In Friday’s legal profession news, the Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld a requirement that lawyers take periodic classes on eliminating bias in the legal profession, rejecting a claim that this requirement violates constitutionally protected freedoms of speech, religion, and conscience. Opponents raised concerns regarding certain political ideals the courses furthered in relation to the fight against terrorism and capital punishment, condemning the requirement as unconstitutional. The St Paul Pioneer Press has more.... Montana’s recently formed Office of Disciplinary Counsel, responsible for tracking complaints against lawyers, reports a 20 percent increase in complaints from 2002 figures. The counsel which is responsible for tallying, investigating, and prosecuting complaints claims the rise is attributable to the newly found ease of reporting improper conduct by lawyers. The counsel focuses on complaints against attorneys violating professional conduct or suffering from mental defects rendering the attorney unfit to practice. One alarming statistic was the growing number of lawyers filing claims against other lawyers they faced off in the courtroom, making up 18 percent of the total number of complaints in 2003. The Helena Independent Record has more.

In international law news Friday, the UN Security Council has unanimously adopted Resolution 1534, in which it calls on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to complete their investigations by the end of this year and all of their work by 2010. The UN News Service has more.... The UN Security Council also unanimously adopted Resolution 1535, thereby restructuring its Counter-Terrorism Committee to consist of the Plenary, comprised of Security Council Member States, and the Bureau, to be assisted by the Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate. The UN News Service has more.

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In Friday's federal courts roundup, Judge Sam Sparks of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas ruled that the University of Texas, along with several state agencies, can use filters to block unsolicited commercial email, otherwise known as "spam." Sparks rejected an argument that the federal CAN-SPAM Act, which provides guidelines for legitimate spam messaging, precludes the use of filters to block unsolicited email. The San Antonio Business Journal has the full story.... The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a judge's order barring Internet web sites from showing images of a television newswoman participating in a wet t-shirt contest. Catherine Bosley, who resigned from her television job after the images first appeared on the Web, won first prize in the contest while at a Key West, FL bar. The Court said that the restraining order raised constitutional free speech issues. AP has the full story.... Yesterday, the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that a Virginia law that seeks to restrict minors' access to pornographic material on the Internet imposes an unconstitutional burden on protected speech. AP has the full story. Read the opinion here [PDF].

Retired Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas O'Brien has been given four years probation and 1000 hours of community service in the case of a fatal hit-and-run accident, in what is believed to be the first felony conviction for a Catholic Bishop in the US. Prosecutors had asked that O'Brien be sentenced to six months in jail, and the judge could have given him nearly four years behind bars for the incident. O'Brien recently entered a deal to avoid prosecution on unrelated charges of obstructing investigations of child molestation by priests.

AP reports that European leaders meeting in Brussels Friday urged the adoption of a new UN resolution on Iraq as the US prepares for a return of that country's sovereignty to Iraqis on June 30. AP has more. The Iraqi Governing Council has meanwhile called for a UN resolution to legitimize their assumption of power, according to Reuters.

In Friday's tax law news, Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry called today for reform of the tax laws regarding domestic corporations' international profits. Current law allows corporations to defer taxes earned by offshore subsidiaries, creating an incentive to move jobs out of the US. Kerry proposed replace offshore incentives with new tax incentives for creating domestic jobs. Reuters has more. Read Kerry's speech here.... The Franchise Tax Board in California is cracking down on CPAs and tax attorneys who offer abusive tax shelters to their clients. The FTB has given tax professionals until April 15 to voluntarily correct their clients filings before interest and penalty enforcement kicks in. The Sacremento Business Journal has more here. View the FTB's Voluntary Compliance Initiative here.

Here's Friday's legal news from the US Department of Justice. The DOJ has reconfirmed its defense of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 in a statement today on the constitutional challenges to the Act that go to trial next week in New York, Nebraska, and California. Departmental spokesman Monica Goodling said:

The Justice Department will be working hard during these trials to fulfill the goal of the President and Congress to protect innocent new life from the practice of partial-birth abortion.

The full DOJ statement, with background information on the upcoming cases and Congressional findings is here.... In related news, Representative Jerrold Nadler (D), a New York congressman, introduced legislation Friday that would prevent the Justice Department from continuing its efforts to subpoena patient records of abortion procedures based on a federal doctor-patient privilege. Nadler claims that the DOJ's seizure of patient records opens up the door to countless abuses of privacy. However, Attorney General John Ashcroft has commented that the patients' identities would be deleted before the records were handed over to government lawyers. AP has more.

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Declining at least for the moment to issue a mistrial in the case of alleged financial improprieties by Tyco chief executive L. Dennis Kozlowski and former chief financial officer Mark Swartz, New York Supreme Court judge Michael Obus has allowed the jury to adjourn for the weekend, according to AP. As reported earlier today by Amit Patel for JURIST's Paper Chase, the trial judge is concerned that the jury may be irreparably compromised by infighting. At issue is a "poisonous" atmosphere in the jury room, described in a written communication from the jury to judge Obus. In addition, the judge was notified that one juror may have given an "okay" gesture to the defense. The jury will reconvene on Monday, in what will probably amount to a final effort to avoid mistrial.

In environmental law news for Friday, the Washington Post reports that Washington DC mayor Anthony Williams has written a letter to President Bush requesting $26 million in federal aid amidst allegations that lead contamination in the city's drinking water is largely a result of decisions made by the EPA. Although the DC Water and Sewer Authority (WASA) has shouldered much of the blame, city officials have said that changes made by the EPA to water treatment processes likely resulted in increased leaching of lead pipes and fixtures in the distribution system. If the federal government does not help, the bill will likely be passed on to District taxpayers and WASA customers... In other news, the EPA has announced plans to force Denver motorists to switch to lower-volatility gasoline this summer in order to bring the city into compliance with ozone rules. Last year, the Denver metropolitan area exceeded National Ambient Air Quality Standards which are mandated by the Clean Air Act. UPI has more.

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In Friday's corporations and securities law news, jury deliberations in the Tyco corruption trial have turned poisonous with one member not deliberating in good faith, leading to the possibility that the panel may fail to reach a verdict in the nearly six-month long trial. The defense's motion for a mistrial based on the acrimonious deliberations has been rejected by the presiding judge. Read the SEC complaint against the Tyco executives here. CNN has more.... Regulators investigating the $139.5 million payout given to the former head of the NYSE, Richard Grasso, are now focusing on the exchange board's last-minute item added to the agenda of the meeting which approved the payout. The exchange may have violated its corporate bylaws by adding this item to the agenda. Read the NYSE press release asking the SEC and Eliot Spitzer to look into undue compensation here. UPI has more.... As reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, Jamie Olis, a former senior director of tax planning at Dynegy, was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his role in illegally disguising company debt. AP has more.... Battery maker Rayovac Corp. has agreed in principle to settle shareholder class action lawsuits for $4 million even though it denied any wrongdoing. Read the Rayovac press release announcing the deal here. Reuters has more.

In international corporations and securities law news, Yahoo! Inc. is buying Kelkoo S.A., Europe's leading online shopping comparison service, for about $575 million in cash. The move is seen as the latest push by the company to be a more comprehensive internet search engine. Read the Yahoo! press release announcing the deal here. AP has more.... GAIL Ltd., India's biggest gas distributor, announced it will join BP Plc and Tata Power Ltd. in their bid for the $3 billion Indian venture of Enron, Dabhol Power Co. Read background into the Dabhol Power project here[PDF]. Bloomberg.com has more.... Dutch prosecutors will not decide until this summer whether to press criminal charges against food services giant Ahold NV related to the company's $1 billion accounting scandal. The SEC and the US Department of Justice are continuing their investigation of the accounting overstatement at the US branches of Ahold. AP has more.... J Sainsbury announced it will withdraw from the US market by selling its Shaw's subsidiary for $2.5 billion to Albertsons to concentrate on its struggling UK business. Read the J Sainsbury press release here. The Financial Times has more.... Parmalat announced plans to slash its workforce by nearly half as it sells or liquidates operations in 20 different countries to stem the deep losses from the accounting scandal that drove the company into insolvency. Reuters has more.

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A UK High Court judge ruled Friday that British hospital authorities were negligent in removing organs from hundreds of dead children in hospital post-mortem procedures without the parents' consent. BBC News has more. In 2002, the British National Health Service set up a special commission to review post-mortem "organ retention" practices; it ceased work in 2004 but its documents and reports are still available. A support group for parents affected by organ retention has a website here.

A Moroccan official said Friday the Moroccan police had made their first arrests of suspects in connection with the Madrid train bombings. A number of Moroccans have already been arrested in Spain, and several have been charged. AP has more. Morocco's Aujourd'hui le Maroc newspaper offers a backgrounder on Al Qaeda's Moroccan connections (in French).

Friday's Boston Globe reports that notices has been sent to town and city clerks in Massachusetts advising them of training sessions for the issuance of same-sex marriage licences in early May, prior to the date of May 17 when the first state-authorized same-sex marriages licenses in the US are set to be issued pursuant to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. The state Governor's office, however, has refused to formally acknowledge that notices have been sent, perhaps in light of the possibility that the Governor may ask the court for a last-minute stay of its ruling, especially if the state legislature formally approves a proposed constitutional amendment banning gay marraige (but authorizing civil unions) on March 29. The Globe has more. In a related development, the Massachusetts Bar Association yesterday voted to oppose "all attempts to alter the Constitution and laws of our Commonwealth in any way which would deprive individuals of any of the rights, protections or dignity recognized by our Supreme Judicial Court in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health."

Sovereignty over Iraq may formally shift from the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority to Iraqis themselves on June 30, but US officials now say they have identified a legal means by which the American military can remain in control of the country's security through December 2005. Officials have concluded that Resolution 1511, passed by the UN Security Council in October and authorizing a US-led multinational force, the mandate of which would expire "upon the completion of the political process", allows a US military presence to continue until a permanant Iraqi government is fully established. The US may go back to the UN for more explicit authorization, but the analysis provides a fall-back position if an agreement with the post-June 30 Iraqi government is not readily forthcoming. Reflecting the US approach, a new Order issued Monday by US Administrator Paul Bremer and setting up a new Iraqi Ministry of Defense provides for continued US control in these terms:

In light of the current emergency situation in Iraq, and consistent with Iraq's stated desire to join other nations in helping to maintain peace and security and fight terrorism in the transitional period pursuant to the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1511, all trained elements of the IAF [Iraqi Armed Forces], to include the ICDC [Iraqi Civil Defense Corps] when transferred to the IAF, shall at all times be under the operational control of the Commander of Coalition Forces, for the purpose of conducting combined operations and providing other support...

Read the full Order here [PDF]. Friday's New York Times has more.

A former Dynegy executive was sentenced Thursday to an unprecedented prison term of 24 years and four months for accounting fraud. James Otis was convicted of illegally disguising company debt, causing stock losses of more than $500 million. He was sentenced under guidelines last revised in November 2001, before the Enron scandal broke, but presiding federal judge Sim Lake said the sentence reflected the federal crackdown on corporate crime. Lake is also presiding over the case of former Enron executive Jeff Skilling. Otis may be able to get some three years shaved off his sentence for good behavior, but there is no parole in the federal prison system. Friday's Houston Chronicle has more.

Following up on a brief report on JURIST's Paper Chase last evening, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahearn, whose country currently holds the EU Presidency, said late Thursday that European leaders meeting at the latest European Council summit have agreed to finalize a deal on a new European constitution by mid-June. Ahearn had said several days ago that he thought completion of the stalled agreement might be possible by that point, but it was not clear whether other EU first ministers would support such an initiative. A new government in Spian and signals of flexibility from Poland on lingering votings rights issues appear to have made the latest effort possible. Read an EU press release on the agreement here. The EU Presidency's summary of the current state of the constitutional negotiations is here. Reuters has more.

A Japanese court Friday directed the Japanese Government and the Rinko Corporation transport firm to pay compensation of 88 million yen ($1.1 million) for forcing 11 Chinese workers into slave labor in World War II. The ruling represents the first time that the Japanese state has been held directly liable to former slave laborers; most previous suits have been dismissed by the courts (one as recently as Tuesday, according to the Japan Times newspaper). Reuters has more.

In Friday's US law and business press, the ABA Journal reports that the ABA's Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section has launched a task force to investigate whether contingent fees are out of control and need regulation.... The Legal Times reports that Alston & Bird partner Ralph Boyd, Jr. will begin as chief of the lobbying and legal department of the Federal Home Mortgage Corp. ("Freddie Mac") on April 1st.... The Dallas Business Journal reports that CA's Communities for a Better Environment has settled a lawsuit with Exxon Mobil Corp. over clean water issues.... The Miami Daily Business Review reports that a FL resident who was sued by DirecTV for alleged satellite television piracy is now suing DirecTV for malicious prosecution.... FindLaw's Writ features former White House counsel John W. Dean's column on the case behind Justice Antonin Scalia's recusal issue, as well as Cardozo law professor Marci Hamilton's book reviews of Karol Jackowski's The Silence We Keep: A Nun's View of the Catholic Priest Scandal and David France's Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal.

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US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was born in El Paso, Texas on March 26, 1930. Watch recorded video of Justice O'Connor talking about her biography Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest at Harvard Law School in April, 2002.