JURIST - Paper Chase

Monday, February 10

Leahy on DOJ secrecy in drafting Patriot Act sequel
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 08:05:57 PM

Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Senator Patrick Leahy released a statement Monday criticizing the secrecy that has apparently surrounded the US Justice Department's drafting of a sequel to the 2001 USA Patriot Act, tentatively entitled the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 [HTML version of PDF document released Friday by the Center for Public Integrity].

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UNLV law school wins full ABA accreditation
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 04:40:39 PM

UNLV law professor Keith Rowley tells JURIST that "the ABA House of Delegates voted earlier today [Monday] to grant full accreditation to UNLV's William S. Boyd School of Law, which opened its doors in August 1998." Read a background report in Monday's Las Vegas Review-Journal.
UPDATE: A UNLV press release is now available.

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Elder abuse bill introduced in Senate
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 04:22:19 PM

Senator John Breaux (D-La.), ranking member of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation Monday to address elder abuse and crimes against seniors. Learn more from the National Center on Elder Abuse.

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Air India bombing - guilty plea
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 03:54:32 PM

One of the three men charged in the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 which exploded off the coast of Ireland en route from Montreal to New Delhi killing 329 people pleaded guilty Monday in British Columbia Supreme Court. The placement of the bomb on board prior to departure was the most serious act of terrorism perpetrated on Canadian soil in the history of the country. Learn more about the Air India Bombing Disaster, the investigation and the charges from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

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Joint Russian-German-French statement on Iraq
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 02:50:25 PM

An English translation of Monday's joint communique by UN Security Council veto-holders Russia, Germany and France insisting that all the avenues opened by UN Security Council Resolution 1441 have not yet been explored, calling for more time and support for UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, and labeling war a "last resort" is now online from Reuters. The original French version is posted on the website of the French Presidency. In a related development Monday, France, Belgium and Germany vetoed NATO plans to prepare to defend Turkey in case of war with Iraq. Listen to the NATO Secretary-General's press conference from Monday afternoon.

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Ashcroft discusses international war on terror
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 02:24:00 PM

Attorney General John Ashcroft talked about international aspects of the war on terror Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations. Watch recorded video via C-SPAN.

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Medical malpractice caps?
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 01:28:39 PM

Should damages for medical malpractice be capped, as President Bush and other have recently suggested? University of Oregon law professor and torts scholar Caroline Forrell says "no."

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Why we should ban human cloning
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 01:14:04 PM

Dr. Leon Kass, Chair of the President's Commission on Bioethics, delivered the 2003 Siegel Lecture on Medical Ethics at Duke Law School on February 4. Watch recorded video of Preventing a Brave New World: Why We Should Ban Human Cloning, now online from Duke.

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Security holes in federal warrant system
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 12:49:14 PM

A US Department of Justice security audit released Monday documents numerous "significant vulnerabilities" in the Warrant Information Network (WIN) operated by the US Marshals Service. WIN contains the warrant, court records, internal correspondence related to the warrant, and other information on individuals for whom federal warrants have been issued. WIN is used to track the status of all federal warrants to aid in the investigations of all federal fugitives. Review the full report recommending immediate corrective action; an executive summary is also available.

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Execution of involuntarily-medicated prisoners
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 12:35:56 PM

A sharply-divided US Eighth Circuit ruled Monday that Arkansas may forcibly administer antipsychotic drugs to a prisoner whose date of execution has been set, and the State does not violate the Eighth Amendment when it executes a prisoner who has become incompetent during his long stay on death rowbut who subsequently regained competency through appropriate medical care. Read Singleton v. Norris[PDF].

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Electronic voting machines as a danger to democracy
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 11:16:12 AM

"As a cyberlaw professor and a professor of constitutional law, I can unequivocally state that one of the biggest dangers to democracy right now is electronic voting machines." Yale Law's Jack Balkin has more....

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ABA House of Delegates on enemy combatants
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 09:20:48 AM

The American Bar Association's House of Delegates meets Monday and Tuesday during the ABA Midyear meeting in Seattle, Washington, to consider a wide range of policy recommendations from ABA Committees. Key recommendations pertain to the legal status of enemy combatants (watch a statement by ABA President Alfred P. Carleton, Jr.; review the ABA Task Force Report on Enemy Combatants[PDF] and the response from the Department of Defense[PDF]), the appointment and performance of defense counsel in death penalty cases, oversight of the government's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, incorporation of domestic violence education in law school cirricula, and "best practices" for legal information websites. Review the ABA press release and the full Preliminary Agenda[PDF].

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Driving while black
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 08:43:20 AM

The February 2003 issue of Criminology, the journal of the American Society of Criminology, will feature a new national study conducted by two professors at Ohio State University indicating that African Americans who are stopped for traffic violations are less likely than whites to believe the police had a legitimate reason to stop them, and more likely to believe they were mistreated. Details from Ohio State University, via Ascribe.

Wrongful convictions conference
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 08:36:14 AM

The American Judicature Society has posted a brief summary of its recent conference on Preventing the Conviction of Innocent Persons, which brought together teams from eleven states to discuss the causes of and solutions to wrongful convictions.

Senate Judiciary Committee - scheduled hearings
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 07:26:35 AM

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled two hearings for this week. On Tuesday, February 11 at 2:30 it will hold a hearing on the Patient Access Crisis: The Role of Medical Litigation, and on Wednesday February 12 at 9:30 AM it will hold a hearing on judicial nominations. JURIST will carry live webcasts of both hearings.

Comparing Eldred v. Ashcroft to Bowers v. Hardwick
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 07:21:08 AM

Yale law professor Jack Balkin writes: "I’m currently working on a scholarly article on how social movements succeed or fail in shaping American constitutional law. As I thought about the recent Eldred case, which refused to hold the Copyright Term Extension Act unconstitutional, I was struck by the similarities to Bowers v. Hardwick, the 1986 case in which the Supreme Court refused to hold that same sex sexual relations were constitutionally protected." Read parts one and two of Professor Balkin's analysis.

International Criminal Court elections
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 07:15:17 AM

Elections of 18 judges to the new International Criminal Court ended at the UN late Friday after 33 ballots over four days, with 21 ballots on the last day of voting. Read the UN press release. The new judges will be sworn in at The Hague on March 11.

February 10 - This day at law
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/10/2003 06:30:55 AM

On February 10, 1967, the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution, pertaining to Presidential disability and succession, took effect. Learn more about Presidential succession from the AEI/Brookings Continuity of Government Commission.