The California Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to hear a case challenging California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage , after California Attorney General Bill Lockyer requested that the Court review an intermediate appellate court's decision to uphold the same-sex marriage ban. In the appeals court, Lockyer argued that California should be allowed to maintain its traditional [...]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday approved new rules to prevent local governments from blocking the entrance of companies in the cable television market, highlighting a sharp partisan divide in the five-person panel. The new rules will require local cable franchising authorities to make decisions on applications from new competitors within six months, and [...]

Former US Attorney General and Saddam Hussein defense lawyer Ramsey Clark on Wednesday urged President Bush to keep Hussein and his Dujail trial co-defendants in US custody, expressing concern that Iraqi officials will torture the convicted defendants. Hussein and two of his co-defendants, Awad Hamed al-Bandar and Barzan al-Tikriti, were all convicted and sentenced to [...]

Spain's High Court ruled Wednesday that it does not have jurisdiction to try former Argentinean naval officer Ricardo Miguel Cavallo for crimes committed during Argentina's "dirty war" . Cavallo has been in Spanish custody since 2003 and early this year was charged with genocide , organized terrorism and crimes against humanity. The charges carried a [...]

The Indonesian Supreme Court overturned the conviction of militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir Thursday, saying only that the decision was based on the testimony of some 30 witnesses. A written decision has not yet been released. Bashir was convicted on conspiracy charges in early 2005 in connection to the 2002 Bali bombings but was released [...]

Coalition to defend affirmative action v. Granholm, US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Southern Division, December 20, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Russian State Duma approved a draft law Wednesday that would permanently move the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation from its current location in Moscow to the city of St. Petersburg, the former Russian imperial capital. The Constitutional Court will nonetheless maintain a Moscow office "to ensure cooperation with the federal authorities," a provision [...]

An appeals court in Austria Wednesday ordered the release of British historian David Irving , who was sentenced to three years in jail in February for three counts of denying the Holocaust in two speeches he delivered in Austria 1989. Irving will serve out the rest of his sentence on probation after having already spent [...]

Ugandan officials said Wednesday that Joseph Kony , leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army , has expressed a willingness to face justice in Uganda rather than at the International Criminal Court . ICC prosecutors charged Kony and four LRA lieutenants last October with orchestrating the killing of thousands of civilians and the enslavement of [...]

US District Judge David Lawson of the Eastern District of Michigan has ruled that the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University can delay until July 1, 2007 implementing Proposal 2 , an amendment to the Michigan Constitution banning affirmative action in public employment, public education and state contracting. Lawson's ruling, which [...]