United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer on Wednesday called on the US to end impunity for those officials who have committed acts of torture. Melzer urged US authorities to take action on the findings in the 2014 Senate Intelligence Committee Report , which found that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deliberately misled Congress [...]
A committee in Ireland’s Houses of Oireachtas on Wednesday voted to recommend that the full parliament repeal the country’s Eighth Amendment , which dictates that an unborn child and mother have an equal right to life. The Joint Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution considered numerous proposals for inclusion in an eventual report [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on Wednesday vacated a lower federal court injunction that imposed county-based signature-gathering requirements that minor political parties in Pennsylvania must fulfill to get their candidates on the ballot. This is the latest development in a case that has been in litigation since 2012 when the Constitution, [...]
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported Monday that sanctions against the People’s Democratic Republic on North Korea have a negative effect on aid efforts. High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein told the UN Security Council that 13 million of the 17 million North Koreans facing food shortages rely on aid provided by the [...]
Amnesty International on Monday accused EU member states of being complicit in the abuse and torture of refugees and migrants that have journeyed across Africa and are now being detained in Libya. The Libyan coastguard, detention authorities and smugglers are allegedly colluding with each other to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants trapped in the [...]
The US District Court for the Western District of Washington on Monday blocked President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban. US District Judge Marsha Pechman partially granted the preliminary injunction, finding the ban likely violates the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights to equal protection, substantive due process, and First Amendment protections. Additionally, Pechman partially granted the government’s motion [...]
The Trump administration on Monday appealed the US District Court for the District of Columbia order that denied a request to delay the preliminary injunction blocking President Donald Trump’s transgender military ban, originally set to take effect January 1. The appeal follows US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly’s Monday ruling , which rejected the government’s [...]
The US Supreme Court on Friday added a Maryland redistricting case, Benisek v. Lamone, to its merits docket on Friday, along with six other cases . While the case was previously being considered on a jurisdictional question, SCOTUS decided to delay answering the jurisdictional question until the case was heard on its merits. The plaintiff [...]
The US District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday denied the government’s request to delay implementation of a preliminary injunction halting portions of President Donald Trump‘s transgender military ban. In October, the court granted plaintiffs’ request to prevent the Accession Directive (prohibiting transgender individuals from entering the military) and the Retention Directive (allowing [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Jameka Evans, a Georgia security guard who claims that she was harassed and ultimately forced to quit her job because she is s a lesbian. Evans argued that sexual orientation discrimination in the workplace violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of [...]
