A US Navy document obtained by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act and made public Tuesday along with other records details 10 new and "substantiated" incidents of Iraqi prisoner abuse by US Marines, including one where Marines fired a pistol in a mock execution of four young Iraqi looters and repeatedly shocked another [...]

A military judge sitting at Fort Hood, Texas, Tuesday approved a request by attorneys for 1st Lt. Jack M. Saville to exhume the body of an Iraqi civilian, 19-year-old Zaidoun Hassoun, who is alleged to have drowned in January 2004 when US troops forced him into the Tigris River. Saville and Sgt. 1st Class Tracy [...]

David Wagner, Regent University School of Law: "ACLU Files Suit in Pa. Over Evolution… The state American Civil Liberties Union plans to file a federal lawsuit Tuesday against a Pennsylvania school district that is requiring students to learn about alternatives to the theory of evolution. The ACLU said its lawsuit will be the first to [...]

Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir (official profile on the Sudan's government website) asked the Sudanese National Assembly Tuesday to extend for a year the state of emergency currently in effect in Sudan. The present emergency declaration is set to terminate December 31. A state of emergency limits the democratic rights of the general population and increases [...]

McDonald et al. v. Secretary of State Sam Reed et al., Washington State Supreme Court, December 13, 2004 . Excerpt: This court is mindful that it is the policy of the State of Washington "to encourage every eligible person to register to vote and to participate fully in all elections." RCW 29A.04.205. "No right is [...]

The Venezuelan National Assembly (official site in Spanish) Tuesday approved the appointment of 5 replacement judges and 12 new judges to the nation's Supreme Court (official site in Spanish). Opposition members who lacked the votes to block the appointments stormed out of the session. The expansion was authorized by a bill approved in April, and [...]

A Maryland judge has struck down as unconstitutional Maryland's 2002 Commercial Electronic Mail Act , the first state law to punish senders of junk e-mail, commonly known as spam. Judge Durke G. Thompson of the Montgomery County Circuit Court dismissed a case brought against a New York e-mail distribution company by Eric Menhart, a George [...]

KGW-TV is reporting that the Washington state Supreme Court has rejected a bid by state Democrats (read the complaint here ) to include previously rejected absentee and provisional ballots in the hand recount of votes in the WA state governor's race. 1:13 PM ET – In a brief opinion authored by Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, [...]

The US Military Combatant Status Review Tribunal has said that 13 more detainees at Guantanamo Bay are properly being held as "enemy combatants." The US government has taken the position that prisoners classified as enemy combatants are not entitled to the same legal protections as prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions. The military has [...]

Tyco International said Tuesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has ordered the company to turn over information on its involvement in the UN Oil-for Food program in Iraq. Tyco said the SEC wants information on its participation, "if any," in the UN program, which is the subject of several corruption investigations. AP has more.