The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on Wednesday upheld a Massachusetts law that established “buffer zones” for abortion clinics. The buffer zone creates a protected area outside of the abortion clinic where people are not allowed to protest. This is meant to ensure potential patients safe passage into the facilities. The law [...]

Chief prosecutor in the Guantanamo tribunal, Brigadier General Mark Martins, on Wednesday recommended that the Pentagon drop the conspiracy charge against those suspected of plotting the September 11 attacks, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed . Martins hopes to drop the charges in order to streamline the prosecution and ensure it is not delayed by an appeal [...]

The Michigan Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a Michigan Civil Service Commission (MCSC) policy granting health care benefits to same-sex domestic partners of state employees. Attorney General Bill Schuette argued against the policy, claiming that, by extending the policy to provide health benefits for those who have “jointly shared the same regular and permanent [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Already, LLC v. Nike, Inc. that Nike’s covenant not to enforce a trademark against Already’s existing products and any future “colorable imitations” moots Already’s action to have the trademark declared invalid. In this case, the court considered whether Nike’s promise not to sue was broad enough to assure [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in Missouri v. McNeely on whether the Fourth Amendment allows a police officer to take a warrantless blood sample to test for alcohol levels. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the exigency standard set in Schmerber v. California for warrantless intrusions of the body, “requires more than [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday ordered the New York Police Department (NYPD) to cease using a “stop-and-frisk” practice outside of apartment buildings in the Bronx, finding the policy unconstitutional. In particular, Judge Shira Scheindlin opined that the method, said to be a crime deterrent [...]

Google subsidiary Motorola Mobility filled a motion Tuesday with the International Trade Commission to drop two key patents from it case against Microsoft. The claim alleges that Microsoft infringed on Motorola Mobility’s patents related to technology used in the Xbox. The withdrawal of the claim is required in an agreement Google made with the Federal [...]

The UN International Labour Organization (ILO) released a report Wednesday highlighting the lack of protections provided to domestic workers worldwide. The report details the ways in which domestic workers are more vulnerable than other workers and what that means for the domestic worker population. More than 52 million people world wide are domestic workers, and [...]

The Vietnam Supreme People’s Court in the central Nghe An province on Wednesday sentenced 14 Catholic Redemptorist bloggers to jail terms ranging from 3 to 13 years of combined prison and house arrest. The defendants are associated with Viet Tan , a dissident group that Vietnam’s government deems terrorists, although the US government has reported [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in Smith v. US that it is defendants’ burden to prove they had removed themselves from a conspiracy in cases where their departure from the conspiracy happened long enough ago that prosecution would be barred by a statute of limitations. Lawyers for the appellant argued that though their client [...]