The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Wednesday struck down abortion restrictions in Arkansas, ruling that the 12-week limit on seeking an abortion places an unconstitutional burden on women within the state. The restrictions included tests to determine if there was a detectible heartbeat, prohibition of abortions after 12 weeks of gestation, [...]
Amnesty International (AI) on Wednesday accused Hamas forces of leading a series of abductions, torturous acts and unlawful killings against Palestinians. AI’s report documents the human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings often condoned by largely unaccountable Hamas authorities. Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, Philip Luther, stated: In the chaos of the [...]
A panel of appeals judges for the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday affirmed a ruling that allows a case against former Ivory Coast first lady Simone Gbagbo to go forward to trial. Gbagbo is accused of multiple crimes against humanity including murder and rape, which allegedly occurred after the country’s debated 2010 elections that [...]
Nebraska on Wednesday became the first Republican-controlled state to repeal the death penalty since 1973. Governor Pete Ricketts vetoed the bill on Tuesday, but after a vote Wednesday afternoon, the state officially repealed capital punishment . A sentence of life without parole will replace the previous sentence of capital punishment. Although the last execution was [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Joyce Lee Malcolm of George Mason University School of Law discusses Vermont’s evolving gun law… Much to the frustration of gun control advocates who rate Vermont as “F,” the state with the highest per capita gun ownership in the country and virtually no gun restrictions, has a murder rate so low it [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Tuesday that the injunction against President Barack Obama’s recent executive action on immigration should remain in effect pending appeal. Many of the initiatives, which would have provided relief from deportation to more than 4 million undocumented immigrants, were set to begin this month. Instead, in [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Wellness International Network Ltd. v. Sharif that bankruptcy judges have the power to make final judgments in certain legal disputes. In so ruling the Supreme Court reversed and remanded an appellate court decision finding that the bankruptcy court did not have the required constitutional authority to decide whether [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday announced a settlement with the Cleveland police department, which has agreed to adopt stringent standards over how and when its officers can use force. The results of a DOJ investigation announced in December found a pattern of “unreasonable and unnecessary use of force.” The DOJ found that [...]
The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing called Tuesday on the Serbian government to take immediate action to improve the current housing crisis that has left many Serbian citizens without adequate housing. While Serbia boasts a high rate of homeownership due to the privatization and sale of public housing stock in the [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in Commil USA, LLC., v. Cisco Systems, Inc. that a “good faith” belief of a patent’s invalidity is not a defense to a claim of induced patent infringement under 35 USC §271(b) . Commil USA, which holds a patent for technology that allows wireless devices to move easily from [...]
