US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said Thursday that during his 15 years as a federal court judge, he never knowingly ruled on a case in which he had an obligation to recuse himself. Alito was responding to challenges made by US Senate Democrats Wednesday that Alito heard a 2002 case involving mutual fund company [...]

The Italian prosecutor's office in Milan has asked for 22 CIA operatives to be extradited to Italy to face charges for the alleged kidnapping of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar in 2003, according to an Italian prosecutor Friday. Omar was purportedly kidnapped on a Milan street before being taken to Egypt where he was reportedly tortured. [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Devika Hovell of the University of New South Wales Faculty of Law in Sydney, Australia, says that the trial of Australian Guantanamo detainee David Hicks by US military commission highlights his transformation from an alleged perpetrator of war crimes into a possible victim of one… The trial of David Hicks, the so-called [...]

The UN Joint Disciplinary Committee has concluded that the only employee fired during the UN oil-for-food scandal did not violate staff rules and should be reinstated, according to the ruling obtained by the Associated Press Thursday. The three-judge UN appeals panel said that Joseph Stephanides was made into a "sacrificial lamb" because he was fired [...]

Senior White House advisor Karl Rove spoke at the annual meeting of the Federalist Society Thursday to commend President Bush's conservative nominees to the US Supreme Court and denounce judicial activism. This was Rove's first public appearance since testifying before a grand jury last month in the ongoing CIA leak investigation . Rove praised Bush's [...]

Text of Senate Amendment 2516 to S. 1042 (the 2006 defense appropriations bill), US Senate, November 10, 2005 . Full text from the Congressional Record: REVIEW OF STATUS OF DETAINEES. (a) Submittal of Procedures for Status Review of Detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.–Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this [...]

The US Senate voted 49-42 late Thursday to block Guantanamo Bay detainees from challenging their imprisonment in US federal courts. The legislation, proposed by GOP Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) , conflicts with the 2004 US Supreme Court ruling in Rasul v. Bush , which held that according to Court's interpretation of congressional intent, "aliens held [...]

US Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor , Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer Thursday briefly debated the possibility of media cameras in the chambers of the US Supreme Court during an ABA symposium . Senators predicted Wednesday that recently introduced legislation authorizing the televising of all Supreme Court hearings will easily pass both houses of [...]

The Ethiopian government on Thursday released 2,417 prisoners held without charge in connection with a violent confrontation with police that left 42 people dead last week. The riot occured during a protest against alleged ballot fraud said to have been orchestrated by the Coalition for Unity and Democracy , Ethiopia's largest opposition party. Ethiopian Prime [...]

The US Department of Justice has submitted a body of proposed laws to Congress that would strengthen federal intellectual property enforcement, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced Thursday during remarks at an anti-piracy meeting in Washington, DC. Gonzales said that the Intellectual Property Protection Act 2005, the "comprehensive legislative package" designed by the DOJ, responds [...]