JURIST Guest Columnist Ken Gormley of Duquesne University School of Law says that issues arising out of the President's domestic surveillance program are best addressed not by sweeping proposals of censure or legalization, but rather by carefully-crafted legislative reforms… The White House has acknowledged that in the wake of the September 11th attacks, President Bush [...]

The US Navy plans to investigate possible war crimes committed by US troops in a November 2005 Iraq firefight that killed 15 civilians, according to a military official speaking on condition of anonymity Thursday. The incident involved approximately twelve US Marines firing at insurgents after a roadside bomb detonated near a joint US-Iraqi squad patrolling [...]

The US Justice Department Thursday invoked its authority under the 1965 Voting Rights Act to approve scheduled April 22 municipal elections in New Orleans . African American leaders had pressed the Department to block the vote on the grounds that it effectively disenfranchised many African American residents displaced across the country by Hurricane Katrina . [...]

No federal civil rights charges will be filed in the 1955 killing of Emmett Till , according to an FBI statement issued Thursday citing the expiration of a five year statute of limitations. Till, a 14-year old African American boy, was brutally beaten and shot for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The case was [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have both said in recent speeches that they have been the target of death threats. In a speech last month at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Ginsburg said someone called for the two justices' deaths in an internet chat room because [...]

The European Parliament Thursday urged Senegal to provide for a fair trial of former Chad President Hissene Habre , either in Senegal or through extradition to Belgium, which has issued an international arrest warrant through its amended 2003 universal jurisdiction laws. In a resolution , the parliament also asked the African Union to ensure Senegal [...]

Former Bosnia Serb paramilitary leader Gojko Jankovic pleaded not guilty to war crimes Thursday before the new War Crimes Chamber of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Jankovic is the second Bosnian war crimes suspect to be transferred from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia to the new Bosnian war crimes court [...]

Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006, introduced by Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH) and others, March 16, 2006 . Read the full text of the bill as introduced . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Four Republican Senators introduced a bill Thursday that would legalize but limit warrantless domestic surveillance of US citizens. Sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine of Ohio with Olympia Snowe of Maine, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006 would not, in DeWine's words, give the President a [...]

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem and the Israel chapter of Physicians for Human Rights Thursday accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of violating international law by allowing the press to photograph Palestinian detainees seized in Tuesday's Jericho prison raid virtually naked, clad only in their underwear. They made the allegation in a letter to Military [...]