Overseas HIV/AIDS funding peg to anti-prostitution pledge ruling [US DC] News
Overseas HIV/AIDS funding peg to anti-prostitution pledge ruling [US DC]

Alliance for an Open Society International et al. v. United States Agency for International Development et al., United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Victor Marrero, May 9, 2006 [ruling that the federal government is violating First Amendment free speech rights by withholding federal HIV/AIDS funding from human rights groups working abroad who refuse to sign a pledge condemning prostitution]. Read the full text of the opinion [PDF]. Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UK parliament rejected J.S. Mill's proposal to give women the vote

On May 20, 1867, the British Parliament rejected by 196-73 an amendment to the 1867 Reform Act presented by John Stuart Mill that would have permitted women to vote. Review Mill's 1869 work The Subjection of Women.

Supreme Court applies Free Exercise Clause to state governments

On May 20, 1940, the United States Supreme Court held that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment applied to state governments in Cantwell v. Connecticut under the incorporation doctrine, which applied the protections of the Bill of Rights to state governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Learn more about the Incorporation Doctrine from the Cornell Law Schools' Legal Information Institute.