Following heated confirmation hearings last week, a showdown vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is set for Tuesday over John Bolton , President Bush's nominee for the UN ambassador. Bolton has been characterized by his critics as hot-tempered and abusive of subordinates, and has been accused of concealing information from superiors in the State [...]

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that claims against the Vatican Bank made by Eastern European survivors of the Holocaust should be heard in federal court. While Supreme Court decisions restrict the roles federal courts may assume in international matters, the Ninth Circuit ruling upheld the suit in light of the need [...]

Former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III Monday opened the first public hearings of the Commission on Federal Election Reform , set up to continue the election reforms of Help America Vote Act of 2002. Kay Maxwell, president of the US League of Women Voters , testified to the [...]

Texas insurance agent Jerry Gossett has sued the Republican National Committee and one of its suppliers, the Spalding Group , alleging they stole his design for the 'W' bumper stickers used by President George W. Bush in his 2004 re-election campaign. Gossett, a Bush supporter who contributed to both of his presidential campaigns, claims to [...]

In Monday's environmental law news, more than 600 Honduran banana pickers have filed a lawsuit against the Dole , Chiquita , and Fresh Del Monte food companies and the Dow Chemical and Royal Dutch/Shell chemical companies alleging that the pickers were exposed to dibromochloropropane (DBCP), a pesticide, on bananas in Central America after it was [...]

Israel's Supreme Court Monday dismissed an attempt by Jewish settlers to bar legislation enabling the government to accomplish its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. The settlers filed eight petitions challenging the Evacuation Compensation bill, ratified in February, which provides government compensation for the 8,500 Israelis who are to be evacuated in an Israeli attempt to [...]

Leading Monday's corporations and securities law news, Coca-Cola Co. has announced that the Justice Department (DOJ) has closed its investigation relating to allegations raised in a whistleblower lawsuit of accounting irregularities at the company. The DOJ will not take any action. The investigation relates to a 2003 lawsuit filed by former Coke manager Matthew Whitley [...]

Following up on a story reported last week in JURIST's Paper Chase, two Houston oil executives pleaded not guilty Monday in a Manhattan federal court to charges of defrauding the UN Oil-For-Food program and paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi government. David B. Chalmers Jr., owner of Houston-based Bayoil (USA) Inc., [...]

Italian authorities indicted four people on Monday in connection with the death of famed Italian financier Roberto Calvi , known as "God's Banker" due to his close association with the Vatican. Calvi was found hanging under a bridge in London in 1982 after fleeing Italy when one of the country's largest private banks, Banco Ambrosiano, [...]

The US Supreme Court Monday agreed to consider whether a Brazil-based church can continue using a traditional Native American tea brewed from a hallucinogenic herb, hoasca, as a religious sacrament. The case is Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, docket 04-1084. The 10th Circuit held that the Centro Espírita Beneficente União do [...]