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 [...]
A new Washington, DC, law that prohibits employers from discriminating against workers on the basis of their reproductive decisions will take effect on Saturday despite a Thursday House vote to strike down the law. The late vote by the divided US House of Representatives this week marks the first time in almost 25 years the [...]
Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin on Friday signed into law a bill that creates new restrictions on who may own guns in the state of Vermont. Under the new law, which will go into effect July 1, people with certain criminal convictions will be prohibited from possessing a gun. Those who violate this restriction will be [...]
