Revisiting Proposals to Split the Ninth Circuit: An Inevitable Solution to a Growing Problem, US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing testimony, October 26, 2005. Read the full text of witnesses' prepared statements. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Republican senators continued a long-running effort to build support for breaking up the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit into two circuits during a US Senate Judiciary Committee subcommitee hearing Wednesday. A bill introduced earlier this month by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) would split the circuit into two, [...]

Walt Disney shareholders have appealed a ruling by a Delaware court that the company's directors were not liable for approving a $130 million severance package for former President Michael Ovitz . The appeal sought to have the ruling overturned on procedural and evidentiary grounds. Ovitz served as president of the company for 14 months before [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Scott Gerber of Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law says that although, in Harriet Miers, President Bush apparently put a premium on picking a Supreme Court nominee loyal to him, when the political chips were down he wasn't very loyal to her… President George W. Bush informed the nation on Thursday [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Stephen Vladeck of the University Miami School of Law says that a narrow interpretation of the US Supreme Court's classic 1866 ruling against military tribunals in Ex parte Milligan might actually be in the best interest of suspected dirty bomber Jose Padilla as he again takes his challenge to indefinite detention under [...]

Lawyers could be suspended for a year for repeatedly filing frivolous lawsuits under a bill introduced in the US House of Representatives as part of a Republican effort to limit such lawsuits. Supporters of the legislation say frivolous claims and lawyers that bring them are clogging US courts and driving up healthcare costs around the [...]

Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti has subpoenaed 73 employees of Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans, as part of its ongoing investigation into deaths alleged at hospitals and nursing homes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina . The subpoenas covered all levels of employees at the hospital, and a spokeswoman for the attorney general said [...]

More than 2,000 companies around the world paid $1.8 billion in illegal kickbacks to the regime of Saddam Hussein in abusing the now defunct UN oil-for-food program , according to parts of a UN investigation obtained Thursday by the Associated Press. The Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC) , led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul [...]

General Motors on Wednesday said that records relating to its pension program had been subpoenaed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission as part of an investigation into its accounting practices. GM said the subpoena related to reporting of pension and post-employment benefits, as well as its dealings with parts supplier Delphi . GM said [...]

Former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy , along with two others, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges if a "widespread racketeering conspiracy" that included bribery for official acts in the state. According to the indictment, Siegelman and former chief of staff Paul Hamrick took bribes and [...]