The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has withdrawn an order allowing a student to file a response to a rehearing petition by Kamehameha Schools in a lawsuit over the school's admissions policy. The court issued an order last week permitting a non-native Hawaiian to file papers in the school's appeal, but the [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union has announced that it will file a challenge to a recent ban on panhandling in downtown Atlanta. Gerald Weber, legal director for the ACLU of Georgia, said the group plans to sue the city as soon as it found a proper plaintiff for the challenge. The city has said it [...]

Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval has challenged a Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision on regulations for the proposed nuclear waste site at Yucca Mountain , adding to a rash of litigation that has stalled the project for years. Sandoval's office on Thursday filed a suit over the NRC's refusal to consider its petition to alter a [...]

Russia on Friday released two former Guantanamo Bay detainees from a Moscow detention center. Airat Vakhitov and Rustam Akhmyarov, who were extradited to Russia by the US in 2004, were arrested earlier this week on suspicion of plotting terror attacks in the Povolzhye region of the country. Vakhitov sued the US in June for alleged [...]

Human rights groups are pressuring the Canadian government to open a new investigation into the role the government played in allegedly allowing a number of Muslim Canadians to be imprisoned and tortured in Syria. Testimony ended Thursday in an inquiry into the detention of Maher Arar , but three rights groups said Friday the process [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour wrapped up an official visit to China Friday, calling for China to release data about its use of capital punishment and urging cooperation with international standards. "It is not appropriate to say: 'We are doing this our own way'" she said, citing optimism for improvement but objecting [...]

160 US law professors have signed a letter declaring their opposition to Supreme Court nominee John Roberts . The group of professors expressed concern about Roberts' record, claiming he favors expansion of government power and reduction of individual rights: The record made available to date suggests that Judge Roberts holds a limited view of Congress' [...]

Youssef Hmimssa , a Moroccan man whose testimony was at the center of a terrorism trial that later unraveled, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison on Thursday on charges of credit card fraud and visa misuse. Hmimssa was in the US illegally and has lived in five countries under as many as a [...]

President Bush has used a recess appointment to fill an opening at the Justice Department that was stalled in the Senate, naming attorney Alice S. Fisher to the top post in the DOJ's criminal division. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) had blocked Fisher's nomination in order to question a government agent who named Fisher in an [...]

Intel filed an answer in federal court on Thursday to an anti-trust suit brought by rival computer chip maker Advanced Micro Designs (AMD) , denying allegations of anti-competitive practices and blaming AMD themselves for lagging behind in the market. AMD filed suit in late June , claiming that Intel pressured 38 companies into using their [...]