JURIST Guest Columnist Geoffrey Hoffman of the University of Houston Law Center says that although racial and ethnic profiling arguments were not addressed last week in Arizona v. United States, SB 1070 has significant civil rights implications for those of Latino descent…
A federal judge on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a proposed settlement with British Petroleum (BP) over the Gulf oil spill in 2010. BP and a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys sought preliminary approval of the settlement agreement last month. Judge Carl Barbier’s approval allows the settlement to proceed. Barbier will hold a “fairness hearing” in [...]
JURIST Contributing Editor David Crane of Syracuse University College of Law says that Charles Taylor’s conviction should serve as a warning to others who commit war crimes and crimes against humanity…
Privacy regulators from EU member states expressed their concerns on Wednesday over potential privacy breaches by Google and are considering reopening their privacy investigations into the company. The concerns revolve around fines and a report issued by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the company’s failure to cooperate with their federal investigation. Google incurred [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday granted qualified immunity to former Bush administration official John Yoo over allegations of wrongdoing in relation to controversial memos asserting the legality of enhanced interrogation techniques . The lawsuit, brought by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla , claimed Yoo’s legal opinions endorsing enhanced interrogation techniques [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday filed a motion in the Guantanamo Bay military court seeking access to hear what methods the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used when interrogating the five alleged 9/11 conspirators. The ACLU acknowledged that the US government will likely ask, if they have not already done so, that the [...]
The UN Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in Somalia, Shamsul Bari, called on Somalian authorities Wednesday to recreate and establish legitimate judicial systems in Mogadishu and South Central Somalia. Bari visited the region for the eighth time recently on an 11-day mission. He found that one of the biggest challenges facing the [...]
Richard Falk, the UN Special Rapporteur of the occupied Palestinian territory , said Wednesday that he is “appalled” by “continuing human rights violations in Israeli prisons.” Israeli prison authorities have taken punitive measures against the more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners who began a hunger strike on April 17 in protest of their treatment. Falk called [...]
Syrian government forces committed war crimes when they killed at least 95 civilians and destroyed hundreds of houses during a two-week offensive in the province of Idlib during ceasefire negotiations, Human Rights Watch reported Wednesday. The report, titled “They Burned My Heart”: War Crimes in Northern Idlib during Peace Plan Negotiations , documents various extrajudicial [...]
The Tennessee House of Representatives has passed a bill that augments the state’s abstinence-only sex education curriculum to allow parents to sue school teachers or organizations that promote “gateway sexual activity.” The bill went to the governor for consideration on Tuesday. The bill defines “gateway sexual activity” as “sexual contact encouraging an individual to engage [...]
