The main opposition party in Sri Lanka, The United National Party (UNP) released a statement Thursday demanding the Sri Lankan government conduct an investigation into alleged war crimes that occurred during the 26 year Sri Lankan Civil War that ended in 2009. The Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil [...]

The United States District Court of Maine ruled on Wednesday that a city ordinance banning people from panhandling in median strips of streets was unconstitutional. US District Judge George Singal found that the Portland, Maine ordinance’s distinction between allowing people to be in the medians to place political campaign signs, and disallowing people to loiter [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan Mendez on Wednesday urged the Tajikistan government to implement policies and laws that have been previously adopted by the government in order to end torture and ill-treatment within the country. Mendez was encouraged by Tajikistan’s response to his last visit and recommendations he had given to the government [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky ruled Wednesday that Kentucky must recognize valid out-of-state marriages between same-sex couples living in Kentucky. The case was brought by four same-sex couples living in Kentucky, who had been legally married in Canada or other US states prior to moving to Kentucky. [...]

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit on Monday in the 16th Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri on behalf of eight same-sex couples seeking recognition for their marriages, which were all performed out of state. Currently, Missouri’s Constitutional Amendment 2 , approved by Missouri voters in 2004, [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Steven Baicker-McKee of the Duquesne University School of Law notes that the Supreme Court unanimously overturned the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in ruling that a declaratory judgment action does not affect the court’s jurisdiction or shift the parties’ burden of proof …

JURIST Guest Columnist Tung Yin of the Lewis &#38 Clark Law School argues that the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s report on the NSA’s telephone records program is likely best directed toward statutory changes in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act rather than influencing decisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court …

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled Tuesday that a 2011 North Carolina law that permits residents to display a license plate reading “Choose Life” is unconstitutional. North Carolina appealed to the Fourth Circuit after a federal district court judge struck down the law. The Fourth Circuit held that North Carolina violated [...]

Residents of Fremont, Nebraska , voted on Tuesday to reaffirm Ordinance 5165 , which prohibits harboring, hiring or renting to undocumented immigrants. The law was initially approved in 2010 , but its implementation was delayed during a federal lawsuit over the law’s constitutionality. Last year a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for [...]