The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Department of Transportation v. Association of American Railroads that Amtrak , the publicly funded railroad service, is a governmental entity. However, the court remanded to US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule on the constitutionality of Amtrak’s joint-authority, with the Federal Railroad Administration [...]
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on Monday signed a “right to work” bill , making Wisconsin the twenty-fifth state with such a law on the books. The legislation was approved by the Senate last month and given final approval by the Assembly last week. The new law provides that workers cannot be compelled to join a [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled Monday in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association that under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) federal agencies are exempt from notice-and-comment requirements when amending or repealing interpretive rules. In 2006 the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter, at the request of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) [...]
Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Malik Mumtaz Hussain Qadri, the man convicted of assassinating the liberal governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province Salman Taseer for his opposition against the nation’s blasphemy law . The governor, in his opposition, was expressing his concern for the court’s death sentence of a Christian woman [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in Hurst v. Florida to determine “whether Florida’s death sentencing scheme violated the Sixth … or Eighth Amendment.” This court granted certiorari in light of its decision in Ring v. Arizona , in which it held that a sentencing judge, sitting without a jury, may not “find [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Mary Margaret Penrose, of Texas A&M University School of Law, discusses the disarrayed nature of same-sex marriage law in the US today … Molly Ivins, the renowned Texas satirist, once remarked, “The thing about democracy, beloveds, is that it is not neat, orderly or quiet. It requires a certain relish for confusion.” [...]
Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced on Saturday that they have agreed to help one another in removing landmines from rural areas of the country. The announcement came as a sign of progress, as the two sides have been engaging in peace talks for nearly two years in Cuba. President [...]
An Indonesian court has scheduled an appeal by two Australian drug smugglers on death row for Thursday March 12th. Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, the leaders of the “Bali Nine” drug smuggling organization, were granted the appeal despite President Joko Widodo’s refusal to grant them clemency. Widodo has been a vocal supporter of using the [...]
Five men appeared in a Moscow courtroom Sunday for charges relating to the murder of liberal Russian political activist and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov . Nemstov was shot in the back four times on a bridge near the Kremlin before the unidentified shooter fled the scene by car. Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny [...]
A Cairo court on Sunday again postponed the retrial of two Al Jazeera journalists accused of links to the Muslim Brotherhood . This is the second time the court has had to reschedule the trial after two key police witnesses failed to appear. Baher Mohamed and Mohamed Fahmy were released on bail in February after [...]
