US Trade Representative Ron Kirk announced July 30 that the US will file a case against Guatemala for labor rights violations. The case, filed under the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA), will be the first time the US has pursued a labor violations claim against a free trade partner.

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on July 28 issued a preliminary injunction against several provisions of the controversial Arizona immigration law, set to take effect the next day. The injunction comes at the request of the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the law earlier this month. Judge Susan Bolton rejected the DoJ's argument that the law should be enjoined in its entirety, finding that the individual provisions were severable.

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia on July 21 granted the habeas corpus petition of Yemeni citizen Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif and ordered his immediate release from the Guantánamo Bay detention facility. Latif, who has been in custody for over eight years, contends that he was in Pakistan for medical treatment when he was arrested and turned over to US forces. According to a lawyer for Latif, he suffers from mental illness and depression, and he remains suicidal. The judge ordered the Obama administration to take all necessary steps to ensure that Latif is released.

Two lawsuits were filed July 21 seeking injunctive relief against a Fremont, Neb., ordinance banning the hiring, harboring or renting property to "illegal immigrants." The ordinance, passed by city voters in a referendum last month, requires all employers in the city to register for the E-Verify program and makes it a crime to rent to "illegal" immigrants. The ordinance also voids any lease entered into by an undocumented immigrant and requires every person seeking to rent residential property to obtain an occupancy permit from the city, requiring the applicant to sign a declaration affirming his or her US citizenship or otherwise provide a visa or employment authorization number.

Former Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz and 15 other high-ranking former officials in the government of Saddam Hussein appeared in court over the weekend and were charged with crimes committed during Hussein's regime. According to his lawyer, Aziz will now stand trial on charges of squandering public funds. Aziz's lawyer contends that he has been denied access to his client and that the current Iraqi government is attempting to find a reason to execute Aziz.

The US Supreme Court on July 17 declined to review the decision of a lower court permitting the government to transfer Guantánamo Bay detainee Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed to Algeria. The 5-3 decision leaves in place a ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in which the government asserted that Mohammed's return to Algeria was permissible because there was not credible evidence that he would face torture upon his arrival. Mohammed may appeal, though it is possible that he will have been returned to Algeria by that time. Later that day, the court similarly rejected the request of a second Algerian, Abdul Aziz Naji, to review his pending transfer.

The government of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate announced July 19 that the two Guantánamo Bay detainees accepted by Germany earlier this month would be confined for at least a year while undergoing psychological treatment and integration training. Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Karl Peter Bruch did not name the closed facility in which the detainees would be held after their arrival in September, but stated that they would remain there at least a year before being released into the the states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hamburg. During that time, they will be undergo psychological analysis, receive German language training and be observed by doctors and social workers.

The Israeli Supreme Court on July 18 issued a 90-day injunction against the enforcement of a law preventing the prosecution of 400 protesters arrested during the 2005 Gaza disengagement. The law, passed in January, prevents the prosecution or suspends the sentences of those who were arrested for protesting Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.