Ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist plans to swear-in George W. Bush to his second term as President at the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC on January 20, the White House and a Supreme Court spokesperson said late Friday. Rehnquist has been undergoing cancer treatment since his hospitalization in late October and has not been seen [...]

The US Army announced Friday that the court-martial for Lynndie England, charged in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, has been moved to Fort Hood, Texas, from Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The Army said in a statement that the move was designed to facilitate consideration of several cases stemming from the prisoner abuse scandal, including [...]

Elizabeth Malloy, University of Cincinnati College of Law: "Early Thursday morning, the Ohio General Assembly passed tort reform legislation that will place caps on pain-and-suffering damages and punitive awards.  Governor Bob Taft commended the passage of the bill and will sign it. This bill is the Ohio's third attempt to pass tort reform.  The two [...]

The US Supreme Court Friday granted certiorari in four cases on issues ranging from file-sharing to takings. In MGM Studios v. Grokster the court will consider whether suppliers of P2P file-sharing software are legally responsible for copyright infringement by computer users, as asserted by the music and movie industries. The Financial Times has more. In [...]

Jim Taricani, a Rhode Island TV reporter convicted last month for refusing to reveal who leaked him an FBI video of a politician taking a bribe, was sentenced Thursday to six months home confinement. US District Judge Ernest Torres commented that Taricini's health – he is a heart transplant patient and is on medication to [...]

AP is reporting that an Italian court has cleared Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of corruption charges. 12:45 PM ET – Berlusconi was cleared of one charge on grounds that the statute of limitations had run out, although the judges ruling suggested he was in fact guilty of authorising aides to influence a Rome judge [...]

An international bar group called Friday for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to be indicted before the new International Criminal Court in the Hague for murder, rape, abduction, enslavement and other rights atrocities committed by his regime. The International Bar Association, an umbrella group of 16,000 members from hundreds of lawyers' associations around the world, made [...]

The Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a mother who eavesdropped on her daughter's phone conversation over a purse-snatching crime violated Washington's privacy act. The court ruled that eavesdropping violated the act and prevented the introduction of evidence obtained through the activity. AP has more. The Washington Supreme Court's opinion can be found here.

The lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer against former New York Stock Exchange chairman Richard Grasso over Grasso's $187.5 million compensation was sent back to state court late Thursday by US District Judge Gerard Lynch. Although Grasso's attorneys argued the lawsuit should be in federal court because the SEC regulates the NYSE, [...]

AP is reporting that President Bush chose Treasury deputy secretary Sam Bodman as Energy secretary.