President Barack Obama on Thursday commuted the sentences of eight inmates currently serving lengthly prison terms for crack cocaine offenses, citing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA) . The FSA reduced significant disparities in convictions of drug offenses related to crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The former ratio of sentences passed in 1986 was [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada on Friday struck down three of the country’s anti-prostitution laws, finding that they violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms . While prostitution is not illegal in Canada, the laws at issue banned keeping a brothel, living on the avails of prostitution, and street-soliciting. Opponents of the laws had [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday pardoning former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky , and releasing him from prison. Khodorkovsky has already spent over a decade in prison for fraud, theft and money laundering. In a statement posted on his website, Khodorkovsky said he had requested the pardon from Putin without admitting any [...]
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that portions of Act 13 of 2012 , a statute amending the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act , are unconstitutional. Specifically, the court found that the act violated the Pennsylvania Constitution by placing zoning rights regarding hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” solely in the hands of state authorities, depriving [...]
The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that it is unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to marry. The court’s decision comes only a few months after a New Mexico trial judge ordered district court clerks to begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Bernalillo County, the largest county in New Mexico. [...]
The US Senate passed a spending bill and presented the legislation to President Obama on Wednesday, scaling back the across-the-board spending cuts that went into place earlier this year. The bill also passed the US House of Representatives with bipartisan support, and is expected to be signed by the President. The bill restores funding to [...]
The British National Security and Intelligence Committee revealed in a report on Thursday that an investigation has found evidence that Britain has been complicit in the torture and rendition of terror suspects. The investigation was run by Sir Peter Gibson , a retired judge, and involved reviewing 20,000 top secret documents released after the 9/11 [...]
A judge for the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Wednesday ordered Detroit to renegotiate its bankruptcy-related financing with UBS and Bank of America . Judge Steven Rhodes found that the deal, which required Detroit to pay the banks 75 percent of its debt to those firms, was too generous for [...]
An Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted former Egyptian prime minister and presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq and Alaa and Gamal Mubarak, the sons of deposed president Hosni Mubarak , of charges of embezzling public funds. In 2012 Shafiq was accused of misusing public funds while in office as minister of civic aviation. While he was serving [...]
Egyptian state media reported Wednesday that ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will be tried on charges of espionage and terrorism along with 35 other defendants, many of whom are also former high-level officials and members of the Muslim Brotherhood . Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat claimed the Muslim Brotherhood to be the source of political violence [...]
