Cameroon’s parliament voted on Wednesday for the country’s penal code to punish men and women for adultery under equal terms. Though adultery was already a criminal act for both genders, the penal code previously punished women for committing any adulterous act while only punishing men for adultery committed in the home or “habitually elsewhere.” The [...]
JURIST Guest Columnists Donnie W. Bethel and Stephen A. Cooper discuss how recent Supreme Court’s decision related to the Hobbs Act only serves to further take up space and resources in the federal prisons… People of all persuasions, political parties and philosophies have awakened to the terrible toll the crises of overcriminalization and mass incarceration [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist David Christensen of Christensen Law discusses recent developments in Michigan auto law that affect third-party benefits… For the past 40 years, plaintiffs’ attorneys seeking no-fault benefits for their clients have relied on the innocent third-party rule. This rule protected uninsured drivers, passengers and other claimants from fraud by the policy holder. But [...]
The White House announced on Friday a series of programs aimed at ensuring that former prisoners have better resources to transition back into the community. The administration said that improving education and job opportunities can reduce crime. One of the programs will provide 12,000 state and federal prison inmates government funding in order for them [...]
The government of Kuwait filed a lawsuit in Swiss court on Thursday against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeking $1 billion in damages for its suspension of the Kuwaiti Olympic Committee (KOC). The IOC has said that it suspended the KOC last October “to protect the Olympic Movement in Kuwait from undue government interference.” The [...]
Department of Defense (DOD) officials said on Friday that the Pentagon will announce the repeal of its ban on openly transgender service members on July 1. Each branch of the US Armed Forces will be adopting policies that cover recruiting, housing, and uniforms for transgender service members, according to the official. Transgender troops are disqualified [...]
Russia’s lower house of Parliament, the State Duma, passed a number of counter-terrorism amendments on Friday. Dubbed the “Yarovaya Law” after their key drafter, the anti-terror laws ban proselytizing, preaching and praying outside officially recognized religious institutions. They also criminalize failure to report certain types of crimes and force cellular and internet providers to store [...]
The American Civil Liberties of Northern California filed a lawsuit Friday against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for allowing religious agencies taking in refugees to refuse female immigrant minors access to reproductive health services, including abortions and birth control. The ACLU contends that the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), through HHS, has [...]
The UN human rights experts on cultural rights and on freedom of expression, Karima Bennoune and David Kaye , called Friday for the release of artists jailed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. In particular, they called upon Iran to release two musicians, Mehdi Rajabian and Yousef Emadi, and a filmmaker, Hossein Rajabian, charged with [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio , ruled Thursday that Cleveland’s time and place restrictions governing protests and marches during next month’s Republic National Convention infringe upon the right to free expression. After listening to arguments, Judge James Gwin ruled the restrictions were not “sufficiently narrowly drawn … [...]
