The Supreme Court of Mississippi on Thursday ruled that an initiative seeking to redefine personhood can be placed on the November 2011 general election ballot. The initiative, Measure 26 , would amend the Mississippi Constitution to define the word “person” or “persons” to include “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Thursday dismissed two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) . In Virginia v. Sebelius , the court held that Virginia lacked standing to sue and vacated the judgment of the district court , remanding the case with [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that France’s ban on the cultivation of a genetically modified (GM) maize was illegal. Although France has the right to impose a ban on GM maize, the court stated that France acted illegally by not following proper EU protocol . In order to impose a ban, EU [...]

The UK Department of Health (DH) announced Thursday that it will lift the lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with other men. Britain introduced the lifetime ban in the 1980s in an effort to quell the proliferation of HIV and AIDS . Men who have not had sex with another [...]

The Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court, Maureen O’Connor , on Thursday announced the formation of a joint task force between the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Ohio State Bar Association that will review the procedures surrounding Ohio’s death penalty law. O’Connor indicated that the task force was being created not to judge [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina Legal Foundation (ACLU-NCLF) on Thursday filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the Eastern District of North Carolina challenging a North Carolina state law authorizing the use of pro-life license plates as a violation of the First Amendment . In June, the North Carolina General [...]

Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) , Luis Moreno-Ocampo , announced on Thursday that he is seeking assistance from INTERPOL to locate and arrest former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi . The ICC issued arrest warrants for Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi and his brother-in-law Abdullah al-Sanussi for alleged crimes against humanity. Saif [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced its findings from a three-year investigation that the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD) has engaged in repeated unlawful and unconstitutional behavior . The investigation, which began in June 2008, uncovered the PRPD use of excessive and unreasonable force, failure to protect First Amendment rights and unconstitutional [...]

The three-judge Malaysian Federal Court on Thursday ruled unanimously against indigenous people fighting against the Sarawak government’s seizure of land to build a dam. The court had agreed to hear the suit in March. The ruling caps a more than decade-long legal battle which began when the Sarawak government started seizing land in 1997. Almost [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday upheld a ruling that juveniles convicted of murder may be sentenced to life imprisonment without parole . Kenneth Loggins was convicted of brutally murdering a hitchhiker in 1994, when he was 17 years old, and was originally sentenced to death. However, in 2006 his [...]