Former Illinois governor George Ryan on Tuesday filed a motion in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois asking the judge to vacate his prison sentence, following a recent US Supreme Court decision that allegedly set new precedent supporting Ryan’s appeal. In June, the Supreme Court ruled in Skilling v. United States [...]

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas ruled Tuesday that the state ban on same-sex marriage does not violate the US Constitution. The court also held that state trial courts do not have jurisdiction to hear cases involving the divorce of same-sex couples married in another state, overturning a 2009 ruling in [...]

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Wednesday that a judge in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York has approved a fund set up by Bank of America (BOA) in accordance with the settlement agreement reached earlier this year. The SEC had charged BOA with misleading investors regarding billions [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona on Tuesday granted a motion to dismiss a police officer’s suit challenging Arizona’s controversial immigration law . Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) filed a motion to dismiss the challenge made by Tucson police officer Martin Escobar arguing that the new immigration law would [...]

UN Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict Margot Wallstrom on Tuesday called for an end to impunity for leaders of militias and armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for conducting mass rapes, saying that perpetrators would face war crimes charges . UN representatives allege that Congolese rebel groups Mai Mai and [...]

The Obama administration on Tuesday appealed last week’s ruling by the US District Court for the District of Columbia that granted a preliminary injunction blocking federal funding for embryonic stem cell research . The administration argues that Judge Royce Lamberth’s holding is overbroad, endangering an array of research across multiple programs and centers while only [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has begun considering a lawsuit filed by three Russian activists alleging their right to freedom of assembly has been violated, their lawyer said Tuesday. The court is reportedly deciding whether the case merits priority consideration . The lawsuit stems from Russian law enforcement officials’ suppression of protests being [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday denied a request for an en banc rehearing of the case of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay detainee Gahleb Nassar Al-Bihani . In January, the court found Al-Bihani “was both part of and substantially supported enemy forces” and held that his detention was authorized [...]

JURIST Guest Columnist Charles Jalloh of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law responds to Peter Erlinder’s article Rwanda: Flawed Elections and the Politics of ‘Genocide Denial’, saying that certain of Erlinder’s criticisms of the ICTR are political or unfounded… I have just read the interesting op-ed by Professor Peter Erlinder regarding the 2010 presidential [...]

Amnesty International (AI) on Tuesday urged the Rwandan government to review its “genocide ideology” and “sectarianism” laws, which they say are being used to stifle freedom of speech and expression in the country. The laws were first enacted following the 1994 Rwandan genocide , where hate speech and propaganda played a role in inciting violence [...]