Clarence Hill , who was convicted of the 1982 murder of a police officer, was executed Wednesday in Florida after the US Supreme Court denied his request to stay the execution. Five justices voted to refuse the stay; Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, Souter and Stevens would have granted the stay of execution. Hill filed a petition [...]
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal Wednesday upheld a 2005 ruling that laws prohibiting gay sex are unconstitutional and discriminatory and violate Hong Kong's Basic Law and the Bill of Rights . The law in the former British colony, now a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, authorizes life sentences for men [...]
JURIST Special Guest Columnist Jonathan Hafetz, Associate Counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, says that the Bush administration’s post-9/11 detainee policies – most recently evidenced in the proposed military commissions bill that would severely limit the habeas corpus power of the federal courts – are a recipe [...]
A federal judge Wednesday reinstated a 2001 ban on road construction in almost a third of US forests, ruling that the Bush administration did not conduct appropriate environmental research before suspending the rule and giving states the authority to manage their own forests. The original Roadless Area Conservation Rule was implemented by former US President [...]
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that a program in San Diego County which uses peace officers to search the homes of welfare applicants without having warrants does not violate constitutional bars against unreasonable searches or invasion of privacy. In Tuesday's 2-1 decision, the court said [...]
The 14 "high-value" terror suspects recently transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay are expected to face Combatant Status Review Tribunal hearings in the next two to three months, according to Navy Capt. Phil Waddingham, director of the US Defense Department's Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants. Among the [...]
The US House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday 228-196 that would require voters to present valid photo ID cards when they head to the polls to vote in federal elections starting in 2008, thereby amending the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 . By 2010, under the bill, voters would have to present identification [...]
The much-anticipated trial of former South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma ended abruptly Wednesday, when the high court judge presiding over the case threw out the corruption charges against Zuma, saying prosecutors had failed to follow proper procedures. Prosecutors still retain the right to refile the charges against Zuma at a later date, as the [...]
The state of California filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against six leading US and Japanese car manufacturers on Wednesday, alleging that vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases from cars made by the companies have contributed to global warming constituting a 'public nuisance' that has cost it millions of dollars. The said complaint brought by state Attorney General [...]
Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa was appointed Wednesday to preside over the second Saddam Hussein trial , replacing Chief Judge Abdullah al-Amiri who was removed at the Iraqi government's insistence on Tuesday. Defense lawyers walked out of the court in protest of the replacement, and Hussein was later ordered to be removed from the court room [...]
