Dozens of detainees in South Sudan are being held in inhumane conditions, Amnesty International (AI) reported Friday. According to AI, the citizens are currently being held in “poorly ventilated metal shipping containers, fed only once or twice a week and given insufficient,” and are periodically taken out of the containers and beaten. Muthoni Wanyeki, AI [...]

READ MORE

The Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-2 to uphold the state’s ban on capital punishment. The decision, which rested upon the court’s previous decision against capital punishment, stated once again that allowing the death penalty would be against the state’s constitution and prior state legislation. In reversing the two death sentences imposed upon Russel [...]

READ MORE

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Thursday signed into law an amended hate crime bill including police, EMS personnel and firefighters in the category of those protected. Proponents of this bill have stated that the addition was necessary to protect against “deliberate campaign to terrorize” police officers. In particular, the recent anti-police sentiment following the [...]

READ MORE

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed a bill on Wednesday banning abortions at the 20-week mark, making it the seventeenth state to pass such a ban. The bill, passed includes exceptions only for protecting the mother’s health and a fetal anomaly, meaning “in reasonable medical judgment, the unborn child has a profound and irremediable congenital [...]

READ MORE

Officials in 11 states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas challenging the Obama administration’s recent guidance letter on transgender students. The states—Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, and Georgia—as well as the Arizona Department of Education and the governor of Maine assert [...]

READ MORE

A spokesperson for the UN human rights office urged Gaza authorities to end the use of the death penalty on Wednesday. Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the office is “deeply concerned about recent statements made by the authorities in Gaza, including the Attorney General, of their [...]

READ MORE

JURIST Guest Columnist Christina Alam of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law discusses the negative effect corporate mergers have on preserving American jobs… While some public figures paint horror stories of how immigrants steal American jobs, subtler, but yet powerful forces leave thousands of American employees jobless. These forces are corporate restructuring and downsizing. [...]

READ MORE