GOP House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner abruptly adjourned a Committee hearing on the Patriot Act Friday, leaving Democrats objecting into dead air after their microphones had been turned off. The hearing had been called at the request of Democrats, who had also invited the witnesses, including James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute [...]

In Friday's report on law in the states, Circuit Judge P. Kevin Davey of Florida's 11th Judicial District today dismissed a lawsuit filed by five of Florida's larger school boards over changes in the way the state's education budget is divided. The lawsuit was originally filed by the Miami-Dade school district and was later joined [...]

Leading Friday's international brief, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said the the Khartoum government in Sudan has no choice but cooperate with the recently opened investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Moreno said that the decision [...]

The Lahore High Court in Pakistan released 12 men Friday with ties to a highly publicized gang-rape, including six men who were convicted of rape and 6 members of the village council. The case centers around Mukhtar Mai who was gang-raped in 2002, allegedly on the orders of a traditional village council after her younger [...]

Illinois pharmacist Luke Vander Bleek has filed suit to oppose a state order that the emergency contraceptive "morning-after pill" be made available immediately. Vander Bleek, a Roman Catholic who owns two pharmacies, claims that the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act that allows health care providers to opt out of procedures they object to [...]

The US Federal Trade Commission voted 4-0 Friday to settle an anti-competitive practices complaint against Chevron , allowing it to to acquire the Unocol energy company for $18 billion. The FTC complaint centered on the rights of Unocal to a patent for reformulated gasoline that could have increased gasoline prices by 6 cents a gallon [...]

An Italian referendum scheduled for June 12-13 on whether to ease the country's restrictive laws concerning fertility treatment and stem cell research and to redefine the legal language that defines the beginning of life at conception seems likely to fail if the latest polls are correct. With the Catholic Church and conservative politicians urging people [...]

Uganda's Court of Appeals Friday dismissed an appeal by death row inmates to ban capital punishment in the country but did find that laws mandating the death penalty for certain crimes are unconstitutional and require Parliamentary amendment. In a unanimous decision, Justice Galdino Okello said the general death penalty was constitutional because it was "punishment [...]

Rwandan officials announced Friday they will not pursue criminal charges against fugitive Hutu rebels that were aged 14 or younger at the time of Rwanda's 1994 genocide . Children as young as 10 years old took part in the slaughter of about 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus . About 10,000 Rwandan Hutu rebels of all [...]

Bosnian Serb President Dragan Cavic Friday denounced the brutal killing of six Bosnian Muslim youths by Serb paramilitaries recorded on video in Srebrenica in 1995 and shown on Serbian television after being introduced in evidence last week at the war crimes trial of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague. Cavic condemned the act saying, "Whoever committed [...]