US District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly of the Northern District of Illinois ruled Friday that an Illinois law restricting the sale and rental of violent or sexually explicit video games to minors is an unconstitutional restriction of free speech. The law was set to go into effect January 1 and would have been the first [...]
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The UN Security Council agreed Friday to a US request to discuss human rights violations in Myanmar for the first time. The UN discussion was announced after Myanmar's military-led government extended for yet another year the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi , and amid human rights group reports of the nation's "brutal and [...]
JURIST Guest Columnist Tom Mayo, professor of law at Dedman School of Law, Southern Methodist University, and Director of the Cary M. Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility, says that the Terri Schiavo case earlier this year changed the ground-rules for medical decision-making on behalf of others… As most of the world knows, fifteen [...]
Brendan MacWade et al. v. Raymond Kelly, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Richard Berman, December 2, 2005 . Read the full text of the decision and order . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
Voting Rights Act Section 5 Recommendation Memorandum, US Department of Justice staff, December 12, 2003, disclosed December 2, 2005 . Read the full text of the memorandum . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.
A panel of judges from the Santiago Appeals Court ruled Friday that human rights charges against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet can proceed, rejecting the defense's arguments that Pinochet is too ill to stand trial. Pinochet was charged last week in connection with the kidnapping and disappearance of six dissidents in 1974 after they were [...]
US District Judge Richard M. Berman ruled Friday that random police searches of bags on the New York City subway system are a minimal invasion of privacy and do not violate the Constitution. The decision comes in a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union challenging the random searches as unreasonable searches and [...]
Uganda's High Court ordered the military Friday to suspend proceedings against main opposition leader Kizza Besigye until the court decides whether the military trial is legal. Besigye was arrested earlier this month on charges of treason and rape, and was later brought before a military court on terrorism charges . Besigye's defense team has argued [...]
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , said Friday that US Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito has promised that his views on abortion will not be a factor in his rulings. Several documents released in recent weeks have highlighted Alito's opposition to abortion, including a 1985 memo authored by Alito [...]
Leading Friday's environmental law news, the Maine Board of Environmental Protection has approved regulations that set "California" emissions standards for new cars and trucks sold in Maine beginning in 2009. Maine becomes the sixth state to adopt the standards, designed to reduce pollution linked to global warming, joining California, Washington, Oregon, New York, and Vermont. [...]
