A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit challenging a provision of the health care reform law requiring all individuals to maintain health insurance. The lawsuit, filed by Liberty University , alleged that Congress had exceeded its constitutional powers by mandating that employers provide health [...]
A French appeals court on Wednesday sentenced former Basque separatist leader, Jose Antonio Urrutikoetxea, to seven years in prison for association with a terrorist organization. Urrutikoetxea is a former member of the Basque regional parliament and led the ETA until 2006. He was convicted and sentenced in absentia by the court after his fingerprints were [...]
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the destruction of a crop of genetically-engineered (GE) sugar beets because of the potential harmful effect the plants may have on surrounding flora, the first such order to be issued in the US. The suit was filed in September by Earthjustice and the Center for Food Safety on behalf [...]
Spanish authorities announced Wednesday that they have arrested seven men in Barcelona suspected of aiding in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks that killed 166. Spain’s Ministry of the Interior confirmed the arrests, as well as three additional arrests in Thailand. The seven suspects in Barcelona, six Pakistanis and one Nigerian, are accused of providing stolen [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Laurie R. Blank of Emory Law’s International Humanitarian Law Clinic says that defining where the so-called “war on terror” is being fought is an important task, and that while traditional frameworks fail to give adequate guidance, there are certain criteria that can provide for more than an ad hoc approach… The furor [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday urged the Indonesian government to repeal two Sharia laws that the group says violate human rights and international treaties. The laws, local to the Aceh province, require strict Islamic dress in public and prohibit unmarried men and women from being alone together. The report does not criticize all Islamic [...]
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday voted 256-152 to authorize settlements between the US government and minority farmers for alleged discrimination. The settlements include $3.4 billion to resolve claims that the Department of the Interior (DOI) mismanaged funds held in trust for American Indian landowners , and $1.2 billion for African American farmers claiming [...]
The US Department of Defense (DOD) on Tuesday released an extensive report concluding that the repeal of the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy would only minimally effect military effectiveness, soldier retention and family readiness. The Pentagon found that the repeal of DADT would likely bring about some limited and isolated disruption, but, with [...]
Six months after Israel announced that it was easing the blockade of the Gaza Strip , there is little sign of economic improvement for the struggling territory, according to a report published Tuesday by 25 human rights groups including Amnesty International . The report, entitled “Dashed Hopes” says that, though there has been some increase [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Schwarzenegger v. Plata on an order to reduce the California prison population . In August 2009, a special panel of federal judges ordered California to reduce its prison population by about 46,000 inmates, finding that the prisons are overcrowded. The panel approved a revised prison reduction [...]
