The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that immigrants convicted of conduct that is a felony under state law but is only a misdemeanor under the Controlled Substance Act are not subject to deportation under the Immigration and Naturalization Act . In Lopez v. Gonzales , Jose Lopez, a legal permanent resident in the US, pleaded [...]
California Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Monday requested the California Supreme Court to grant a petition to review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold a state law prohibiting same-sex marriage . Lockyer, who supports the state ban, noted the importance of settling the issue for same-sex couples in the state. In the appeals court, [...]
The Court of Cassation in Kuwait on Tuesday reversed former Guantanamo Bay detainee Nasser al-Mutairi's conviction on terrorism charges, including endangering Kuwait's foreign relations by taking up arms against a foreign nation. Mutairi, the first of eight Kuwaitis to be freed from the US military facility in Cuba, spent three years in Guantanamo until his [...]
The Maryland Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Monday in a case challenging a 1973 state law banning same-sex marriage . Plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) , argued that marriage is a fundamental right which should not be denied according to the parties' genders. In response, Maryland Attorney General Robert [...]
US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth on Monday ruled that a group of Hasidic Jewish plaintiffs could go forward with a lawsuit against the Russian government for the return of 18th century religious texts allegedly expropriated by the Nazi and Russian governments preceding and during World War II. The plaintiffs, members of the Chabad Lubavitch [...]
Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has announced an 18-month timetable for lifting the state of emergency that Egypt has lived under since 1981. The administration of President Hosni Mubarak will present proposed changes to the Egyptian Constitution to parliament this year, with a referendum on those changes expected in the summer. Egypt has remained under [...]
The US Department of Justice urged a federal appeals court Monday to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the NSA's domestic surveillance program pursuant to the state secrets privilege. In a brief submitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the administration appealed an August ruling from US District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor that [...]
The European Union announced a provisional deal Monday for the establishment of an EU agency on fundamental rights, which would build upon the European Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia and monitor civil liberties in all of the 25 EU member nations. After three years of negotiations, the agreement is expected to be finalized Tuesday. [...]
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) accepted into evidence Monday a controversial report on the events leading up to the 1994 Rwandan genocide written by French anti-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere . Despite claims of manipulation by one witness cited in the report, an ICTR judge decided to admit the report in the trial of [...]
Fiji military commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has carried out a threat to remove the elected government from power unless current Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase voluntarily resigned, a move Qarase flatly refused to consider , and has imposed military rule over the South Pacific island nation. Bainimarama initially threatened a military coup against the current government [...]
