The Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has asked the country's Supreme Court to declare the results of the presidential run-off invalid after outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called for an entirely new election. 8:56 AM ET – From Kyiv, weblogger Dan McKinn adds: "The Supreme Court has just received [...]
The Ukrainian parliament Wednesday narrowly approved a no-confidence motion in the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the declared winner of last week's disputed presidential election, proposing instead a "government of national trust." The vote came on a second secret ballot after a first ballot failed; a similar measure had been proposed Tuesday, but the [...]
Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Wednesday, December 1. The US Supreme Court will hear 10 AM ET oral arguments in Rousey v. Jacoway (case summary from Duke Law School), where the court will decide whether and to what extent individual retirement accounts are exempt from [...]
United States v. Scrushy, United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Judge Karon Bowdre, November 23, 2004 . Read the files from the criminal docket for the case here and the full text of the memorandum opinion here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Koons Buick Pontiac GMC, Inc. v. Nigh, Supreme Court of the United States, November 30, 2004 . Excerpt: A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the 1995 amendment not only raised the statutory damages recoverable for TILA violations involving real-property-secured loans, it also removed the $1,000 [...]
Peter Friedman, Case Western Reserve University School of Law: "It should come as no great surprise that the Red Cross has reported that the U.S. used psychological and physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on Guantanamo Bay detainees and that doctors and other medical workers helped plan interrogations in "flagrant violation of medical ethics." As Philip [...]
Ridley, et al. v. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, et al., US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Judge Sandra L. Lynch, November 29, 2004 . Excerpt: In this opinion covering both cases, we address the parties' arguments about what type of "forum" the MBTA advertising program constitutes. We hold first that the MBTA did [...]
In Tuesday's environmental law news, prosecutors in Indonesia announced they have decided to go ahead with charges against 6 executives of the Newmont Mining Corporation for allegedly contamininating the Buyat Bay. The prosecutors are awaiting a final dossier from local police, and hope to officially file the charges in a few weeks. Five of the [...]
Updating a story reported Monday on JURIST's Paper Chase, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has bowed to pressure to make public its revised proposals for US stock trading reform in order to allow continued public debate on the issue. Following intense lobbying amidst securities industry fears that a plan proposing major changes would be [...]
The Louisiana Supreme Court Wednesday will consider the constitutionality of the state's Defense of Marriage amendment banning gay marriage. The amendment, overwhelmingly passed by voters in September, was struck down in early October by State District Judge William Morvant, who found the amendment's structure violated a state constitutional requirement that any amendment deal with only [...]