Proposition 71, State of California, approved November 2, 2004 . Read the full text here. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Jury deliberations began Wednesday in the Scott Peterson murder trial. Judge Alfred A. Delucci gave about 45 minutes worth of instructions to jurors before sending them off to the jury room to decide whether Peterson killed his pregnant wife Laci Peterson. The five month old trial concluded as Peterson's defense attorneys argued in their closing [...]

The jury in the first criminal trial stemming from the Enron collapse returned a verdict of guilty against a former Enron Vice President and four Merrill Lynch bankers Wednesday. The five were convicted of fraud and conspiracy in connection with the inflation of Enron's profits through a deal to sell power-plant barges off the coast [...]

After 11 states voted Tuesday for bans on gay marriage, civil rights groups wasted no time Wednesday preparing legal challenges. Karl Olson, executive director of the gay-rights group PRIDE in Montana, said that this vote was only a "blip" in history, adding that the Constitution "isn’t going to be able to sustain this kind of [...]

Conceding the presidential race to George Bush Wednesday afternoon in a speech at Boston's Faneuil Hall, John Kerry said that the outcome of an election should be decided by the voters, and not by a "protracted legal fight." With a handful of states yet to be decided, Kerry and his advisors had realized earlier in [...]

Impala, an organization representing 2,500 independent music companies, announced Wednesday that it would ask the EU's high court to overturn a decision allowing the merger of industry giants Sony and Bertelsmann (BMG). The merger, approved by EU regulators in July, and not opposed by the US FTC, would result in 80% of the world's music [...]

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry will make remarks to supporters at about 1:00 PM ET at Fanueil Hall in Boston. Watch

AP is reporting that John Kerry has called President Bush to concede the Presidential race. UPDATE: ABC News is reporting that Kerry will make a concession speech at 1 PM ET in Boston. As early as this morning, the Kerry campaign had maintained that it would wait for all ballots to be counted in Ohio, [...]

AP is reporting that the Knesset has approved a compensation plan for Israeli settlers displaced by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Gaza withdrawal plan. AP has background here.

Spncer et al. v. Blackwell; Summit County Democratic Committee et al. v. Heider, United States Supreme Court, Justice John Paul Stevens, November 2, 2004. Excerpt: Although the hour is late and time is short, I have reviewedthe District Court opinions and the opinions of the Circuit Judges. That reasonable judges can disagree about the issues [...]