A judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas on Tuesday dismissed a suit filed by three Hispanic residents of the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch to change the city council election voting system from at-large to district-based, a shift they say would result in more attention to Hispanic interests on [...]

JURIST Contributing Editor Ali Khan of Washburn University School of Law says that the election of Barack Obama as US president heralds a Second American Revolution that not only marks a rejection of the country's racist past but also has the potential to restore American dedication to justice, liberty and peace at home and abroad…. [...]

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo on Tuesday reasserted that the ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide committed in the Congolese province of North and South Kivu in the wake of renewed fighting there and that his office intends to punish those responsible. Moreno-Ocampo, who met Friday with a delegation of [...]

The US Department of Defense (DOD) on Tuesday announced the transfer of one Guantanamo Bay detainee to Somaliland. DOD hailed the move as proof of the effectiveness of its review processes and of US desire not to hold detainees any longer than necessary. The Department reports that approximately 60 detainees at Guantanamo are currently eligible [...]

Richard C. Dieter : "Almost every state in the country guarantees defendants the right to have DNA evidence tested after their trial. Unfortunately for William Osborne, Alaska is not one of those states. That is why Osborne has asked the federal courts to order the state to allow DNA testing of evidence that was used [...]

Marc Rotenberg : "When the New York Times first reported in December 2005 that President Bush had undertaken electronic surveillance in the United States of U.S. citizens without court approval, EPIC immediately filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Justice to obtain the legal memos prepared by the Office of Legal [...]

Voters in 36 US states considered more than 160 initiatives and referenda at the polls Tuesday, including ballot measures dealing with gay rights, abortion, affirmative action and illegal immigration . Probably the most closely watched ballot measure is in California, where voters will decide whether to effectively overturn a decision by that state's Supreme Court [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in three cases. In FCC v. Fox Television Stations , the court will consider whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) acted arbitrarily and capriciously in changing its policy regarding fines for the broadcast of isolated expletives. In 2004 the FCC changed its longstanding policy, saying that it [...]

Iraqi Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi , one of two Iraqi vice presidents, called Tuesday for a national referendum on a proposed US-Iraqi Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) . The agreement, which has been the subject of protracted negotiations between Iraq and the US since May, would extend the role of US forces in Iraq [...]

The State Council Information Office of China announced Tuesday that the country will draft a plan to protect human rights. The panel being formed to draft the plan will receive input from more than 50 groups, including the Chinese Legislature , the Supreme People’s Court and the National Development Reform Commission . The panel will [...]