A judge for the US District Court for the District of Maryland on Thursday blocked the enactment of the Stop Insider Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) . Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a temporary preliminary injunction against the STOCK Act, which was designed to stop insider trading by members [...]

The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the amended Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD) , which now includes gays and lesbians, is not retroactive in its effect. The WLAD was amended in 2006 to protect gays and lesbians against discrimination. The plaintiff sued her superior at the University of Washington for discrimination based on sexual [...]

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania heard oral arguments on Thursday to determine whether Pennsylvania’s voter ID law is constitutional. On its first day in session, the high court heard oral arguments to decide if the state’s newly enacted voter ID law will take effect for the upcoming presidential election and whether this law threatens the [...]

An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced former Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Nazif to three years in prison after finding him guilty of corruption charges. Nazif was accused of embezzling $10.5 million while in office. This most recent conviction will add to a previous corruption conviction in which he was found to have illegally profited from [...]

An independent expert on Wednesday urged the UN to become a more “equitable” and “democratic” body in its relationship with individual nations and its application of international law. Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council , the recently appointed UN Independent Expert, Alfred de Zayas , made this request as he unveiled his first report [...]

The US House of Representatives on Wedneday voted to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act of 2008 (FISA) , a highly contested law designed as a national security protection against terrorism and other foreign threats. The law’s Reauthorization Act of 2012 renews 2008 revisions which call for special government programs, such as the National [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Wednesday refused to reconsider a decision to deny a posthumous appeal to restore the citizenship of convicted Nazi guard John Demjanjuk . Demjanjuk, a retired Ohio autoworker convicted of being an accessory to over 28,000 murders as a guard at a Nazi extermination camp, passed [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday told a special session of the Human Rights Council that 16 nations have failed to prevent members of their own governments from intimidating and attacking activists and protesters. Based on a UN report not yet released to the public, she noted that such harassment has [...]

The US House Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday held a hearing to discuss the Chinese government’s practice of harvesting organs from executed inmates. The hearing included testimony by three witnesses supporting allegations that the government has deliberately executed political prisoners for the purpose of transplanting their organs. Representative Chris Smith said during the hearing [...]

The trial chamber of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) ruled Thursday that the sister-in-law of former Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot is not mentally competent to stand trial, ordering her release. The tribunal held that Ieng Thirith , the so-called “First Lady” of the Khmer Rouge, is mentally incompetent to face [...]