The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday invalidated a municipal ban on tattoo parlors by Hermosa Beach, California, calling it a violation of the First Amendment. The controversy initially arose when Johnny Anderson was denied a permit to open a tattoo parlor by the city, located in southern California. The city [...]

French judges may drop charges against two police officers who chased three teen boys into a power substation where two of the teens died after being electrocuted, according to Friday reports . The two officers were charged in 2007 with “non-assistance to a person in danger” under Article 223-6 of the French penal code for [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the Central District of California on Thursday struck down the US military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT) policy, which bans openly gay individuals from the armed services. The suit was initiated in 2004 by the Log Cabin Republicans , who argued that the policy violates individuals’ First [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled Thursday that two ordinances passed by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania making it more difficult for illegal immigrants to live or work in the town are unconstitutional. The court found that the Illegal Immigration Relief Act (IIRAO) and Landlord Tenant Ordinance (RO) improperly infringe on [...]

An Ontario Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) is justified in prohibiting sexually active gay males from donating blood. In 2002, Kyle Freeman falsely denied having had sex with other men and subsequently donated blood that tested positive for syphilis. CBS initiated a negligent misrepresentation suit against Freeman after spending [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled Thursday that Austria’s state gambling monopoly, which blocks foreign casino companies from the licensing process, is incompatible with EU law. The court held that allowing only domestic operators to apply for licenses constituted such a difference in treatment that it constituted discrimination on the basis of nationality. While [...]

Brett Stark, Harvard Law School ’12, interned with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI). He writes about the virtues of organizations that promote the rights of all rather than the interests of any particular group… Israel, the West Bank and Gaza remain at the center of one of the world’s most intense and [...]

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a request from a conservative group to order Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to appeal the federal court ruling that struck down the controversial ban on same-sex marriage . The request was brought by the Pacific Justice Institute in an attempt to force a state [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the Obama administration’s request for an emergency stay Thursday, lifting the ban on stem cell research . The Obama administration sought the stay Wednesday after Judge Royce Lamberth of the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday denied a motion [...]

A Chinese prison on Thursday released Chen Guangcheng , a blind Chinese human rights legal activist who has finished serving a four-year sentence for damaging property and “organizing a mob to disturb traffic.” According to Human Rights Watch (HRW) , the Chinese authorities have since placed Chen under house arrest and increased surveillance of his [...]