The US Supreme Court on Monday granted certiorari in two cases. In Christian Legal Society v. Martinez , the Court will consider whether a state law school may deny recognition to a religious student organization where the group requires its officers and voting members to agree with its core religious beliefs, thereby excluding gay students. [...]

The Iraqi parliament on Sunday approved an amended version of a controversial election law. Iraqi lawmakers had reached an agreement last month, but amended the legislation in order to avoid a second veto from Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi . Al-Hashemi had vetoed a previous version of the bill, calling for increased representation for Iraqis [...]

Joan Bertin : "Cases involving messages on license plates raise a potpourri of questions with important First Amendment implications. The easiest cases are those in which the government itself creates a plate with a religious message. For example, South Carolina's legislative decision to issue "I Believe" license plates was recently held unconstitutional under the Establishment [...]

Dawn Koepke : "After months of debate, the legislature approved a watered-down version of the Corrections budget package aimed at addressing the $1.2 billion unallocated cut to the Department of Corrections provided in the July budget package. The highly controversial provisions that included instituting an independent sentencing commission, early release of inmates to alternative custody, [...]

Greek police conducted raids in Athens Saturday in an effort to avoid a repeat of last year’s violent protests as the first anniversary of a controversial police shooting approaches. Over 6,000 officers spread across the city, arresting more than 150 people for throwing rocks or vandalism. Students preparing to commemorate the incident gathered in universities [...]

The Obama administration is seeking Illinois congressional support for a plan to purchase a prison facility in northwestern Illinois to house terrorism suspects currently being held at Guantanamo Bay , the Washington Post reported Sunday. Last week officials from the White House, the Department of Defense (DOD) , and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) [...]

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation 1959 on Friday, imposing martial law and suspending habeas corpus in the province of Maguindanao, the first presidential imposition of martial law in the country since Ferdinand Marcos’ fall in 1986. The move, announced Saturday, is a result of instability in the province following a politically motivated attack that [...]

A retired Guatemalan colonel has been sentenced to 53 years in prison for his role in the disappearance of eight indigenous Guatemalans during the 36-year Guatemalan civil war . A three-judge court Thursday found Col. Marco Antonio Sanchez and three of his subordinates, Jose Domingo Rios, Gabriel Maldonado Alvarez Ramos and Solomon Rivers, guilty of [...]

Enforcement of various civil rights laws decreased during the Bush administration, according to a report released Thursday by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) . The GAO studied the activities of the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) between 2001 and 2007. According to the report, DOJ lawsuits to enforce laws [...]

Roy Speckhardt : "The American Humanist Association (AHA), along with more than 100 other organizations, has joined in a statement opposing the "defamation of religion" resolution before the United Nations that is being promoted by the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. While AHA is greatly concerned about acts of violence, hatred and discrimination against [...]