The Daily MuckThe Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in the case of two American citizens held by the U.S. military in Iraq who are challenging their proposed transfer to the Iraqi legal system. The arguments, which centered on the question of jurisdiction, may intersect with arguments being made in the cases of some Guantanamo detainees. (New York Times)
In 2006 the U.S. accidentally shipped four nuclear-missile detonators to Taiwan. The acknowledgment of this mistake comes on the heels of the Pentagon’s admission last fall that a B-52 mistakenly carried armed nuclear missiles across the U.S. The Pentagon failed to detect the missing triggers for more than one year. (McClatchy)
President Bush has asked Congress to pass legislation exempting oil-rich Libya from being sued by victims of state-sponsored terrorism (through the assets Libya has in the United States). Congress has already granted Iraq immunity to such laws at President Bush’s request. The administration claims exempting Libya would encourage their support in the current fight against terrorism. (AP)
The Supreme Court, in a 6 to 3 vote, has ruled that Texas courts are not required to hear a new appeal from a death row inmate, despite President Bush’s request for a new hearing and a finding from the World Court that the original murder trial violated U.S. treaty obligations. The defendant, Jose Medellin, is a Mexican citizen but the court ruled that the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations is not binding domestic law. (New York Times)
Filmmaker Errol Morris, whose new documentary “S.O.P: Standard Operating Procedure” examines the Abu Ghraib scandal in all of its nauseating detail, is planning to bring more than 1,500 photographs, unredacted court papers, and interview transcripts about Abu Ghraib online. Morris, whose film debuted to critical acclaim last month in the Berlin Film Festival, also produced “The Fog of War.” (Politico)
According to a federal appeals court, the New York State law requiring airlines to provide food, water, and clean toilets to passengers delayed aboard aircraft for more than three hours, violates the Airline Deregulation Act. New York was the first state to pass a “bill of rights” for airline passengers. (Wall Street Journal)
Though much attention has been focused on the sexual escapades of former governor James McGreevey (D-NJ) and governor David Paterson (D-NY), neither T.G.I. Fridays nor Days Inn makes it onto Slate’s “Map of Shame.” Washington, D.C. is the real home of sexual scandals. Check out their “Map of Shame,” which provides a guided tour of the capitol’s “sex-scandal locales.” (Slate)