The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany on Tuesday ruled that the use of electronic voting machines in elections is unconstitutional. The ruling comes after a challenge to the use of the machines in the 2005 Bundestag election. Plaintiffs had argued that electronically counted votes could easily be tampered with. In reaching their decision, the court [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Wednesday in Wyeth v. Levine that the drug labeling requirements under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) do not preempt state products liability laws. The case was initiated by a Vermont woman who brought a negligence and failure-to-warn products liability suit against pharmaceutical company Wyeth , arguing [...]

The New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division ruled Tuesday that the parents of a 23 year-old, who donated semen prior to his death from cancer in 1998, were not entitled to possession of the specimens. Mary and Antonio Speranza sought their son Mark's semen specimens, which he donated in 1997 so that he could [...]

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese head of state Omar al-Bashir , charging him with seven counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but declining to charge him with genocide. The controversial arrest warrant had been sought by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo , who in July filed [...]

The Zimbabwean attorney general's office on Wednesday appealed to the nation's Supreme Court a Tuesday High Court ruling ordering the release of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party treasurer general and cabinet member-designate Roy Bennett . Bennett faces charges under Zimbabwe's Public Order and Security Act for "attempting to commit terrorism, banditry and sabotage." Judge [...]

JURIST Special Guest Columnists Representatives David Skaggs (D-CO) (1987-1999) and Mickey Edwards (R-OK) (1977-1993), members of the Constitution Project’s Liberty and Security Committee, say that despite the Obama administration's welcome new approach to handling terrorism cases, the US government could still use proposed "national security courts" to short-circuit constitutional guarantees and permanently detain individuals it [...]

Preliminary hearings began Tuesday in the new trial of former Russian oil executive Mikhail Khodorkovsky in a Moscow courtroom. Khodorkovsky and his former business partner Platon Lebedev are facing new charges of embezzling and laundering nearly $20 billion during their tenures at the Russian energy firm OAO Yukos Oil Co. . During Tuesday's proceedings, the [...]

A group of Massachusetts plaintiffs who are or have been married under the state's same-sex marriage law filed a lawsuit against the US federal government Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts , challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) . The plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed against [...]

Former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic refused to enter pleas on Tuesday to 11 amended charges including genocide and crimes against humanity in a hearing before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) . Last month, the ICTY granted in part the prosecution's motion to amend the indictment against [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Tuesday. In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Company the Court heard arguments on whether they should adopt a constitutional standard for requiring state judges to recuse themselves in cases where there is an "appearance of bias." The case is on appeal from a case [...]