Real-time comments on legal news by newsmakers, activists, legal experts and special guests. http://jurist.org/hotline JURISTremove_this@pitt.edu [Esther, Islam in Europe]: "Recently Amnesty International repeated its call to the British government to stop its "regime" of control orders. These orders, which allow the Home Secretary to restrict a person's freedom of movement, were introduced by the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005. Control orders are supervised by the courts, but they allow admitting secret evidence against the suspects and this supervision is, as Amnesty puts it, 'limited'. Amnesty's critique is simple. The state has an obligation to protect its citizens, but this should be done without violating their human rights. Amnesty feels that despite Britain's efforts to protect their citizens' liberties, they are violating the European Human Right http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/08/uk-control-orders-only-part-of-the-problem.php 2010-08-23T12:32:15-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/08/uk-control-orders-only-part-of-the-problem.php Torrey Hullum [Julie Stewart, President of Families Against Mandatory Minimums]: "Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill to reduce the infamous 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses. The Senate approved the bill in March. Today, President Obama finished the job by signing the bill, ending a nearly 20-year campaign by sentencing reform advocates to undo this outrageous inequity in federal sentencing law. The word "historic" gets bandied around quite a bit in Washington, but it fits here. After all, the bill repeals a mandatory minimum sentence - for simple crack possession - for the first time since the Nixon Administration. Put another way, half of the http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/08/fair-sentencing-act-positive-model-for-bipartisan-reform.php 2010-08-04T12:00:51-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/08/fair-sentencing-act-positive-model-for-bipartisan-reform.php Torrey Hullum [Eric Sterling, President of The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation]: "Thursday's passage of the Fair Sentencing Act proved that I have been very wrong about this legislation. I was wrong in not believing that fairness in sentencing, fairness for convicted African-American crack dealers, fairness for any criminal defendant, had any political traction. I was wrong in believing that the intrepid coalition of sentencing reform advocates, civil liberties, civil rights and human rights supporters, and criminal justice reformers had failed to adequately sell the legislation to conservatives as a necessary refocus of the Department of Justice on high-level cocaine traffickers. I was sure that most House Republicans would fight this legislation. I http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/08/passage-of-fairness-in-sentencing-act-not-guarantee-of-change.php 2010-08-02T14:26:34-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/08/passage-of-fairness-in-sentencing-act-not-guarantee-of-change.php Torrey Hullum [Nick Nyhart, President and CEO of Public Campaign]: "With just four Republican Senators in play on the DISCLOSE Act its failure to reach closure Wednesday was no surprise. The original intent of the legislation was to blunt the impact of the disastrous Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Unfortunately, it became a political football for Republicans and Democrats alike. While the transparency and disclosure provisions included in the bill would let the American people know who is trying to buy our elections, Congress should have been bolder. The American electorate is not angry about a few bad apples--they want to throw out the whole moldy barrel. http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/07/senate-stalemate-indicates-larger-problems-in-campaign-finance-reform.php 2010-07-30T10:55:56-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/07/senate-stalemate-indicates-larger-problems-in-campaign-finance-reform.php Torrey Hullum [Serkan Yolcu, Uludag University Faculty of Law]: "On Wednesday July 7, 2010, the Turkish media was unexpectedly informed by the press office of Constitutional Court that the Court made its eagerly anticipated judgment on the constitutional amendment package that has been on the agenda for months. After 9.5 hours of debate in only one day, the eleven members of the Court decided to annul a few clauses of some articles of the package. The partially annulled articles rearrange the process of electing members to the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). The Court annulled the provisions that would have prevented members of the high judiciary http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/07/more-constitutional-amendments-by-turkish-high-court-are-unwarranted-and-unjust-on-the-merits.php 2010-07-19T10:34:58-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/07/more-constitutional-amendments-by-turkish-high-court-are-unwarranted-and-unjust-on-the-merits.php Torrey Hullum [Katie Belanger, Fair Wisconsin]: "On Wednesday, June 30, 2010, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld the 2006 state constitutional amendment banning marriage equality and civil unions in the McConkey v. J.B. Van Hollen et al. decision. In this case, William McConkey challenged the validity of the amendment, stating that it violates the single subject requirement for all constitutional amendments by addressing both marriage and civil unions. This decision was not about public policy, but rather about legal procedure. In the unanimous decision, liberal and conservative alike agreed that the amendment did not violate the single subject rule. Our highly politicized Supreme Court had the opportunity to use this case to make http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/07/wisconsin-same-sex-marriage-decision-sets-stage-for-change.php 2010-07-09T04:39:22-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/07/wisconsin-same-sex-marriage-decision-sets-stage-for-change.php Torrey Hullum Richard Aborn [President, Citizens Crime Commission]: "What is most important to the gun control movement is the ability to pass reasonable laws designed to break up the illegal gun markets. While I disagree with this decision, as I do with District of Columbia v. Heller, these rulings do not deter us from pursuing laws that would close the gun show loophole and address licensing and registration. These laws are all vital to public safety and do not violate either the Supreme Court decisions or the rights of legitimate gun owners. Presented with two opportunities to do so, the Court declined to indicate that reasonable regulations of guns - and in http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/court-decisions-stifle-reasonable-gun-control-measures.php 2010-06-30T02:28:47-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/court-decisions-stifle-reasonable-gun-control-measures.php Torrey Hullum Richard C. Dieter [Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center]: "Ronnie Lee Gardner [BBC Backgrounder] was executed in a hail of bullets as he sat strapped to a chair in a Utah prison a few nights ago. Gardner got the kind of execution he wanted--death by firing squad--and Utah finally got what it wanted--retribution for the murder Gardner had committed twenty-five years ago. We the people (and in this case, there was a worldwide audience) probably scratched our heads wondering what that was all about. Even though the U.S. is averaging one execution per week, no one pays much attention to such events because they are not news. They are not http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/Firing-squad-execution-underscores-inhumanity-of-death-penalty.php 2010-06-23T04:48:17-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/Firing-squad-execution-underscores-inhumanity-of-death-penalty.php Torrey Hullum Yifat Susskind [MADRE Policy and Communications Director]: "The report by Human Rights Watch on female genital mutilation (FGM) in Kurdistan reveals the troubling reality facing women and girls compelled to undergo the procedure. Human Rights Watch references specifically the failure of the Kurdistan Regional Government to take seriously the issue of FGM and to enact legislation to curb the practice. In investigating this issue, many have sought to demonstrate that Islam does not require this practice and that most Muslims practice their faith without FGM. Others have countered with the reverse, claiming that FGM forms an essential part of traditional culture. This debate about whether or not FGM is "cultural" http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/culture-alone-fails-to-account-for-female-genital-mutilation.php 2010-06-20T04:59:41-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/culture-alone-fails-to-account-for-female-genital-mutilation.php Torrey Hullum Nicole Nishimura [California Environmental Rights Alliance] "The California Environmental Rights Alliance is an environmental justice organization based in Southern California - home to the worst air quality in the United States. Our organization works with those hardest hit by the effects of pollution. Oftentimes the most polluted neighborhoods are in low-income communities and communities of color - those least equipped to deal with the consequences. We work with these communities on the policy level helping to implement regulations that are protective of community health. That said, naturally, we are strong advocates of compliance when it comes to environmental regulations. It is unfortunate that the UK has yet to comply with http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/international-compliance-with-new-clean-air-directives-imperative.php 2010-06-12T05:52:46-05:00 http://jurist.org/hotline/2010/06/international-compliance-with-new-clean-air-directives-imperative.php Torrey Hullum