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 [...]

The US House Committee on Resources on Wednesday approved a budget package that includes provisions to relax a ban on oil and gas drilling along the nation's coast and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge . The Committee voted 24-15 to approve the bill, which would allow states to opt out of a federal moratorium [...]

A six-person jury on Wednesday found the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey negligent in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center by Islamic radicals that killed six and injured 1,000. According to the jury, the Port Authority, which owned the World Trade Center, did not properly maintain the building's garage, where [...]

Lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees on a hunger strike must be notified by the Defense Department before their clients may be force fed against their will, US District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled Wednesday. Kessler also ruled that the government must provide detainee medical records from before the hunger strike to their attorneys, although she denied [...]

US v. Ahmend Omar Abu Ali, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, October 24, 2005 . Read the full text of the memorandum opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.