The House Ethics Committee (officially, the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct) approved an investigative report Thursday and publicly admonished Majority Leader Tom DeLay for inappropriately attempting to convince Rep Nick Smith, R-Mich to change his vote from "no" to "yes" on a Medicare drug bill last year. Smith claimed [read more]

Senior UN officials told the Security Council Thursday that "crimes against humanity, war crimes and breaches of the laws of war have probably occurred on a large and systematic scale" in the Darfur region of Sudan, requiring an international police presence to assist local police officers and protect the large [read more]

The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday to put independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader back on the Wisconsin ballot. The Democratic party originally sued to remove Nader from the ballot, arguing Nader failed to meet the minimum standards to be listed. AP has more. Wispolitics.com has the text of the [read more]

In Thursday's environmental law news, the Russian cabinet has approved the Kyoto Protocol [PDF], paving the way for its passage into international law, as expected earlier in JURIST's Paper Chase. The agreement will take effect if it passes through the Duma, the Russian Parliament. The treaty was first drafted in [read more]

The US House of Representatives late Thursday afternoon failed to pass a proposed constitutional amendment known as the Marriage Protection Amendment (HJ Res. 106). The Amendment would have provided:Marriage in the United States shall consist solely of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution, nor the [read more]

In Thursday's corporations and securities law news, IBM announced a partial settlement of a class action lawsuit relating to its pension plan. The deal includes the company taking a $320 million charge against earnings in its current quarter and capping future potential liability at $1.4 billion. However, IBM will still [read more]

US District Judge Robert Takasugi ruled Thursday that the FBI must turn over the remaining 10 pages of their file on former Beatle John Lennon to University of California, Irvine law professor Jonathan Wiener. The government fought to keep the pages confidential because a foreign nation provided the information the [read more]

The release of Yaser Esam Hamdi, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been delayed by a problem in the negotiations between the US and Saudi Arabia, a US official said Thursday. The two sides are reportedly working to clear up what the official said was a "minor snag." The agreement in [read more]

China is urging the Canadian Embassy in Beijing to hand over 44 possible North Korean asylum-seekers who scaled a fence into the Embassy on Wednesday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the group of men, women, and children would be handled in line with international law and "the spirit of humanitarianism" [read more]

The Florida Supreme Court upheld the state's 1999 "three strikes" law today in a 4-3 ruling. The law mandates longer prison sentences for repeat felons. There had been a split in Florida's five midlevel appeals courts as to the constitutionality of the law. Two of the lower courts concluded that [read more]

The Federal Election Commission said Thursday that the Bush and Kerry campaigns can use their legal compliance funds to pay for costs associated with pursuing an election recount. The FEC has not yet said whether the ban on unlimited individual contributions, part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, [read more]

The US House Judiciary Committee is considering an intelligence reform bill - the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act - that includes a controversial provision that would allow US authorities to deport non-US citizens suspected of having links to terrorist organizations, but who have not been tried on or convicted of any [read more]

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalghem made a bid for giving Libya a permanent seat on the UN Security Council in a speech to the General Assembly Wednesday, contending that Libya's role as one of the wealthiest nations in Africa, its abandonment of the WMD program, and the prestige [read more]

The mayor of Pitcairn Island, a British colony in the Pacific Ocean, has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and indecent assault. Prosecutors from New Zealand have said that there is an ingrained culture of having sex with underage children on the island, but local women have said that [read more]

US Attorney General John Ashcroft said Thursday that the Justice Department will almost certainly appeal yesterday's district court ruling that the USA PATRIOT Act [PDF] violates the Constitution. As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, US District Judge Victor Marrero ruled Wednesday that the section of the Patriot Act allowing [read more]

In arguments before the European Union's Court of First Instance Thursday, Microsoft said that the court should suspend penalties imposed on the company by the European Commission for violating Europe's anti-trust law. In March, the Commission ordered Microsoft to pay a $612 million fine, make changes to its operating system, [read more]

Here's a run-down of law-related events, expected developments and live webcasts on JURIST's docket for Thursday, September 30.The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear oral arguments at 8 AM CT on whether independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader should appear on the state's November ballot. WisPolitics.com has more.On Capitol Hill, the US [read more]

Russian news agencies are reporting that the Russian cabinet has approved the Kyoto Protocol, the global climate change treaty, and will send it to parliament for ratification. Russia had waivered on the treaty but its desire of EU support for its membership in the World Trade Organization may have played [read more]

In Thursday's US law and business press, the ABA Journal reports on the growing use of film, TV and other media at trial.... The Legal Intelligencer reports on a Third US Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that defendants cannot derail a proposed class action lawsuit by using Rule 68 against [read more]