JURIST Special Guest Columnist Robert Amsterdam, international defense counsel for Russian billionaire and former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky, imprisoned in Siberia for tax fraud after a controversial trial and now facing money laundering charges, says it is increasingly clear that the case against his client is political in nature… In the Kremlin's zeal to keep [...]

Israel and the United States plan to boycott a special session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva Wednesday called to discuss possible human rights violations in Gaza in the wake of a blockade imposed by Israel on the area last Friday. Israel closed crossings into Gaza after more than 45 rockets attacks [...]

The City Council of Farmers Branch , a Dallas, Texas suburb, on Tuesday approved a measure that would require all adults to apply for a city license before they can lease a house or apartment. The application obliges rental applicants to disclose whether they are a US citizen or a legal alien in the US, [...]

Jane Roe v. Lance Crawford, Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, January 22, 2008 . Read the full text of the opinion . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday unanimously upheld a 2006 federal court ruling that the state of Missouri must provide inmates with transportation to a medical facility for a non-therapeutic abortion. The Eighth Circuit rejected the trial court's conclusion that a non-therapeutic abortion constitutes a "serious medical need," and therefore [...]

An Afghan journalism student charged with blasphemy was sentenced to death Tuesday, following a recommendation from the Afghan Council of Mullahs. A three-judge panel found that papers printed from the Internet by 23-year-old Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, allegedly including discussion of women's role in society, insulted Islam and invoked Article 130 of the Afghanistan Constitution , [...]

The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Tuesday released a report criticizing the United Kingdom's voting system for its vulnerability to fraud. A February 2007 fact-finding trip conducted by a PACE committee found that fraud risks are "mainly the result of the, rather arcane, system of voter registration without personal identifiers." UK voting registers currently [...]

Jury selection began Tuesday in the retrial of six of the seven men charged with allegedly conspiring to bomb the FBI headquarters in Miami and the Sears Tower in Chicago. The seven men first went to trial last year, but in December one man was acquitted and a mistrial was declared for the other six [...]

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday denied without comment a petition for certiorari filed in University of California Regents v. Merrill Lynch (06-1341) , a derivative lawsuit filed in October 2001 by Enron shareholders against their investment banks accusing them of partnering to conceal monetary losses incurred by the company. The shareholders brought the suit [...]

Jose Padilla was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison Tuesday in connection with his conviction on terrorism-related charges. US District Judge Marcia Cooke handed down the sentence following two weeks of sentencing hearings, during which the government sought life sentences for Padilla and his two co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifadh Wael [...]