US Attorney General Eric Holder has warned Kansas that a recently enacted law intended to block enforcement of federal gun regulations is unconstitutional, according to a letter released Thursday. According to Holder, SB 102 , also known as the “Second Amendment Protection Act,” “directly conflicts with federal law, and is therefore unconstitutional.” The law prohibits [...]

The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police need a warrant to search a defendant’s cell phone at the time of arrest. The court ruled 5-2 that officers were permitted to confiscate the defendant’s cell phone, but that they should have obtained a warrant before looking at pictures on the phone. Justice Lewis wrote for [...]

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley on Thursday signed into law a bill to repeal the death penalty. The legislation, which makes Maryland the eighteenth US state to repeal the death penalty, was approved by the state legislature in March. Prior to the bill, Maryland’s capital punishment laws were among the most restrictive in the country. Senate [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana on Thursday welcomed recommendations by the Myanmar government’s Rakhine Investigation Commission, but also voiced a strong need for the government to address impunity and ensure investigations into credible allegations of systematic human rights violations against Muslims in Rakhine state. The Rakhine Investigation [...]

The conditions of Greece’s bailout plan, put in place by its international lenders, have severely undercut the ability of Greek citizens to obtain a standard of living in line with international human rights standards, according to a report released Thursday by UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights , Cephas Lumina . According [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Kevin Govern of the Ave Maria School of Law reveals the history behind recent changes to law and policy which will affect the involvement of military forces with civilian domestic law enforcement…

The son of Libya’s deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi made a second court appearance in Zintan, Libya, Thursday, but the court postponed further proceedings until mid-September in order to allow for adequate trial preparation. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is accused of crimes against the state for transferring information related to Libya’s national security to an International Criminal [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday appealed an April decision ordering the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make emergency contraceptives including Plan B available without a prescription to women of all ages. In 2005 organizations and individuals concerned with women’s health filed suit in the US District Court for the Eastern [...]

The UK Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the government has been failing to meet EU air quality standards and reached out to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for guidance. This is the first time that the court has addressed the problem with air pollution in the UK, which is the worst in the EU, [...]

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny on Wednesday introduced the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 , which would establish new rules determining when abortions may be performed to save the life of the mother. The proposed law would not significantly change the country’s strict laws on abortion, but rather would provide doctors with clarity [...]