US Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald announced Thursday that he was narrowing the focus of his investigation into the role of senior White House advisor Karl Rove in the CIA leak case . At issue now is whether Rove tried to conceal his conversation with a TIME magazine reporter a week before the CIA operative [...]

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) delayed a vote on a proposed torture ban on Thursday, while Democrats accused him of holding off in order to protect Vice President Dick Cheney. Democrats had planned on offering a motion with instructions to adopt the language of the McCain amendment, but a procedural move by Hastert has no [...]

Two friends of jailed ex-ImClone CEO Sam Waksal have settled insider trading charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission by agreeing to pay $2.77 million to cover their avoided losses. Zvi Fuks and Sabina Ben-Yehuda sold their ImClone shares after Waksal told them the company's new drug was likely to be rejected by [...]

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle on Thursday vetoed a ban on human cloning . Doyle promised a veto in September after the bill passed in the state assembly and senate. In a statement Thursday, Doyle said "The real purpose of this bill is to restrict stem cell research, which holds enormous potential for our state as [...]

United Kingdom Home Secretary Charles Clarke continues to be pressed for information on the advice given by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith regarding the proposed new anti-terror laws after Clarke had to apologize Thursday for telling MPs that he already had Lord Goldsmith's approval on a provision allowing the detentions of uncharged terror suspects for up [...]

President Bush Thursday reinstated fair wage laws, suspended after Hurricane Katrina , which mandate that employers awarded government contracts must pay local prevailing wages to workers. Last week, after a pro-labor Republican caucus met with the administration to voice their complaints over the act's suspension, Bush said he would restore the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act on [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Thursday denied a petition for a new hearing brought by four journalists who were held in contempt of court for refusing to reveal their sources as part of a civil lawsuit. Dr. Wen Ho Lee , an atomic scientist suspected of espionage who later pleaded [...]

A Missouri circuit court judge ruled Thursday that the state's child abuse registry is unconstitutional because it does not allow alleged abusers a due-process hearing before being placed on the list. The registry is not available to the general public, but child care facilities and other employers can use the list to screen current and [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday to strike down a California law making it a criminal offense for individuals to knowingly make false accusations against police officers. The law, which carried a potential jail sentence of up to six months for guilty parties, was implemented in 1995 after the 1991 [...]

An Act to Protect Private Property Rights, passed in the US House of Representatives, November 3, 2005 . Read the full text of the bill here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.