A Montana judge has dismissed a lawsuit that had called for the state to provide legal status to same-sex relationships. The lawsuit, filed in July by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Montana’s First Judicial District Court on behalf of seven same-sex couples, had alleged that the state has limited the couples’ decision-making powers [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of New Jersey on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) . Judge Freda Wolfson dismissed the lawsuit, brought without an attorney by two New Jersey residents, on jurisdictional grounds, ruling the two men had [...]
UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday said the use of violent force by the government of Libya in densely populated cities could amount to international war crimes . The use of cluster bombs and heavy artillery by armed forces under leader Muammar Gaddafi in the city of Misrata has resulted in [...]
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff on Wednesday asked the US Supreme Court to decide whether crosses placed beside highways as memorials to deceased Utah Highway Patrol (UHP) troopers is an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion. The petition seeks review of an August ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit , which [...]
Idaho Governor CL “Butch” Otter (R) issued an executive order on Wednesday prohibiting implementation of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in the state. Executive Order 2011-03 bars “every executive branch department, agency and institution of the State” from establishing any program or rule that would implement provisions of the law, from [...]
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday ended the country’s 48-year-old state of emergency, following the legislature’s approval of the bill earlier this week. In several decrees issued Thursday, al-Assad also abolished the Supreme State Security Court (SSSC), developed in the wake of the state of emergency to prosecute those deemed a threat to security, and [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin G. Davis, an Associate Professor of Law at University of Toledo College of Law, says that the recent response by the US to the Spanish torture case outlines the Obama Administration’s approach to torture… Recently, the US response to the Spanish prosecutor in the Spanish torture case became available. Unfortunately for [...]
Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin on Tuesday signed into law House Bill 1888 , prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks. The law allows abortions past the 20-week mark only in certain extenuating circumstances where the mother faces death or serious injury. The legislation is based on evidence suggesting that a fetus can feel pain after 20 weeks [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) announced Wednesday that high-value Guantanamo Bay detainee Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri will be subject to capital charges and tried in a military court . According to the Pentagon, the chief prosecutor for the DOD’s Office of Military Commissions plans to charge al-Nashiri with orchestrating the 2000 attack on the USS [...]
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on Wednesday went on trial for a second time on corruption charges, including one that he tried to sell President Barack Obama’s vacant US Senate seat. Blagojevich tried to avoid the trial last month, but a federal judge declined to formally rule on his request to cancel the trial , [...]
