A Kansas judge for the Shawnee County District Court blocked a law on Thursday that would have effectively banned most second-trimester abortions performed in the state. Judge Larry Hendricks stated that the first-in-the-nation law would have created too large of an obstacle for women in the state seeking an abortion. Opponents call the process “dismemberment [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday released a report containing evidence that many Colombian army generals and colonels knew about or should have known about extrajudicial killings of civilians between 2002 and 2008. According to the group, prosecutors are investigating a total of 3,000 cases involving military troops killing civilians to boost death counts to [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Albert Scherr of the University of New Hampshire School of Law, discusses the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice’s new rules regarding torture… For the past four and a half years, the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (the “Commission”) has been working on a revision of the [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 6-3 in King v. Burwell that tax credits available to those who buy health insurance through state exchanges are also available to those who buy it through the federal exchange. At issue was language in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) , which made tax credits available to those [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday unsealed the indictment of a Turkish man for allegedly organizing three cyber-attacks that led to an estimated $55 million in global losses. Ercan Findikoglu, after being extradited to the US from Germany on Tuesday, plead not guilty to 18 counts, including computer intrusion conspiracy and bank fraud, [...]

The French Parliament on Wednesday adopted a surveillance bill that would give French intelligence services the authority to monitor Internet use metadata. It is reported that the bill also allows for court ordered surveillance of suspects homes and cars utilizing beacons and tracking devices. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has commented on the new law [...]

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed two bills Wednesday loosening Wisconsin’s gun laws. The bills, to take effect on Friday, eliminate Wisconsin’s 48-hour waiting period for purchasing a handgun and allow off duty, retired and out-of-state police officers to carry firearms on school grounds. Both the content and timing of the bills have been criticized , [...]

US President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the government will no longer threaten litigation against families of US hostages who attempt to pay ransoms for the release of their loved ones. Obama plans to make this change a part of a larger overhaul of US policy on recovering hostages. He said that although the policy [...]

The Australian parliament on Monday passed the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2015 to prevent the online piracy of film and TV shows. The approved legislation gives rights holders the chance to go to a federal judge and get overseas websites that have the “primary purpose” of creating copyright infringement issues blocked. Australian internet providers [...]

The US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday ruled in favor of tight regulations pointed at the for-profit college industry. The court ruled that the Education Department has the right to demand that schools show that their graduates are financially dependent enough to repay their student loans. Fraudulent colleges have been the [...]