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DOCUMENTS IN THE NEWSThe NUSL law library provides this page as a shortcut to selected recently released documents on the Internet. The library has no editorial control over the contents of the sites to which this page links. While reasonable efforts are made to ensure that linked documents are what they purport to be, researchers should exercise their own judgment in determining whether the documents found are accurate, reliable, and current.Some of the documents listed here may be protected by copyright law. The copyright law of the United States (Title 17 U.S. Code) governs the making of reproductions of copyrighted material. The person linking to documents from this page is liable for any infringement. If you have any suggestions regarding this page, please e-mail k.courtney@neu.edu Ninth Circuit Rejects 30-year-old Airport Passenger Search Precedent The en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has disapproved 30-year-old precedent to make clear that the Fourth Amendment allows suspicionless security screenings at airports regardless of travelers' consent to such intrusions (United States v. Aukai, 9th Cir. (en banc), No. 04-10226). This means that once a traveler attempts to enter the "secured area" of an airport, he or she has no authority to stop a search by choosing not to fly, the court said. Data Breach Notice Amendment OK'd by Massachusetts' Legislature The Massachusetts Legislature accepted an amendment offered by Gov. Deval Patrick (D) to an omnibus data security measure that would require businesses and government agencies to notify state residents if their unencrypted personal information in either electronic or paper form is breached and give state residents the right to place security freezes on their consumer credit reports. McCormack Graduate School Survey: Race Relations Remain Challenge for Mass. Residents While Massachusetts voters made the historic vote in November to elect the state's first African American governor, the majority of state residents rate the quality of race relations in Massachusetts as "fair" or "poor", according to a new survey conducted by UMass Boston's John D. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies. Iraq Study Group Report Released The official report just released by the Iraq Study Group titled "The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward - A New Approach" is avaiable here. The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) is the facilitating organization for the Iraq Study Group (ISG), co-chaired by James A. Baker, III, and Lee H. Hamilton. Conclusions and Recommendations of the Committee Against Torture In this report, published May 18, 2006, the UN Committee Against Torture calls for the United States to close the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba facility as well as any secret detention centers abroad. The UN's press release is here. Women's Prison Association: Number of Women Imprisoned in US on Upswing The Women's Prison Association released a report on May 21, that shows the number of women incarcerated in the United States for periods longer than a year grew 757 percent between 1977 and 2004. The report noted that the increase in incarceration rates for women were most dramatic in the Mountain states, including Colorado, Idaho and Montana, where the number of women in prison increased by 1,600 percent. In contrast, the rate decreased in several northeastern states. White House Releases Avian Flu Pandemic Plan The White House unveiled a new plan to deal with a possible avian flu pandemic on May 3, 2006. The plan is titled "Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza." The present document builds on an earlier plan to combat a potential pandemic of H5N1 avian influenza, including preparations to build a stockpile of vaccines and drugs, already under way, and work to develop newer and better vaccines. GAO Report questions FDA's safety procedures The Food and Drug Administration "lacks a clear and effective process" for managing postmarket drug safety issues, says a Government Accountability Office report released Monday, April 24, 2006. The report was requested in late 2004 by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The abstract, highlights, and full report can be found here. UN Human Rights Council: New website to monitor candidates' human rights records Amnesty International launched a new website enabling states voting in next month's election of the first 47 members of the new UN Human Rights Council to assess the human rights records of candidate states. The site allows government delegates and other interested parties to click on individual countries on the list of candidates to easily access concise information about their current human rights situation and record -- including on ratifications of treaties, reservations to treaties, submission of reports on how they have fulfilled their obligations to such treaties, and their record of cooperation with special procedures. Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts bars same-sex marriage for non-residents On March 30, 2006 the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled that same-sex couples from outside of Massachusetts cannot marry in the state. The issue in the case was whether a 1913 law which prohibits out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if their home states do not recognize the union, comports with the Massachusetts constitution. Read the Court's decision here. (Cote-Whitacre v. Department of Public Health). Amnesty International Releases Report About the Continuing Concerns of Taser Use On March 28th, 2006 Amensty International's USA Office released a report titled "Amnesty International’s continuing concerns about taser use," citing the increase in deaths due to use of taser technology. You can find the report here. Office of the Inspector General Releases Semi-Annual Report on Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Violations On March 8th, 2006 the Inspector General released the semi-annual review for Congress under Section 1001 of the Patriot Act of civil rights or civil liberties violations. According to this report the Federal Bureau of Investigation has uncovered over 100 violations of wiretapping and intelligence gathering rules in the past two years, including using wiretaps that exceeded the scope authorized by court warrant and obtaining communications with an expired warrant. United States State Department Releases 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices The US State Department on Wednesday named North Korea, Burma and Iran among the world's biggest human rights offenders in its 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, saying that "countries in which power is concentrated in the hands of unaccountable rulers tend to be the world's most systematic human rights violators." The reports also drew special attention to Iraq and China. In Iraq, the Department noted that the number of killings and reports of abuse by Iraqi police increased during 2005. The US also condemned abuses in China, saying that "the government's human rights record remained poor," and noted increased controls on the media. Some positive developments were highlighted, however, including the government's return of authority to the Supreme People's Court to approve death sentences. Northeastern University Law Professor Peter Enrich Argues Before U.S. Supreme Court On March 1, 2006 Professor Peter Enrich of Northeastern Univeristy Law argued before the United States Supreme Court in the case Cuno v. DaimlerChrysler Corp. The case deals with whether taxpayers can challenge lucrative tax breaks their elected officials give to businesses as incentives to expand or move operations into certain cities or states. The Boston Globe has excellent coverage. For more coverage see: Forbes, MarketWatch, CNN , LA Times , and Washington Times. For background on the Cuno case, see the Duke Law case backgrounder. UN Human Rights Commission Releases Guantanamo Report On February 15, 2006 United Nations Human Rights Commission released a report that called for the immediate closure of America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre. The press release is also available. Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina Releases Report On Feb 15, 2006 the 520-page report titled "A Failure of Initiative" concludes the nation is ill-prepared for another major natural disaster, let alone a terrorist attack. The link to the full text and Appendicies can be found here. US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts charges Canadian
with supplying weapons to al Qaeda US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Michael Sullivan said he plans to “aggressively” pursue extraditing Khadr from Canada, where he is being held on a US warrant. He was arrested by the RCMP in December after returning from Pakistan, where he had been jailed. Copyright Office Releases "Report on Orphan Works" The Copyright Office has completed its study of problems related to “orphan works”—copyrighted works whose owners may be impossible to identify and locate. As requested by Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Patrick Leahy, the Office submitted its Report on Orphan Works to the Senate Judiciary Committee on January 31, 2006. The Report is also available for download in two versions, the Full Report with Appendices, and the Main Text (no appendices). White House Releases "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq" On November 30, 2005 the White House released a National Security Council document titled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," which attempts to define what victory in Iraq means in the short term, the medium term and the long term. The strategy for victory is to pursue it along three tracks: political, security and economic. McCain Detainee Treatment Amendment HR 2863 Amendment No. 1977, Relating to persons under the detention, custody and control of the United States government. Presented by Senator John McCain, September 29 2005; passed by the US Senate October 5, 2005 [prohibiting treatment of detainees not in accordance with the US Army Field Manual on Interrogation Techniques, and prohibiting any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of persons in custody of the US government]. Read the full text. Department of Human Health Services Pandemic Influenza Plan This plan was released on Nov. 2, 2005. There is also a website featuring a Table of Contents and and Executive Summary of the plan with comments from Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's Indictment in CIA Leak investigation The indictment was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on October 28, 2005. Iraq Coalition Casualty Count This website was developed to provide information that has been scrupulously culled from government sources and cross-checked against other existing lists to ensure the most accurate and complete accounting of coalition deaths from the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the present. The website presents the data in a way that will allow other researchers and interested individuals to easily analyze it for trends and benchmarks. The raw death numbers are given on a daily basis in the Summary chart on the main page and are tabulated for three periods: (1) March 20, 2003 through May 1, 2003 (the end of major combat)., (2) May 2, 2003 through June 28, 2004 (the day of the official turnover of sovereignty to Iraq)., and (3) June 29, 2004 (the day after the official turnover of sovereignty to Iraq) through today's date. Tables can be filtered by date, by a soldier’s age, by a soldier’s rank, or by whether the soldier was with US or UK forces, including what state or city is listed as the soldier's home. In other words, with the use of the filters provided, it becomes easy to determine how many soldiers were 18 years of age, how many were sergeants, how many died on March 23rd (one of the heaviest days of fighting), how many were British, or how many died before June 1st. It also includes data on other deaths in Iraq, from contractors to Iraq's own security forces. Please be aware that this site is a work in progress. MassINC (Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth) Releases The Changing Face of Massachusetts In this report, MassINC presents data about immigrants in Massachusetts. The report shows that the share of immigrants in the Massachusetts workforce nearly doubled from 9 percent in 1980 to 17 percent in 2004. The report also finds that the number of immigrants with limited English-speaking skills has increased from 17.5 percent in 1980 to 21.5 percent in 2000, an increase of almost 100,000, documenting a recent trend toward immigration from countries where English is not a primary language. In Massachusetts, two-thirds of the immigrants who arrived between 2000 and 2004 were from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia. MassINC also provides a database for research on immigration data for every city and town in Massachusetts. The data include the number and share of immigrants living in each community and how that has changed since 1990. The database also provides rankings for the top 100 communities by their share of immigrants. In addition, you can find out in what regions of the world and in what countries immigrants living in the various cities and towns of Massachusetts were born - or where immigrants born in a particular country live in Massachusetts. State Dept. Releases Annual Report on Human Rights "The report entitled "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" is submitted to the Congress by the Department of State in compliance with sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA), as amended, and section 504 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. The law provides that the Secretary of State shall transmit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, by February 25 "a full and complete report regarding the status of internationally recognized human rights, within the meaning of subsection (A) in countries that receive assistance under this part, and (B) in all other foreign countries which are members of the United Nations and which are not otherwise the subject of a human rights report under this Act." We have also included reports on several countries that do not fall into the categories established by these statutes and that thus are not covered by the congressional requirement." The Table
of Contents provides links to sections of the report covering Africa,
East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, Near East and North Africa,
South Asia, Western Hemisphere, and Appendices. See also the following
sections with their associated links: Preface;
Overview
and Acknowledgements; and Introduction.
See also the On-the-Record Briefing on the Release of the 2004 Annual Report on Human Rights The Commonwealth Fund presented findings based on its Biennial Health Insurance Survey about adults insured with high-deductible health plans. Almost half of all adults insured with high-deductible health plans have medical bill problems or debts. http://www.cmwf.org/usr_doc/Davis_NASI_01-27-2005_FINAL_color.pdf
The Institute for Workplace Studies, School of Industrial and Labor Relations Workplace Studies at Cornell University released a 32 page study in April 2004 called Exporting the Law: A Legal Analysis of State and Federal Outsourcing Information analyzing how legislators in at least 36 states and at the federal level have introduced more than 100 bills to restrict overseas outsourcing. http://www.nfap.net/researchactivities/studies/NFAPStudyExportingLaw_0404.pdf Findlaw has placed the full text of a number of documents on its website regarding United States' treatment of prisoners classified as enemy combatants and detainees. "Legal Debate Over U.S. Interrogation Policies: On the Treatment of Enemy Combatants and Detainees During Interrogation While in Custody of U.S. Military Forces and Civilian Contractors" http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/dod/62204index.html The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, has issued its Final Report which provides a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks. It also includes recommendations designed to guard against future attacks.. This is available online: http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS51934 The Washington Post reporter Dana Priest has Web-posted the text of the controversial August 2002 Justice Department memo that was drafted after White House meetings convened by George W. Bush's chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, Defense Department general counsel William Haynes and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney's counsel, who discussed specific interrogation techniques for prisoners. The meeting was prompted by CIA questions about what to do with a top Qaeda captive, Abu Zubaydah, who had turned uncooperative. The memo is available online at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/documents/dojinterrogationmemo20020801.pdf A Pentagon briefing for congressional staff members discloses new details of how a senior political appointee in the Defense Department chose oil services giant Halliburton Co. to secretly plan how to repair Iraqi oil fields, and then briefed Vice President Cheney's chief of staff and other White House officials about the sole-source contract before it was granted, as the government prepared for war in Iraq in the fall of 2002. Rep. Henry A. Waxman's (D-Calif.) letter to Dick Cheney requesting information and detailing Cheney's misstatements about the contract is available online at: http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs_108_2/pdfs_inves/pdf_admin_halliburton_contract_inves_june_13_let.pdf In a three-and-a-half-week divorce trial televised on Court TV, Michael Kantaras, a transsexual man in Clearwater, Florida, was ultimately found by the trial judge to be legally male. The judge also affirmed the validity of his marriage, and granted him custody of both children in an 800+ page decision issued on Feburary 21, 2003. The decision is available online from Transgender Law and Policy Institute at: http://www.transgenderlaw.org/cases/kantarasopinion.pdf In July 2003 the ACLU published a 26 page report called Unpatriotic Acts: The FBI's Power to Rifle Through Your Records and Personal Belongings Without Telling You. The PATRIOT Act greatly expanded the FBI 's authority to monitor people living in the United States. Section 215 specifically gives the FBI authority to monitor people not engaged in criminal activity or espionage, and to do so in complete secrecy. According to information detailed in this report, the FBI can use the provision to obtain personal belongings directly from your home. It can also get your medical or psychiatric records, and lists of people who have borrowed a particular book, visited a particular Web site, or worshipped at a particular church, mosque, temple or synagogue. http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=13246&c=206 In February 2002, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence agreed to conduct a Joint Inquiry into the activities of the US Intelligence Community in connection with the World Trade Center incident of September 11, 2001. Their Report, Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities Before and After the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001, can be found on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/911.html On June 26,
2003 the United States Supreme Court decided Lawrence v. Texas.
This landmark case overturned Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186.
The holding reads, "[t]he Texas statute making it a crime for two
persons of the same On June 23, 2003, the case challenging the Michigan University Law School's affirmative action policy, Grutter v. Bollinger, et al., was decided by the United States Supreme Court. It held that "[t]he [University of Michigan] Law School's narrowly tailored use of race in admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body is not prohibited by the Equal Protection Clause,Title VI,or §1981." Pp.9 –32. Two applicants to the undergraduate program at University of Michigan also challenged the University's admissions policy in Gratz, et al. v. Bollinger et al, decided June 23,2003. The Court rejected petitioners’ argument that diversity cannot constitute a compelling state interest but found that the University's undergraduate admissions policy violates the Equal Protection Clause because the University’s use of race in its current freshman admissions policy, which automatically distributes 20 points, or one-fifth of the points needed to guarantee admission, to every single “underrepresented minority” applicant solely because of race, is not narrowly tailored to achieve respondents’ asserted interest in educational diversity. Documents in the News Archives (previous postings)
Last updated: August 21, 2007 Northeastern University School of Law Library, 400 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 |