The United States District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that a major provision in the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) is constitutional. The court's decision in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Gonzales upheld the validity of Section 5 of the VRA, requiring states or towns with [...]
The Beijing Judicial Bureau has refused to renew the licenses of a number of Chinese human rights lawyers before a Saturday deadline, a China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group official said Friday. The bureau originally denied renewals to 500 lawyers, but eventually agreed to renew some licenses after the lawyers released a letter of complaint [...]
Connecticut filed a lawsuit against pharmaceutical distribution giant McKesson Corp. in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts Thursday, accusing the company of violating federal anti-racketeering laws by inflating drug prices for state-funded health care. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal alleged that McKesson and drug-price publisher First DataBank conspired to increase the difference between [...]
US Department of Defense prosecutors brought new charges against three detainees being held at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay on Thursday. Jabran al-Qathani, Ghassan Abdullah al-Sharbi, and Algerian Sufyian Barhoumi are each charged with conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism based on their alleged involvement with an al Qaeda bomb-making group in [...]
Merck v. Ernst, Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals, May 29, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
The Supreme Court of Brazil Thursday ruled 6-5 that a 2005 law allowing embryonic stem cell research is constitutional, rejecting a challenge by the country's attorney general that it infringed on the "constitutional right to life." Thursday's decision drew condemnation from the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops , while Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) President Cezar [...]
An opposition party in Japan has introduced a bill in Japan's House of Representatives that would provide compensation for Korean and Taiwanese nationals convicted of war crimes committed while working for the Japanese military occupying their territories during World War II. Under the plan proposed by the Democratic Party of Japan , war criminals and [...]
A Washington DC Superior Court found 34 members of anti-war activism group Witness Against Torture guilty Thursday on misdemeanor charges of illegal protesting. Police arrested 71 group members at a protest in front of the US Supreme Court in January, where they were demonstrating for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison . They were [...]
German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries Thursday deflected the European Commission's criticism of proposed legislation that would preserve the power of the German state of Lower Saxony to block major business decisions at automaker Volkswagen AG . The law, known as the "VW law," is aimed at protecting Volkswagen from hostile takeovers; Lower Saxony is Volkswagen [...]
A Texas state appeals court Thursday overturned a jury verdict against pharmaceutical giant Merck concerning a death allegedly caused by painkiller Vioxx . The Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals reversed a verdict which had awarded $26 million to widow Carol Ernst, who alleged that her husband died after taking Vioxx for arthritis in 2001. The [...]
