A judge for the US District Court for the District of Colorado on Thursday upheld two Colorado statutes that expanded mandatory background checks and banned high capacity magazines. CRS § 18-12-302 and CRS § 18-12-112 were challenged by a group of individuals and entities who claimed that the laws violated the Second Amendment to the [...]

The use of lethal Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) or drones poses a risk of putting the US on a “slippery slope” to perpetual war, according to a report published Thursday by the Stimson Center . From a one-year extensive study, the report offers eight recommendations for overhauling UAV strategy including: executing a cost-benefit analysis for [...]

A three-man civilian panel in the Jordanian State Security Court on Thursday declared radical preacher Abu Qatada not guilty of terrorism offences relating to an alleged plot in 1998 on the American school in Amman. The court ruled there was insufficient evidence to find Qatada guilty of terrorism charges for the 1998 plot, but he [...]

Senior UN officials urged the international community on Thursday to end the practice of torture in celebration of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture . “As we honour the victims on this International Day, let us pledge to strengthen our efforts to eradicate this heinous practice,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon . [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday condemned Iran’s use of the death penalty for juvenile offenders and called on authorities to halt the announced execution of Razieh Ebrahimi. Ebrahimi, who was legally married to her then-28-year-old husband when she was 14, was sentenced to death after killing her abusive husband when [...]

The New York Court of Appeals ruled 4-2 Thursday that the New York City Board of Health exceeded its powers as a regulatory authority by banning the serving of large portions of sugary drinks. The Portion Cap Rule bans the sale of sugary drinks over 16 ounces, although this does not apply to convenience stores [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Linda Tashbook of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law discusses the constitutionality of the Los Angeles law prohibiting the use of a vehicle for living quarters… Nothing offends constitutional sensibilities quite like a local ordinance that sets police against poor people as a way of cleaning-up litter. Yet Section 85.02 of [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday in NLRB v. Noel Canning that US President Barack Obama overstepped his authority when he appointed three members to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in January 2012. In an opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, the court held that while the president does have authority to make appointments during [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Massachusetts law creating a 35-foot protester-free buffer zone around the entrance or driveway of an abortion clinic is unconstitutional. In McCullen v. Coakley the court considered the questions of whether the buffer zone, created by the Reproductive Health Care Facilities Act , violated the First Amendment to [...]

UN Special Rapporteurs on torture and the right to health, Juan Mendez and Anand Grover, on Wednesday urged the Knesset , the Israeli Parliament, to withdraw proposed amendments to the Prisons Act which would allow the forced feeding and medical treatment of inmates currently participating in a hunger strike. A large number of Palestinian prisoners [...]