The Central Criminal Court of Iraq (CCCI) on Thursday sentenced former Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashemi to death for the second time after he was convicted for his involvement in a plot to assassinate an interior ministry official. In particular, the Sunni ex-leader and his brother-in-law were sentenced to hang for a charge related to [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday told the US Supreme Court that it does not object to reopening a Christian university’s challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit . While Liberty University , located in Richmond, Virginia, is arguing that [...]

A spokesperson for the government of Sri Lanka on Thursday announced that the government had begun the process of impeaching the country’s chief justice. The specific charges were not revealed , but spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella, confirmed that the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was approved by more than 75 members of parliament. Tension continues [...]

The independence of Sri Lanka’s judiciary is under attack by the nation’s government, according to a report released Thursday by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) , a human rights group composed of lawyers and judges from around the world. In the report, “Authority without accountability: The crisis of impunity in Sri Lanka,” the ICJ [...]

Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council , approved a bill on Wednesday that would increase the penalties for illegal use of state secrets. The bill, which was approved by Russia’s lower house last week raises the fine for illegally using state secrets from $6000 to $16000, imposes prison terms of up to four [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in two cases concerning whether the use of drug sniffing dogs violates the Fourth Amendment rights of defendants. The question in the first case, Florida v. Jardines , was whether police bringing a dog onto the front porch of a suspected grow house to sniff for drugs [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Christopher Bader, Saint Louis University School of Law Class of 2013, analyzes the US Supreme Court’s decision to grant certiorari in Missouri v. McNeeley and decide the scope of when a warrantless blood draw may be admissible evidence… Just in time for Halloween, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in a case with [...]

The Supreme Court of the UK on Wednesday quashed a request for release from a 30-year-old individual detained by US officials at an Afghan prison. Yunus Rahmatullah, a citizen of Pakistan, was arrested by British forces in 2004 and was subsequently transferred to US officials who held him at Parwan prison without charges or trial [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, says that the Supreme Court must alter its Fourth Amendment jurisprudence and adopt a new test to determine when an impermissible “search” has occurred…

JURIST Guest Columnist William G. Ross of the Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law says that the likelihood of vacancies on the Supreme Court during the next four years should make the Court an important issue in the election, even though it has largely been ignored by the current candidates…