The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 in McDonald v. Chicago that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment makes the Second Amendment right to bear arms applicable to the states as well as the federal government. The case arose over a city of Chicago ordinance effectively banning the possession of handguns. The [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled in Bilski v. Kappos that business method patents may qualify as patentable subject matter but that a specific method for hedging risks in commodities trading is ineligible for patent protection because it is an abstract idea. Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a divided court and affirming the invalidity [...]
Brittany Conkle, Pitt Law ’10, recently visited the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania, as part of a program sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and the Center for International Legal Education. She shares her perspective… I would be deliberately nonchalant if I neglected to say how excited I was [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez that the “all comers” policy at the University of California-Hastings School of Law , which limits funding to student organizations that adopt the school’s nondiscrimination policy, is reasonable and viewpoint neutral and does not violate the First Amendment. Christian Legal Society [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Monday accused the Honduran government of failing to address human rights violations stemming from the June 2009 coup that removed Manuel Zelaya from power. AI contends that hundreds of people opposed to the coup have been beaten and detained since the coup. The group cited evidence that judges critical of the [...]
The trial of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega began Monday in a Paris criminal court. Noriega faces money laundering charges in France for allegedly laundering $3 million in drug profits by purchasing property in Paris. He was extradited to France in April by the US, where he had served a 17-year sentence on drug charges. [...]
Kyrgyzstan interim President Roza Otunbayeva announced Sunday that voters approved a new constitution that will allow the interim government to establish a legitimate government through parliamentary elections in the fall. Otunbayeva will remain the acting president through 2011 when elections will be held to determine the next president, scheduled to take office in 2012. Under [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday asked the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to stay a district court ruling to lift a six-month moratorium on deep water drilling issued by the Obama administration in response to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill . The district judge issued a preliminary injunction [...]
A federal judge on Saturday ordered the release of Guantanamo Bay detainee Mohammed Odaini, who will now be transferred to his homeland of Yemen , despite the Obama administration’s ban on repatriation to the Arab nation. In January, the administration suspended all transfers of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Yemen citing security concerns. Judge Henry Kennedy [...]
UN Special Representative to Iraq Ad Melkert on Saturday urged the Iraqi government to ratify the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment . Melkert’s statement, which was delivered on the thirteenth annual International Day in Support of Victims of Torture , called for increased monitoring and investigation of [...]
