A US magistrate judge issued an order on Thursday requiring California prisons to provide transgender inmates who identify as female access to female-oriented items to which inmates have access in women’s correctional facilities. The order lists pajamas, robes, sandals, scarves, chains, necklaces, pumice stones and emery boards as items which are appropriate to give to [...]
A group of five doctors and the American Academy of Medical Ethics (AAME) filed suit Wednesday challenging a physician-assisted suicide law. The End of Life Option Act would allow “terminally-ill” patients, an individual who, determined within reasonable medical certainty, is going to die in 60 days due to an incurable disease, to be given a [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday condemned a recent string of rocket and mortar attacks against residential areas and markets in Taizz, Yemen, from June 3 to June 8. The attacks, perpetrated just weeks before Ramadan, killed 18 civilians and injured 68 others. While there is no official [...]
Members of the US House of Representatives approved bi-partisan legislation to relieve financial pressure on Puerto Rico on Thursday. The statute, entitled the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act of 2016 (PROMESA) , creates a financial oversight board and will restructure a portion of Puerto Rico’s $70 billion debt. Deemed as an unfortunate, [...]
The International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Security Council have been “conspicuous silent” in response to the prosecutor office’s calls to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, said ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Thursday. She stated that despite “countless appeals to to address the persistent failure Sudan to comply with its international obligations,” the calls [...]
South African President Jacob Zuma, along with the state prosecutor, began an appeal on Friday of a ruling reinstating 783 corruption charges against him. The charges were initially dropped by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) in 2009, opening his bid for the presidency. The High Court last April ordered a review of the decision of [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held Thursday that the right to carry a concealed gun is not within Second Amendment right to bear arms. The court, reversing a prior 2014 decision , upheld California’s current restriction requiring citizens to demonstrate “good cause” for having a concealed handgun. The court majority stated [...]
Independent experts for the UN determined Thursday that an Irish woman was “subjected to discrimination and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” when seeking an abortion. The woman, going by “AM,” discovered her fetus suffered from fatal congenital defects in 2011 and, as a result, AM would miscarry. She was 21 weeks pregnant at the time. [...]
Bleu Copas and Caleb Laieski filed a lawsuit in the Chancery Court for Anderson County on Tuesday, challenging a Tennessee law that protects counselors who refuse to provide services to individuals based on their religious beliefs. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam , who is named in the lawsuit, signed the bill into law in April. The [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled 6-2 Thursday in Dietz v. Bouldin that federal district courts have “the inherent power to rescind a jury discharge order and recall a jury for further deliberations” in a civil trial to remedy an error in the jury’s verdict. Writing for the Court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor added that “this power [...]
