In Thursday's federal courts roundup, Magistrate David Martin of the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island has ruled that the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority must each pay over $116 million because of their roles in the deaths of an American citizen and his Israeli wife in 1996. Yaron and Efrat Ungar were killed in a drive-by shooting near the West Bank. The defendants have argued that they are a foreign state, and therefore protected by sovereign immunity. AP has the full story.... Representative Ed Emery, a freshman Republican congressman from Missouri, has presented a resolution asking for the impeachment of Judge Scott O. Wright of the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Emery claims that Wright has exceeded his authority in rulings against Missouri's partial birth abortion law. Wright appeared unconcerned with the resolution, stating "I'm 81 years old...[i]f they're going to impeach me, they'd better get at it." AP has the full report.... William G Myers III, nominated by President Bush to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, won narrow approval today from the Senate Judiciary Committee. The vote was 10-9, along party lines, and despite opposition from environmental groups. AP has the full story.

In Thursday's Congressional news, Reuters reports that House and Senate conference negotiators today agreed on a plan to protect employer pension plans, while introducing reforms intended to make the pension program financially solvent. Today's agreement would reform single-employer pension plans, but would cover only a portion of the multiple-employer plans to which the Senate earlier had voted to extend relief. The resulting plan includes funding for about 4% of multiple-employer plans, far short of the 20% the Senate wanted to cover. The package is expected to be approved easily by the House, and has White House support. Senate passage is uncertain, as Senate Democrats have argued that failing to cover a much higher number of multiple-employer plans would negatively impact union workers. The ERISA Industry Committee issued a press release urging lawmakers to resolve remaining differences and enact final legislation by April 15, an upcoming deadline for employer pension contributions. AP has more.... House Republican leaders today announced that they will postpone completion of conference negotiations on the fiscal 2005 federal budget until after an upcoming two-week recess, according to AP. The delay results from a lack of agreement between the chambers regarding to what extent tax cuts should be offset in the budget. The Senate favors some degree of offsets, while the House prefers not to constrain tax cuts strongly advocated by President Bush.

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According to Sarah C. Zearfoss, admission to the University of Michigan Law School is more than a numbers game. Writing for the spring Law Quadrangle Notes, the director of admissions explains that in addition to applicants' score information, her office each spring considers "soft variables" suggesting special contribution to intellectual and social life. She calculates that half of recent classes consist of "leapfroggers" whose nonscore attributes catapult them ahead of better-scoring peers. Zearfoss cites a familiar rationale for the consideration of soft variables, one approved last term in Grutter [PDF]: that "bringing diverse people and viewpoints into the classroom is critical...in a multicultural and constantly changing world." Her office's notion of diversity, crucially, is broader than race and ethnicity, encompassing extraordinary backgrounds, personal qualities, and nonacademic accomplishments as well. Read Michigan Law's admissions policy here [PDF].

Meanwhile, the spring issue of the Stanford Lawyer features, among other articles of interest, a roundtable conversation on Brown v. Board of Education with case attorney and Columbia Law School Professor Jack Greenberg [scroll to bottom] and Professors R. Richard Banks, Pamela Karlan, and William Koski of Stanford Law School. Greenberg characterizes the Brown decision as an "icebreaker" to the "frozen sea" of contemporary racial politics. Read the full issue, which includes a piece on the inaugural event of the school's Latino Alumni Association, here [PDF].

In Thursday's tax law news, the IRS issued guidance today on certain transactions involving S-Corporations and tax-exempt entities that could constitute abusive tax avoidance. The transactions targeted shift income away from S-Corps and towards the exempt entity in order to defer or totally avoid taxes. This is the first time the IRS has included tax-exempt entities in its fight against abusive tax shelters. AP has more. Read the IRS release here. Read IRS Notice 2004-30 here [PDF].... Wal-Mart lost its bid today in a Louisiana state district court for a refund of $15M in state royalty and license taxes. Wal-Mart disputes that the taxes are expenses paid to one of its subsidiaries, however, the court rejected the refund and sent it to trial to determine the validity of using a related subsidiary to generate deductions. Arkansas NBC has more. The state of Maryland recently sued WorldCom for its use of a Delaware subsidary to generate lower use taxes on its IP. See here.

In international law news Thursday, Afghanistan and six of its neighbors have signed an agreement to create an effective system to combat the region's drug trade. The agreement includes commitments to improve border security, improve judicial and law enforcement measures, and share intelligence and information. AFP has the full story.... The US has revoked the participation of Eritrea and the Central African Republic in the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides incentives for African countries to continue their efforts to open their economies and build free markets. Eritrea's eligibility was revoked due to the deterioration of human rights and lack of progress towards the rule of law. Last year's overthrow of the government in the Central African Republic prompted its expulsion from the pact. AllAfrica.com has more. The US Trade Representative provides background information on AGOA, including this fact sheet.

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In Thursday's state courts news, the Wisconsin Fourth District Court of Appeals has decided against throwing out felony charges against several Republican lawmakers. The charges stem from allegations of illegal campaign activity. Read the ruling here. AP has more.... The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled against the construction of a controversial landfill in the state's LaPorte County. This ruling marks the end of almost three years of legal battles. The South Bend Tribune has more.... Finally today, a judge in Utah's Third District has ruled the media may attend the upcoming competency hearings for the man accused of kidnapping Elizabeth Smart. This decision reverses a prior ruling which the judge claims was made in haste. KSL News has more

In Thursday's criminal law and punishment news, the Kansas State Senate has sent a bill to the state's governor that would give juries in capital capital cases another sentencing option: life without the possibility of parole. Currently, Kansas law allows juries to sentence convicted capital defendants to either death or life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years. Read a copy of the bill here [PDF- scroll to page 3]. AP has more.... Wednesday night Virginia executed Dennis Orbe, a death-row inmate convicted for murdering a convience store clerk, according to AP. A breakdown of executions by state in 2004 is available here.... Lastly, in an update of a story posted earlier today on JURIST's Paper Chase, President Bush has signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, a bill that would make it a crime to harm a fetus when assaulting a pregnant woman. FOXnews.com has more.

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The rising price of gas and OPEC's decision to lower oil production have made gasoline distribution a political and even potentially a legal issue. To help consumers, Florida Attorney General Charlie Christ has unveiled a new website to track gasoline prices in the state of Florida.



The site allows Florida residents to track current gasoline prices by city in order to find the best deal and to help mitigate some of the hurt that has been put on thier pocketbooks by the constantly increasing gas prices. The site is also designed to allow the Attorney General's office to keep an eye on how the price of gas is determined, and to look into any complaints of excessive price spikes. Visit the site here.

The state assembly of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a southern state in Germany, has unanimously approved a law banning teachers from wearing Islamic headscarves to school. The law follows a decision by Germany's highest court that ruled states could ban headscarves if it was determined that they "unduly influence[d] pupils". A headscarf ban for French public schools was recently approved by the French parliament and will take effect this fall. BBC News has more.

In Thursday's family law news, the South Dakota Supreme Court has held a state law which places a time limit on challenges to paternity unconstitutional because it treats some children different than others. The law requires paternity challenges to be filed in court no later than 60 days after the birth of the child when there is a presumed father. If there is no presumed father at the time the child is born, however, the law allows a child to go before a court any time before the child turns 18 to establish someone is the father. It is the disparity between children with a presumed father and those without that makes the law unconstitutional, according to the majority of the Court. AP has more.

In Thursday's corporations and securities law news, Bear Stearns Cos., the seventh-largest securities firm, is being investigated by the SEC and the US attorney for the Southern District of New York to determine whether the company helped Canary Capital Partners LLC make illegal mutual fund trades. Last year, Canary paid $40 million to settle civil claims of illegal trading. Bloomberg has more.... A judge agreed with ex-Enron Chief Accounting Officer Rick Causey that he should receive $225,000 of his $6 million frozen assets as living expenses for his family as long the funds are not used for country club fees. Causey's money was frozen after he and fellow Enron executive Jeff Skilling were indicted on more 30 charges related to Enron's downfall. Read Causey's indictment here[PDF]. Read SEC complaint here. The Houston Chronicle has more.... The Procter & Gamble Co., one of the largest consumer product companies is selling its Sunny Delight and Punica juice-based drink businesses to J.W. Childs Associates of Boston to concentrate on two of its major brands, Folgers and Pringles. Read the Proctor & Gamble press release here. AP has more.... The SEC suspended trading in Vaso Active on the Nasdaq Stock Market because of questions regarding the accuracy company press releases, its annual report, its registration statement and public statements to investors. AP has more.... The SEC is investigating the $3.5 billion initial public offering of China Life Insurance Co Ltd, China's biggest life assurer. The investigation seems to be focusing on the disclosure of accounting irregularities worth $652 million in its listing documents. The Financial Times has more.... Computer Associates has hired former Compaq Computer CFO Jeff Clarke, to take over the same position at its company in the wake of accounting scandals that have hounded the software maker in the last year. Read the press release announcing the hire here. The Street.com has more.... German stock market watchdog BaFin is probing possible insider trading in Celanese AG stock because the stock went up 16% after US private equity firm Blackstone's takeover offer was announced. Read Blackstone's announcement of the deal to buy Celanese here[PDF]. Reuters has more.... As reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, lawyers for Martha Stewart have requested a new trial because one of the jurors failed to disclose a checkered past that includes an arrest on assault charges. AP has more.

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The European Union Thursday ordered eight countries - Belgium, Germany, Greece, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Sweden - to enact privacy legislation governing "spam" e-mail and Internet "cookies", or else face lawsuits before the European Court of Justice. This comes after July's tough privacy regulation on electronic communications banning all commercial e-mail unless a recipient has asked for it. The European Commission provides a press release here. AP has more.

The New York Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that mothers of stillborn or miscarried babies could recover emotional damages in medical malpractice cases. The ruling fixes a gap in the previous law which had not allowed such mothers to recover while permitting recovery by mothers whose babies were damaged in the womb due to malpractice and born alive. Read the court's opinion here [PDF]. AP has more.

NATO forces early Thursday failed to capture fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic (see this BBC profile) in an operation in Pale, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where he had apparently taken refuge. The former Bosnian Serb leader and his general, Ratko Mladic, have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for the murder, rape, confinement and deportation of Muslim civilians during the brutal Bosnian wars of the 1990s. The text of the original indictment against them is here. AP has more. Some three thousand Serbs later marched in Pale to protest the raid, during which a priest and his son were wounded. AP has this update.

Spanish court papers made available Thursday identify a Tunisian, Sarhane ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, as the "leader and co-ordinator" of the group responsible for the March 11 train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people and injured over 1800. Fakhet was one of six persons named yesterday in an international arrest warrant issued by Spanish authorities. BBC News has more. Madrid's El Mundo newspaper offers additional local coverage in Spanish.

President Bush is scheduled to sign into law the Unborn Victims of Violence Act at an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony today, making it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. Critics of the bill claim it will have sweeping consequences, and may be a step towards taking away abortion rights. AP has more.

UPDATE: Transcripted remarks and recorded video from Thursday's signing ceremony are now available here.

Legal stories featured in Thursday's foreign press... EFENews reports Spain's National Court has issued an international arrest warrant for the arrest of a Tunisian suspected of orchestrating the March 11 Madrid rail bombings. The warrant also describes the suspect as a 'catalyst' in inciting jihad (holy war) among the many already arrested suspects.... In the United Arab Emirates, the Khaleej Times features a new federal Financial Free Zones Law. Businesses in the zones will require special licensing and will be subject to stricter corporate governance requirements.

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In Thursday's US law and business press, the ABA Journal reports on Brown v. Board of Education at 50.... The American Lawyer features the 2004 Corporate Scorecard, its annual ranking of top transactional practices.... The Memphis Business Journal reports that Memphis-based law firm Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz has established an office in Iraq to better serve its international clients in the region.... The New York Law Journal reports that due to privacy concerns, the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered a review of different techniques to track a convicted child pornographer's computer activities.... FindLaw's Writ features CA attorney Edward Lazarus's column on Justice Antonin Scalia's memorandum defending his participation in the Cheney case, as well as MA attorney Noah Sachs's guest column about both sides claiming victory after a Supreme Court Clean Water Act decision.

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On April 1, 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, the first wartime conscription law passed in the United States went into effect. It included a clause allowing a person to pay $300 to avoid military service, a controversial "rich man's" exception that precipitated the July 1863 New York City Draft Riots. The riots, the worst in US history to that point, killed as many as 100 people and had to be quelled by troops, some of whom had recently fought at the Battle of Gettysburg. Learn more about the Draft Riots.