The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Wednesday announced that it had filed an Alabama Open Records Act request to obtain documents related to the Hankins Middle School policy of educating students in a single-sex environment. In a letter to the Mobile County School System , the Alabama chapter of the ACLU argued that Title [...]
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced concern Wednesday about the lengthy and "severe" prison sentences recently issued by a Myanmar court against pro-democracy demonstrators. He called for the country's military junta to release the more than 30 activists, along with all other political prisoners in a statement urging national reconciliation. The sentences , imposed in connection [...]
Connecticut Superior Court Judge Jonathan Silbert signed a final order on Wednesday allowing same-sex marriage in the state. Last month, the state Supreme Court ruled in a 4-3 decision that state statutes barring same-sex marriage violated the state constitution by discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. The high court ordered summary judgment and injunctive [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Leila Nadya Sadat of Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri, says that come January, a new US administration led by President Barack Obama should take seven specific steps to restore human rights at home and America’s respect in the world … America's human rights record has been badly tarnished [...]
The South African Constitutional Court Wednesday refused to hear an appeal brought by former president Thabo Mbeki of a lower court ruling that dismissed corruption charges against his rival, African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma and suggested he Mbeki had a role in bringing them. The Pietermaritzburg High Court dismissed corruption charges against Zuma [...]
Jack Reilley : "Proposition 9 passed by 53.5 percent and over five million voters said YES. It was a huge win because Prop 9 was opposed by all major California newspapers, many of the major television and radio station personalities, the Democrat Party, the teacher unions, the firefighter unions, organized labor, the ACLU and a [...]
The government of Bangladesh on Wednesday reinstated a state of emergency banning political demonstrations in the country for two weeks. The ban had recently been lifted after being imposed in 2007, but was reissued in response to violent protests coordinated by the Jamaat-e-Islami party after party leaders Motiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed [...]
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in two cases. In Pleasant Grove City, UT v. Summum , the Court considered whether privately donated monuments displayed in public parks qualify as private speech under the First Amendment, requiring municipalities to display monuments from all other donors. Respondent Summum, a small religious sect, requested permission [...]
Former Fijian prime minister Laisenia Qarase said Wednesday that he will seek an appeal of an October decision by the Fijian High Court dismissing his challenge to the country's 2006 coup. In its decision , the High Court held that Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo had the authority to name new leaders after Qarase was [...]
The Uruguayan Senate passed a bill Tuesday that partially decriminalizes abortion , but it is unlikely the bill has the support needed to override a veto promised by Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez . According to the draft law, a mother may terminate her pregnancy during the first 12 weeks to prevent risks to her health, [...]
