A court of first instance in Marseilles Friday ordered that anti-Islamic campaign posters put up by the far-right National Front be taken down . The posters , proclaiming “No to Islamism”, depict a fully veiled woman standing next to a map of France with the pattern of the Algerian flag on it, and are directly [...]

The California Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) filed a consumer protection suit against car manufacturer Toyota on Friday, alleging that the company knowingly sold vehicles with acceleration defects. The suit seeks up to $2,500 in penalties for each violation of California's Unfair Business Practices Act . The OCDA outlined the case against Toyota, saying it [...]

Mead v. Secretary of Health and Human Services Case No. 03-215V, King v. Secretary of Health and Human Services Case No. 03-584V, Dwyer v. Secretary of Health and Human Services Case No. 03-1202V, US Federal Court of Claims, March 12, 2010 . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here. Latest commentary available here. JURIST has more [...]

Three special masters sitting in the US Federal Court of Claims Friday rejected three compensation actions brought in a coordinated omnibus proceeding by families of autistic children who had argued that their children's autism was induced by vaccines containing mercury-laden thimerosol. The families had sought compensation under the no-fault National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program . [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tomas Ojea Quintana released a report Friday criticizing the government of Myanmar for long-standing human rights abuses and said some of those might qualify as war crimes prosecutable by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Quintana observed: there is a pattern of gross [...]

Taiwanese Justice Minister Wang Ching-feng resigned Thursday in defense of her position against the death penalty. Though Taiwan has not executed a criminal since 2005, Wang said she would not sign the execution warrants of any of the 44 prisoners still on death row. Her resignation was sparked by possible criticism of her position by [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg endorsed a ban on the election of judges at the state and local level on Thursday while speaking at a conference for the National Association of Women Judges . Ginsburg said she supported her former colleague, retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor , in her campaign to urge state [...]

The Chinese government responded on Friday to the release of a US human rights report critical of China by issuing its own report criticizing the US human rights record. The report covered issues relating to crime, racial discrimination, and poverty, and accused the US of using its hegemonic power to continue "trampling" on the sovereignty [...]

Deborah Fleischaker : "Last week, John Gramlich of the indispensable news site, stateline.org, reported on the political fallout in several states where policymakers have employed early prison release programs to combat overcrowded prisons and rising budget deficits. Several cash-strapped states from Florida to California have looked for budget savings by expediting the release of non-violent [...]

The US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday unanimously approved a bill to reduce sentencing disparities for powder and crack cocaine offenses. The Fair Sentencing Act, introduced by Senator Dick Durbin , is intended to bridge the gap between crack and powder cocaine sentencing by amending the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled Substances Import and Export [...]