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Category: Law/Crime

Dutch court orders halt to export of F-35 jet parts to Israel

Dutch court orders halt to export of F-35 jet parts to Israel

Reuters reports: A Dutch appeals court on Monday ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used in violations of international law during Israel’s Gaza offensive. It said the state had to comply with the order within seven days and dismissed a request by government lawyers to suspend the order pending an appeal to the Supreme Court. The state has eight weeks to appeal against the decision. “It is…

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Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza, senior UN official says

Israel appears to be in breach of ICJ orders on Gaza, senior UN official says

The Guardian reports: Israel appears to be in breach of the orders issued a fortnight ago by the international court of justice requiring it to take immediate steps to protect Palestinians’ rights and cease all activities that could constitute genocide, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied territories, Francesca Albanese, has said. The Israeli government was given until 23 February to report to the ICJ on what it has done to comply with six orders the court issued, including one…

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NATO chief says Trump remarks may put U.S. and EU lives at risk

NATO chief says Trump remarks may put U.S. and EU lives at risk

The Guardian reports: The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has said any attack on the western military alliance would be met with a “united and forceful response”, after Donald Trump invited Russia to attack member countries that he perceived as not meeting their financial obligations. Stoltenberg said in a statement: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk. I expect that…

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The real ‘Robert Hur report.’ How the Special Counsel report has been misinterpreted

The real ‘Robert Hur report.’ How the Special Counsel report has been misinterpreted

Andrew Weissmann and Ryan Goodman write: The Special Counsel Robert Hur report has been grossly mischaracterized by the press. The report finds that the evidence of a knowing, willful violation of the criminal laws is wanting. Indeed, the report, on page 6, notes that there are “innocent explanations” that Hur “cannot refute.” That is but one of myriad examples we outline in great detail below of the report repeatedly finding a lack of proof. And those findings mean, in DOJ-speak,…

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Climatologist Michael Mann wins defamation case. What this means for scientists

Climatologist Michael Mann wins defamation case. What this means for scientists

Nature reports: US climate scientist Michael Mann has prevailed in a lawsuit that accused two conservative commentators of defamation for challenging his research and comparing him to a convicted child molester. A jury awarded Mann, who is based at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, more than US$1 million in a landmark case that legal observers see as a warning to those who attack scientists working in controversial fields, including climate science and public health. “It’s perfectly legitimate to criticize…

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Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide

Palestinian groups accuse UN adviser of failing to warn about potential genocide

The Guardian reports: Leading Palestinian human rights groups have accused the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide of failing to fulfil her mandate after she issued only one statement on the war in Gaza – largely supportive of Israel – that has claimed 26,000 Palestinian lives. In a statement issued in October, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, a Kenyan, omitted any criticism of Israel. In a letter sent to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, on Wednesday, 16 Palestinian groups,…

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Inside Donald Trump’s incredible cash crunch

Inside Donald Trump’s incredible cash crunch

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump is just days away from getting slammed with a court judgment that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars as a punishment for his decades of bank fraud with the Trump Organization. And two little-known New York laws could leave Trump scrambling for cash: a requirement that he immediately front the money to appeal the decision, and a sky-high state interest rate. During a deposition with the New York Attorney General in April…

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In a masterful opinion, the D.C. Circuit rejected Trump’s bid for immunity

In a masterful opinion, the D.C. Circuit rejected Trump’s bid for immunity

George T. Conway III writes: On July 24, 1974, when the Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, ordering President Richard Nixon to produce the Watergate tapes, the president turned to his chief of staff, Alexander Haig, to understand what had just happened. He later recounted the exchange in his memoirs: “Unanimous?” I guessed. “Unanimous. There’s no air in it at all,” he said. “None at all?” I asked. “It’s tight as a drum.” These words echoed…

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Through controlled demolitions, Israel is systematically destroying Gaza

Through controlled demolitions, Israel is systematically destroying Gaza

The New York Times reports: A resort hotel overlooking the Mediterranean. A multistory courthouse built in 2018. Dozens of homes, obliterated in seconds, with the pull of a trigger. The damage caused by Israel’s aerial offensive in Gaza has been well documented. But Israeli ground forces have also carried out a wave of controlled explosions that has drastically changed the landscape in recent months. At least 33 controlled demolitions have destroyed hundreds of buildings — including mosques, schools and entire…

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Jill Habig’s amicus brief gives the Supreme Court’s originalists a taste of their own medicine

Jill Habig’s amicus brief gives the Supreme Court’s originalists a taste of their own medicine

The Guardian reports: When Jill Habig had an office down the hall from Kamala Harris in California, Barack Obama was US president, abortion was a constitutional right and January 6 was just another date on the calendar. A lot has happened since then. On Thursday Habig, now president of the non-profit Public Rights Project (PRP), hopes her arguments will persuade the supreme court that Donald Trump is an insurrectionist who should be disqualified from the 2024 presidential election. Habig has…

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Insurrection and Trump’s ineligibility for office

Insurrection and Trump’s ineligibility for office

Timothy Snyder writes: Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment bans oath-breaking insurrectionists from holding office. The Supreme Court of Colorado has ruled that Trump’s name should not appear on primary ballots in that state. In Trump v. Anderson, the Supreme Court will consider whether Colorado erred. Oral argument begins on Thursday. Under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, Trump disqualified himself from office on January 6th, 2021, at the very latest, when he violated his oath of office and took…

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Chutkan contemplates Trump trial extending deep into 2024, as case remains in limbo

Chutkan contemplates Trump trial extending deep into 2024, as case remains in limbo

Politico reports: The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s Washington, D.C., criminal case acknowledged Monday that the former president’s trial could extend deep into 2024 — though significant uncertainty continues to cloud the timeline. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan told attorneys in another criminal case that she intended to be out of the country in early August — unless Trump’s trial is underway. “I hope not to be in the country on August 5,” Chutkan said in a sparsely attended conference…

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What South Africa really won at the ICJ

What South Africa really won at the ICJ

Sasha Polakow-Suransky writes: For those with long memories, the seed of South Africa’s case against Israel—accusing it of genocidal acts in the Gaza Strip—might be traced to a spring day nearly 50 years ago. On Apr. 9, 1976, South Africa’s white supremacist prime minister, Balthazar Johannes Vorster, was welcomed with full red-carpet treatment to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. The moment, for those who knew the prime minister’s past, was incongruous. A former Nazi sympathizer who had proudly…

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What has happened to the rule of law in India?

What has happened to the rule of law in India?

Vaibhav Vats writes: On December 11, India’s supreme court upheld ending the constitutional privileges of the Indian-controlled province of Kashmir, a disputed region claimed by both India and Pakistan. The decision was a sobering example of the Indian judiciary’s creeping servility in the era of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just as India’s vibrant, secular democracy is transforming into an authoritarian, ethnonationalist state, the supreme court, once vaunted for its fierce independence, is failing to stand up for the rule of…

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Domicide, the mass destruction of homes, should be identified as a crime against humanity

Domicide, the mass destruction of homes, should be identified as a crime against humanity

Balakrishnan Rajagopal writes: We all understand that killing can be a murder, a war crime, a crime against humanity or an act of genocide, depending on the gravity and intention of the act. The same should apply for the destruction of homes. In Gaza, we are witnessing destruction that is overwhelming in terms of its scale and impact, and far worse than what we saw in Dresden and Rotterdam during World War II, where about 25,000 homes were destroyed in…

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The polling ‘disaster’ that’s starting to terrify Team Trump

The polling ‘disaster’ that’s starting to terrify Team Trump

Rolling Stone reports: In the middle of last year, several of Donald Trump’s closest advisers, including some of his 2024 campaign’s senior staff, started noticing an ominous trend in independent polling and in internal Republican survey data: A significant share of swing voters in key states — even some Republicans — say they would not want to vote for a freshly-convicted criminal. The trend spooked them enough that, in recent months, some of these officials and political allies have directly…

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