New Jersey Governor James McGreevy Friday made his state the first to criminalize race-based arrests and police searches by signing a bill making those punishable by up to five years' imprisonment and a $15,000 fine. Read the Governor's press release and review the latest amended version of S429.

On Thursday the US State Department released a special report on human rights in Zimbabwe documenting the abuses that led President Bush to issue an executive order March 7 - previously reported on JURIST - freezing the US assets of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and other government officials who he said were responsible for a "breakdown in the rule of law." Read Zimbabwe's Manmade Crisis and read a State Department news story on the background briefing that accompanied its release.

Columbia University has posted a series of videos on the theme Forty Acres and a Mule: The Case for Black Reparations . Among the featured speakers is Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School, currently leading a reparations lawsuit for descendants of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riots.

The US State Department Friday issued a new fact sheet on the UN Security Council ("how it works and serves US interests") detailing 17 Council Resolutions - including Resolution 1441 - that it says have been breached by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein since 1991.

A University of Florida study presented Friday at the 2003 National Freedom of Information Day Conference in Arlington, Virginia shows that since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 state lawmakers have enacted dozens of legal and administrative rule-changes limiting public access to government-held information about building plans, evacuation procedures, medical supplies and other security-related issues. UF researchers at the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project rated state laws on access to security, public safety and terrorism-related records on a scale from "sunny" - in reference to public access "sunshine laws" - to "dark," for the most closed. Louisiana, Ohio, Tennessee and the District of Columbia were rated "nearly dark" due to laws limiting access to many records on preparedness and security risks. Project Director Bill Chamberlin said: "It is one thing to keep sensitive information out of the hands of the terrorists, but quite another to use terrorism as an excuse to shield government officials from being accountable for their actions." Read the University of Florida press release and review state rankings on public access to records on preparation for and reaction to terrorism.

The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday approved an amendment to the proposed Air Cargo Security Bill (S. 165) that would require the Homeland Security Secretary to report to Congress on the privacy and civil liberties impact of the Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II) currently being developed by the Transportation Security Administration. Read a press release from amendment sponsor Senator Ron Wyden, and learn more about CAPPS II from Privacy Activism and the TSA.

Ambassadors from UN Security Council members Germany and Pakistan spoke briefly at a press stakeout at UN Headquarters in New York Friday morning. While indicating there was as yet no agreement within the Council on an Iraq resolution, both delegates welcomed the newly-scheduled weekend summit in the Azores of leaders from draft sponsors UK, Spain and the United States. The ambassador from Pakistan also indicated that six of the non-permanent Security Council members were continuing negotiations amongst themselves on a possible new draft. Watch video from the UN.

The US Senate website indicates that yet another (the third...) cloture moton has been filed to terminate debate on the nomination of Miguel Estrada to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals, and that the vote on the motion will occur Tuesday morning.

Aviam Soifer, professor and former dean at Boston College Law School, is expected to be named dean of the University of Hawai'i William S. Richardson School of Law, says Friday's Honolulu Advertiser.... UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) has announced that Professor Emeritus Sheldon Messinger, a distinguished scholar in the fields of criminology and sociology, died in Berkeley on March 6. More details are available from UC Berkeley.

By a vote of 414-44 Thursday the European Parliament passed a resolution "regretting" a February joint declaration[PDF] by US and EU officials which allows European airlines to provide US Customs personnel with data on passengers flying to the United States. The Parliament wants the European Commission to rescind the agreement - which it considers contrary to the European Data Protection Directive - and is considering a legal challenge in the European Court of Justice. Read the Parliament press release and review a provisional text of the resolution. Learn more about EU-US airline passenger data disclosure from the Electronic Privacy Information Center and review the FAQ from the EU External Relations office.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has posted recorded video of yesterday's marathon hearing (over 9 hours) on the nomination of Priscilla Owen to the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The opening statement of Ranking Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy is also available online.

On March 14, 1964, nightclub owner Jack Ruby was convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, who had presumably assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Ruby was sentenced to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Ruby's conviction in October 1966 and ordered a new trial citing improperly admitted testimony and an improper venue in the original proceeding, but Ruby died before the second trial could be convened. Review a transcript of Jack Ruby's July 1964 testimony before the Warren Commission investigated the assassination of President Kennedy. The Assistant Counsel for the Commission doing some of the questioning reported on the transcript is Arlen Spector, now a US Senator for Pennsylvania.