JURIST - Paper Chase

Friday, February 14

National Strategy for Combating Terrorism
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 06:42:02 PM

President Bush Friday released the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism[PDF], a policy paper setting out general foreign policy and domestic law enforcement strategies to counter and suppress terrorist threats [HTML version also available from the State Department]. Noting that terrorism tries to subvert the rule of law, the paper promises to expand law enforcement efforts to capture, detain, and prosecute known and suspected terrorists.

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UN human rights treaties
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 03:39:39 PM

Professor Anne Bayefsky of the York University Department of Political Science (Toronto) has launched a new website dedicated to facilitating access to, and complaint filings under, the various UN human rights treaties currently in force. Visit Bayefsky.com.

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Terrorist Threat Integration Center - Presidential remarks, Senate hearing
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 12:35:47 PM

In remarks Friday at FBI Headquarters (streaming video also available), President Bush announced that the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, a co-ordinated intelligence effort by the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, and the Department of Homeland Security, will begin work May 1. Also on Friday, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the initiative. See especially the testimony of Jeffrey H. Smith, former General Counsel for the CIA.

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Blix, ElBaradei reports on Iraq weapons inspections
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 11:42:54 AM

The official texts of Friday's reports to the UN Security Council by UNMOVIC Chairman Dr. Hans Blix [watch streaming video] and IAEA Chairman Dr. Mohammed ElBaradei [watch streaming video] on Iraq's compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1441 are now online. Speeches in response by US Secretary of State Colin Powell [watch streaming video] and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin [watch streaming video] are also available. The French Foreign Minister's speech was remarkable for having drawn applause in the Security Council chamber.

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Scalia defends originalism at Penn
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 10:48:10 AM

US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia defended constitutional originalism Thursday in an address at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Read more about Justice Scalia's lecture in the Daily Pennsylvanian. The visit sparked a demonstration by students, professors and other activists opposed to Justice Scalia's stance on affirmative action, at issue in cases involving the University of Michigan that are scheduled for argument before the Supreme Court on April 1.

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Senate Estrada debate, cont.
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 10:29:57 AM

The US Senate resumes debate Friday on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Thursday's debate is now available (in parts one and two) from the Congressional Record.

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War powers lawsuit
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 08:49:30 AM

FindLaw has posted a copy of the complaint[PDF] and the memorandum in support of a motion for a preliminary injunction[PDF] in the war powers lawsuit filed Thursday against President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld by a coalition of US soldiers, parents of US soldiers and Congressmen challenging, under Article I, § 8 of the United States Constitution, the authority of the President and the Secretary of Defense to wage war against Iraq absent a clear declaration of war by the United States Congress. One of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the suit is Professor Margaret Burnham of Northeastern University School of Law.

Balkin on freedom to march
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 08:37:21 AM

Professor Jack Balkin of Yale Law School has posted his reflections on a recent federal court decision[PDF] holding that the City of New York can prevent
an estimated crowd of 100,000 demonstrators from marching in Manhattan this Saturday to protest the upcoming war against Iraq.

February 14 - This day at law
Bernard Hibbitts at 2/14/2003 06:30:47 AM

On February 14, 1899, Congress approved the use of voting machines in federal elections. Listen to a brief history of voting machines from the University of Houston College of Engineering.