US District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos on Saturday filed a permanent injunction against the enforcement of a Texas voter ID law . The injunction follows a 147-page opinion issued on Thursday in which Ramos found that the voter ID law violates the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the US Constitution because it is racially discriminatory [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Alaska on Sunday overturned Alaska’s same-sex marriage ban. Five same-sex couples living in Alaska brought the action pursuant to 42 USC § 1983 and filed a motion for summary judgement. Judge Timothy Burgess found that Alaska’s ban on same-sex marriage and refusal to recognize [...]
The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday temporarily halted the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On the same day, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s same-sex marriage ban. The stay is set to last until November 6, when oral arguments will be heard on the issue. The court [...]
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Sunday urged the UN and donating countries to press Israel to lift restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of the Gaza Strip. HRW claims that the restrictions are “disproportionate to security considerations” and “unnecessarily harm people’s access to food, water, education, and other fundamental rights [...]
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday ordered Russian troops to withdraw from the Ukrainian border in preparation for an upcoming meeting between the presidents of the two countries. The Russian government website released the statement in regards to the order stating, “Putin ordered to launch the return of the troops to their permanent bases. In [...]
The Pakistan Government on Sunday wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pleading for assistance in border protection after at least 14 people were shot and killed near Kashmir. Pakistan has accused India of deliberately violating the established ceasefire by allowing cross border shootings. Pakistan prime minister on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj [...]
An Egyptian court on Saturday jailed eight men, including two Muslim Brotherhood leaders, for 15 years over the torture of a lawyer during 2011 uprisings against former president Hosni Mubarak . The defendants were convicted of torturing, electrocuting and sexually assaulting a lawyer after locking him up for three days near Cairo’s Tahrir Square when [...]
Federal courts on Friday cleared the way for same-sex marriage in North Carolina and Idaho. A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of North Carolina struck down that state’s ban on same-sex marriage on constitutional grounds. US District Judge Max Cogburn stated that the issue before the court was neither political [...]
Bahraini human rights activist Nabeel Rajab was charged on Thursday with insulting the ministries of defense and interior over his tweets that alleged Bahrain’s security institutions were the first incubators for extremist ideology. Without naming Rajab, the public prosecution statement ordered his referral in remand before the Third Lower Criminal Court on charges of tort [...]
Alabama death row inmate Christopher Lee Price on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Corrections claiming that the new lethal injection mix planned for use in his execution is unconstitutional. According to the complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Alabama , Alabama plans to change [...]
