Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urged Congress to authorize military commissions to try terror detainees following the US Supreme Court's decision last month in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld , where the Court held that the military commissions as initially constituted by the Bush administration lacked proper legal authorization [...]

Roe v. Crawford, United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Judge Dean Whipple, July 18, 2006 . Read the full text of the ruling . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, passed by the US Senate July 18, 2006 . Read the full text of the bill . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The state of Missouri must give all prison inmates access to abortion a federal judge in Kansas City ruled Tuesday. US District Judge Dean Whipple ruled last year in Roe v. Crawford that Missouri had to provide a particular inmate with transportation to an abortion facility and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) subsequently asked [...]

The US Senate voted Tuesday afternoon to increase federal funding for embryonic stem cell research , but the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act fell four votes shy of the two-thirds supermajority needed to survive an expected White House veto – President Bush's first. At an afternoon press briefing , press secretary Tony Snow promised "pretty [...]

Human Rights in Iraq, 1 May-30 June 2006, United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq, May 23, 2006 . Read the full text of the report . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

UN Human Rights Committee, presentation by the United States on compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, July 17-18, 2006. Read the text of the October 2005 report; remarks by Ambassador Warren W. Tichenor at the July 17 meeting; the transcript of the delegations's press briefing; the written responses to advance questions [...]

Islamic militant group Hezbollah violated international humanitarian law and likely committed war crimes by firing the rockets that have killed at least a dozen Israelis , whether the attacks were targeted at civilians or merely indiscriminate, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday. Most of the rockets were a type that can't be aimed precisely and [...]

Iranian human rights lawyer Abdolfattah Soltani says he has received a five-year prison sentence for disclosing confidential information and engaging in propaganda against the regime, even though neither he nor his lawyers appeared in court or saw the primary evidence against him. Working with Tehran's Defenders of Human Rights Center, which is led by Nobel [...]

AP is reporting that the US House of Representatives has defeated a proposed constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage . House leaders scheduled the vote on the Marriage Protection Amendment despite a failed vote on the Senate floor in June. Last month, President Bush urged Congress to approve the amendment . The House vote [...]