Iranian lawyer and prominent human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh was temporarily released from prison on Thursday, after spending over two years in prison, her husband said. Sotoudeh left prison in Tehran for three days and was greeted Thursday by her husband and two children. Sotoudeh is serving six years in prison for her September 2010 [...]

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and the country’s Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai reached an agreement on Thursday on a new constitution. Details of the agreement have not yet been made public . Tsvangirai previously stated that the passage of the constitution was a condition for the conduction of elections scheduled for later this year. According to [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Jennifer B. Wriggins of the University of Maine School of Law says that the legalization of same-sex marriage in Maine through a citizens’ initiative is a significant milestone and model for other states seeking to legalize same-sex marriage…

A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against federal law enforcement officials by men who claim they were illegally detained after 9/11 . The suit is Turkmen v. Ashcroft . The court dismissed the suit against former Department of Justice officials John Ashcroft, [...]

Army Colonel Denise Lind, who is presiding over the prosecution of Bradley Manning , ruled on Wednesday that prosecutors must prove that Manning was aware that he was providing information to an enemy of the US when he leaked confidential documents to the website WikiLeaks . Manning has been charged with 22 counts under the [...]

The son of Libya’s deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared in court in Zintan, Libya, on Thursday. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi is accused of transferring information related to Libya’s national security to an International Criminal Court (ICC) delegation. He is also accused of insulting Libya’s new flag and attempting to escape from prison. Saif al-Islam’s trial was [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Wednesday that members of the media do not have the right to report from, or take photos or video within, Pennsylvania polling places. While PG Publishing Company (PG) , the appellant in the case, argued that a portion of the Pennsylvania Election Code that limits [...]

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange on Tuesday asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a recent decision striking down provisions of Alabama’s controversial immigration law . Alabama is appealing a decision issued last August by the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit which struck down several provisions of both Alabama’s HB 56 as [...]

Pakistan’s top anti-corruption official on Thursday refused to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for corruption charges pursuant to a court order. Chief of the National Accountability Bureau, Fasih Bokhari, argued that there was insufficient evidence against Ashraf to arrest him for allegations of accepting bribes for approving power generation projects during his tenure as [...]

Human rights group Freedom House released a report on Wednesday detailing the state of democracy in the world. The report tracks improvements and declines in the levels of democracy in governments. While Freedom House reports that 26 countries experienced overall declines in freedom while only 16 experienced gains, the report details trends in certain regions [...]