Oklahoma voters on Tuesday approved a ballot measure to eliminate affirmative action programs within the state. Seventy-six of Oklahoma’s 77 counties approved the constitutional amendment that will affect hiring and education practices within the state. The measure would abolish any preferred treatment of employees in these sectors based on race, color or gender. Supporters of [...]
Alabama voters rejected Amendment 4 on Tuesday, which would have removed references to segregation and poll taxes from the state’s Constitution , over concerns about language addressing the right to education. The amendment, rejected by a vote of 61 percent , proposed to “delete those remaining ‘Jim Crow’ provisions of the Constitution of Alabama of [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases Tuesday. In Smith v. United States the court heard arguments on the burden of proof in conspiracy cases. At issue is a jury instruction that allowed jurors to assume that the defendants did not abandon the conspiracy unless the defendants positively demonstrated that this was [...]
Puerto Rican voters elected to become the fifty-first US state in a non-binding referendum on Tuesday. The referendum was presented in a two-question format. Nearly 54 percent of Puerto Rican voters wanted to change the island territory’s relationship with the US, and a resounding 61 percent of voters selected the statehood option. Voters were given [...]
Maine voters on Tuesday voted in favor of Question 1 , which permits the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. 53 percent of voters answered the question in the affirmative. The referendum was championed by EqualityMaine , who gathered enough signatures earlier this year to include the question on the November ballot. The [...]
Spain’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday, denied an appeal by the Popular Party challenging the constitutionality of Spain’s law that permits same-sex marriage . The decision was reached by an 8-3 vote, and the detailed legal reasoning is expected to be released later this week. The Popular Party filed the appeal claiming that Spain’s constitution permitted [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Faisal Kutty of the Valparaiso University School of Law says that there is hope for compromise between Western legal systems and Islamic law regarding the adoption of children from Islamic countries…
JURIST Guest Columnist, Matthew Skeen, University of Colorado Law School Class of 2013, argues that states have attempted to resist a constitutional interpretation regarding campaign finance through state-level legislation…
Ukrainian opposition parties on Tuesday demanded the recount of votes from 13 districts that maintained power for President Viktor Yanukovich . The Batkivshchyna, the country’s far-right nationalist party Svoboda and Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform Vitaliy Klychko have organized protests outside the Central Election Commission’s office to argue that the October parliamentary elections were won [...]
The parliament of Slovakia on Tuesday rejected a proposed bill recognizing same-sex partnerships within the country. In a 94-14 vote in which 129 members were present, the bill was heavily criticized during the two-day debate for its possible detrimental effect on the country’s current legal system. The proposal would have given same-sex couples some of [...]
