Anthony Clark Arend

The New York Times reports some troubling news:
Thirteen years after the United States brokered the Dayton peace agreement to end the ferocious ethnic war in the former Yugoslavia, fears are mounting that Bosnia, poor and divided, is again teetering toward crisis.
On the surface, this haunted capital, its ancient mosques and Orthodox churches still pocked by mortar fire, appears to be …

From Fordham University’s press release:
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society at Fordham University since 1988, an internationally renowned author and lecturer on theological topics, and the first American to be named a cardinal who was not a bishop, died at the age of 90 on December 12, 2008.
Revered by colleagues and students alike …

With a Hat Tip to Bobby Chesney, the oral argument in Arar v. Ashcroft can be found here. As will be recalled–
Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral argument in Arar v. Ashcroft. All 12 appeals judges sat in an en banc session to hear the appeal to the 2 to 1 ruling in June 2008 by a Second Circuit …

The New York Times reports:
In between interviewing cabinet nominees and announcing health care plans, Mr. Obama met Thursday with the leaders of a commission that has proposed revamping the legal process for launching military action, to require more consultation between a president and Congress.
The proposal would scrap the problematic War Powers Act of 1973, a measure passed in …

Advocacy Project Director and MSFS adjunct professor at Georgetown, Iain Guest, has a thoughtful op ed in today’s Christian Science Monitor on the Obama Administration and the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Counci, it will be recalled, was recently established to replace the old, and frequently ineffective, Human Rights Commission. Guest writes, in part:
Until 2006, UN human rights policy …

The Justice Department unsealed a 35-count indictment against five Blackwater employees for actions associated with the killing of unarmed Iraqi civilians on September 16, 2007. The charges include fourteen counts of voluntary manslaughter and fifteen counts of of attempt to commit manslaughter. For previous discussion of this incident, see posts here and here.

Bobby Chesney reports:

* Al Marri v. Pucciarelli (08-368) – cert granted
The Supreme Court has granted cert in connection with the Fourth Circuit’s splintered en banc decision in Al-Marri, and thus is set to engage the questions whether the 9/18/01 AUMF authorizes—and if so whether the Constitution allows—military detention of a noncitizen seized in the U.S. in connection with allegations of …

The operative paragraphs of Security Council Resolution 1846 provide:
Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations,
1.  Reiterates that it condemns and deplores all acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels in territorial waters and the high seas off the coast of Somalia;
2.  Expresses its concern over the finding contained in the 20 November 2008 report of …