The US Department of Justice has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought last week against President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld by a coalition of US soldiers, parents of US soldiers and Congressmen challenging 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. Read the Memorandum in Support of the Motion to Dismiss[PDF].

The US State Department has posted an updated fact sheet listing the 150 States Parties and Signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Iraq is not a signatory.

Rustenhaven v. American Airlines[PDF] (February 21, US 8th Circuit Court of Appeals). "In action arising out of the crash of American Airlines Flight 1420, award of $2 million for loss of consortium was not supported by the evidence and should be remitted to $500,000; award of $4.24 million in non-economic damages to plaintiff was excessive and should be remitted to $3.24 million.".... Alicea-Hernandez v. The Catholic Bishop of Chicago[PDF] (February 21, US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals). The Court held that the Plaintiff-Appellant, an Hispanic female, served a "ministerial function" for the Church in her role as a press secretary for the Archdiocese of Chicago and that therefore her Title VII claims of discrimination by the Church based on her gender and national origin are barred by the First Amendment. "To rule otherwise would enmesh the court in endless inquiries as to whether each discriminatory act was based in Church doctrine or simply secular animus." On the "ministerial exception" generally, see Shawna Meyer Eickenberry, Thou Shalt Not Sue the Church: Denying Court Access to Ministerial Employees[PDF], 74 Indiana Law Journal 269(1998).... Shaev v. Saper[PDF] (February 21, US 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals). "This case presents important questions pertaining to corporate governance and responsibility. They involve the application and alleged violations of Securities Exchange and Treasury Regulations with respect to shareholder proxy statements soliciting shareholder approval of executive incentive compensation plans."....

Law faculty and students debated affirmative action Thursday at Seattle University Law School.... Also Thursday, law professors Doug Laycock and Lino Graglia went head to head on the same issue at the University of Texas School of Law.... A new study by Canada's University of Toronto suggests that raising yearly tuition at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law from the present $14,000 to $22,000 by 2006 will not discourage attendance by poor and minority law students....

In a letter to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, the International Commission of Jurists Friday expressed its alarm at the arrest of High Court Justice Benjamin Paradza in his chambers February 17 for allegedly obstructing the course of justice. Read the Commission's letter.

Glenn Reynolds is blogging "live" from the Marbury v. Madison 200th anniversary conference going on today at the Univerity of Tennessee College of Law.... On his Legal Theory weblog, Lawrence Solum of Loyola Los Angeles Law School rounds-up some of the latest work in legal philosophy from Oxford University, and disputes Judge Richard Posner's recent assertion (in dissecting the life and morals of US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas) that "One can be a bad person and a good judge, just as one can be a good person and a bad judge"....

The Harvard Law Review (which unfortunately does not publish online in full text) has posted a notice of its February 2003 issue. Read an abstract of Taxing Sunny Days: Adjusting Taxes For Regional Living Costs and Amenities[PDF] by Michael S. Knoll [no homepage currently available] of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Thomas D. Griffith of the University of Southern California Law School. The other article in the February issue is The Mechanisms of the Slippery Slope by Eugene Volokh of UCLA School of Law, a draft version of which is available on Eugene's website.

On February 21, 1975, former US Attorney General John Mitchell, Nixon Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman and domestic adviser John Ehrlichman were sentenced to prison terms of 2 1/2 to 8 years for obstructing justice in the Watergate affair. Learn more about John Mitchell from the Washington Post.