Wednesday Afternoon News Roundup
Lawyers for Rosa Parks have requested that U.S. District Judge George Steeh reverse his order appointing former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer as Parks' guardian ad litem. Archer, who also served as a Michigan Supreme Court Justice and president of the ABA was appointed to protect Parks' interests in a pair of civil suits involving the use of Parks in name by the rap group Outkast.
Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop of the Anglican church told the BBC that he regrets "the pain that his consecration has caused the church but he will not resign." Robinson was responding to a report from the church that called on those bishops who attended his consecration to apology, but stopped stop of calling for Robinson's resignation. Robinson said, "None of us were truly aware of the difficulty this would cause other parts of the worldwide Anglican Communion and it's perfectly appropriate for us certainly to offer our expression of regret for the pain that our actions caused."
The Associated Press is reporting that "France has quietly begun expelling Muslim girls for wearing head scarves to public schools in defiance of a new law banning conspicuous religious symbols, treading carefully for fear of endangering two French hostages in Iraq." Since the law went into effect on Tuesday, at least 5 girls have been expelled and another 5 more could be expelled by the end of this week. France's "Education Ministry gave school districts the signal to start taking action against 72 students who could not be persuaded to obey the law. Most are Muslim girls, but Sikh boys refusing to remove their turbans also risk being expelled."
Watching Justice is reporting that "The trial of Rafil Dhafir, a prominent Syracuse oncologist, begins this week. Although his arrest 19 months ago was hailed by Justice Department officials as a major feat in the war on terrorism, no terrorism charges were ever filed. He currently faces charges for defrauding a charity, violating U.S. sanctions against Iraq by sending money to feed children and build mosques, Medicare fraud, and tax evasion." Dhafir's attorney's believe that he is being singled out because he is an Arab-American and that the "government's case against him, even on the current charges, will disintegrate under the observation of a trial process."
The ACLU issued a report claiming that Maryland's election system will likely cause problems for ex-offenders hoping to vote in the Presidential election. The report claims that a "Patchwork of Flawed and Inconsistent Voting Systems Could Deprive Millions of Americans of the Right to Vote." The ACLU found, in Maryland alone, over 125,000 eligible voters were denied the right to vote in 2000 because of systems that purged ex-felons, who have the right to vote, from voting lists and results could be similiar in 2004
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that, the world's whales, porpoises, and dolphins can not bring suit in their own name under the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the National Environmental Protection Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act.