Marissa Zupancic is JURIST’s Washington DC Correspondent, a JURIST Senior Editor and a 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She’s stationed in Washington during her Semester in DC. Today I attended oral arguments at the US Supreme Court for Trump v. US, a case concerning whether a president has absolute immunity after they [...]
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Explainer: Supreme Court Set to Hear Oral Arguments on Presidential Immunity
The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Trump v. US on Thursday in a case entailing alleged federal election interference in 2020. Trump is enmeshed in multiple criminal and civil cases as he prepares to run for reelection in November. This will be the second time this term a case concerning former President [...]
Northern Ireland politician appears in court over alleged historical sex offences
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), appeared in court on Wednesday charged with 11 historical sex offences. The charges include one of rape, another of gross indecency with a child and nine of indecent assault. His wife, Eleanor Donaldson, is also charged with aiding and abetting these offences. Donaldson [...]
Legislating Identity: A Critical Analysis of the Anti-LGBT Bills in Kenya and Ghana
Recent Afrobarometer survey data (Round 8, 2019-2021) paints a stark picture with 86% of Kenyans and 93% of Ghanaians expressing intolerance towards the LGBT community. This high level of intolerance exists despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteeing non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. Furthermore, across Africa, laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual activity remain commonplace. [...]
Director of El Rodeo prison Cosme Parrales was killed Sunday in an attack at a cevicheria in Jipijapa, a city located in the Manabi province of Ecuador, according to the National Service of Comprehensive Care for Adults Deprived of Liberty and Adolescent Violators (SNAI). According to local news, Parrales was a lawyer who had held [...]
Nearly seven months after the start of the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University, the NYPD entered campus on Thursday to disperse a student gathering and carry out mass arrests for the first time since 1968. Hundreds of students set up tents and occupied parts of the South Lawn in front of Butler Library for more [...]
Is NOTA Enough? Exploring Options for Amplifying Voter Dissatisfaction in India Elections
With India launching into its 18th general elections on April 19, the imperative that voters turn out to the polls has dominated public discourse. As India is the world’s largest constitutional democracy, each citizen must responsibly and proactively participate in the process that will decide the next five years of the nation’s governance. The incumbent [...]
The 2024 US presidential election will be historic on several fronts. It will be the first rematch between presidential candidates since Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower faced down Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1956. At 81 and 77 respectively, incumbent candidate Joe Biden and his adversary Donald Trump are the oldest major party frontrunners in the history [...]
SCOTUS dispatch: government lawyer grilled for an hour on meaning of federal corruption statute
Gijs de Bra is a JURIST Assistant Editor and SCOTUS special correspondent, and a 2L at Cornell Law School. When, if ever, does a person “corruptly” solicit or offer a gift with intent to influence government action? That question kept Colleen Sinzdak, counsel for the US government, busy for almost all of her argument before [...]
Dr. Ganna Yudkivska is a force to be reckoned with in the world of international law and human rights. Her impressive career trajectory originated in a newly independent Ukraine and has since spanned continents and venerable institutions. She is a partner at Equity Law Firm, Vice-Chair of the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, [...]