Houston voters rejected the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance on Tuesday by a margin of 61 to 39 percent. Ordinance No. 2014-530 , known by its opponents as the “bathroom bill,” prohibited discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and other protected characteristics. The ordinance focused on protection in employment, housing, city [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Evan Jaffe of St. John’s University School of Law Class of 2016, is the fourth author in a twelve-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development. Jaffe discusses whether economic and social class can replace race in the university admission process to increase diversity in the [...]

US regulators on Tuesday imposed a fine of up to $200 million on auto part manufacturer Takata for failing to disclose the defect of millions of their airbags to regulators in a timely manner. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) levied a base fine of $70 million with the possibility of an additional $130 [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on two cases. In Lockhart v. US the court heard arguments on whether the mandatory minimum for a child pornography sentence, as found in 18 USC § 2252(b)(2) , applies when the offender has previously been convicted of sexual abuse or aggravated sexual abuse, even if the [...]

Stateless children throughout the world experience feelings of discrimination and despair that may not only haunt their childhood but negatively affect the rest of their lives as well, according to a report released by the UN on Tuesday. The authors interviewed more than 250 youth and parents in seven countries this summer. According to the [...]

An independent UN human rights expert warned Tuesday that climate change may threaten food security. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food , Hilal Elver, warned that the intense weather conditions, including droughts, high temperatures, earthquakes and hurricanes, are threatening crops, livestock, fish and even jobs. She called for urgent action by all [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin G. Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law discusses the recent decision in Meshal v. Higgenbotham… In the Meshal decision on Friday, October 23, 2015, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit found (as did the district court below) what FBI agents allegedly did to an American [...]

A Chinese court on Tuesday jailed a top aide to the country’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang on corruption charges. Li Chongxi was one of the top security advisers before being indicted in April. He is part of a number of cases brought by China’s communist party to end corruption. Over 1 million yuan in [...]

Syrian armed groups may be committing war crimes, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday, stating that the practice of caging captured soldiers and civilians constitutes hostage-taking and an outrage against their personal dignity. A video that surfaced Sunday shows cages holding multiple people being transported by trucks. According to HRW, the armed groups’ intent is [...]

The US Department of Education ruled on Monday that the Palatine Township School District 211 in Illinois violated federal law when it refused to provide gender-appropriate locker rooms for a transgender student. In December 2013 the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a federal complaint alleging that the school district was discriminating based on sex [...]