The US Supreme Court on Friday granted review over the issue of police authority to search the contents of an arrested individual’s cell phone. The court accepted two cases on the matter to review. The first, Riley v. California , is a state court case that involves a challenge to searching an arrested individual without [...]

In a speech Friday, US President Barack Obama announced detailed plans to change surveillance policy, curbing the abilities of intelligence agencies to collect and use American phone data. Reform to the program entails a handful of initiatives outlined by Obama, focusing on additional oversight, transparency, and restrictions on government’s ability to use the collected data, [...]

A judge for the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Thursday rejected a proposed $165 million settlement agreement for the now-bankrupt city of Detroit to pay off UBS and Bank of America . Referring to the agreement as financially imprudent , Judge Steven Rhodes put a halt to what has been [...]

Judge Bernard McGinley of the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Friday struck down the state’s nearly two-year-old voter identification law, considered one of the most strict in the nation. In his opinion, MicGinley wrote that the state had failed to adequately explain why the law was a necessary measure: “Voting laws are designed to assure a [...]

The Tulsa County Clerk’s Office filed a notice of appeal on Thursday with the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to overturn a district court ruling striking down Oklahoma’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. The district court judge ruled on Tuesday that Part A of the amendment violates the Equal Protections Clause of [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Noeli Serna, Chicago-Kent College of Law Class of 2016, discusses the city of Chicago’s new driver’s license policy and the extent to which states can implement their own immigration laws in accordance with federal immigration laws…

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni refused to sign a bill proposed by the nation’s Parliament that would toughen punishments for homosexuals in Uganda. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was introduced in 2009 and the Ugandan Parliament passed the bill last month. Homosexuality has long been illegal in Uganda, and the bill was introduced to inflict harsher penalties for [...]

The prolonged execution of convicted murderer Dennis McGuire on Thursday has stirred a controversy over new drugs used to administer lethal injections. McGuire was convicted in 1994 of raping and murdering a 22-year-old girl in 1989 and lost his appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio in 1997. Earlier this month McGuire’s attorneys filed for [...]

Madagascar’s electoral court ruled on Friday that ex-finance minister Hery Rajaonarimampianina was properly elected president despite allegations that the election was rigged. The court ruled that Rajaonarimampianina won 53.5 percent of the vote while his opponent Jean Louis Robinson, former health minister, won 46.5 percent. Controversy has surrounded the election and continues to be disputed. [...]

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine on Thursday filed notice of his plans to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, a December ruling that requires the state to recognize valid out-of-state marriages between same-sex couples on Ohio death certificates. The ruling, made last month by Judge Timothy Black, found that by [...]