The Virginia House of Delegates passed a watered-down version of a controversial ultrasound bill Wednesday, which requires women seeking an abortion have a transabdomenal ultrasound before going through with the procedure. The bill differs from the controversial one passed by the Senate earlier this month which originally required women to have a transvaginal ultrasound. The [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Tuesday extended the mandate for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) for the next three years. The independent tribunal was set up by the Lebanese government to try the suspected perpetrators of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and 22 other members of his entourage. The [...]
The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) on Thursday sent a letter to Google, singed by 36 state attorneys general, expressing concerns about the company’s new privacy policy . The new policy, which is scheduled to go into effect on March 1, allows a user’s information to be shared among different Google products, including YouTube, [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled Wednesday that requiring pharmacies to sell Plan B and other emergency contraceptives violates the pharmacists’ constitutional right to freedom of religion. Under Washington law pharmacies are required to deliver lawfully prescribed medications or devices and to distribute drugs and devices approved [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists Maria-Elena Kolovos and Beatrice Lindstrom of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux say that for the Haitian cholera victims to be properly compensated for their injuries, the UN must respect its own rules and take accountability for its malfeasance instead of attributing the epidemic to “a confluence of circumstances” beyond its control…
Former Philippines president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of electoral fraud. Arroyo is accused of rigging senate elections in favor of the candidates she supported in 2007. Arroyo was formally charged in December with corruption and election fraud during her presidency. She was arrested the day after on a warrant issued [...]
Members of the Indiana chapter of an electrical engineers union filed suit on Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana seeking to block implementation of the state’s new right-to-work legislation . The suit, filed by the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 150 , argues that the law is [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist John Quigley of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law says that although the ICC may be reluctant to investigate the situation in Syria due to the difficult questions the Court would have to address, an investigation should nevertheless be mindful of the circumstances obtaining at the time to account for [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled Wednesday that the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional. The plaintiff, Karen Golinski, filed suit against the US Office of Personnel Management for refusing extend health insurance benefits to her same-sex spouse. Judge Jeffrey White ruled that statutory classifications [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Tuesday. In United States v. Alvarez , the court heard arguments on the constitutionality of the Stolen Valor Act (SVA) . Xavier Alvarez was convicted under the SVA in 2007 after he announced at a public water district board meeting that he was a [...]
