JURIST Guest Columnist Bryan H. Wildenthal of Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego discusses the history of Supreme Court vacancies and presidential nominations during presidential election years… Justice Antonin Scalia, one of the most provocative judges in American history, was known for his brilliantly argued views on the plain text and original meaning [...]
UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced Saturday that the UK will hold a referendum on June 23 to vote on whether the nation will remain a part of the European Union (EU) . EU and UK leaders met over the previous two days in Brussels to negotiate terms that would keep the UK in the [...]
The Georgia State Senate passed an amended version of a religious freedom bill, HB 757 , which some critics believe may be used to discriminate against same-sex couples. The bill gives religious leaders the right to refuse to marry any couple if it is against their religion without facing penalties and bars the government from [...]
The US Supreme Court upheld on Friday, in a one-sentence order, a decision of the District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina forcing the state to redraw the 1st and 12th congressional voting districts. The lower court held that the 2011 district redrawing was unconstitutional as it was done to increase minority voting [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday filed a motion to compel Apple to unlock the encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters . The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is seeking Apple’s help to access Syed Rizwan Farook’s phone, but the tech company has refused. In a letter to its [...]
Kizza Besigye, the opposition candidate for president of Uganda, was arrested with several of his supporters on Friday. Besigye was arrested as the election commission released early results that showed incumbent President Yoweri Museveni leading the election with 62 percent of the vote and Besigye trailing with 33 percent. The police arrested Besigye as he [...]
Amnesty International (AI) criticized the state of justice in Iraq on Thursday after a court in that country sentenced 40 men to death. The Baghdad court found the men guilty of being Sunni jihadists and allied militants that carried out a massacre of 1,700 military cadets from the Speicher Military camp by the Islamic State [...]
The Supreme Court of India on Friday refused to intervene in the arrest of left-wing student leader, Kanhaiya Kumar, for sedition. Kumar’s arrest triggered demonstrations in universities across the country against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party. Kumar had sought the Supreme Court’s intervention after a previous hearing in a lower court was disrupted [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday upheld the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act but enjoined the Secretary of Health and Human Services from the enforcing the mandate until the Supreme Court weighs in on some of the issues, currently pending in a similar case. While the ACA requires [...]
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed legislation Thursday that will effectively cut funding to Planned Parenthood in the state by millions of dollars, although the two bills do not target Planned Parenthood by name. The first new law severs state funding, under Title X, for public providers of abortions. The money will be diverted instead to [...]
