| April 3, 2007 | - A Chicago woman filed suit against her dance partner for “negligent dancing.”
| Source:
CNN.com
|
| January 8, 2007 | -
President Bush
pardoned 29 criminals, including carjackers, drug dealers, an election-laws violator, and a moonshiner. I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was not one of the 29 people pardoned, nor, despite being a runner-up, did he win the American Bar Association's newsmaker of the year award; the title went to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
| Source 1:
Washington Post
Source 2:
ABA Journal
|
| November 28, 2006 | - A lawyer representing five policemen who shot and killed an unarmed black man in Queens, New York, said he was “confident” his clients would go unpunished.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| October 24, 2006 | - The American Association of Trial Attorneys announced it would change its name to the American Association for Justice.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 25, 2006 | -
Britain considered legislation to establish $1,859 fines for cyber-bullying.
| Source:
Daily Mail
|
| July 10, 2006 | -
Saddam Hussein's
lawyers decided to boycott their client's trial.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| April 30, 2006 | - Analysts found that President George W. Bush had claimed exemption from 750 laws.
| Source:
The Boston Globe
|
| February 18, 2006 | -
Texas
attorney Harry Whittington apologized for the trouble he caused when he was shot by Vice President Dick Cheney.
| Source:
Chron.com
|
| April 3, 2005 | - Robert Creeley, Terri Schiavo, Johnnie Cochran, Frank Perdue, Mitch Hedberg, and the pope died, as did the man who wrote the theme song to “Gidget.”
| Source 1:
Indianapolis Star
Source 2:
Indianapolis Star
Source 3:
New York Times
Source 4:
New York Times
Source 5:
Fredericksburg.com
|
| March 23, 2005 | -
Florida lawmakers were considering an Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, intended to stamp out “leftist totalitarianism,” that would allow students to sue teachers who insist that evolution is factual.
| Source:
Alligator.org
|
| February 14, 2005 | -
Alberto Gonzales was sworn in as attorney general.
| Source:
The New York Times
|
| January 14, 2005 | - A New Mexico woman was sued for embezzling Girl Scout cookies.
| Source:
KOBTV.com
|
| January 12, 2005 | - In Hempstead, New York, two legal-reform activists were detained for telling old lawyer jokes outside a courthouse, including: “Why do they bury lawyers 100 feet into the ground? Because down deep, they're good people.” An offended lawyer had the men arrested.
| Source:
Newsday
|
| June 29, 2004 | - The Supreme Court ruled that a federal law designed to shield children from Internet porn cannot be enforced, because it likely violates the First Amendment.
| Source:
Associated Press
|
| June 16, 2004 | - Prime Minister Iyad Allawi asked the United States to please hand over all its prisoners, including Saddam Hussein, by June 30, as required by international law, and he also asked the Americans to please return the Republican Palace, which they were planning to use as part of the huge new American embassy complex.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| June 7, 2004 | - Administration lawyers argued last year in a classified report that President Bush is not bound by laws and treaties that ban torture; the report concluded that "in order to respect the president's inherent constitutional authority to manage a military campaign . . . (the prohibition against torture) must be construed as inapplicable to interrogations undertaken pursuant to his commander-in-chief authority." The report further argued that the president has the "inherent" authority to set aside laws and that consequently his subordinates could not be prosecuted for violating anti-torture laws.
| Source:
Wall Street Journal
|
| May 9, 2004 | - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the torture of Iraqi prisoners and said that there are "many more photographs and indeed some videos" of American soldiers engaging in "blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman" behavior; Rumsfeld took "full responsibility" for the abuse but still refused to resign. "It's going to get a good deal more terrible, I'm afraid." Specialist Sabrina Harman, who faces court martial because of her role in the torture, said in an email that she never even saw a copy of the Geneva Conventions until recently. "I read the entire thing," she said, "highlighting everything the prison is in violation of. There's a lot." Harman said her job was to "soften up" prisoners for interrogation.
| Source:
Telegraph
|
| May 4, 2004 | - The Congressional Research Service said that Bush Administration officials broke the law when they ordered the Medicare actuary to withhold information on the true cost of the new Medicare law from Congress.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 8, 2004 | - A military lawyer for a Guantánamo Bay prisoner filed a civil lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the president's military tribunals.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| April 1, 2004 | - The International Court of Justice ruled that U.S. courts must review the death sentences of 51 Mexican citizens whose rights under the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations were violated; although international treaties are "the supreme law of the land," according to the U.S. Constitution, Governor Rick Perry declared that "the International Court of Justice does not have jurisdiction in Texas."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 19, 2004 | -
Pennsylvania lawmakers were considering a bill that would reward state contractors for using American workers.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| March 8, 2004 | - The Iraqi Governing Council signed an interim constitution; Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani denounced the new constitution and again called for direct elections.
| Source:
Bloomberg
|
| January 28, 2004 | - A judge ruled that Arnold Schwarzenegger broke campaign-finance laws during the recent election.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 16, 2004 | - Five military lawyers who represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, filed a brief with the Supreme Court arguing that President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in setting up military tribunals for their clients and the other detainees. "Under this monarchical regime," they wrote, "those who fall into the black hole may not contest the jurisdiction, competency or even the constitutionality of the military tribunals."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| January 16, 2004 | - One hundred seventy-five members of the British
parliament, including five former law lords, also filed a brief attacking the administration's detainment policy. "The exercise of executive power without the possibility of judicial review," they wrote, "jeopardizes the keystone of our existence as nations, namely the rule of law."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 21, 2003 | -
British police asked the government to grant them the power to stop cars by using remote control.
| Source:
Guardian
|
| December 17, 2003 | - A class-action lawsuit was filed against the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security accusing the agencies of illegally using a national crime database to enforce civil immigration laws.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| December 12, 2003 | - German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said the blacklist might violate international law. "International law?" the president responded. "I better call my lawyer."
| Source:
Washington Post
|
| December 5, 2003 | - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, currently serving as president of the European Union, declared that Europeans have a duty to support the American war in Iraq, even if it means "a change in international law, which previously held that the sovereignty of a single state was inviolable." Berlusconi also denied that he is short; "I'm as tall as Aznar," he said, referring to Prime Minister José María Aznar of Spain. "I'm the average Italian," he continued. "Right?"
| Source:
New York Times
|
| November 20, 2003 | -
Richard Perle, a Pentagon adviser and one of the architects of the conquest of Iraq, admitted to an audience in London that the invasion was illegal: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
| Source:
Guardian
|
| November 17, 2003 | - Researchers at MIT and Harvard found that cancer tumors follow a universal law of growth,
| Source:
New Scientist
|
| November 12, 2003 | - A judge in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, was in trouble for dressing up in blackface for Halloween.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| August 22, 2003 | - A federal judge dismissed a request for an injunction by Fox News against Al Franken's new book; Fox claimed that Franken was violating its ownership of the common phrase "fair and balanced" by using it in his title.
The judge said that the case was "wholly without merit, both factually and legally." One of Fox's lawyers, challenged by the judge to maintain a straight face while claiming that Franken's book is not satire, declared that "this is much too subtle to be considered a parody."
| Source:
Associated Press, Reuters
|
| August 22, 2003 | - Congressional Democrats warned that the speeches were in violation of rules banning the use of Justice Department funds for political or propaganda purposes.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 21, 2003 | - An internal Justice Department report identified 34 "credible" complaints of civil-rights violations by department employees related to new powers under the USA Patriot Act; more than one thousand complaints were reviewed.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 15, 2003 | - The Justice Department said that it will defy an order by a federal judge to allow Zacarias Moussaoui, who is being tried in connection with the September 11 attacks, to cross-examine a captured Al Qaeda member who is a witness in the case.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| July 10, 2003 | -
Singapore lifted its ban on chewing gum.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| July 3, 2003 | - An Oklahoma man was sentenced to life in prison for spitting on a policeman.
| Source:
Reuters
|
| July 2, 2003 | - Senator Bill Frist called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
| Source:
New York Times
|
| June 24, 2003 | - The United States Supreme Court upheld the University of Michigan law school's use of affirmative action in its admissions process and overturned a Texas
sodomy law, saying that "the state cannot demean [homosexuals'] existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime."
| Source:
New York Times
|
| May 1, 2003 | - The U.S. State Department complained in a report that Canada's contribution to the war on terrorism was being hampered by its obsession with civil liberties and personal privacy: "Canadian laws and regulations intended to protect Canadian citizens and landed immigrants from government intrusion sometimes limit the depth of investigations."
| Source:
The Ottowa Citizen via Canada.com
|
| December 18, 2001 | - Some Oregonians were circulating a petition to repeal the law that bans the eating of roadkill.
| |
| December 4, 2001 | - A former assistant director called Ashcroft's tactics “ridiculous” and “the Perry Mason School of Law Enforcement.” Robert Durst, a fugitive millionaire from New York, was arrested in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, after he was caught shoplifting a Band-Aid for a cut under his nose, a newspaper, and a chicken salad hero with roasted peppers.
| |
| November 27, 2001 | -
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was issued a summons to appear before a court in Belgium in a lawsuit stemming from his role in the 1982 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon; Belgian law permits lawsuits concerning crimes against humanity and genocide no matter where the crimes occurred.
| |
| November 20, 2001 | - Bush's action was widely denounced as dictatorial and un-American, and law professors speculated that the administration was afraid that the evidence against Osama bin Laden was too weak to hold up in court.
| |
| November 13, 2001 | - Federal agents, who now believe the anthrax to be the work of a lone domestic terrorist, still have not gotten around to locating all the labs in the United States where the bacteria can be legally handled, though they were busy cracking down on medical
marijuana in California and assisted suicide in Oregon.
| |
| November 6, 2001 | - Reporters visited the village of Chowkar-Karez in Afghanistan where a man named Mehmood moved his family to keep them safe from the American bombs: “I brought my family here for safety,” he said, “and now there are 19 dead, including my wife, my two children, my brother, sister, sister-in-law, nieces, nephews, my uncle.” United States forces apparently thought the refugees were Taliban soldiers.
| |
| October 23, 2001 | -
Legally, the Pentagon has “shutter control” over civilian satellites to prevent enemies from acquiring sensitive intelligence data, but in this case the images had no strategic value.
| |
| September 25, 2001 | - There were rumors that New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, whom some New Yorkers have taken to calling “our king,” would attempt to circumvent the city's term-limits law.
| |
| August 28, 2001 | - After 26 years of deliberation, Brazil decided to throw out a law that allows a man to annul his marriage if he finds his bride is not a virgin; the new code will take effect in two years.
| |
| August 28, 2001 | - A California appeals board ruled that a law prohibiting topless dancers from touching, caressing, and fondling their own bodies is an infringement of the constitutional right to freedom of expression.
| |
| August 7, 2001 | -
Canada's very cool medical
marijuana
law went into effect.
| |
| July 10, 2001 | -
Florida's
supreme court was considering a constitutional amendment that would enshrine the right of pigs to spacious quarters while pregnant.
| |
| July 3, 2001 | - The International Court of Justice rebuked the United States for executing two German brothers in 1999 without following established international law, which required the German consulate to be notified of the men's arrest and conviction.
| |
| June 26, 2001 | -
Communists in the Italian
senate protested the upcoming Group of 8 summit, which will be held in Genoa next month, by holding up little signs that read, “Let's throw the G-8 into the sea.” Afghanistan's Taliban agreed to let the World Food Program employ local women to survey food needs there even though this would seem to violate God's
Law.
| |
| June 5, 2001 | -
France's
parliament passed a law that permits the government to ban religious groups that it considers “sects,” but backed away from plans to outlaw “mental manipulation.”
| |
| June 5, 2001 | -
President Bush's twin daughters were in trouble with the law after they tried to order drinks at Chuy's, a restaurant in Austin, Texas; Jenna, the bad twin, even tried to use a fake I.D.
| |
| May 29, 2001 | -
Alabama's legislature approved a bill extending the law banning pimps and madams to cover prostitutes as well.
| |
| May 15, 2001 | -
Texas enacted a hate-crimes law previously killed by Governor George W. Bush.
| |
| May 8, 2001 | - Colorado's governor signed a law banning bullying in the schools; a similar measure was being blocked in the Washington State legislature because conservative Christians were concerned that the anti-bullying law would prevent children from persecuting homosexuals.
| |
| April 24, 2001 | - The pharmaceutical industry dropped its suit against the South African government over a law that will permit the importation of inexpensive anti-AIDS
drugs; the drug companies agreed to pay the government's legal costs and admitted that the law in question does in fact abide by international trade agreements.
| |
| April 17, 2001 | -
Alabama's
senate approved a constitutional amendment allowing the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools and state offices.
| |
| April 17, 2001 | - A Charlotte, North Carolina, federal judge told a man that if he wanted to be released on bail he would have to stop living in sin, because doing so violates an 1805 anti-fornication law, which reads: “If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.” Israeli officials raided restaurants in search of leavened bread, which is banned during Passover; violators were fined $25.
| |
| March 27, 2001 | - The European Union passed a resolution calling on 39 drug companies to drop a lawsuit against South Africa in which they seek to overturn a law that would lower the price of anti-AIDS
drugs.
| |
| March 20, 2001 | - An appeals court upheld the Texas antisodomy law in a case involving two Houston men who were arrested for having sex in their own home.
| |
| February 27, 2001 | -
Bill Clinton's corrupt pardons continued to dominate the news; Senator Hillary Clinton chastised her portly brother for exercising “terrible misjudgment” when he accepted $400,000 to help a coke dealer and another felon obtain pardons from his brother-in-law.
| |
| February 20, 2001 | - Virginia's legislature apologized for the state's eugenics policies, including the sterilization of 7,450 people; the eugenics law, passed in 1924, was repealed in 1979.
| |
| February 6, 2001 | -
President Bush called the new president of the Philippines and remarked that “we are the two freshest faces in the presidential ranks.” He also noted that “it's about past seven in the evening here, so we're actually in different time lines.” Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada, a recent victim of People Power, affirmed that he was still legally president; his successor told him to give up his “evil designs.” “You cannot win against the people,” she said. “I shall crush you.”
| |
| January 30, 2001 | -
Egypt began enforcing a seat-belt law; drivers were mounting strips of cotton in their cars, securing them with safety clips.
| |
| January 23, 2001 | - Former senator John Ashcroft, who was defeated by a dead man in the last election, promised in his confirmation hearings to enforce the law, even laws with which he—as a right-wing, Christian, pro-life nut—disagreed.
| |
| January 23, 2001 | -
Great Britain's
House of Commons
voted to outlaw fox hunting; one prominent fox hunter was heard to say: “I will break Blair's
law.
| |
| January 9, 2001 | - Members of the Congressional Black Caucus tried unsuccessfully to block the acceptance of Florida's electoral votes during a joint session of Congress. Federal law requires at least one senator and one member of the House to sign a formal objection questioning a state's electoral votes; no senator was willing to sign. Black congressmen repeatedly interrupted the proceedings and were repeatedly “gaveled down” by Vice President Al Gore, who presided cheerfully over his own electoral demise.
| |
| December 5, 2000 | -
Tony Blair's
parliament invoked emergency powers and enacted a law making it legal for sixteen-year-old boys to engage in homosexual acts with middle-aged members of parliament; the House of Lords had thrice rejected the legislation.
| |
| November 28, 2000 | -
China promised to stop selling missile technology to companies trying to develop nuclear weapons and also to obey the rule of law.
| |
| November 21, 2000 | - American officials apologized and admitted they had violated international law by failing for over ten years to give two Germans, who were executed last year, access to their country's consulate.
| |
| November 14, 2000 | -
Environmental activists held forty candlelight vigils along two hundred miles of the Hudson River, which is polluted by PCBs dumped there, legally, a long time ago by General Electric.
| |
| October 17, 2000 | -
Burma's military junta declared that caffeine was a narcotic; under Burmese law, narcotics users can be put to death.
| |
| October 3, 2000 | - A law that would ban the practice has been blocked by the insurance lobby.
| |
| September 19, 2000 | - Dutch legislators thumped their desks enthusiastically as they passed a law giving gay couples full marriage rights.
| |
| August 15, 2000 | -
New York
Republican Governor George Pataki signed the nation's strictest gun control law.
| |
| August 8, 2000 | - The company that manufactures Wonder Bread was ordered to pay $120 million in a racial discrimination law suit.
| |
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