Marijuana use has created legal controversy around the world, especially in the US. In November, US voters passed ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana [JURIST report] for the first time on a statewide basis in both Colorado and Washington. In June the Chicago City Council [official website] voted to decriminalize [JURIST report] the possession of small amounts of marijuana, detailing that police officers may issue tickets to individuals found to be in possession of 10 grams of marijuana or less. In May the Connecticut Senate passed a bill [JURIST report] allowing citizens to obtain marijuana for medical use under certain conditions, making Connecticut the seventeenth state to allow sale of marijuana for medical use. Other states that have passed similar laws have run into trouble with conflicting federal laws regulating the production and sale of marijuana. In March the US District Court for the Eastern District of California [official website] dismissed a suit [JURIST report] challenging US Attorneys' authority to prosecute medical marijuana providers in California. In January the US District Court for the District of Montana [official website] ruled [JURIST report] that the state's laws allowing the sale of medical marijuana did not protect dispensers from federal prosecution. Connecticut has nevertheless been taking steps toward legalization of marijuana, last year passing a law decriminalizing possession [JURIST report] of small amounts of marijuana.

Earlier this week Pillay visited Indonesia where she urged the government to end violence and discrimination [JURIST report] against Christians and Muslim minorities. Pillay commended Indonesia for ratifying several international human rights treaties and for progressing in its democratic transition but stressed the need to end targeted discrimination in the country. Last week Pillay urged South Sudan to reverse an expulsion order [JURIST report] against a UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) [official website] staff member, claiming the government has given no good reason to support the order. Earlier in November Pillay expressed concern that the Chinese government is suppressing Tibetans' freedom of expression [JURIST report] and that the government is using excessive force against peaceful protestors, with Pillay calling on China to remedy long-held frustrations in Tibet that have led to recent extreme protest tactics, and urging Tibetans to not resort to self-immolation or other extreme protest measures.

In light of the significant constitutional issues presented by such detention, 8 USC § 1226(c) should be read not to authorize the mandatory detention of individuals who have a substantial challenge to deportability or inadmissibility. It should also be read to require the opportunity for a constitutionally adequate hearing to determine whether an individual is properly subject to mandatory detention. This hearing should include adequate notice; require that the government bear the burden of establishing prima facie deportability or inadmissibility on a ground that triggers mandatory detention; provide the detainee the opportunity to demonstrate that he has a substantial challenge to deportability or inadmissibility on those grounds; and require that a contemporaneous record of proceedings be made and maintained so that the determination is amenable to meaningful review.

In recent years, the US has had great difficulty with its attempts to manage its immigration policies. Earlier this year the ACLU called out immigrant detention centers in Arizona and Georgia [JURIST reports] for being unsanitary, failing to give inmates proper access to medical treatment and even denying inmates due process. Last year the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled [JURIST report] that imprisoned immigrants who are fighting deportation cannot be held indefinitely without a bail hearing and that the government must justify the need for the prolonged detention. In an effort to combat illegal immigration, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) launched a voluntary deportation program [JURIST report] in 2008 which would allow certain illegal immigrants to coordinate their removal from the US with ICE without the risk of home raids, arrest or detention. However, the program was abandoned [JURIST report] for its lack of success three weeks later.

Gotovina and Markac were originally found guilty of charges including murder, plunder, persecution and deportation in 2011, and were sentenced to 24 and 18 years respectively. The ICTY began the trial [JURIST report] of Gotovina and Markac, along with Croatian militant commander Ivan Cermak, in 2008. Gotovina was indicted in 2001 and was the third most-wanted ICTY war crimes suspect until his arrest [JURIST report] in 2005 in Spain's Canary Islands. Established as an ad hoc tribunal, the ICTY was the first war crimes court created by the UN, and it opened its final trial [JURIST report] last month.

Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in continuous patent litigation in courts around the world. In October the Dutch Rechtbank's-Gravenhage [official website] court ruled that Samsung did not infringe [JURIST report] on an Apple software patent. In the same month a UK court also ruled that Samsung did not infringe [JURIST report] on an Apple design patent. In the same time frame Apple appealed a Tokyo District Court ruling [JURIST report] which dismissed the company's claim that Samsung had infringed on its patents. At the beginning of October, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] reversed an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung that prevented it from selling its Galaxy Nexus product. Earlier in August, Apple won a $1.05 billion judgment [JURIST report] in the Northern District of California against Samsung involving other patent infringements.

In July Gergel declined to lift an injunction [JURIST report] against the law despite the recent US Supreme Court decision striking down most of the model Arizona immigration law [SB 1070, PDF; JURIST news archive]. Gergel blocked provisions of the law [JURIST report] from being enforced in December. The lawsuit against the South Carolina immigration law was put on hold [JURIST report] in January pending the outcome of Arizona v. United States. South Carolina is one of five states, including Alabama, Georgia, Indiana and Utah [JURIST reports] that modeled their recent immigration laws after Arizona's controversial SB 1070. Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Arizona v. United States [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] in June, lower courts have handed down a variety of rulings.

In Seattle, the Court did not consider whether a compelling state interest might justify a state's enactment of a racially-focused law that restructures the political process, because the government made no such argument. ... Likewise, because the Attorney General does not assert that Proposal 2 satisfies a compelling state interest, we need not consider this argument. Therefore, those portions of Proposal 2 that affect Michigan's public institutions of higher education violate the Equal Protection Clause.

A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit previously found the proposal unconstitutional [JURIST report] in July 2011. The panel ruled that the proposal unduly burdened minorities by abusing a political process where minorities were likely to have no redress. The ruling reversed a 2008 decision by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to dismiss the challenge [JURIST report] with prejudice. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette made a formal request for a rehearing [JURIST report] in July 2011 stating that the Sixth Circuit's decision conflicted with prior decisions of the court. In September 2011 the Sixth Circuit agreed to a rehearing en banc to determine the constitutionality of Proposal 2, which was approved by voters [JURIST reports] in 2006. The US Supreme Court heard arguments last month in in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin [JURIST report], in which the plaintiff is challenging the constitutionality of that university's affirmative action program. A ruling is expected by June.