Iranian authorities arrested 70 members of the Islamic Association of University Teachers after they met with opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi on Wednesday, according to a statement on Mousavi's website . The professors met to discuss the recent unrest in the country and were reportedly arrested immediately after the meeting. According to the posting, there [...]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said Thursday that the US detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are "high-profile symbols" of a trend toward finding ways to circumvent the UN Convention Against Torture (CAT) . In order to close the "Guantanamo chapter," Pillay said, remaining inmates "must either be tried before [...]

The US Senate began the impeachment trial process for Judge Samuel Kent Wednesday for alleged "high crimes and misdemeanors" after accepting the articles of impeachment from the US House of Representatives . Senate leaders established a bipartisan committee to prepare for the upcoming impeachment trial. The judge for the US District Court for the Southern [...]

US Attorney General Eric Holder urged sentencing reform for crack cocaine Wednesday, calling for a review of disparities between sentencing guidelines for powder and crack. Addressing a symposium on federal sentencing policy hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus and Harvard Law School's Race and Justice Institute , Holder said that a "thorough review" of sentencing [...]

A Sudanese court on Wednesday convicted five men of the January 2008 murder of two US Agency for International Development (USAID) employees, sentencing four to death. Mohamed Makkawi Ibrahim Mohamed and Abdel Basit al-Hajj Hassan were found guilty of firing shots that killed USAID workers John Granville and Abdelrahman Abbas Rahama while they were returning [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts that a forensic analyst's laboratory report is testimonial evidence under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment, giving criminal defendants a right to cross-examine the analysts. The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that the report was not testimonial in nature and could therefore be [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in Safford United School District #1 v. Redding that a strip search of a school student violated her Fourth Amendment rights but that school officials who conducted the search are protected from liability via qualified immunity. New Jersey v. T.L.O. sets forth that school searches are permissible "when [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 in Atlantic Sounding v. Townsend that an injured seaman may recover punitive damages for the willful failure of his employer to pay a basic living allowance, wages that he otherwise would have earned, and benefits to cover medical expenses, known as "maintenance and cure." The US Court [...]

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ruled 5-4 in Horne v. Flores and Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives v. Flores that the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit erred in declining to modify an injunction requiring Arizona to provide sufficient funding for its English Language Learners (ELL) program in order to [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld a Virginia law Wednesday that bans "partial birth" abortions , reversing previous rulings that found it unconstitutional. The appeals court initially affirmed the district court's ruling that the law was unconstitutional. Then, after the case was remanded by the US Supreme Court following their 2007 [...]