Monday News Roundup

The Iraqi elections went better than expected, both in terms of the level of violence (44 people were killed) and voter turnout, which may have exceeded 60%.
Judge Joyce Hens Green of the D.C. District Court has ruled that the military tribunal system developed by the Bush Administration for review of the prisoners held at Guantanamo violates their constitutional rights. She wrote, "Although this nation unquestionably must take strong action under the leadership of the commander in chief to protect itself against enormous and unprecedented threats, that necessity cannot negate the existence of the most basic fundamental rights for which the people of this country have fought and died for well over 200 years."
The ACLU has called on Alberto Gonzales to agree, prior to confirmation, to appoint a special counsel to investigate the military's torture abuses. (Via Talkleft.)
A Maryland Delegate has proposed renaming BWI Airport to become Thurgood Marshall Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. said it was important to recognize Marshall as "the greatest civil rights hero of our time." Airline spokespeople expressed concerns over the costs of such a change, but another Delegate said the name change is really a matter of values and priorities. "Everything else in this country that isn't nailed down has been named for Ronald Reagan," said Delegate Peter Franchot.
Diarists at DailyKos point to a 1967 New York Times article headlined U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote: Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror.
TaxProf Blog discusses the implication for law school class discussion of Ohio's proposed "Academic Bill of Rights," which declares that "to prohibit instructors at public or private universities from 'persistently' discussing controversial issues in class or from using their classes to push political, ideological, religious or anti-religious views." Prof. Caron also reports that the President's commission on tax reform has scheduled its first meeting for later this month.
MSNBC is reporting that "Two computer disks that supposedly disappeared last summer, prompting a virtual shutdown of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in fact never existed, according to a report released Friday." The U.S. Department of Energy has issued a report scathing security procedures at the lab. About 12,000 workers sat idle while it was searched.
The Qatari government is considering selling its Al Jazeera station. Though it reaches 30-50 million viewers, it operates in the red. The station has been criticized by the U.S. government for giving a biased view of the news.