Oklahoma death row inmate Clayton Lockett died of an apparent heart attack Tuesday shortly after doctors called off a failed attempt to execute him using a new cocktail of lethal injection drugs. According to the state corrections department, 13 minutes after administering the drug cocktail Lockett regained some level of consciousness at which point doctors [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin ruled Tuesday that Wisconsin’s Act 23 , which requires residents to present photo identification to vote, violates the Voting Rights Act and the US Constitution. US District Judge Lynn Adelman found that the requirement violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a pair of cases dealing with warrantless searches of suspects’ cell phones. Riley v. California is a state court case that involves a challenge to searching an arrested individual without a warrant. After being arrested, police examined Riley’s cell phone, which was described as more of [...]

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill allowing polygamy. The Marriage Act 2014 brings civil law in line with customary law , where some cultures allow a man to have multiple wives. The bill was approved by parliament last month after heated debate that caused female lawmakers to walk out [...]

Russia’s upper house of parliament on Tuesday approved a set of bills that apply new restrictions on the Internet and blogging, a move widely criticized by both pro-democracy activists and Russia’s technology sector alike. Critics of the draft laws affecting the Internet, which are expected to be signed by President Vladimir Putin soon and enforced [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-2 Tuesday in Environmental Protection Agency v. EME Homer City Generation that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not overstep its authority when it issued a regulation limiting power plants’ emissions that cross state lines. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in 2012 that [...]

Thailand’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) on Tuesday indicted 36 senators for alleged misconduct, including the misuse of authority in violation of Thailand’s constitution. The indictment is a response to the senators’ attempt to amend the constitution to make the senate fully elected, a move ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in November. Commission Secretary General [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in two cases concerning attorney’s fees in patent disputes. In Octane Fitness v. ICON Health and Fitness the court ruled that the framework used by the district court to award attorney’s fees was too rigid. Section 285 of the Patent Act authorizes a district court to award attorney’s fees [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Yaniv Heled of Georgia State University College of Law argues that patent trolls may be better understood when viewed as analogous to biological parasites, as both are naturally occurring phenomena that thrive by syphoning resources from hosts. Viewing patent trolls as parasites can help in setting realistic expectations in the fight against [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Mary Ziegler of the Florida State University College of Law discusses the Florida Supreme Court’s recent decision recognizing that employers cannot discriminate against pregnant women … As JURIST reported, Florida recently joined a handful of states that recognize pregnancy-based bias as sex discrimination when the relevant state civil-rights law does not directly [...]