Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Judge Dismisses Rumsfeld Torture Lawsuit
“A U.S. federal judge dismissed on Tuesday a lawsuit seeking to hold former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking military officers liable for the torture and abuse of Afghan and Iraqi prisoners, including some at Abu Ghraib prison,” reports Reuters. According to the report, “Hogan said that allowing money damages against military officials during a war ‘would invite enemies to use our own federal courts to obstruct the armed forces' ability to act decisively and without hesitation in defense of our liberty and national interests.’”
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Justices Agree to Revisit Child Pornography Laws
The New York Times reports, “The Supreme Court agreed Monday to undertake its latest effort to define the permissible boundary between free speech and the government’s prohibition of child pornography.” According to the article, “The justices agreed to hear a government appeal of a ruling issued last year by the federal appeals court in Atlanta that overturned part of a recent federal law aimed not only at the sexual exploitation of real children but also at computer-generated or enhanced images that help sustain the market for child pornography.”
Friday, March 23, 2007
Court Rejects Law Limiting Online Pornography
The New York Times reports, “A federal judge in Philadelphia yesterday struck down a 1998 law that made it a crime for Web sites to allow children to gain access to material deemed ‘harmful.’” The report explains, “The ruling is the second major setback in federal efforts to control Internet pornography. The United States Supreme Court struck down a similar law in 1997.”
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Supreme Court Blocks Ohio Execution
“The U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of a man who had been scheduled to die Tuesday for killing a woman in 1991 and scattering her remains across two states,” reports The Associated Press. According to the report, “The justices' one-sentence decision agreed with two lower courts that delayed the execution so he could continue arguing that Ohio's method of lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.”
Monday, March 19, 2007
Supreme Court to Hear Student Free-Speech Case
Reuters reports, “The U.S. Supreme Court considers on Monday its first major dispute on student free-speech rights in nearly 20 years, a case about the power of school authorities to censor what they viewed as a pro-drug message at a school-sponsored event.” According to the report, “The high court hears arguments on whether constitutional free-speech rights under the First Amendment allow public schools to bar students at the faculty-supervised events from displaying messages said to promote the use of illegal drugs.”
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Court Against Flier Promoting 'Family Values'
According to The Oakland Tribune, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Oakland city officials did not violate the First Amendment rights of employees by removing a flier about the employee’s group—Good News Employee Association—from a workplace bulletin board. According to the report, the flier at issue that city officials took down urged fellow employees to “preserve our workplace with integrity” and promoted their association as “a forum for people of faith to express their views on contemporary issues of the day with respect for the natural family, marriage and family values.”
High Court Clears Religious Schools to Use Bond Funds
The San Francisco Chronicle reports, “Religious schools with hundreds of thousands of students in California can use tax-exempt bonds from a public agency to build classrooms without violating the state's constitutional ban on government aid to religion, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday.” According to the report, “The 4-3 decision overturned lower-court rulings and allowed three Christian schools in Southern California -- one for grades 6 through 12 and two colleges -- to borrow between $80 million and $90 million from bonds issued by a group of local governments.”
