The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU on Thursday filed a lawsuit in Shawnee County District Court , challenging Kansas’ two-tiered voter registration system. The US Supreme Court has ruled that laws requiring proof of citizenship for federal elections are unconstitutional, but it has preserved the states’ rights to control who will vote in state and [...]
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne on Wednesday asked US Supreme Court to reconsider a controversial Arizona law that would strip Medicaid funding from doctors and clinics that perform abortions. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down the law in August . The law, which would affect more than 80 hospitals and [...]
The Scottish Parliament completed the first step towards the passage of the Marriage and Civil Partnership Bill on Wednesday by a 98-15 vote in favor of the bill. Same-sex couples currently have the right to enter a civil partnerships in Scotland, but this bill would introduce same-sex marriage. Proponents of the bill have also stressed [...]
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to hear arguments in two separate cases concerning Act 23, the state’s voter ID law . One case will review a decision by the Madison-based District Four Court of Appeals while the other will be heard by the supreme court prior to being ruled on by the appeals [...]
China’s Supreme People’s Court issued a ruling on Thursday banning the use of forced confessions extracted through torture. The court reportedly claimed that “illegal methods” of confession extraction, including food and sleep deprivation and temperature manipulation are unacceptable and amount to torture. Judges have been instructed to rule out confessions obtained through these methods in [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged member states to ratify or accede to the Rome Statute , the treaty that established the International Criminal Court . The Rome Statute was signed by 139 States , but 43 States have neither signed nor acceded to it. Ban said that the Rome Statute must be universally [...]
Illinois on Wednesday became the sixteenth US state to legalize same-sex marriage when Governor Pat Quinn signed the Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act (Act) . Although the Act allows same-sex couples to marry, it allows religious organizations to refuse to celebrate or solemnize marriages if they so choose. The Act guarantees equal access to [...]
Voters of Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Tuesday rejected a proposed ordinance that would have banned all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. In a 55 to 45 percent vote, the citizens voted against allowing the proposed ordinance to become law. This referendum marked the first time a city had ever been asked to vote on [...]
The Regional Court of Berlin on Tuesday held that 25 of Google‘s privacy policies and terms of service violate Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG) , Germany’s data protection law. The case against Google was filed by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV) , which challenged 13 privacy policies and 12 terms of service that it claimed were [...]
The Kenyan human rights group Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) and the Open Society Justice Initiative issued a report on Tuesday, calling on the US and the UK to suspend financial support to Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police Unit (ATPU). The document, entitled “We’re Tired of Taking You to the Court,” alleges that the ATPU has committed [...]
