Leading Friday's corporations and securities law news, Washington state utility Snohomish Public Utility District has released audiotapes which reveal Enron's plan to take a power plant off-line in 2001 to create higher electric prices in western states. The tapes were released as part of an effort to void Enron's $122 million lawsuit seeking payment for [...]

New York State Supreme Court Justice Doris Ling-Cohan ruled Friday that New York's law banning same-sex marriages violates the state constitution. Read her 62-page opinion . If upheld on appeal, the decision would allow same-sex couples in the state to wed. Justice Ling-Cohan found in favor of five same-sex couples who were denied marriages licenses [...]

USA v. Philip Morris, US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, February 4, 2005 . Excerpt: A group of cigarette manufacturers and related entities ("Appellants") appeal from a decision of the District Court denying summary judgment as to the Government's claim for disgorgement under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO" or "the [...]

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that federal law does not permit the goverment to seek a $280 billion penalty in its racketeering case against the tobacco industry. In its opinion , the court wrote: A group of cigarette manufacturers and related entities (“Appellants”) appeal from a decision of the [...]

Addressing US Department of Justice employees the day after being confirmed as US Attorney General , Alberto Gonzales said that the Justice Department's top priority will be "to protect this country against future acts of terrorism … in a way that is always consistent with our values and consistent with our legal obligations." During Gonzales' [...]

The FBI has been forced to shut down part of the e-mail system it uses to communicate with the public because of a security breach. The FBI is investigating the source of the intrusion, although there is no indication that internal communications have been effected. The breach comes one day after the FBI released its [...]

Iraq's Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin Friday praised the United Nations' preliminary report into corruption within the Oil-for-Food program , and called for those who participated to stand trial. The program's former director, Benon Sevan, is accused of repeatedly soliciting and getting Iraqi oil allocations for a trading firm connected to the family of former [...]

In Friday's international brief, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan formally reported to the Security Council Friday morning on the finding of the special UN commission on the situation in the Darfur region of Sudan. While the commission did not find that the central Sudanese government had any specific intent to commit genocide as defined by the [...]

Six senior UN human rights experts joined Friday to express their continuing concern over the situation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay . In a statement released in Geneva, UN committee chairs and rapporteurs on arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture, health standards and other human rights areas cited: lack of clarity concerning the legal basis for [...]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the human rights record of the Islamic government of Iran was "something to be loathed." Stopping short of calling for regime change, Rice suggested that the unelected religious leaders that run Iran should not be viewed as good for the Iranian people nor for the stability of [...]