The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari and consolidated a pair of cases that concern the scope of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) authority to regulate demand response technology based on its impact on wholesale electricity rates under the Federal Power Act (FPA) . The cases are EnerNOC, Inc. v. Electric Power Supply [...]
An Egyptian court on Monday upheld death sentences for five members of the Muslim Brotherhood on charges of killing policemen in 2013. The charges include attempted murder, weapons possession and violence stemming from an incident known as the “Kerdasa massacre,” when supporters of the former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi stormed a police station killing 11 [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Bullard v. Blue Hills Bank that a bankruptcy court’s order denying confirmation of a debtor’s proposed repayment plan is not a final order that the debtor can immediately appeal. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion for a unanimous court. In the opinion, the court stressed the unique characteristics [...]
Puerto Rican Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla on Sunday signed an executive order legalizing medical marijuana. The order refers to several US studies that show the therapeutic use of the plant in treating different medical conditions including pain associated with AIDS, glaucoma, migraines, Alzheimers, Parkinson’s and other diseases. He further noted that several US states have [...]
Togo’s constitutional court declared Faure Gnassingbe president for a third five-year term after tallying votes on Sunday. Head of the Constitutional Court Aboudou Assouma said on state television that the final results show that Gnassingbe receive a majority of the votes with about 59 percent. Gnassingbe’s main challenger, Jean-Pierre Fabre, received about 35 percent of [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Sunday that it has received credible evidence indicating that the Saudi-led coalition used illegal cluster munitions supplied by the US in airstrikes against Houthi forces in Yemen. According to a report by HRW, satellite imagery indicates that the munitions landed “within 600 meters of several dozen buildings in four to [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Kimberly Mutcherson of Rutgers School of Law-Camden, discusses the controversy over whether there should or must be a constitutional right allowing the terminally-ill to engage in physician assisted deaths … “Despite decades of agitation, public education, lobbying and sporadic media attention, the right for a terminally-ill person to die by her own [...]
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed concern Friday over actions by Burundi authorities ahead of its upcoming presidential elections. OHCHR Spokesman Rupert Colville noted in particular the detention of hundreds of people in overcrowded prisons, the use of live ammunition by Burundi security forces during protests, and restricting the [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday called on the Thai government to authorize a UN-assisted inquiry into human trafficking in Thailand. The discovery of more than 20 bodies of ethnic Rohingya Muslims near an abandoned trafficking camp inspired the call. Rohingya migrants fleeing persecution from Myanmar and Bangladesh are often victimized by human trafficking networks, [...]
A senior official at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said Friday that the trial and conviction of former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed was “vastly unfair, arbitrary, and disproportionate” and urged action to resolve the deepening political crisis. Mona Rishmawi, head of the OHCHR’s rule of law, equality and non-discrimination [...]
