The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia (ACLU) on Friday filed a suit to block the state’s new abortion law from taking effect next month. The challenged law, HB 954 , bans abortions after 20 weeks and contains a narrow exception for medical emergencies. The ACLU argues that, although abortions after 20 weeks are rare, [...]

US Supreme Court on Friday granted certiorari in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. , which deals with the issue of whether human genes are patentable. Myriad Genetics patented two genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2 , which are isolated genes—different from native genes because the process of extracting them changes their molecular structure but [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Laurie Blank of the Emory University School of Law says that more attention should be focused on the care taken by the Israel Defense Forces in its recent military actions in Gaza to protect civilian lives, in sharp contrast to the indiscriminate attacks performed by Hamas…

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Nevada on Monday denied a challenge brought by eight same-sex couples who contended that the state’s law restricting marriage to heterosexual couples violates the US Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause . In their lawsuit, Sevcik v. Sandoval , the couples argued that Nevada’s marriage law [...]

A UN human rights expert declared on Friday that while Turkey has made progress in cracking down on extrajudicial killings, it still has a long way to go in remedying the problem. At the end of his official visit to Turkey, UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns commented that Turkey [...]

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved a bill that would prevent police from searching emails and other electronic content without a warrant. Currently, under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act , law enforcement agents only need a warrant to access emails less than 6 months old. The new bill is sponsored by committee chairman [...]

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday said that they will consider the legal implications of Palestinian statehood following a UN resolution recognizing Palestine as a non-member state. The UN General Assembly (UNGA) passed the resolution on Thursday, elevating Palestine from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state.” In a statement released to [...]

The office of the Maryland Attorney General released an opinion Thursday stating that same-sex couples can obtain marriage licenses as soon as Governor Martin O’Malley formally proclaims the results of this month’s election, which he is expected to do next week. Attorney General Douglas Gansler’s opinion came in response to questions from circuit court clerks [...]

Egypt’s Islamist assembly members hurriedly approved a draft constitution on Friday without the participation of liberal or Christian members, raising concerns among many human rights organizations such as Amnesty International (AI) . The approved constitution seeks to uphold the “principles of Islamic Law.” According to AI, the document’s language “ignores the rights of women, restricts [...]

A spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Friday that Pillay has sent a letter to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi urging him to reconsider a recent decree expanding presidential powers. Pillay worries that the Constitutional Declaration, while a welcome effort towards reaching out to the judiciary and political parties, has the [...]