The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Chaidez v. United States that its holding in Padilla v. Kentucky does not apply retroactively. In Padilla, the court held that immigration attorneys are required to inform their clients about some of the deportation consequences of guilty pleas under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution. In Justice Elena [...]
The US Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously in Gunn v. Minton that federal law does not deprive state courts of subject matter jurisdiction over a state law claim alleging legal malpractice in a patent case. Delivering the opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that while federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction of all cases arising [...]
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-23 to approve the Women’s Health and Safety Act Tuesday, tightening regulations for abortion clinics and mandating that an Alabama-licensed physician who has admitting privileges at a local hospital must be present at every abortion. The current law permits abortion clinics to partner with doctors who have hospital admitting [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on Tuesday ruled that 810,000 barrels of oil collected by British Petroleum (BP) immediately following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill will not be used in calculations to determine damages under the Clean Water Act (CWA) . US District Judge Carl Barbier [...]
Spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights , Rupert Colville, on Tuesday criticized Egypt’s draft law on demonstrations for failure to adequately protect freedom of assembly as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two international rights treaties ratified by Egypt. The draft law requires that organizers inform [...]
Lawyers for Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday that they have sent a letter to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) calling for an independent investigation of Sri Lanka’s compliance with its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) . In a press release announcing the letter, HRW claims that despite assurances by Sri Lanka [...]
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that a woman in a same-sex relationship could adopt her partner’s biological child . The court held that Austria’s existing ban on the practice, also called successive adoption, violated Articles 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights . The treatment of same-sex couples [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 6-3 in Bailey v. United States that police cannot a detain a suspect a mile away from the premises in the search warrant. The court found that Michigan v. Summers does not apply to this situation, where Chunon Bailey was detained a mile away from his residence. Justice [...]
UN experts on Tuesday urged the US House of Representatives to renew the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) which expired in 2011. The bill is intended to increase protections for Native American and Alaskan Native women, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender victims, and immigrant victims and their children. The legislation also give tribal courts on [...]
The US Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in Bowman v. Monsanto on the scope of a Monsanto patent on genetically-modified seeds that utilizes Roundup Ready technology. The seeds are altered to “self replicate,” which means that the more one plants the seeds, additional seeds will be produced. Monsanto sued a number of farmers who were [...]
