JURIST Guest Columnist Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes, of the South Texas College of Law, analyzes valid and invalid grounds for challenging the Texas voter photo identification law under the Texas Constitution The Texas voter photo identification law, which requires qualified, registered voters to present one of seven specified forms of picture identification for a vote [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on Tuesday ordered Maricopa Country sheriff Joe Arpaio to undergo the same training as his deputies to assist in the prevention of racial profiling and unlawful detention in the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) as part of the ongoing case against Arpaio for [...]

The North Dakota Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed an existing state law limiting the use of drugs in abortion procedures. This ruling reversed a previous decision by a district judge, who found that the law violates the state constitution. The state requires a minimum of four out of the five Supreme Court justices to agree [...]

A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Wednesday sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Motiur Rahman Nizami to death for crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War with Pakistan. The former Cabinet minister was tried on charges that included genocide, rape, murder and torture, and was accused of personally carrying out or ordering the deaths of nearly [...]

The Court of Appeal of the Republic of Singapore, the appellate division of the Supreme Court of Singapore , on Tuesday ruled that a national law criminalizing male homosexuality conforms with the city-state’s constitution . Three homosexual men brought the case against the attorney general, arguing the 76-year-old homosexuality provision of the current penal code [...]

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday halted the execution of Mark Christeson, a Missouri man convicted of killing a woman and her two children, pending the determination of whether the 35-year-old received effective legal counsel. Christeson’s attorneys, along with 15 former judges, on Monday asked the Supreme Court to block his execution, claiming that mistakes [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida on Tuesday issued a temporary ruling blocking the enforcement of the contraception mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act against a Florida Roman Catholic college. The order, which came in the form of a preliminary injunction, will remain in effect [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on North Korea human rights Marzuki Darusman on Tuesday submitted a report urging that North Korea be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity. Darusman stated that “ Korea, including victims, and to ensure accountability of those responsible for serious violations of human rights, including crimes [...]

The UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries on Tuesday urged stronger global and regulation of private security companies. The group also called on governments to hold private military and security companies (PMSCs) accountable for all of their international human rights violations. The call comes on the heels of a federal jury returning a [...]

A court in Saudi Arabia on Monday sentenced three lawyers to between five and eight years in prison for criticizing the justice system on the social networking website Twitter by accusing authorities of carrying out arbitrary detentions. The Saudi Press Agency reported that the lawyers were each convicted of different crimes, including using the social [...]