Last month, the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] denied certiorari [JURIST report] in Black v. United States [docket; cert. petition, PDF] in which Black was seeking to have his remaining conviction overturned. Black was originally convicted on two counts of fraud and a third count of obstruction of justice after a jury acquitted him and his co-defendants of 15 other fraud counts. He appealed to the Supreme Court, which remanded [JURIST report] the case to the Seventh Circuit.

The apprehension of General Lopez Fuentes sends a strong signal to all perpetrators that conflict-related sexual violence is not acceptable, and that justice will ultimately prevail. Sexual violence thrives on silence and impunity. Women have no rights if those who violate their rights go unpunished.

The Guatemalan civil war resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, mostly among Guatemala's large indigenous population. According to a UN report released in 1999, the military was responsible for 95 percent of those deaths. In response to these violations, the Guatemalan government founded the National Compensation Program (PNR) in 2003 to deal with claims by civilians affected by the civil war. The PNR, after setting up its administrative structure, has begun to use its $40 million budget to work through a backlog of more than 98,000 civilian complaints. More than 1,000 complaints were filed in 2008. The PNR hopes to file the majority of the complaints within the next year. The Congress of Guatemala [official website, in Spanish] voted [JURIST report] to create the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) [official website] in April 2007, establishing an independent body [press release, in Spanish] to investigate organized crime and official corruption, including the country's civil war. In February 2008, the Guatemalan government announced plans to declassify documents [JURIST report] describing human rights abuses committed by its military during the civil war.

Apple has been embroiled in litigation marked by trading accusations of patent infringement with Nokia [corporate website] as well, which was recently resolved [JURIST report]. Nokia and Apple entered into an agreement [press release], settling all patent disputes between the parties and directing Apple to pay royalties to Nokia for the term of the agreement. Both companies agreed to withdraw all complaints filed with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] and end 46 ongoing patent infringement disputes in various countries around the world.

Obama disagrees with certain members of Congress regarding his legal authority to continue military operations in Libya. Obama's position is that he is not in violation [JURIST report] of the War Powers Resolution. His office maintains that US activities in Libya do not amount to "hostilities" because the US is only playing a supporting role in the NATO-led mission pursuant to and limited by the UN Security Council Resolution authorizing military action in Libya to protect civilians. But earlier this week, it was reported that Obama came to this conclusion overriding the legal interpretations [JURIST report] of the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel [official websites]. Jordan Paust [academic profile] of the University of Houston Law Center has argued [JURIST op-ed] that Obama is not violating the War Powers Resolution because that was only meant to limit his authority as Commander-In-Chief but in this case Obama is acting pursuant to his Executive authority under Article II [text]. He argues: "given the fact that treaties of the United States (such as the UN Charter) are supreme federal laws, it is evident that the President has constitutionally-based authority to faithfully execute US competencies under the Charter outside of the President's independent authority as Commander-in-Chief."

Rights groups have criticized Yemen for its handling of pro-democracy protests that have persisted since February. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] released a report [text; PDF] in April urging the international community to pressure Yemeni authorities to investigate protestor deaths. Just days earlier, the OHCHR urged the Yemeni government [JURIST report] to discontinue using force against peaceful protesters. The Yemeni Parliament enacted several emergency measures [JURIST report] in March at the request of President Ali Abdullah Saleh [official website, in Arabic] in an effort to end anti-government protests. Saleh, who agreed to step down in April [JURIST report], and his party, the General People's Congress (GPC), had caused mounting political tensions due to attempts to remove presidential term limits [JURIST report] and expand their political power. In December, the parliament stoked outrage among opposition parties and independents when it amended the constitution [AFP report] to eliminate provisions requiring that opposition parties be represented on the high election commission. The protests in Yemen have been analyzed in two recent JURIST op-eds: Constitutional Enforcement in Tunisia, Yemen, and Egypt by L. Ali Khan, Professor of Law at Washburn University, and The Middle East protest movements: each with a story, all with uncertainty by Dr. Jonathan Schanzer, Vice President of Research, Foundation for Defense of Democracies [advocacy website].

There have been several significant legal decisions in patent law in the last few months. Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] unanimously ruled [opinion, PDF] against Microsoft [corporate website], holding that a patent will be invalidated only if the challenging party meets the "clear and convincing evidence" standard [JURIST report]. The court also held in a separate decision [JURIST report] that the Bayh-Doyle Act [35 USC §§ 200-212], which vests patent rights to universities for inventions from federally funded research, did not give Stanford University [academic website] superior rights to the invention of its employee and thus, the employee could transfer his invention rights to a third party. In May, the Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF] that induced patent infringement requires knowledge [JURIST report] that the induced acts constitute patent infringement. Also in May, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] restricted [opinion, PDF] the use of the "inequitable conduct" defense [JURIST report] for invalidating patents.

In March, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] allowed a lawsuit against the Library of Congress (LOC) [official website] to continue on behalf of former Guantanamo prosecutor and former LOC employee Col. Morris Davis [official profile, PDF]. He argues that his termination by the LOC violated his constitutional rights, alleging it was due to his outspoken criticism of the military commissions, writing articles, giving speeches and testifying before Congress that the system is fundamentally flawed, specifically a high-profile piece [text] for the Wall Street Journal [official website]. In April of last year, the DOD released a manual [text, PDF; JURIST report] for military commission procedures under the Military Commissions Act of 2009 [text, PDF]. The manual established the rules of evidence and procedure for the commissions, allowing for the admission of certain hearsay evidence and defining "material support" for terrorism. The release came a month after Defense Secretary Robert Gates [official profile] appointed [JURIST report] retired Navy Vice Adm. Bruce MacDonald [official profile] as the convening authority for military commissions. The position oversees military commissions themselves as well as the Office of Military Commissions and, notably, has the power to review and approve charges against "belligerents" pursuant to the Military Commissions Act.

The ICTR has tried a number of genocide suspects since its 1994 inception. The court sentenced [judgment summary, PDF; JURIST report] former Rwandan Armed Forces lieutenant Ildephonse Hategekimana [case materials] in December to life imprisonment after convicting him on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. In November, the ICTR convicted [JURIST report] former Rwandan businessman Gaspard Kanyarukiga on charges of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity and sentenced the 65-year-old to 30 years in prison. The ICTR's work has recently been hampered by a lack of resources, leading the tribunal to ask the UN for assistance [JURIST report] in October. The tribunal has faced adversity since its creation, including the shooting death [JURIST report] of one of the senior defense lawyers in July. Earlier this year, Joseph Nzirorea, former president of the Rwanda National Assembly and secretary general of the National Republican Movement for Democracy and Development, died while on trial [JURIST report] for conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions [text].

Earlier this week, Tymoshenko filed a complaint [JURIST report] with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website], alleging violations of the European Convention of Human Rights [text, PDF]. The complaint argues that the charges against Tymoshenko are politically engineered by current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych [official website, in Ukrainian], Tymoshenko's political rival. In May, the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) [official website, in Ukrainian] charged Tymoshenko [JURIST report] under Article 365 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine [text] with abuse of office [press release, in Ukrainian] in connection with signing gas import contracts with Russia. In Feburary, the PGO combined two separate criminal cases [JURIST report] against her and concluded the pre-trial investigation. The combined cases against Tymoshenko include charges initiated in December for allegedly misappropriating state funds during her time as prime minister from 2007-2010 and new charges in January alleging that she abused her authority and exceeded her official duties [JURIST reports] while in office by purchasing "1000 Opel Combo" medical vans at a 20 percent mark-up. Tymoshenko said the vans were successful in providing medical services to rural villages. The current combined case against her is not the first time she has been prosecuted. Last May, prosecutors reopened a separate criminal investigation [JURIST report] into allegations that Tymoshenko attempted to bribe Supreme Court judges. Tymoshenko's government was dissolved in March 2010 after she narrowly lost the presidential election to Yanukovych. Tymoshenko had alleged that widespread voter fraud allowed Yanukovych to win the election.

Despite the petitioner's efforts to portray himself as a reluctant, marginal figure within the Taliban, the record indicates that the petitioner rose to the highest level of the Taliban and had close ties to Mullah Omar, who repeatedly appointed the petitioner to sensitive, high-profile positions. Indeed, even after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the petitioner remained within Mullah Omar's inner circle, despite the fact that Mullah Omar had limited his contacts to only his most trusted commanders.

There have been over 200 writs of habeas corpus filed on behalf of Guantanamo Bay detainees. In June, a judge for the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit [official website] overturned [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] the release of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Hussein Salem Mohammed Almerfedi [NYT profile], an alleged al Qaeda [GlobalSecurity backgrounder] supporter. A federal appeals court denied habeas corpus [JURIST report] to Guantanamo Bay detainee Musa'ab Omar al-Madhwani in May, concluding that he was lawfully detained for being part of al Qaeda. In March, an appeals court blocked the release [JURIST report] of Guantanamo detainee Uthman Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman by overturning [opinion, PDF] a district court decision that claimed the government had failed to prove prove by a preponderance of the evidence that Uthman had received and executed orders from al Qaeda. In September, Kuwaiti Guantanamo detainee Fawzi Khalid Abdullah Fahad al Odah petitioned [text, PDF; JURIST report] the US Supreme Court [official website] to reverse a federal appeals court decision that denied him habeas corpus relief. The DC appeals court denied [text, PDF; JURIST report] habeas corpus relief to al Odah in July. The court affirmed the district court's ruling [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] that there was sufficient evidence against al Odah for him to be considered "part of" al Qaeda and Taliban forces. The Supreme Court denied his petition in April.

Earlier this month, the Connecticut Senate [official website] approved SB 1014 [text, PDF; materials] which provides for the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana [JURIST report]. Last month, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) [official website] filed a federal lawsuit [JURIST report] seeking a declaratory judgment over the legality under federal law of the state's legalization of medical marijuana [JURIST report] passed in November 2010. Medical marijuana is currently legal in 14 US states. In October 2009, US Attorney General Eric Holder [official website] issued guidelines for a new policy [JURIST report] for investigating and prosecuting state-sanctioned medical marijuana use. Those guidelines reflect a pledge made by Holder in March to stop federal raids [JURIST report] on medical marijuana dispensaries that comply with state laws. However, Holder has emphasized that if a state legalizes drugs for recreational use, federal law will be enforced [LAT report], as California attempted to legalize marijuana last year [JURIST report].

Earlier this month, the US Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text; JURIST news archive], a federal law barring same-sex marriage, is unconstitutional. The same-sex couple had tried to file for Chapter 13 joint bankruptcy for married couples. The court applied a "heightened scrutiny" standard but found it did not even meet rational basis review. Same-sex marriage continues to be a controversial issue among states. Also this month, a federal judge in California refused to vacate [JURIST report] an earlier ruling finding that Proposition 8 [JURIST news archive], California's ban on same-sex marriage, was unconstitutional. In April, the Delaware House of Representatives voted in favor of same-sex civil unions while the Indiana [JURIST reports] Senate approved an amendment to its state constitution banning same-sex marriage.

The Secretary-General hopes that the Bahraini authorities will do everything possible to create an environment conducive for the start of a concrete national dialogue announced by His Majesty King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa, and believes that it should be genuine, inclusive and lead to tangible outcomes which address the legitimate aspirations of all Bahrainis.

Bahrain's Lower National Safety Court sentenced the 21 activists [JURIST report] on Wednesday for anti-government protests conducted earlier this year. The convicted were charged [charges, PDF] with "plotting to topple the leadership of the Kingdom of Bahrain," but rights organizations have denied this, stating that all convicted were protesters exercising freedom of speech. The National Safety Courts, special military tribunals, were instituted in mid-March under King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa's [official profile] three-month state of emergency [JURIST report] and have been internationally criticized, most recently [JURIST report] by Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website]. The court sentenced nine citizens [JURIST report] to 20 years in prison for kidnapping a police officer in May. In April, the court sentenced four protestors to death, a rarity in Bahrain, and upheld the sentences [JURIST reports] for two of the men, who were accused of murdering police officers. All of the charges levied in the National Safety Court have been disputed by Bahraini citizens and international rights organizations. In an effort to quiet protests that have been ongoing since March, last week, the Justice Ministry declared they would take action to lift the ban [JURIST report] on the leading opposition party, the National Democratic Action Society [website]. The leftist opposition party, known as Waad and aligned with the largest Shi'ite opposition group, was shut down in April during the pro-democracy protests [JURIST report].