The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday denied a request for a new injunction against a controversial provision of Arizona’s immigration law requiring law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of persons they stop or arrest if there is a reasonable suspicion that the person is in the US illegally. [...]
The US Supreme Court added six cases to its docket on Monday, including a rare grant of certiorari in two pro se cases. In Levin v. United States , the court will consider whether 10 USC § 1089 properly immunizes government medical personnel against battery suits. The statute, also known as the Gonzalez Act, states [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) on Tuesday asked the US Supreme Court to review the validity of patents on two genes associated with breast and ovarian cancers owned by a Utah company, Myriad Genetics . The patents at issue concern BRCA1 and BRCA2 , isolated human genes that [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Massachusetts (ACLUM) on Tuesday filed suit to obtain records and information regarding the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) by federal law enforcement and agencies. The suit was filed in the US District Court of Massachusetts against the US Departments of Justice and Homeland [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called Monday for the implementation of measures to allow women greater access to justice systems. In his statement to leaders of around 80 nations during the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly on the Rule of Law , he described women as “champions for justice” who can be of great assistance [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida ruled Monday that Florida does not have to provide 96 hours of early voting for the November elections. Under a 2004 version of the state’s early voting statute, the early voting period lasted 12 to 14 days with 96 hours of early [...]
The French Court of Cassation on Tuesday upheld a lower court’s 2008 decision finding French oil company Total and several other defendants criminally liable for an oil spill that occurred of the coast of Brittany in 1999. Over 20,000 tons of oil seeped from an oil tanker called Erika, which Total chartered from an Italian [...]
A Rwandan businessman pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide during Norway’s first genocide trial. Sadi Bugingo is accused of taking a lead role in planning and leading attacks against Tutsi civilians who sought refuge in a church and a hospital. The prosecution alleges that Bugingo was involved [...]
Three armed Islamist groups in northern Mali are abusing the local population and employing child soldiers , Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Tuesday. According to interviews that HRW conducted over the past several weeks, three rebel groups, Ansar Dine, the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and al Qaeda in the Islamic [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Monday that the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is not liable for damages caused by canal breaches that occurred during Hurricane Katrina . Plaintiffs claimed that the impact-review requirement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) constituted a legal mandate requiring the USACE to [...]
