The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday upheld the Federal Communication Commission's ability to require broadband Internet companies and Internet phone service providers to comply with the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) , which requires telecommunications companies to allow law enforcement officials access to their networks. CALEA [...]

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry on Friday signed SB 1800 , a law which enlarges the scope of the death penalty to cover a second or subsequent sexual offense against a child under the age of 14. Similar child molestation statutes have been enacted by Florida, Louisiana and Montana, and the South Carolina governor signed a [...]

The Vatican has filed an appeal with the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit seeking to overturn this week's decision by a district court judge to allow a clergy abuse lawsuit to proceed that names the Holy See as a defendant. US District Judge Michael Mosman refused to dismiss a clergy sex abuse [...]

Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of criminal conspiracy, official misconduct and political discrimination stemming from an investigation into the governor's hiring practices . Fletcher's attorney entered the not guilty plea on behalf of Fletcher while he vacationed in Florida. Franklin District Judge David Melcher set a tentative trial [...]

The Delaware Supreme Court has upheld a lower court's ruling declaring Walt Disney Co. directors and two former executives not liable for the approval of a $130 million severance package for former Disney president Michael Ovitz , after serving only 14 months as president. Several shareholders originally sued former CEO Michael Eisner , former general [...]

Australian Attorney General Philip Ruddock said Friday that there is no evidence for allegations made in an Australian magazine that accused Taliban member David Hicks has been tortured during his four-year detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba . The allegations were made in an article in the Monthly Magazine by Alfred McCoy, a history professor at [...]

US Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) introduced a new NSA oversight bill to the committee Thursday modifying his earlier proposal to require the NSA to seek FISC approval before conducting surveillance. The new proposal, a compromise plan written with Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), has three major features: in a major concession to the [...]

Lord Lloyd of Berwick , the retired law lord whose 1996 report on British terrorism law underpinned the Labour Government's 2000 Terrorism Act , has condemned attempts by the government to amend the Human Rights Act 1998 with exceptions as "sinister" and warned that parliament should be wary of deviating from the spirit of its [...]

The US military has denied allegations of Guantanamo Bay soldiers desecrating copies of the Koran during a May clash between prisoners and guards after four prisoners attempted suicide. Military officials on Thursday stood by their original version of events , saying that Joint Task Force troops were lured into a trap by staged suicide attempts, [...]

Texas Governor Rick Perry has said that he plans to create a virtual border watch program , installing night-vision cameras along the Mexican border and streaming live video on the Internet to aid in the state's effort to crack down on illegal immigration . The $5 million plan will make the images available to anyone [...]