A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas on Tuesday ruled in favor of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in a case asserting that the state of Texas failed to soften its voter identification law as ordered . After the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in [...]

The North Carolina Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a claim by two former magistrates that their rights were violated by 2014 guidance memos from the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) that said they could be fired if they refused to perform same-sex marriages. The magistrates resigned after the guidance was [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an investigation on Tuesday into the fatal police shooting of Terence Crutcher. Crutcher, an unarmed black man, was shot last week by a Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer responding to a 911 call of a vehicle blocking a road. The Tulsa police department is investigating the shooting, but US [...]

The UN Independent Investigation in Burundi (UNIIB) on Tuesday stated their grave concern about the current human rights situation in Burundi. The group found, “abundant evidence of gross human rights violations,” which they believe could amount to crimes against humanity by the government of Burundi and people associated with it. Among the calls for international [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Stephen Cooper discusses Proposition 62… No righteous, freedom-loving Californian believes human beings should be executed for possessing or selling pot. Indeed, we rightly cringe at the megalomaniac entreaties (such as, kill drug dealers and “I’ll give you a medal”)of military strongman, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who incites, and has himself been directly [...]

Thailand’s Bangkok South Criminal Court found British labor rights activist Andy Hall guilty of criminal defamation and violating cyber crime laws on Tuesday. The charges came about after Hall published Cheap Has a High Price , a report on labor abuse in the fruit canning sector. The 2013 report focused on a Natural Fruit Company [...]

Former Serbian paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic went on trial for war crimes Tuesday in Croatia’s Split Court . Dragan is accused of torturing and murdering civilians and prisoners during the Croation War for independence . Some of the crimes of which he is accused include crimes of aggression that resulted in the destruction of civilian [...]

Gabon’s Ambassador to the US said Monday that ballots from the contested presidential election will be recounted in the coming days. The election results sparked days of protests and outrage when it was announced that incumbent President Ali Bongo Ondimba won by less than 10,000 votes. The ambassador stressed that election was held in compliance [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Monday ruled that Rowan County Commissioners in North Carolina may open public meetings with prayer. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU of North Carolina brought the suit in 2013 on behalf of three Rowan County residents who were alleging that the opening prayers [...]

California Governor Jerry Brown on Monday signed Senate Bill 1383 , which sets new state goals for cutting pollutants like methane, hydrofluorocarbons and soot, also referred to as black carbons . While comparing the fight against climate change to Noah’s ark, Brown said that reducing this “short lived” climate pollution will help the battle. The [...]