reported Friday. According to top military officials speaking to the Times who have been briefed on an investigation completed last month by US Army Major General Eldon Bargewell , the [...]

US v. Philip Morris, United States District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit, August 17, 2006 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.