We determine that Justice Gableman made the required subjective determination that he could be impartial in the case and that it would appear that he could act in an impartial manner. The supreme court does not go beyond review of a justice's subjective determination that he or she may participate in a case under Wis. Stat. § 757.19(2)(g) [text].

The Supreme Court's upholding of the Budget Repair Bill overruled a Dane County Circuit Court's [official website] decision [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] last year that struck down the law for violations of the open meetings rule. The law had previously been temporarily blocked [JURIST report] from publication and implementation by the same judge. The bill, which limits collective bargaining rights of state employees and requires them to contribute a percentage of their salaries to their health care and pensions, was signed into law [JURIST report] in March of last year

Al-Hashimi is currently residing in Turkey, after having refused [JURIST report] in December to return to Iraq to stand trial because he believed the court would be biased against him. He also denied all charges [Al Jazeera video] against him, claiming they are politically motivated. Violence arose in December when protesters hit the streets [Al Arabiya report] in support of al-Hasimi just days after US troops left the country to signal the end of the nine-year Iraq War [JURIST feature].

A similar law was rejected by a French court early this year. The Constitutional Council of the French Republic [official website, in French] ruled [JURIST report] in February that a French law [materials, in French] making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered a genocide by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 is unconstitutional. Despite one Senate committee's rejection, France's genocide denial ban was passed [JURIST reports] by both the Senate and the National Assembly [official websites, in French] in mid-January. However, the law was contested [JURIST report] only a week later when opposition members of both houses of parliament gathered the necessary signatures to warrant the law's review by the Constitutional Council. Although former president Nicolas Sarkozy previously insisted that the law did not specifically target Turkey, the Turkish government repeatedly warned that and affirmation of the law would result in Turkey imposing sanctions on France [AFP report].

Many in the international community have expressed concern over the situation in Mali. Early this month, the UN Security Council [official website] passed Resolution 2056 to address the continued hostilities [JURIST report] in the country and demand the violence come to an end. Earlier this week ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda [official profile] told reporters that attacks by Islamist rebels on religious monuments [JURIST report] in Mali will not be tolerated. In May Amnesty International [advocacy website] released a report saying that Mali is facing its worst human rights crisis [JURIST report] since it gained independence in 1960. Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] released a similar report in April claiming that all sides to the conflict are committing war crimes [JURIST report]. Earlier in April the ICC said they would monitor the situation [JURIST report] in Mali for potential crimes under the ICC's jurisdiction. The turmoil began when Taureg rebels attacked Malian soldiers [Al Jazeera report].