The 1996 federal law that protects the privacy of our medical records –the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA – has from the outset contained a carefully crafted exception for personal health information that might bear directly on the commission of a crime. But with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the [...]
“Civilization is the never-ending process of creating one world and one humanity.” Lewis Mumford, In the Name of Sanity (1954) Biological Sameness and Species Unification The unity and interdependence of humankind is not subject to reasonable challenge. Beginning with our biological sameness, species’ commonality includes a broad variety of human needs and expectations. In the [...]
“Sticks dipped in oil, wire, knitting needles, coat hangers, ball point pens” This is not your ordinary grocery list but the list of items used to induce abortion in a country that has criminalized abortion. People specifically from marginalized communities resorted to consumption of turpentine, bleach and detergent solutions and used the above listed objects [...]
Imagine a system under which the U.S. Supreme Court hears cases as panels consisting of three to five Justices rather than as a full court of nine. Suppose that the Chief Justice makes a five-Justice panel consisting of himself, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Elena Kagan to hear abortion [...]
In a June 2022 press conference, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) deputy governor confirmed the government’s plan to adopt Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) gradually during fiscal year 2023. This comment was followed by Annual Report 2021–22, released by the RBI, stating CBDC would be introduced into the Indian economy through a three-step approach. [...]
On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturned Roe v. Wade with a 6-3 majority. This judgment raises multiple constitutional law and due process issues. However, this article will not be addressing these issues. The focus of this piece is to analyze and highlight [...]
In the following JURIST video commentary, Dr. Thamil Ananthavinayagan of the University of Nottingham (UK) discusses the July 20, 2022 parliamentary appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe as President of Sri Lanka. This is the latest development in a series of political upheavals in recent months that saw the ouster of Sri Lanka’s former president and prime [...]
“Defectors often cause more difficulty than disinterested disbelievers” – Neal Ash Maxwell, American scholar, educator, and religious leader. Recent events in the Indian state of Maharashtra reaffirm the existence of glaring loopholes in a law aimed at bolstering political stability in India. The recent fall of the democratically elected government led by the state’s former [...]
“You seem to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy.” ― Thomas Jefferson A recent series of radically partisan judicial decisions by the United States Supreme Court heralds the first rollback of fundamental human rights [...]
This has been a difficult summer for rights activists around the globe. First, the Karnatka High Court upheld the Indian government’s ban on the hijab. Then a French administrative court decided to sustain the prohibition on burkinis. And finally, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. This controversial decision has sparked debates across multiple [...]
