Here's Monday's legal news from the US Department of Justice. AP reports that Leslie Caldwell, the Justice Department's chief prosecutor in the Enron case, is stepping down after one year. She is reportedly leaving to pursue other opportunities. The Justice Department has issued two press releases regarding Caldwell's departure here and here.

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In Monday's federal courts roundup, the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has set aside convicted killer Gary Bradford Cone's death sentence for the second time in the past three years. The court ruled that the trial court's jury instructions were "unconstitutionally vague". The ruling lets stand the murder conviction, but requires resentencing within 180 days. AP has the full story. Read the opinion here.... Judge Blanche M. Manning of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has ruled that Conrad Black should have received notice before a court granted and Securities and Exchange Commission request for an emergency restriction on his ability to replace members of the board of directors of Hollinger International. Black controls 30 percent of the equity and 72 percent of the voting stock of Hollinger International, which owns newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post. Manning immediately stayed her ruling pending further court action. AP has the full story.

In Monday's Congressional news, Senator Orrin Hatch today decided not to push to weaken Washington DC's strict gun control laws, Reuters reports. The Utah Republican last week had proposed the measure as an amendment to legislation currently under consideration in the Senate. As reported last week in JURIST's Paper Chase, the underlying Senate legislation seeks to limit civil liability by gun manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers resulting from the use of their products by others. Senator Hatch's move marks a mixed day for gun control advocates, who also saw the defeat of one amendment that would have created loopholes in the underlying legislation. Other amendments that may see votes tomorrow include a provision to extend the 1994 assault weapons ban and a measure requiring background checks for those purchasing weapons at gun shows. Democratic Presidential front-runner Senator John Kerry announced today that he would return to Washington to support the two amendments, despite tomorrow's Super Tuesday primaries. Tomorrow's Christian Science Monitor has more on the legislation.... As the House and Senate meet in conference to finalize the 2004 transportation reauthorization, President Bush today approved a temporary extension to allow the Transportation Department to continue operating. The move was needed after a previous temporary authorization expired.

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In Monday's family law news, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts will soon decide whether a woman can be forced to pay child support for a child born to a former lesbian partner. The Court will hear arguments Thursday in the case, which involves a woman, B.L., who agreed to raise a child with her lesbian partner, T.F., who was artificially inseminated. B.L. paid an initial $800 after the child was born, but soon after ended contact with T.F. and the child and refused to pay any more support. Current state law dictates what happens when a child is born to a married couple through artificial insemination, but says nothing about what happens when a couple is unmarried or homosexual. AP has the full story.

In international law news Monday, an Irish diplomat has said that the next three weeks will be crucial in determining whether an agreement over the draft EU Constitution can be reached before the Irish EU Presidency expires in June. Ireland will draw up a progress report on the negotiations for the European Council meeting at the end of the month. EUObserver.com has the full story.... The committee on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families opened its first meeting Monday. During the five-day meeting, the committee will elect members, set up rules of procedure, develop a long-term agenda, and discuss ways to cooperate with existing UN agencies and other international organizations. The UN News Service has more.... Finally, see these stories reported earlier today on JURIST's Paper Chase: the UN Security Council has adopted a resolution authorizing a multinational force in Haiti, the EU has imposed sanctions on American goods in protest over a US law that has been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization, and allegations have been made that the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson was the target of a UK bugging operation.

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In Monday's civil rights news, the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union (MnCLU) has filed a lawsuit against the city of Duluth, Minnesota, alleging that a Ten Commandments monument outside City Hall has resulted in a mixture of church and state. While the monument has been in place since 1957 and many Duluth citizens are very fond of it, the MnCLU believes the court will find in their favor since the separation of church and state is such "well established law". To support that claim, the MnCLU points to a recent US Eighth Circuit decision that removed a Ten Commandments monument from a city-owned park. AP has more.... The Wisconsin State Senate held a public hearing Monday on whether to propose an amendment to the state constitution that would prohibit same sex marriages. Instead of attending the hearing, gay rights activists protested outside. They claim the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy has already decided they want to propose the amendment, which makes the public hearing nothing more than a "sham". AP has more. Read the proposed amendment here.

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Leading Monday's law school news, the Arizona Republic reports today on plans to create a new, for-profit law school in downtown Phoenix. Chicago-based Sterling Capital Partners, which already owns a suitable old downtown building, has pitched the idea to mostly receptive city officials. Sterling, as reported earlier for JURIST's Paper Chase, purchased Jacksonville's Florida Coastal School of Law in January, and now seems to be making good on its ambitions of opening a chain of non-profit law schools nationwide.

In other law school news, the first results are trickling in from moot court competitions around the country. On Friday, a team from the Western New England College School of Law bested a field of 32 teams to win the 14th annual National First Amendment Moot Court Competition. The topic of the competition was the constitutionality of a hypothetical judicial gag order. More from the First Amendment Center, sponsor of the competition, here.

More details are emerging on the draft Iraqi interim constitution - technically, the Transitional Administrative Law - agreed to earlier today by the Iraqi Governing Council and later announced at a news conference in Baghdad. AP has more. The full English text of the agreed-to document is not yet available online. An earlier version of the draft constitution published by a Kuwati newspaper on February 1 has been translated into English and annotated by Professor Nathan J. Brown of George Washington University.

In environmental law news for Monday, the Washington Post reports that a Bush administration decision to auction oil and gas leases on Utah lands has given rise to arguments that the plan was a giveaway to oil companies and campaign contributors at the expense of the environment. The leasing proposal originally stems from a deal struck last November between former Utah Governor and current EPA administrator Mike Leavitt and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton to open 46,000 acres to oil and gas companies. An in-depth analysis recently conducted by the Environmental Working Group, however, has noted that the plan will allow for drilling and development on lands that are critical wildlife habitats for several threatened species including the Mexican spotted owl. In addition, the report also points out that the government has sold leases at unusually low prices and that many of the purchasers have contributed to President Bush's campaign. New York Congressman, Maurice D. Hinchey, criticized the plan stating that the administration is "essentially giving land to people who are influential with their contributions." While the federal government routinely auctions oil and gas leases on federal land, this series of sales represents only the second time in five years that it has done so on land it had previously determined to be wilderness quality... In spite of criticisms aimed at the President's environmental record, AP reports that Secretary of the Interior Norton has praised the Bush administration for its increased protection of endangered species and fragile lands while encouraging economic vitality with "cooperative conservation." Norton cited programs such as the Healthy Forests initiative as examples of policies aimed at improving the long-term health of resources while preventing unwanted results such as forest fires. At a speech given at a GOP fundraiser, Norton re-emphasized the positive aspects that the administration has had on the environment stating that "We have done terrific things. We've done it in a way that is based on common sense."

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The trial of Belgium's "public enemy number one" began today, with the selection of 12 jurors in the case of 47-year-old Marc Dutroux and his ex-wife, who are charged with kidnapping, abusing, and killing young girls in the mid-1990s. The case is being held up by the Belgian media as an example of poor law enforcement allowing a formerly convicted child rapist to operate unchecked. Dutroux is also suspected of being part of a large criminal network, with ties to law enforcement. About 500 witnesses are expected to testify over the course of the trial. The UK's Guardian has more. Pictures from today's trial can be found through Belgium's VTM television news here; VTM has set up a special website on the Dutroux case (in Dutch).

AP is reporting that by a 6-1 margin the California Supreme Court has ruled that like any other California business, the organization Catholic Charities must provide birth control coverage as part of its health care plan for workers. Read the opinion here [PDF].

In Monday's corporations and securities law news, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is preparing to sue former NYSE head Richard Grasso and his former board members, over the nearly $120 million Grasso received when he left office, for failing in their fiscal responsibilities under state nonprofit organization law. Spitzer is currently in settlement talks with Grasso and the board members and will only bring the lawsuit if negotiations fail. AP has more.... The US Attorney in Atlanta along with the SEC is investigating Coca-Cola to determine whether the beverage maker overstated profits for several years by shipping excessive beverage concentrate to Japan. UPI has more.... As previously reported on JURIST's Paper Chase, closing arguments have begun in the Martha Stewart trial. AP has more.... Also as previously reported, the European Union has imposed sanctions against a variety of US industries which could cost the companies $300 million by the end of the US election year as a tool to pressure the US Congress to change its export subsidy laws. Read the European Commission's statement here. AP has more.... A Moscow Court has ordered the recent merger between Russian oil giant Yukos and Sibneft be unwound. Yukos said the ruling was ungrounded and promised to appeal to higher courts. The Financial Times has more.... Opening statements in the Adelphia fraud trial have begun with prosecutors portraying former founder and CEO John Rigas as a liar who defrauded investors. Read the SEC complaint against Rigas here. Reuters has more.... Belgium-based Interbrew SA and Brazilian-based Cia de Bebidas das Americas are in merger talks in a move which would create the second-largest brewer. Read the Interbrew press release announcing the talks here. The Pittsburgh Business Times has more

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As expected (and as indicated yesterday on JURIST's Paper Chase), the European Union Monday imposed sanctions on US goods ranging from textiles to agricultural goods, in an effort to prompt US legislators to change its export subsidy laws. The US has not repealed the Foreign Sales Corporation legislation, even though the tax breaks offered in that were declared illegal by the WTO two years ago. The sanctions could cost US industries $300 million by the end of the year. This is the first time the EU has used WTO rules to impose sanctions on the United States. Reuters has more.

Haiti's former President Jean Bertrand Aristide reportedly called US Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) and TransAfrica founder and attorney Randall Robinson Monday on a cellphone from his current location in Central Africa to say that he did not resign as Haiti's President, that he was kidnapped by US Marines and taken out of the country to the Central African Republic against his will as part of a US coup d'etat. Waters and Robinson, both supporters of President Aristide, were interviewed on the Democracy Now radio program this morning. Read the transcript of that program here. MP3 audio of the interview with Randall Robinson is also available. The White House and Defense Department have dismissed the allegations. AP has more. Reuters meanwhile reports that the US action in Haiti seems to have been prompted by a desire to prevent a rapid spread of violence that could have resulted in a major refugee exodus by boat to Florida in an election year, quoting David Abraham, a law professor and Haiti scholar at the University of Miami.

UPDATE: AP is now running this report highlighting insistent official denials of Aristide's allegations by the White House, the Defense Department, and US Secretary of State Colin Powell. The website of Haiti's Embassy to the United States in Washington, meanwhile, carries Aristide's declaration "Tell the world it is a coup" and reports "President Aristide says 'I was kidnapped'", with a link to the Democracy Now website. The US Congressional Black Caucus said it will investigate Aristide's claims, according to a late report from AP. In another late story, AP reports on a brief phone conversation with Aristide co-ordinated by Reverend Jesse Jackson in which he repeated his allegations that the US forced him to leave. He has since told CNN the same thing; CNN has posted a copy of his resignation letter here

In other news from the US Supreme Court Monday, the Court, citing "its historic practice," referred to Justice Antonin Scalia himself the Sierra Club's motion (reported last week on JURIST's Paper Chase) for his recusal from its case against Vice-President Dick Cheney and others for information on the development of the Bush Administration's energy policy. The Club says that Scalia's recent duck-hunting trip with Cheney created "an appearance of impropriety." The Club's press release on their motion is here; their full brief on the recusal request is here [PDF]. The brief says:

The federal recusal statute, 28 U.S.C. s. 455(a), requires that "any justice . . . shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned." Justice Scalia's impartiality has been so questioned: there has been an outpouring of public concern over this matter, and dozens of editorials by the nation's newspapers, from all around the country, have called on Justice Scalia to step down. Indeed, to our knowledge, there has not been a single editorial arguing against recusal. Sierra Club respectfully submits that, by the objective standard required by federal law, Justice Scalia's impartiality has reasonably been called into question, and he must be recused.

Justice Scalia's recusal would raise the prospect of a 4-4 Supreme Court vote on the case which would leave the lower court ruling intact. Reuters has more.

In the first conviction of an Israeli soldier for the killing of a Palestinian in the current intifada, an Israeli military court has convicted an Israeli army officer of negligence in the October 2002 killing of a Palestinian West Bank teenager. Captain Zvi Kurtzky was convicted Sunday in connection with a shooting of 16-year-old Muhammad Ali Zeid while he was at a window of his parents' home in a village south of Jenin where IDF forces were enforcing a curfew. A spokesman for the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, which advocates for persons in the Occupied Territories, welcomed the ruling but said there were hundreds of other similar cases that required investigation. BBC News has more.

Among the more noteworthy cases denied certiorari Monday by the US Supreme Court were:

• Holy Land Foundation v. Ashcroft, an appeal from a Muslim charity which had its assets frozen by the Bush administration over suspected links to the militant Islamic group Hamas. Read the opinion of the DC Court of Appeals rejecting the charity's arguments here [PDF]. Reuters has more.
  
  
• Chappell v. Rich, a lawsuit brought by the family of a black maid who was killed on a Florida roadside 40 years ago. AP has more.

The Court's full Order List for today is online here [PDF].

Professor David Cole of the Georgetown University Law Center speaks on Enemy Aliens and American Freedoms: Civil Liberties in the War on Terrorism at the University of Cincinnati College of Law Monday beginning at Noon ET. Watch a live webcast.

The US Supreme Court granted certiorari Monday morning in three cases:

• Johnson v. California, which involves a Ninth Circuit decision affirming California's policy of segregating prisoners by race for two months after they arrive at a state institution or are transferred to a new prison. A black convicted murderer is challenging the policy under the equal protection clause. Read the Ninth Circuit decision here [PDF]. The Supreme Court Docket number is 03-636.
  
  
• Florida v. Nixon, a capital case involving a decision of the Supreme Court of Florida which questioned the effectiveness standards for lawyers. Read the Florida Supreme Court decision here [PDF]. The Supreme Court Docket number is 03-931. AP has more; and
  
  
• Crawford v. Martinez, which will be consolidated with No. 03-7434, Benitez v. Wallace, in which the Court had previously granted certiorari. The Supreme Court Docket number is 03-878.

The Court's full Order List for today is online here [PDF].

The state murder trial of accused Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols goes ahead with jury selection Monday after Judge Steven Taylor early this morning rejected a last minute defense request for postponement in light of Friday's news that FBI Director Robert Mueller had ordered an inquiry into why certain documents purporting to show the involvement of others in the 1995 bombing were not made available to it during its original investigation. The Oklahoman has more [registration required].

Continuing a recent process of releasing to their home governments Guantanamo detainees who are citizens of European states, the US Defense Department announced Monday that it had completed the transfer to Russian authorities of seven Russian detainees who will continue their detention in Russia. This latest transfer follows hand-overs in the past several weeks of a Spaniard, five Britons, and a Dane. The Pentagon says that a total of 88 detainees have been released so far, 12 of them (the 7 seven Russians, 4 Saudis and the Spaniard) for continued detention by their own states. Read the DOD press release.

The Swiss Neue Zuercher Zeitung newspaper reported Sunday that according to an ex-MI6 British intelligence agent, a bugging operation was conducted in Geneva sometime between 1997 and 2001 against UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former Irish President Mary Robinson. The story was published after former UK Cabinet Member Clare Short said that British intelligence services had bugged the offices of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the run-up to the Iraq war. Robinson, who took forthright stands on human rights issues during her term that brought her into conflict with several national governments, told the Swiss paper that she was not surprised: "I was always aware that it was possible to be spied upon, and behaved accordingly." Deutsche Presse Agentur has more.

In what has become a yearly practice to counter the release of the US State Department's annual human rights reports (the most recent of which accused China of "backsliding" in human rights), China today released its own report on human rights in the United States in 2003, highlighting violent crime, alleged Patriot Act abuses, race and gender discrimination, and interference in the affairs of other countries. Xinhua carries the report here.

Closing arguments will begin Monday in the Martha Stewart stock trading trial, with the case expected to go to the jury on Wednesday. Last Friday, Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum dismissed the securities fraud charge against Stewart, the most serious one she faced. AP has more.

The government of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday that it would not release the legal advice given to the British government by the UK Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, just before the Iraq war, despite calls from former Conservative PM John Major and others for it to be produced after British newspapers reported this weekend that it had been altered at the last minute at the request of the United States. Only a summary of the advice was released by the government in March 2003. Government spokesmen Monday continued to insist that the advice given to ministers was confidential and would not be forthcoming. The London Telegraph has more.

Seventy thousand striking grocery workers in Southern California, members of the United Food and Comercial Workers Union, approved a new contract Sunday by an 86 percent margin, bringing to a formal end after 20 weeks the longest-ever US supermarket strike. The contract settled a number of health care issues that had been in dispute with supermarket chains. Reuters has more.

Members of the Iraqi Governing Council agreed to the draft of an interim constitution for Iraq Monday, two days after the scheduled February 28 deadline. The draft, which is set to be signed Wednesday by US Administrator Paul Bremer for the Coalition Provisional Authority, acknowledges Islam as one source of legislation among others and for the time being grants autonomy to the northern Kurds. BBC News has more.

The UN Security Council, called into session late Sunday evening to review the situation in Haiti. passed a resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter authorizing the deployment of a multinational interim force "to contribute to a secure and stable environment in the country, to facilitate the provision of relief aid to those in need, and to help the Haitian police and the Haitian Coast Guard maintain law and order and protect human rights", according to the UN. The mandate of the force at this juncture is no more than three months. The full text of Security Council Resolution 1529 is here. The UN has more.

In Monday's US law and business press, the Legal Intelligencer reports that the PA Superior Court has ruled that suits filed against H&R Block alleging unnecessary fees for filing clients' tax returns electronically may be tried as a class action.... The Texas Lawyer reports on the Christian Trial Lawyers Association, an organization of trial lawyers with Christian values.... The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that Coca-Cola Co. has received grand jury subpoenas relating to an ongoing SEC investigation prompted by a suit filed by a former employee.... The National Law Journal reports that a NAFTA panel is set to clarify last summer's ruling in a suit against the US by the Loewen Corporation, a funeral home chain.... The Connecticut Law Tribune reports on how a NY attorney's unusual admission to the CT bar is opening doors for other out-of-state lawyers.... FindLaw's Writ features human rights attorney Joanne Mariner's commentary on the crisis in Haiti.

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A few of the legal stories running in Monday's foreign press... China's People's Daily features a provincial law on the prevention of AIDS. The law mandates the availability of free or reduced cost hypodermic needles and condoms at all hotels and entertainment venues in Yunnan province.... In the UK, the Herald covers the waning recruitment for legal aid positions. The Glasgow Bar Association has indicated that legal aid registration will drop by 41% in the next seven years if hourly rates and fees continue to remain static.... The Vietnam Economic Times reports a shrimp dumping suit against four of Vietnam's largest seafood producers. The suit was brought by American shrimp farmers before the Department of Commerce (DOC). Under DOC rules, some defendants volunteering information must be named as obligatory defendants.

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On March 1, 1875, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 became law. It declared:

all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on land or water, theaters, and other places of public amusement; subject only to the conditions and limitations established by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race and color, regardless of any previous condition of servitude.

In 1883, in the Civil Rights Cases, the US Supreme Court ruled the 1875 Act unconstitutional and unauthorized by either the 13th or 14th Amendments. Congress passed no more civil rights legislation until 1957.