Visiting Judge Gary Harger ruled Monday that Texas may defund Planned Parenthood through its Affiliate Ban Rule . The rule denies funding to any organization participating in the state’s Women’s Health Program that also performs abortions. Planned Parenthood had sought an injunction against implementation of the rule. Planned Parenthood has brought three lawsuits over the [...]
Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts on Monday released his 2012 year-end report , in which he urged the executive and legislative branches to address the needs of the federal judiciary in terms of financial and human resources. Roberts noted that the judiciary has been receiving only a small percentage of the federal [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday called on India’s government to “strengthen critical services for rape victims,” expressing sympathy for the family of the 23-year-old medical student who died from injuries sustained in a gang-rape last month. Ban also added that UN entities such as the UN Women are prepared to assist the country in [...]
The Catholic Church, which remains an influential institution in the Philippines where 80 percent of the population is Catholic, on Saturday announced that it will challenge newly approved birth control legislation before the Supreme Court. The Church has opposed the new law arguing that it undermines the value of marriage and increase promiscuity. Critics view [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Rochelle Bobroff, Director of the Access to Courts Program for the Constitutional Accountability Center, argues that the American people need to be aware of their constitutional rights regarding the meaning of the Federal Arbitration Act as defined by Supreme Courts past and present…
US President Barack Obama signed a bill on Friday authorizing the US Supreme Court direct review of decisions made by the Virgin Islands Supreme Court . The bill was sponsored by Congresswoman Donna Christensen , the Virgin Islands’ congressional delegate. Christensen introduced the bill after the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued [...]
Police in New Delhi, India on Saturday charged six men with the murder of a woman who died from injuries sustained in a gang-rape. The woman, a 23-year-old medical student, was gang raped on a bus in New Delhi on December 16 and died in a Singapore hospital on Saturday. The suspects, who were arrested [...]
The US Senate passed the Reauthorization Act of 2012 on Friday in a 73-23 vote to extend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008 (FISA) for five years. FISA grants the National Security Agency (NSA) the authority to conduct surveillance of Americans’ phone calls and emails in attempts to protect against terrorism and other [...]
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday temporarily enjoined the enforcement of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (PPACA) contraceptives coverage mandate for an Illinois construction company. The company, owned by a Roman Catholic couple, claim that the mandate “substantially burdens their exercise of religion” under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) . [...]
Philippine House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales III announced on Friday that Philippine President Benigno Aquino III had quietly signed into law on the 21st of December a bill which will make contraception, birth control, sexual education, and maternal care universally available to all Filipinos. The law, known as the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act [...]
