The United Nations Security Council on Friday condemned the use of sexual violence as a “tactic of war” in Iraq and Syria. Following a briefing by UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict Zainab Bangura , the council emphasized that rape and other forms of “serious sexual violence” are war crimes and violate the [...]

Three individuals in a polygynous domestic relationship on Friday filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Montana , challenging Montana’s law banning polygamy, following Yellowstone County officials’ denial of a marriage license to them. The three wish for their polygamous relationship to be legally recognized in light of the Supreme [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Friday reversed a ruling that blocked the National Security Agency (NSA) from obtaining call detail records from US citizens. Plaintiffs contended that the NSA’s collection of such data violated their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. The DC Circuit disagreed and [...]

US District Judge Ralph Erickson of the US District Court of the District of North Dakota in Fargo on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction against a rule granting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over small US waterways. Erickson blocked the grant of jurisdiction that was scheduled to [...]

A Kentucky county clerk on Thursday again denied a same-sex couple’s request for a marriage license, despite a federal appeals court order. Kim Davis, the clerk for Rowan county, has declined to extend marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the US Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges , claiming that to do so would [...]

The Alaska Superior Court struck down a state law Thursday, finding that it would have placed unconstitutional regulations on Medicaid coverage of abortions to the detriment of low-income women. The case was filed by Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest along with the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union in 2013 [...]

A Travis county judge on Friday denied a request for a temporary restraining order meant to halt the University of Texas at Austin’s efforts to relocate a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The university’s plan to move the statue from a prominent pedestrian area to an on-campus american history center was opposed by the [...]

Google filed a response Thursday to the European Commission (EC) , rejecting EU antitrust charges that Google structures its search results to favor its own services over those of rivals. The EU’s investigation of Google over various antitrust violations has been ongoing since 2010. The EU initiated antitrust proceedings against Google in April with a [...]

Guatemalan judicial authorities must prevent further “obstruction of justice” in the ongoing genocide trial against the former dictator and the former chief of intelliegence, according to a statement by two experts from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released Thursday. José Efraín Ríos Montt and José Mauricio Rodríguez Sánchez, respectively, are [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on Thursday filed a complaint challenging the constitutionality of a new Indiana statute that prohibits voters from sharing pictures of their ballots on social media. The ACLU of Indiana claimes that Indiana Code 3-11-8-17.5 violates Indiana citizen’s First Amendment rights. ACLU of Indiana Legal Director Ken Falk stated [...]