City and town clerks in Massachusetts may issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples from New Mexico, according to recent instructions from the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records . A July 18 internal notice to municipal employees said that because the New Mexico government has not explicitly banned same-sex marriage , Massachusetts may issue marriage licenses [...]

A Zimbabwean judge has released 13 opposition activists held by the government because police faked evidence against them, defense lawyers said Thursday. All 13 belong to the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change , and had been held since March when the government arrested at least 100 people – including opposition presidential hopeful Morgan Tsvangirai [...]

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Thursday that Russian authorities were responsible for the shooting death of 11 unarmed civilians in Chechnya and ordered Russia to pay damages and court expenses totaling 163,864 euro (approximately $224,500) to five Chechen plaintiffs. The court ruled that Russia was responsible for the February 2000 incidents, in [...]

Former Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz is threatening to go on a hunger strike, his son Ziad Aziz told AFP Thursday. Ziad says that Aziz and 14 other detainees are threatening to initiate a hunger strike next week if Iraqi authorities do not allow Aziz's preferred lawyer, Badih Aref Izzat, to enter [...]

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) issued subpoenas for White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and Deputy Director of Political Affairs J. Scott Jennings Thursday in the ongoing probe of the US Attorney firings scandal , ordering Rove and Jennings to provide documents and testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee no later than [...]

Case of Musayev and Others v. Russia, European Court of Human Rights, July 26, 2007 . Read the full text of the judgment . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

US District Judge James Munley ruled Thursday that two anti-illegal immigration laws passed by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania are unconstitutional, issuing a permanent injunction prohibiting the enforcement of the Illegal Immigration Relief Act and the Landlord Tenant Ordinance , which were intended to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to live or work [...]

Pedro Lozano, et al. v. City of Hazleton, US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, July 26, 2007 . Read the full memorandum and order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

A federal judge Thursday ordered the federal government to pay Peter Limone, Joseph Salvati , and the families of two other men who died while in jail over $101 million after finding the government liable for malicious prosecution. The men were convicted of a 1965 murder after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) withheld evidence [...]

Four Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement Thursday asking Clement to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales "may have misled Congress or perjured himself in testimony before Congress." The letter follows reports that a 2006 memorandum from the Office of [...]