[JURIST] Michigan became the thirteenth US state to legalize marijuana for medicinal use Tuesday after voters passed Proposition 1 [PDF text] by 63 percent to 37 percent [official results]. The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act urged by the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care [advocacy website] will go into effect 10 days after the election results are certified later this month. The new law will permit "physician approved use of marijuana by registered patients with debilitating medical conditions including cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, hepatitis C, MS and other conditions as may be approved by the Department of Community Health" [official website]. The act also permits qualifying individuals to grow limited amounts of marijuana and sets up a system of registry identification cards for qualifying patients and primary care givers. The Detroit Free Press has more.

Meanwhile, voters in Massachusetts approved decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana with the passage of Question 2 [text and materials] by 65% to 35% [Boston Globe report]. The new law championed by the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy [advocacy website] replaces criminal penalties for possession of one ounce or less with a system of civil penalties. Under the new system those over age 18 possessing an ounce or less of marijuana would be subject to forfeiture of their marijuana and a civil penalty of $100. Offenders under 18 would be subject to forfeiture, a $100 penalty, and will required to complete a drug awareness program within one year of the offense. The Boston Globe has more.

[JURIST] Voters in Nevada Tuesday approved [unofficial results] a ballot initiative that would restrict the state's ability to use eminent domain law to acquire private property. The initiative [Question 2 text, PDF] includes amendments to the Nevada State Constitution [text] which provides that all property rights are fundamentally constitutional, that property transfers between private parties is not public use, that property must be valued at the use which yield the highest value, and other provisions which deal with the process of taking and valuing property for eminent domain. The ballot measure was originally voted on in 2006 [JURIST report] in the wake of the US Supreme Court 2005 ruling in Kelo v. New London [opinion text; JURIST report] that private redevelopment conferring economic benefits on a community qualifies as a "public use" allowing local governments to expropriate private property under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In Nevada's system for approving ballot measures an initiative must be approved in two consecutive elections in order for it to be enacted.

Meanwhile in Ohio, voters Tuesday approved [unofficial results] a ballot initiative [Issue 3 text, PDF] approving an amendment to the Ohio Constitution [text] explicitly saying that a private property owner has a property right in the reasonable use of the ground water underneath such property owner's land, and in the reasonable use of lakes or watercourses located on or flowing through such property owner's land. The amendment is set to take effect on December 1, 2008.

[JURIST] Members from all parties of the German parliament [official website] passed a resolution [PDF text, in German] Wednesday seeking to counter anti-Semitism [JURIST news archive] in the country. The measure requires the government to develop a report on anti-Semitic behavior and feelings in the country, and to provide funding for school programs designed to combat anti-Semitism. The legislation was approved five days before the 70th anniversary of Kristalnacht [PBS backgrounder], or the "Night of Broken Glass," when Nazi troops destroyed thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues. The day is remembered as marking the beginning of the Holocaust [JURIST news archive]. The legislation was delayed last month [UPI report], over objections from the opposition Left Party. As a result, two identical resolutions were passed on Wednesday - one signed by the Left Party [PDF text, in German], and the other signed by the remaining four parties. DPA has more.

The US State Department now issues yearly reports [2008 report, text] to Congress on anti-Semitism around the world in the wake of President George W. Bush's 2004 signing [JURIST report] of the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 [text, PDF]. The Act created an anti-Semitism office within the State Department and mandated an annual review and report on global anti-Semitism, in much the same way that the Department already reported on human rights and religious freedom.

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] heard oral arguments [day call, PDF] Wednesday in two cases. In Negusie v. Mukasey [oral arguments transcript, PDF; merit briefs], the Court will consider whether the so-called "persecutor bar" in the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) [text], which prohibits the Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security from granting asylum or stay of deportation to any person who "ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution" of any person on account of "race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion," applies to a person who committed such an act due to "credible threats of death or serious bodily harm." The case concerns Daniel Girmai Negusie, a citizen of Eritrea [JURIST news archive], who was forcibly conscripted into the Eritrean army during its ongoing war with Ethiopia [JURIST news archive], imprisoned, and forced to work as an armed prison guard at a facility where inmates were tortured and mistreated. He eventually escaped and made his way to the US, where he applied for asylum. An immigration judge denied his asylum application on the grounds that his service as a prison guard made him ineligible for asylum protection under the INA. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) [official website] dismissed Negusie's appeal. At oral arguments, Negusie's attorneys said the BIA improperly dismissed the case due to ambiguity in the INA, and that the persecutor bar should not apply to involuntary conduct that is the product of credible threats of serious bodily harm.

The Court also heard oral arguments in Van De Kamp v. Goldstein [oral arguments transcript, PDF; merit briefs], in which the Court will consider whether two Los Angeles County supervising prosecutors have absolute immunity from suit for failing to establish a system that would have instructed a prosecutor to disclose at trial that a jailhouse witness received a lighter sentence in exchange for perjured testimony that wrongly convicted a suspect of murder. Thomas Goldstein, the respondent in the case, was convicted in 1980 of murder on the testimony of a jailhouse informant who committed perjury when he testified that he had not received any benefit for obtaining a confession from Goldstein. Goldstein spent 24 years in prison and was released in 2004 after he filed a federal habeas corpus suit, which was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals [official website]. The Court must determine whether the supervising prosecutors' alleged failure to train, supervise, or set a policy that would instruct other prosecutors to openly disclose information regarding the treatment of jailhouse informants was a prosecutorial decision protected by absolute immunity, or an administrative decision, subject only to qualified immunity.

[JURIST] Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic [ICTY materials; JURIST news archive] refused to answer questions at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] Wednesday about war crimes committed during the 1994 Yugoslav civil war at the appeals hearing of Momcilo Krajisnik [ICTY materials]. Krajisnick, a former Bosnian Serb parliamentary leader, is appealing a conviction [judgment summary, text] and 27-year prison sentence [judgment, PDF; JURIST report] handed down by the ICTY for various war crimes related to his role in atrocities committed against Croats and Muslims during the civil war. Karadzic had given written testimony in support of Karjisnik's appeal, but refused to be cross-examined [BBC report] on the grounds that such testimony could be harmful to his own case [JURIST news archive]. AP has more. Reuters has additional coverage.

Karadzic was arrested [JURIST report] in July after evading capture for nearly 13 years. He was originally indicted in 1995 but had been in hiding under an assumed identity as an alternative medicine practitioner [BBC report]. After he repeatedly refused to enter a plea on the charges, an ICTY judge eventually entering a not guilty plea [JURIST reports] on his behalf. In September, ICTY prosecutors filed a motion to amend Karadzic's indictment, seeking to narrow it with the intent of calling fewer witnesses at trial.

[JURIST] Washington is in line to become the second US state to permit physician-assisted suicide after voters there Tuesday supported Initiative Measure 1000 [text and materials; unofficial results], which would allow terminally ill, legally competent adults to obtain lethal prescriptions without exposing themselves, their physicians or others to criminal penalties. The measure is modeled on neighboring Oregon's Death with Dignity Act [official materials], enacted in 1997 and upheld [JURIST report] by the US Supreme Court in 2006. The Seattle Times has more.

Meanwhile, on another potentially life-and-death-related issue, voters in Michigan Tuesday approved a proposed constitutional amendment [Proposal 08-2 text, PDF; unofficial results] to "ensure that Michigan citizens have access to stem cell therapies and cures" by permitting embryonic stem cell research under certain conditions while preserving the state's ban on human cloning. The Detroit Free Press has more.

[JURIST] A constitutional amendment effectively banning same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] appeared to pass in California with most of the vote counted Wednesday, while voters in Arizona and Florida Tuesday approved similar measures. In California, Proposition 8 [text and materials], which was placed on the ballot [JURIST report] by citizen initiative, amends the state constitution to provide that "[o]nly marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." As of 11:30 AM PST Wednesday, the unofficial results [text] for Proposition 8 (with 24,584 of 25,423 polls reporting) were:

Yes – 5,235,486 - 52.2%
No – 4,800,656 - 47.8%

Under the California Constitution the amendment takes effect the day after the vote approving it. It will effectively overturn May's decision by the California Supreme Court striking down [JURIST report] a ban on same-sex marriage as violating the equal protection provisions of the California Constitution. The measure has generated more than $60 million in contributions [JURIST report] to committees representing both sides of the issue - a figure believed to be a US record. The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

Voters in Arizona [Proposition 102 text, PDF; unofficial results] and Florida [Proposed Constitutional Amendment 2 text, PDF; unofficial results] Tuesday favored similar proposals by wider margins. Two years ago, voters made Arizona the first state to defeat [JURIST report] a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. More than half the states have already adopted constitutional amendments [NCSL list] limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples, while most of the remainder have defined marriage by statute. Massachusetts and Connecticut [JURIST reports] are now the only US states that validate same-sex marriages, in light of decisions by their highest courts.

Another measure affecting same-sex couples appeared on the ballot in Arkansas, where voters appeared to approve overwhelmingly an initiative [Proposed Initiative 1 text, PDF; live unofficial results] prohibiting gays, lesbians and other unmarried cohabiting couples from becoming either foster parents or adoptive parents [JURIST report].

[JURIST] Voters in two US states with large immigrant populations on Tuesday defeated ballot measures dealing with illegal immigrants [JURIST news archive], according to unofficial results. In Arizona, an initiative [Proposition 202 text, PDF] would have revoked the business licenses of employers that knowingly hire illegal immigrants and would have strengthened penalties for identity theft. As of 3 PM EST Wednesday, the unofficial results [text] for Proposition 202 (with more than 99 percent of polls reporting) were:

Yes – 726,101 – 40.9 percent
No – 1,049,122 – 59.1 percent

In Florida, a legislative referendum [Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1 text, PDF; unofficial results] would have amended that state's constitution by deleting a provision allowing lawmakers to regulate or prohibit the ownership of real property by illegal immigrants. The Florida Legislature had never exercised its authority under that provision, which is considered obsolete.

Voters in two other states split on ballot measures that would affect many immigrants by requiring the use of the English language in official settings. In Missouri, a legislative referendum [Proposed Constitutional Amendment 1 text; unofficial results] that passed overwhelmingly will establish English as the official state language, to be used at "all governmental meetings at which any public business is discussed, decided, or public policy is formulated." In Oregon, voters apparently defeated an initiative [Measure 58 materials; unofficial results] that would have prohibited public school students from being taught in a language other than English for more than two years, with an exception for the teaching of foreign languages to English speakers.

[JURIST] The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday sentenced [Daily Yomiuri report] former Japanese administrative vice defense minister Takemasa Moriya to two and a half years in prison for accepting bribes and committing perjury. In April, Moriya pleaded guilty [Daily Yomiuri report] to accepting approximately $126,000 worth of illegal benefits from military contractor Yamada Corporation [corporate website], and to giving false testimony to conceal the exchanges. He was also ordered to pay fines equaling the amount of the bribes, and was denied his request to have his sentence suspended [Japan Times report]. Motonobu Miyazaki, former managing director of Yamada, was also sentenced to two years' imprisonment for his involvement in the bribery. AFP has more. The Daily Yomiuri has local coverage.

Japan has been generally successful in fighting corruption, but financial scandal has rocked the national government before. In May 2007 Agriculture Minister Shinichi Yamazaki committed suicide [Times report] after being called before a parliamentary committee to answer allegations of embezzling over $200,000 in state funds. In 2008, corruption monitoring group Transparency International [advocacy website] ranked Japan 18th in the world [TI chart] - tied with the US - its index of countries enjoying perceptions of low corruption.

[JURIST] A ballot measure to prohibit governmental agencies from discriminating or granting preferences on the basis of race and sex [JURIST news archive] appeared to win approval from Nebraska voters Tuesday, while the outcome of a similar proposal in Colorado remained unclear midday Wednesday. In Nebraska, Initiated Measure 424 [PDF text] would amend the state constitution to prohibit the state and its subdivisions, including public universities, "from discriminating against, or granting preferential treatment to, individuals or groups based upon race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in operating public employment, education or contracting," with certain exceptions. As of 1 PM EST Wednesday, the unofficial results [text] for Measure 424 (with 1,707 of 1,708 polls reporting) were:

Yes – 389,372 – 58% percent
No – 287,233 – 42% percent

Even if approved by voters, the initiative could be invalidated by a legal challenge to the petitions to place it on the ballot. The Omaha World-Herald has more.

In Colorado, a virtually identical initiative [Amendment 46 text and materials; unofficial results] to amend the state constitution was failing by a narrow margin with 86 percent of precincts reporting. The Denver Post has more.

In 2006, Michigan voters approved a similar state constitutional amendment, which in March of this year was upheld [JURIST report] by a federal district judge in a lawsuit alleging that such an affirmative action ban violated the US Constitution. In 2003, the US Supreme Court ruled in two lawsuits against the University of Michigan [materials; NPR report] that the Constitution permits public universities to consider race as a factor in admissions under certain conditions.

[JURIST] Voters in California and South Dakota Tuesday rejected ballot measures that would restrict access to abortion [JURIST news archive], In California, Proposition 4 [text and materials] would have amended the state constitution to require that a physician notify a parent or legal guardian of an unemancipated minor who has sought an abortion and wait 48 hours before performing the procedure. The amendment contained narrow exceptions, including waiver by a court based on clear and convincing evidence of the minor's maturity or best interests. As of noon EST Wednesday, the unofficial results [text] for Proposition 4 (with 24,360 of 25,423 polls reporting) were:

Yes – 4,594,086 – 47.6% percent
No – 5,041,647 – 52.4% percent

Similar proposals have failed twice previously in California. The San Francisco Chronicle has more.

With all polls reporting in South Dakota, unofficial results [text] showed that voters there defeated Initiated Measure 11 [PDF text] 55 percent to 45 percent. The proposed law, which would have prohibited abortion except in cases of rape, incest and "substantial and irreversible risk" to a woman's health, was viewed as a vehicle to challenge US Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and subsequent cases. South Dakota legislators last year rejected [JURIST report] a similar bill after a 2006 initiative that did not contain any exceptions failed. From Sioux Falls, the Argus Leader has more.

While not addressing abortion specifically, a Colorado initiative [Amendment 48 text and materials; unofficial results] amending the state constitution to define "person" to include "any human being from the moment of fertilization" also failed by a wide margin Tuesday.

[JURIST] Israeli deputy permanent representative to the UN Daniel Carmon [official website] on Tuesday accused [text, DOC] the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) [official website; JURIST news archive] of "targeting Israel in an obsessive and discriminatory fashion" and "fail[ing] to uphold the basic standards of human rights in an impartial, universal, non-selective, and objective manner." Addressing a plenary session of the UN General Assembly [official website] following consideration of a UNHRC report, Carmon pointed to seven UNHRC resolutions "condemning" Israel in the past year, as well as recent special sessions on Israel:

While the one-sided resolutions and special sessions that target Israel are grave cause for concern for the credibility of the Council, the institutional framework established against Israel by the Council threatens its very integrity and legitimacy.

Israel is the subject of the Council’s only country-specific agenda item. The continued obsession with Israel serves to divert the attention of the Human Rights Council from legitimate human rights abuses around the world, and such politicization of the human rights agenda demonstrates the Council’s commitment to political point scoring, rather than to the protection of human rights.

Furthermore, the Council clings to the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories. This mandate presumes Israeli violations and precludes the Special Rapporteur from discussing honestly human rights in a holistic and impartial manner. Palestinian terrorism that deliberately targets Israeli civilians thus receives immunity.

[JURIST] A panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit [official website] on Tuesday suspended [PDF text] its review of Guantanamo Bay detainee Yasin Muhammed Basardh's status as an "enemy combatant," saying it may lack jurisdiction over the case. Basardh had petitioned the court to review a Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) [DOD materials] determination that he could be held as an "enemy combatant," but the court said that provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (DTA) [text] that gave it authority to review the decision were likely at odds with a 2008 Supreme Court [official website] decision in Boumediene v. Bush [Duke Law backgrounder; JURIST archive] giving federal district courts authority to review habeas corpus petitions by detainees. Reasoning that having dual forms of review would be redundant and contrary to both the intent of the DTA and the Supreme Court's ruling, the panel wrote:

There is no rational reason why, if Congress had known that habeas jurisdiction had to be preserved, it would have also wanted to give Guantanamo detainees the option of bringing a simultaneous action directly in the court of appeals. Congress designed the direct review regime to limit judicial intervention and to consolidate review in one forum...

...We believe there is a high probability that a consequence of Boumediene’s striking down the legislative bar against habeas jurisdiction is that the direct judicial review provision of the Detainee Treatment Act fell as well. It has long been the rule that if separate statutory provisions are so “dependent on each other, as conditions, considerations, or compensations for each other as to warrant a belief that the legislature intended them as a whole, and that, if all could not be carried into effect, the legislature would not pass the residue independently, and some parts are unconstitutional, all the provisions which are thus dependent, conditional, or connected must fall with them.”

[JURIST] Several members of the anti-drug trafficking force of Mexican President Felipe Calderon [official profile; BBC profile], including Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mourino Terrazo [official profile, in Spanish; BBC profile], were killed Tuesday when their airplane crashed in Mexico City. Former chief drug crimes prosecutor Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, four Interior Secretariat employees, and three crew members were also killed as the plane crashed into a crowded street in the financial district of Mexico City, injuring at least 40 passers-by. Since Mourino's January appointment by Calderon, who called [press release] him "one of my closest collaborators and one of my dearest friends," Mourino had focused his efforts on combating Mexico's drug cartels [CRS backgrounder, PDF]. International media called the accident a major blow to Calderon's anti-drug campaign [Financial Times report]. Secretary of Communications and Transport Luis Tellez Kuenzler said that a full investigation would be undertaken [press release] to determine the cause of the crash, though there were no apparent signs of foul play. Bloomberg has more. El Universal has local coverage, in Spanish.

During his time in office, Mourino warned of the increasing power of Mexico's drug cartels, including their influence over some police forces. Last week, the Assistant Prosecutors Office Specializing in Organized Crime (SIEDO) [official website, in Spanish] announced that it had been infiltrated by a Mexican drug cartel [JURIST report], accusing several of its own federal investigators of receiving between $150,000 and $450,000 (USD) a month from the Sinaloa syndicate in exchange for confidential information. Last month, Mourino oversaw the signing of a memorandum of understanding [JURIST report] between Mexico and Cuba aimed at combating illegal immigration, human trafficking and smuggling between the two countries.

[JURIST] A judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas [official website] on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by three Hispanic residents of the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch [official website] to change the city council election voting system from at-large to district-based, a shift they say would result in more attention to Hispanic interests on city council. Judge Reed O’Connor, dismissed the suit for lack of proof required by the Fourteenth Amendment and the federal Voting Rights Act [text]. AP has more.

In November 2006, Farmers Branch city council passed Ordinance 2903 [JURIST report] restricting access to housing for illegal immigrants and placing the burden of proof on landlords to screen their tenants. That ordinance was challenged [JURIST report] in federal court by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) [official website] and the Texas ACLU [official website]. In January 2008, the city passed Ordinance 2952 [JURIST report], shifting the burden of proof to authorities but accomplishing mostly the same effects on monitoring the immigration status of tenants. In May, the court issued a permanent injunction [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] on Ordinance 2903, declaring it unconstitutional, and declined to declare Ordinance 2952 constitutional.

[JURIST] ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo [official profile] on Tuesday reasserted [ICC press release] that the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in the Congolese province of North and South Kivu in the wake of renewed fighting there [BBC report] and that his office intends to punish those responsible. Moreno-Ocampo, who met Friday with a delegation of DRC Congo parliamentarians, said:

Crimes must stop. The people in the two provinces of North and South Kivu have already suffered too much. Rapes; massive displacements are serious crimes and will not go unpunished.

[JURIST] The US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] on Tuesday announced [press release] the transfer of one Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee to Somaliland. DOD hailed the move as proof of the effectiveness of its review processes and of US desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary. The Department reports that approximately 60 detainees at Guantanamo are currently eligible for transfer or release. The Miami Herald has more.

The announcement is the latest in a series of recent transfers. On Saturday, DOD announced [press release; JURIST report] the transfer of two other Guantanamo detainees, one to Tajikistan and one to Kazakhstan. There are approximately 255 detainees still at Guantanamo. Last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates [official profile] confirmed that the detention facilities at Guantanamo will remain open [JURIST report] for the remainder of President George W. Bush's administration. Gates said any decision to close the prison would rest with the incoming administration. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) [campaign website], elected Tuesday as the next US president, has said he supports the closure [speech text] of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.