Chinese authorities have detained Zhu Jiuhi, a Beijing lawyer and activist for the development of rule of law after he attempted to file a landmark civil suit against the provincial government and lower-level governments for confiscating private investors' oil wells estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. No official charges have been brought [...]

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The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Tuesday struck down part of the Bush administration's new financial disclosure requirements for unions, but upheld others. A majority of the three-judge panel found that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao exceeded her authority under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act by requiring reports on union [...]

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Tory v. Cochran, Supreme Court of the United States, May 31, 2005 . Excerpt from the court's opinion by Justice Breyer: Since picketing Cochran and his law offices while engaging in injunction-forbidden speech could no longer achieve the objectives that the trial court had in mind (i.e., coercing Cochran to pay a "tribute" for desisting [...]

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Cutter v. Wilkinson, Supreme Court of the United States, May 31, 2005 . Excerpt from the opinion by Justice Ginsburg: In upholding RLUIPA's institutionalized-persons provision, we emphasize that respondents "have raised a facial challenge to constitutionality, and have not contended that under the facts of any of specific cases . . . applying RLUIPA would [...]

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