JURIST Guest Columnist Matthew Cavedon, Emory University School of Law Class of 2015, compares the Department of Health and Human Services’s contraception mandate to the Food and Drug Administration’s attempt to regulate tobacco… As 24 lawsuits filed against the Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) contraception mandate wind their way through the courts over [...]

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A Brazilian federal judge in Para on Friday agreed to conduct the first trial against members of its former dictatorship for alleged crimes during the military’s rule from 1964-1985. The defendants are two retired army reserve members, Colonel Sebastiao de Moura and Major Licio Maciel, accused of kidnappings during suppression of the Araguaia guerilla movement [...]

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The US Supreme Court on Friday added two new cases to its docket for next term. The first case, The Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Knowles , involves the procedural issue of whether a class action can be removed to federal court when there is dispute over whether the amount in controversy is over $5 [...]

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The secretary general of a leading Ivory Coast opposition party was sentenced on Friday to six months of imprisonment. Laurent Akoun of the Ivorian Popular Front, the party of former president Laurent Gbagbo , was sentenced after being convicted of disturbing public order. He was taken into custody last Sunday following comments he made at [...]

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A UN human rights expert on Thursday condemned Iraq for the executions of 21 people on Monday and five more people on Wednesday. UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Chistof Heyns urged the government of Iraq to halt all executions and ensure that all criminal defendants have fair trials. Heyns decried the [...]

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Officials from the International Criminal Court (ICC) were in Mali on Friday investigating whether two Islamic groups, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad and Ansar Dine, have committed war crimes in Mali. According to Malian officials the Islamic groups have been committing human rights violations , including executing Malian soldiers, committing rapes, massacring civilians and [...]

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A Tokyo court on Friday dismissed a claim by Apple that Samsung Electronics violated Apple’s patents with its smartphones and tablets. The technology at issued involved synchronizing music and video data . The judge stated that Samsung’s technology did not fall within the scope of Apple’s patents. Apple had claimed USD $1.3 million in damages. [...]

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