JURIST - US Legal News

[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [official website] lawsuit [complaint, PDF; press release] against the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official websites] Wednesday seeking information on the use of electronic surveillance tools. At issue are tools called pen registers and trap and trace devices which allow law enforcement to monitor phone calls, emails and websites visited under the Pen Register Act [text]. The attorney general is required to report annually...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] ruled Wednesday that the legal definition of maritime piracy [JURIST news archive] includes an armed attack to hijack a ship, even if the attempt is unsuccessful. In one case, the court upheld [opinion, PDF] the convictions and life sentences [JURIST reports] of five Somali pirates who attacked the USS Nicholas [official website] in April 2010. The appeals court rejected their contention that the definition of piracy as defined...... [full story]

[JURIST] A federal jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] found on Wednesday that Google [corporate website] did not infringe [verdict slip, PDF] Oracle [corporate website] patents. However, the jury split [JURIST report] on the copyright phase of the trial over whether Google's use could be considered "fair use." Oracle alleged that Google's use of Java in its Android OS violated Oracle's patents and copyrights. Oracle sought up to $1 billion in damages....... [full story]

[JURIST] Ten Somali pirates were sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday in the Abu Dhabi Federal Criminal Court of First Instance. The men were convicted of highjacking the MV Arrilah-1, a UAE-owned ship hauling aluminum in the Arabian Sea, in April 2011. The US Fifth Fleet [official website] rescued the ship one day later. In addition to ordering that all arms and ammunition used in the highjacking be confiscated, the court ruled that the 10 pirates would be...... [full story]

[JURIST] A Pakistani doctor was sentenced to 33 years in prison Wednesday for helping the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) [official website] locate Osama Bin Laden [JURIST news archive]. After a trial lasting two months during which Shakeel Afridi was not afforded the opportunity to defend himself, a tribal court convicted him of treason and spying [CNN report]. Afridi was part of a CIA attempt to gather DNA samples from residents of Bin Laden's Abbattobad compound in an effort to determine...... [full story]

[JURIST] More than 40 Catholic dioceses and other Catholic institutions around the US filed suits on Monday against the Obama administration, alleging that certain employer insurance requirements issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [official website] violate their right to religious freedom [materials] protected by the first amendment. The mandate in question [HHS press release] was added to the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act (PPACA) and requires nearly all health insurance plans to cover all...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] on Tuesday rejected [opinion, PDF] a challenge to a $3.4 billion settlement [agreement, PDF] in the American Indian trust [class website; JURIST news archive] class-action lawsuit. Judge Thomas Hogan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] approved the settlement [JURIST report] last June—the largest in US government history. Class member Kimberly Craven appealed, claiming an impermissible intra-class conflict. The appeals court...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] on Monday ruled [opinion, PDF] that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official websites] do not have to release records pertaining to CIA detention and interrogation programs for prisoners in US custody overseas. The unanimous three-judge panel held that certain exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text; DOJ materials] shield the agencies from having to release documents sought in a longstanding...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday denied certiorari [order list, PDF] in Tenenbaum v. Song BMG Music, et al., an appeal by a student who was fined $675,000 by a jury for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Breyer abstained from the decision without explanation. The case now goes back [Boston Herald report] to the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts [official website] which has the...... [full story]

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday ruled 6-3 [opinion, PDF] in Taniguchi v. Kan Pacific Saipan, Ltd. [SCOTUS blog backgrounder] that the cost of translating documents cannot be awarded to the winning party in federal court under 28 USC § 1920(6) [text]. Although it had been common practice for 70 years for federal courts to include people who translate written documents as "interpreters" under § 1920(6), the Supreme Court held that the most natural definition of "interpreter"...... [full story]

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