Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont Tuesday voted on Election Day ballot measures to end the practice of enslavement after criminal conviction. Under the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, slavery and involuntary servitude may not exist “except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” This language [...]

The US Supreme Court Wednesday heard oral arguments in consolidated cases challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The case before the court, Haaland v. Brackeen, includes challenges from non-Native adoptive parents seeking to adopt a Native child over objections from the Native community. The court heard arguments on three issues in the case. The [...]

Indian law students are reporting for JURIST on law-related developments in and affecting India. This dispatch is from Nakul Rai Khurana, a law student at Jindal Global Law School.  In New Delhi Wednesday, President of India Draupadi Murmu swore-in the Honorable Justice Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud to become the 50th Chief Justice of India (‘CJI’). This [...]

JURIST law student staffers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law are filing dispatches on various aspects of the November 2022 midterm elections in Pennsylvania. Here, Pitt Law 2L David DeNotaris reports on the race between Mehmet Oz and John Fetterman for one of the two Pennsylvania seats in the closely-divided US Senate.  While overall [...]

US voters in California, Michigan, Kentucky and Vermont Tuesday voted in favor of abortion rights in four state ballot measures. Results from Montana’s vote remain inconclusive, but abortion advocates are poised to win. In June, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade with Dobbs v. Jackson Women Health Organization and ruled there is no [...]

Voters in Iowa Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to adopt a constitutional amendment allowing people to keep and bear firearms. The final vote was 745,118 in favor to 398,881 against. This will make Iowa the 45th state to include the right to keep and bear firearms in its state constitution. The amendment as ratified reads: Right to [...]

JURIST staffers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law are filing dispatches on various aspects of the November 2022 midterm elections in Pennsylvania. Here, JURIST Assistant Editor and Pitt Law 1L JP Leskovich reports on his experience as a local poll worker on November 8.  The world has been watching the US midterm elections, [...]

Voters in Oregon Tuesday adopted a ballot measure to place stricter requirements on gun ownership. The final vote was close with 740,335 in favor and 716,656 against, as of the time of this report. The new measure requires Oregonians to obtain a permit from the state police before acquiring a firearm. The applicant must pay [...]

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Beaumont Divison Tuesday granted a temporary restraining order to prohibit poll workers from harassing Black voters at a polling center in Beaumont, Texas. The order follows a lawsuit filed by Beaumont’s NAACP chapter alleging instances of harassment and racial discrimination at one of the county’s [...]

During an emergency meeting Tuesday, Philadelphia City Commissioners voted 2-1 to reinstate the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of poll book reconciliation, reversing a decision made less than a week ago to waive the onerous procedure. In poll book reconciliation, poll books are amended to indicate whether a voter has voted twice. While every county carries [...]