Kaing is the only former Khmer Rouge leader to have been convicted by the ECCC. Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith, Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea were indicted [JURIST report] in September 2010. The ECCC ruled that Ieng Thirith was unfit to stand trial, but the Supreme Court Chamber in December ordered that she remain in detention [JURIST reports] and that the Trial Chamber exhaust all measures so that she can stand trial. The other three went on trial [JURIST report] in November. In July the ECCC appointed a new judge to prosecute two new war crime cases [JURIST report].

Apple and Samsung are currently embroiled in several patent lawsuits in courts all over the world. In Asia last week, a Tokyo court dismissed a claim [JURIST report] that Samsung violated Apple's patents with its smartphones and tablets. In the US only two weeks ago, Apple moved to block eight Samsung products from being produced in the US just after it won a USD $1.05 billion judgment [JURIST report] against its competitor in California court. In Europe, a UK court ruled in July that Samsung tablets do not infringe on Apple's design. The original patent suit [JURIST report] was brought in California by Apple in April of last year.

In July it was reported that the US would retain control of about 50 non-Afghan detainees [JURIST report] at Parwan Detention Center at Bagram. At that time the US again had to defend its position by asserting that its agreement with Afghanistan did not cover foreign nationals. The detainees have allegedly been held without access to legal assistance, prompting some human rights activists to question the deal's legitimacy and expand upon the criticism that the Bagram facility has been "the other Guantanamo" since its opening [JURIST report] in 2009. The plan for Afghanistan [JURIST report] to take over the US military's Parwan Detention Center was crafted in January with a goal of transferring all responsibilities to the Afghan government within six months.

Attempts to limit collective bargaining rights have been confronted with heavy opposition. Wisconsin faced a challenge against its legislation which limited the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions. In July the Wisconsin Supreme Court [official website] ruled [JURIST report] not to reopen a case challenging the state's Budget Repair Bill [text, PDF] because of a justice's refusal to recuse himself. Four votes were needed, but only three justices were in support of reopening the case. The court upheld [JURIST report] the bill in June 2011 thereby overruling the Dane County Circuit Court [official website] finding [JURIST report] a month earlier that legislators had violated the "open meetings" rule. The court ruled that the lower court had "invaded the legislature's constitutional powers." In March a judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin [official website] ruled unconstitutional [JURIST report] certain provisions of the Budget Repair Bill reasoning that unions which supported Governor Scott Walker [official website] during his election were apparently given preferential treatment. Last November Ohio voters rejected [JURIST report] a bill which would have impacted Ohio's 400,000 public workers by limiting their ability to strike and collectively bargain for health insurance and pensions.

Khadr was charged after being captured subsequent to a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 in which he threw a hand grenade that killed one US soldier and wounded another. In August 2010 a military judge rejected Khadr's claim that his confession was a byproduct of torture [JURIST report]. Earlier that month the same judge ruled that Khadr's confession was admissible at trial [JURIST report]. Canada had previously declined to seek Khadr's repatriation [JURIST report] after his former lawyers obtained a ruling in the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] that the interrogation of Khadr by Canadian officials while in detention violated section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. According to the ruling, Canadian officials questioned Khadr, even though they knew he was being indefinitely detained and that in March 2004 he was questioned with knowledge that he was subjected to three weeks sleep deprivation by US authorities. Regardless that ruling did not force the government to seek his repatriation.

Myanmar has been working to eliminate sectarian violence within its borders, but has recently been criticized by different groups for its methods and for human rights abuses. Earlier this week Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) released a report concluding that Myanmar's army is still committing human rights abuses [JURIST report] against ethnic minorities in Karen state. Last week the country sentenced two UN staff members [JURIST report] to prison for their involvement in sectarian violence. This was one week after President Thein Sein announced creation of a 27-member commission [JURIST report] to investigate causes of the violence. Earlier this month, however, HRW accused Myanmar forces of committing multiple human rights violations [JURIST report] following an outbreak of sectarian violence. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay also expressed concern [JURIST report] last month about both the continued violence in Myanmar and the country's human rights abuses committed in dealing with it.

Deadly attacks on Shia communities across Pakistan are escalating. The government's persistent failure to apprehend attackers or prosecute the extremist groups organizing the attacks suggests that it is indifferent to this carnage.

Pakistan has been under pressure recently to improve human rights conditions. In June UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profile] urged the Pakistani government to continue to work to improve its human rights situation [JURIST report]. In particular, Pillay stressed that the government must work to eliminate institutionalized discrimination and to prevent torture and corruption. In May Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari signed a bill authorizing the creation of an independent human rights commission [JURIST report] in Pakistan. Last year the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan [official website], a non-government organization, harshly criticized the Pakistani government [JURIST report] for its poor human rights record and called on government officials to fix the human rights abuses occurring in the country.

Because homeless persons' unabandoned possessions are "property" within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, the City must comport with the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment's due process clause if it wishes to take and destroy them. ....We reject the City's suggestion that we create an exception to the requirements of due process for the belongings of homeless persons.

The rights of homeless people [JURIST news archive] have been a contentious legal issue recently. In August JURIST guest columnist Sapphire Jule King asserted that states need to enact comprehensive legislation [JURIST comment] to protect the homeless from discrimination. In July JURIST guest columnist Linda Tashbook argued that Rhode Island's recently-passed Homeless Bill of Rights [text, PDF; JURIST report] provides an improved set of standards [JURIST op-ed] by which states should treat their homeless citizens. In April the US Department of Justice [official website] found that ordinances criminalizing homelessness may violate human rights [JURIST report] as well as the Fourth and Eighth Amendments. The Supreme Court of Georgia ruled in 2008 that current state laws regarding sex offenders are unconstitutional as applied to homeless people [JURIST report]. The state court determined that the law, which did not permit listing "homeless" as an acceptable address, "[did] not give homeless sexual offenders without a residence address fair notice of how they can comply with the statute's registration requirement." In 2008 New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that his administration had reached a settlement [press release; JURIST report] in a long-standing lawsuit over homeless families' right to use shelters throughout the city.

Bush and other national leaders have come under fire for allegedly engaging in torture and human rights abuses. Earlier this week Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu [backgrounder] called for [JURIST report] Bush and former UK prime minister Tony Blair [JURIST news archives] to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] for their roles in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In February 2011 the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the European Center for Human Rights (ECCHR) [advocacy websites] urged [JURIST report] the signatory states of the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) [text] to pursue criminal charges [press release] against Bush. In July 2010 HRW urged the Obama administration to begin a criminal investigation [JURIST report] into alleged detainee abuses authorized by the Bush administration following the 9/11 terrorist attacks [JURIST backgrounder]. Other calls to investigate the criminal culpability of Bush and officials in his administration have been rejected consistently by US officials [JURIST report].

Latino members of our community should not be subjected to unlawful stops based on their race or perceived immigration status. Once this 'show me your papers' provision goes into effect, racial profiling will become rampant statewide ... and we intend to ramp up our reporting and litigation efforts to seek justice on behalf of the victims of police abuse.

Immigration law [JURIST backgrounder] has became a hot button issue over the past few years as many states, Arizona being the first, have passed laws giving state and local officials more power to crack down on illegal immigration. In August the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] struck down [JURIST report] several provisions of Alabama's controversial immigration law [HB 56, PDF], upheld a few sections of the law and rejected part of Georgia's immigration law [HB 87, text]. That same month, the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] again heard arguments [JURIST report] on two anti-illegal immigrant laws enacted in 2006 by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, which deny permits to businesses that employ illegal immigrants and fine landlords who extend housing to them. In July a judge for the US District Court for the District of South Carolina [official website] declined to lift an injunction [JURIST report] against South Carolina's controversial immigration law [SB 20 materials], despite the recent Supreme Court ruling. The lawsuit against the South Carolina immigration law was put on hold [JURIST report] in January pending the outcome of Arizona v. United States. Last May the ACLU and the National Immigration Law Center filed a class action lawsuit challenging Utah's immigration law, the same month that the ACLU filed a class action [JURIST reports] in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana [official website] challenging that state's immigration law.

Government use of technology to locate and obtain information about people has caused much controversy. In July a member of the US House of Representatives released a report showing an increase in requests by law enforcement [JURIST report] agencies to access cell phone records from major wireless carriers. In March the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that a warrantless search of a suspect's cell phone to obtain the suspect's phone number is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Last year a federal court ordered the Department of Justice [official website] to release information [JURIST report] about when it had used cell phone location data to track down suspects in a suit filed by the ACLU.

Rights of domestic workers has been a controversial issue for years. Last year the UN warned Lebanon [JURIST report] specifically that it needed to create more laws to protect rights of domestic workers. In 2010 Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] expressed the same opinion [JURIST report], stating that Lebanon needed to do more to protect domestic workers in its country and prosecute those who violate their rights. HRW also released a statement [JURIST report] in 2008 saying that migrant and domestic workers were facing human rights abuses throughout the Middle East and Asia.

Minnesota's law hinders associations from participating in the political debate and limits their access to the citizenry and the government. The law manifestly discourages associations, particularly small associations with limited resources, from engaging in protected political speech. ... In short, the collective burdens associated with Minnesota's independent expenditure law chill political speech.

Campaign finance laws have been a contentious issue recently. In June the US Supreme Court struck down a Montana campaign finance law that restricted the amount of money corporations can spend on campaigns, holding that Citizens United [JURIST reports] invalidated the Montana law. That decision, American Tradition Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] reversed a decision by the Montana Supreme Court upholding the law [JURIST report]. Also in June the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit cited Citizens United and ruled [JURIST report] that a district court erred in holding that corporations can contribute directly to political campaigns. In February the Supreme Court blocked enforcement [JURIST report] of the Montana Supreme Court ruling.