Mark Thatcher , the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has been fined 3 million rand ($500,000) by a court in South Africa in connection with his role in a plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea . If he fails to pay the fine he faces a five-year prison term, in [...]

US Army Spc. Charles Graner may take the witness stand in his own defense Thursday on the second day of the defense case in his court-martial at Fort Hood TX for abusing Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. A defense witness called Wednesday admitted on cross-examination that Graner, a former prison guard [...]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, January 13. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer will discuss the relevance of foreign law for American constitutional adjudication at a forum hosted by American University's Washington College of Law. Watch a live webcast (via C-SPAN) beginning [...]

Jama v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Supreme Court of the United States, January 12, 2005, . Excerpt : To infer an absolute rule of acceptance where Congress has not clearly set it forth would run counter to our customary policy of deference to the President in matters of foreign affairs. Removal decisions, including the selection [...]

Douglas Berman : "I am trying to come up with a simple take on Booker, and here it is: five Justices (the Apprendi/Blakely five) say the federal sentencing guidelines can no longer operate as mandatory sentencing rules (which is clearly how they were designed and intended to operate), but five Justices (the Apprendi/Blakely dissenters + [...]

Clark v. Martinez, Supreme Court of the United States, January 12, 2005, . Excerpt : The Government fears that the security of our borders will be compromised if it must release into the country inadmissible aliens who cannot be removed. If that is so, Congress can attend to it. But for this Court to sanction [...]

Addressing a Russian court Wednesday, former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky called the tax fraud against him and the oil company "inventions" and said that Russian investigators had removed "uncomfortable" documentation in the case. During his trial on tax evasion and fraud charges, Khodorkovsky said that "my confidence in Russian justice has been undermined by the [...]

Lawyers for the parents of Terry Schiavo , the brain damaged woman at the center of a long running right-to-die dispute, asked a Florida appeals court Wednesday to reconsider its decision not to grant a new trial in their suit . Seeking to prevent Schiavo's husband from removing her feeding tube, Schiavo's parents hope to [...]

US Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Hemann has recommended that a federal district judge enter a default judgment against PricewaterhouseCoopers for the company's failure to turn over documents and other evidence in an accounting fraud suit brought by former client Telxon and its shareholders. Hemann's nonbinding recommendations come after Telxon and its shareholders filed motions for [...]

Peter Henning, Wayne State University Law School: "At the risk of speaking without thoroughly reviewing all the opinions (wading through Justice Scalia's attack, which includes a reference to "Wonderland"; will have to wait), a couple initial impressions (with quotes).  For a more detailed (and learned) assessment of the decision, check out Doug Berman's postings at [...]