In January 2012 the court granted certiorari in the related case of Florida v. Jardines [SCOTUSblog backgrounder] to determine whether the use of a drug-sniffing dog at the front door of a house is a search under the Fourth Amendment requiring probable cause. The Florida Supreme Court ruled [opinion, PDF] that such a search did require probable cause. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments [transcript, PDF; JURIST report] in the case in October, and a decision is pending.

When governments around the world fail to restrict emissions of greenhouse gases, jeopardizing the continued existence of, among others, vulnerable communities in the Arctic and in low-lying coastal areas, they fail to protect many human rights, including rights to life, health, property, and development.

The UN is regularly confronted with issues at the intersection of human and environmental rights. In January more than 140 nations gathered at a UN forum agreed [JURIST report] to a legally binding treaty addressing the use of mercury, a metal that is infamous for its detrimental effects on health and the environment. Last June, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] and UNEP issued a joint report [JURIST report] highlighting the need for the implementation of integrative human rights and environmental protection laws and policies to achieve sustainable development. The report stated that the "protection of the environment and the promotion of human rights are increasingly seen as intertwined" and that individuals from poor countries are more vulnerable to diseases and other basic need insecurities as a direct result of the ecosystem.

The court remanded the case to determine whether the FTC and Georgia could continue their lawsuit against the entity responsible for the transaction pursuant to the Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act [text], which prohibits transactions that substantially reduce competition among acute-care medical service providers. This ruling reversed the opinion [text, PDF] of the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website], which ruled that state-action immunity applied and the actions of the entity were protected from federal law. On appeal to the Supreme Court, the petitioners also posed the question of whether, despite state-action immunity, the state policy at issue would be sufficient to validate the government entity's sale of the hospital, at the behest of a private actor, when the entity neither negotiated the terms of the sale nor had any oversight of the hospital's operations. Because the Court determined that state-action immunity did not apply, it did not address this question in its opinion.

Though Beebe has yet to comment on his plans regarding this bill, he has said that he would veto an earlier bill [SB 134, PDF] banning all abortions after the detection of a fetal heartbeat [JURIST report]. This bill has failed to garner enough votes to pass the House. The current proposed legislation would make Arkansas the eighth US state to ban or restrict abortions after 20 weeks. Similar laws are currently facing legal challenges in Arizona and Georgia [JURIST reports].

After the US invasion of Iraq and the execution of Saddam Hussein [JURIST report] in 2006, the Iraqi government has been prosecuting and sentencing former officials who were closely associated with the former dictator's party. In July former Interior Minister Mahmoud Thiab al-Ahmed was released from prison [JURIST report] after serving an eight-year sentence for his part in draining the marshes in Southern Iraq. A month earlier, Abid Hamid Mahmud, a former bodyguard and secretary of Hussein, was executed after he was sentenced to death [JURIST reports] by hanging in 2010 alongside former Iraqi foreign minister and deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] and one other official. They were convicted of genocide in connection with his service under Hussein. The death sentences have led to controversy. Aziz, who was sentenced to death in 2010, sought a pardon of his sentence [JURIST report] after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] said in an interview that he would not sign the execution order [JURIST report] for Aziz.

In December the Appeals Chamber of the ICC dismissed a challenge by Gbagbo [JURIST report] that alleged the court lacks jurisdiction over him. In November the ICC unsealed an indictment [JURIST report] for Gbagbo's wife, Simone, marking the first time that the court has charged a female. In October the ICC denied Gbagbo's motion asking the court for allowance to leave the Netherlands while he recovers from alleged maltreatment received while detained by national authorities in the Ivory Coast before being surrendered to the ICC in November [JURIST reports]. The court denied Gbagbo's leave request upon a determination that he posed a flight risk. The violence that followed the 2010 election displaced millions of people from their homes in addition to the thousands of lives lost. Gbagbo's rival Alassane Ouattara [JURIST news archive] was declared the winner of the 2010 election and is now president.

Germany has recognized same-sex civil unions since 2001, but there are still certain rights that they do not share with heterosexual married couples. In August the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that same-sex couples in a civil union [JURIST report] should receive the same tax benefits as heterosexual married couples with regard to land transfer tax, further noting that the decision should apply retroactively. That ruling came during the same month that 13 members of the country's ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) [party website, in German] called for same-sex couples to be granted joint-filing tax benefits. In August 2010 the land transfer tax was amended to allow the same benefits [JURIST report] as heterosexual couples for same-sex couples in case of a divorce. In June of the same year an administrative court in Berlin held [JURIST report] that a same-sex marriage performed abroad must be recognized in a registered partnership in Germany.

The Mexican Supreme Court made its unanimous decision [JURIST report] on the Oaxaca case in December, but refrained from publishing its written judgment until this week. In the US same-sex marriage is currently legal in nine states, as well as the District of Columbia. Last week the Illinois State Senate [official website] voted 34-21 to lift the ban on same-sex marriage [JURIST report] in the state of Illinois. Last month the Rhode Island House of Representatives [official website] by a 51-19 margin approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage [JURIST report] in the Rhode Island. Later this year the US Supreme Court will likely decide the constitutionality of state and federal laws [JURIST report] defining marriage strictly as the union of one man and one woman.