As governor for more than seven years, this is one of my proudest moments. And most surely today is a proud day in the history of the Legislature and the state of Washington. It is a day historians will mark as a milestone for equal rights. A day when we did what was right, we did what was just, and we did what was fair. We stood up for equality and we did it together- Republicans and Democrats, gay and straight, young and old, and a variety of religious faiths. I'm proud of who and what we are in this state.

The Washington state House of Representatives approved the bill to legalize same-sex marriage last Thursday while the Senate passed the bill [JURIST reports] two weeks ago. New Jersey is also considering legalizing same-sex marriage soon, although it currently has a civil union system in place. In November, a lawsuit [JURIST report] was allowed to continue in New Jersey, which seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against the state civil union law as a contravention of both the Fourteenth Amendment [Cornell LII backgrounder] and the New Jersey State Constitution. Same-sex marriage has been legalized in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia [JURIST reports]. The case for same-sex marriage was recently made by JURIST contributor Kimberly Bennett in Judicial Activism and the Recognition of Same-Sex Marriage [JURIST op-ed].

In May 2010, federal Judge Victoria Roberts granted bail for the nine members of the group. Roberts ruled that bail would be granted [JURIST report] but that the eight men and one woman must relinquish weapons and weapons permits, remain confined to their homes, and be kept under electronic surveillance. The group members allegedly planned to kill [AP report] Michigan law enforcement officers by, among other methods, making phony 911 calls and ambushing those who responded. There is some evidence that right-wing nativist and so-called "patriot" anti-government militias such as the Hutaree are on the rise in the US. A 2009 report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) [advocacy website] noted that these groups are making a comeback [JURIST report] after declining for a number of years. The SPLC said that such groups are generally anti-tax, anti-immigration, and increasingly racially motivated since the election of the country's first African-American president, Barack Obama. The SPLC also warned that these groups could soon pose a security risk to the country, quoting one official as saying "[a]ll it's lacking is a spark. I think it's only a matter of time before you see threats and violence."

Patek was extradited to Indonesia [JURIST report] from Pakistan in August 2011. JI claimed responsibility for the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings, which killed 202 people and injured 240 others. JI was also implicated in the 2004 bombing of the US embassy in Jakarta and a series of further bombings in Bali in 2005. In 2010, the Obama administration considered bringing charges in a Washington, DC, federal court against the suspected planner [JURIST report] of the nightclub bombing, Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainee Riduan Isamuddin [BBC profile]. Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, is the former military commander of JI and was allegedly the main link between JI and al Qaeda [Global Security backgrounder; JURIST news archive] before his capture in 2003. In 2008, three JI members were executed [JURIST report] after being convicted by a Indonesia court for their involvement in those bombings. Before their executions, the three men had called on Islamic militant groups to carry out retribution attacks, which resulted in stepped-up security in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta and a warning issued by the US embassy in Indonesia.

In July, UN Office of the Commissioner on Human Rights [official website] Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Cephas Lumina, warned [JURIST report] Greece that implementation of previous austerity measures to solve its economic crisis [BBC backgrounder] could result in serious violations of basic human rights. The Greek Parliament passed previous austerity measures with $40 billion in budget cuts, in addition to selling $72 billion in state assets, under pressure from them International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Union (EU) and the European Central Bank [official websites], which want to stave off Europe's first sovereign default. The Greek debt crisis is not only a European issue, but tied to the global market. JURIST Guest Columnist Dimitrios Ioannidis argued in June that the deregulation of US financial markets coupled with the strategic use of complex financial instruments has played a significant role [JURIST op-ed] in the Greek debt crisis.

The Supreme Court issued a summons two weeks ago demanding Gilani appear [JURIST report] at Monday's contempt hearing. Last month, Gilani honored previously issued summons by appearing before the Supreme Court to answer contempt charges [JURIST reports] and explain why he failed to purse corruption charges against President Zardari, who is accused of using Swiss bank accounts to fund bribes. The conflict between the prime minister and the court stems from an order that struck down [JURIST report] the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) [text] in 2009, which granted immunity to Zardari and 8,000 other government officials from charges of corruption, embezzlement, money laundering, murder and terrorism between January 1986 and October 1999. These proceedings reflect an ongoing struggle between the government and the courts in Pakistan. In December, the Supreme Court formed a judicial committee to investigate a secret memo [JURIST report] sent from an unknown Pakistani source to US Admiral Mike Mullen in May asking for help in preventing a suspected army coup.