The Wisconsin Court of Appeals for District II on Wednesday declined to hear a request to overturn a temporary injunction against the state’s controversial voter ID law , which requires that all voters present a form of photo identification at the polls. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the other named defendants in NAACP v. Walker [...]
Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson announced Wednesday that the government will appeal a recent prostitution ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada . The decision rendered three portions of the nation’s current anti-prostitution law unconstitutional and imposed a 30-day period for the government to file an appeal. Nicholson spoke on the decision before the House [...]
The Supreme Court of Pakistan convicted Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of contempt of court Wednesday for disobeying a court order to open corruption cases against President Asif Ali Zardari . The decision proscribed a symbolic punishment of “imprisonment till the rising of the Court today,” and does not attach jail time nor remove [...]
Kenya dismissed four senior judges on Wednesday after an independent board found that they lacked integrity and were incompetent. The men removed from their position were Riaga Omollo, the Chief of the Court of Appeals, Samuel Bosire, Emmanuel Okubasu and Joseph Nyamu. Five other judges were cleared of any suspicion in the proceedings. The investigative [...]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed concern Wednesday that recent restrictions on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in a number of countries may fundamentally effect freedoms and human rights. Pillay highlighted Egypt, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Belarus, Israel and Venezuela as examples of countries that have enacted laws that are curtailing freedoms of NGOs. The most [...]
The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) on Thursday convicted former Liberian president Charles Taylor on all 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war. Trial Chamber II found unanimously that Taylor aided and abetted Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) forces. Taylor is [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Elena Landriscina, American University Washington College of Law Class of 2012, is a student attorney at the school’s UNROW Human Rights Impact Litigation Clinic. Here she discusses the expulsion of the Chagos Islanders from Diego Garcia, and the need for the US to take responsibility for its role and to honor the [...]
Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy on Wednesday signed legislation to repeal the death penalty . The bill was approved by the House and the Senate earlier this month. Upon signing the legislation, Malloy stated : My position on the appropriateness of the death penalty in our criminal justice system evolved over a long period of time. [...]
The US Supreme Court heard its final oral arguments of the term Wednesday in Arizona v. United States to determine whether Arizona’s controversial immigration law is preempted by federal law. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld an injunction last April before the law ever took effect, and Arizona asked the high [...]
The Louisiana State Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to change the requirements regarding ultrasounds before a woman can undergo an abortion, including a new requirement to listen to the fetus’ heartbeat. Current state law already already requires an ultrasound two hours before the procedure, but the new legislation would require the ultrasound to be [...]
