Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Supreme Court of the United States, January 18, 2006 . Excerpt from the Court's opinion per Justice O'Connor: If enforcing a statute that regulates access to abortion would be unconstitutional in medical emergencies, invalidating the statute entirely is not always necessary or justified, for lower courts may [...]

The military court-martial of Army Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. continued Tuesday with arguments from Welshofer's lawyer that interrogation methods used by the army officer were approved by his commander and were not the cause of the death of an Iraqi general in 2003. Welshofer is facing murder charges stemming from the 2003 incident [...]

Respect for human rights in Asia has been on a serious decline over the past year, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch . HRW says that the governments of some Asian countries, including Nepal, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and China, were behind the worst rights violations, and that government leaders [...]

A federal district judge on Tuesday approved the settlement of a lawsuit and authorized the city of New Orleans to continue demolition of homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina , so long as homeowners are given advance notice. The settlement comes in a lawsuit challenging the city's demolition plan . Plaintiffs in the suit, including the [...]

Russia is considering a request by former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic that he travel to that country for medical treatment, the Russian foreign ministry announced Wednesday. In December, Milosevic asked the judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to allow him to visit Russia for a checkup and medical treatment. The [...]

France, Britain and Germany circulated a draft resolution on Iran among key members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday calling for a referral to the UN Security Council. The resolution, if accepted by the nuclear watchdog, would open the possibility of sanctions against Iran and calls on Iran to "clarify questions" over [...]

In response to mounting criticism of the Bush administration's warrantless domestic surveillance program , White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Tuesday took time during his daily press briefing to react to the two lawsuits filed by civil rights organizations Tuesday against the administration. Arguing that the lawsuits, which challenge the constitutionality of the surveillance program, [...]

The US Supreme Court handed down decisions in three cases Wednesday, including a decision in Will v. Hallock , where the Court ruled that a refusal to apply the judgment bar in the Federal Tort Claims Act is not open to collateral appeal. The court considered the case of Susan Hallock who first sued the [...]

AP is reporting that the US Supreme Court has ordered a lower court to reconsider the constitutionality of a New Hampshire abortion law. In a unanimous decision in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England , the Court vacated and remanded a First Circuit ruling , which struck down New Hampshire's parental notification law [...]

A New Orleans judge said Tuesday that criminal trials in New Orleans could resume by March when the courts will try to deal with the 3,000 trials pending before Hurricane Katrina swept through the city. The first post-Katrina grand jury may convene in February to hear the case of some 40 patients who died at [...]