In his first major speech to parliament since taking office last week, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe followed through on a promise to make amending the country's pacifist constitution a priority. The constitution , effectively imposed on Japan after World War II by the United States, forbids in Aricle 9 "the threat or use of [...]
READ MORE ▸
US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told a gathering of legal scholars Friday that the Constitution "provides the courts with relatively few tools" to review presidential decisions about the military and foreign policy in wartime and cautioned judges against "supplement those tools based on their own personal views." Speaking to the Fair and Independent Courts conference [...]
A state trial court judge in Boston ruled Friday that two women from Rhode Island may marry in Massachusetts despite the Commonwealth's 1913 statute forbidding the marriage of couples who can't legally wed in their home states. Judge Thomas Connolly of Suffolk Superior Court ruled that Rhode Island does not expressly prohibit same-sex marriage through [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak said Friday that the military commissions bill approved by the US Senate Thursday could lead to abuses because it does not sufficiently constrain harsh interrogation methods and strips detainees of the ability to challenge their imprisonment through habeas corpus petitions. Speaking to Reuters, Nowak criticized the failure of [...]
US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr. ruled Thursday that 230,000 recipients of Medicare premium refunds issued in error be given an opportunity to apply for an exemption from repayment before the government can collect the money. Kennedy issued a preliminary injunction Dr. Mark McClellan , Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services [...]
The US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has ruled ruled that a plaintiff is permitted to bring a class-action lawsuit against a carpet manufacturer under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO) . The plaintiff claims that Mohawk Industries knowingly hired illegal aliens and assisted them in evading immigration officials [...]
Amnesty International accused Pakistan Friday of committing numerous human rights violations in support of the US-led "war on terror," including arresting terror suspects and holding them in secret locations until they can be sold to US authorities for bounties . In its latest report it claims that many suspects arrested in Pakistan are transferred to [...]
Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Thursday that it was "deeply worried" about the proposed construction of a 700-mile border fence between the US and Mexico, fearing it would "increase tension in border communities." Mexico reiterated the need for a comprehensive immigration strategy, arguing that this security-focused measure was simply a political answer. The department [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Robert Albritton of the University of Mississippi says the recent overthrow of Thailand's elected government by unconstitutional means reflects a disconcerting failure of mass democracy in the country in the face of opposition from critical elites… For forms of government let fools contest; that which is best administered is best. These words [...]
A brother-in-law of the new chief judge in the Saddam Hussein genocide trial was shot and killed Friday in Baghdad. His nephew was seriously wounded in the same attack. Police were not certain whether the attack was a result of Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa's position on the Iraqi High Tribunal, but sources familiar with court [...]
