Richmond Medical Center for Women v. Herring, US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, May 20, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The future of a landmark discrimination case brought by black farmers against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is uncertain after President George W. Bush vetoed the new Farm Bill Wednesday. The bill included a provision that would have reopened the class-action suit in which plaintiffs allege that the USDA improperly discriminated against them in [...]

The US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a Georgia death row inmate's challenge to the state's method of execution Tuesday, ruling that he had missed the statute of limitations to file. Samuel David Crowe was convicted of murder and is scheduled to be executed Thursday. He could become the second condemned inmate in the [...]

Japan's House of Councillors passed a bill Tuesday that would allow the country's space program to be used for defense purposes, including the development of spy satellites. The law, passed by an overwhelming majority of 221-14, was passed by Japan's House of Representatives last week and by a lower house committee earlier this month. When [...]

Aleksandra (Sasha) Williams, Pitt Law '10, files from Kiev: On May 16, 2008, Ukraine became the 152nd country member of the World Trade Organization. Although the general Kiev population seemed rather unimpressed by this event, especially in light of the impending mayoral elections and the associated campaign bedlam, the legal community met the news both [...]

The Supreme Court of Switzerland Wednesday upheld the 2007 convictions of a married couple for supporting criminal activities by operating websites that published statements and video footage from al Qaeda, including the 2004 beheading of American engineer Paul M. Johnson, Jr . Moez Garsallaoui was sentenced to six months in prison, while his wife Malika [...]

Eight alleged al-Qaeda operatives were given life sentences by a Jordan military court Wednesday as punishment for their roles in a 2004 failed chemical weapons attack on the US Embassy and other sites in Jordan. The plot was allegedly funded by al-Qaeda's top leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi , who was killed in a [...]

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised Tuesday to take steps to tackle corruption and intimidation in the Russian judicial system, calling for reforms to better train and support judges and to preserve the rule of law. Speaking at a meeting of top Russian legal officials, Medvedev said : Our main objective is to achieve independence for [...]

US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents were present during interrogations of terrorism suspects in which Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or Department of Defense (DOD) officers used "borderline torture" interrogation tactics, but they did not participate in those interrogations, according to a report released Tuesday by the US Department of Justice Office of the Inspector [...]

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Murat Kurnaz , a Turkish citizen born in Germany, testified Tuesday before the US House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight regarding torture he allegedly suffered while in US custody in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay . Appearing by videoconference from Germany, Kurnaz said he was [...]