Alabama legislature advances bill that restricts books 'harmful to minors' in public libraries
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-28 to pass HB 385, which prohibits public libraries from providing materials that are “harmful to minors” or “obscene.” The bill, which passed on Thursday, will now go to the Alabama Senate. Under the bill, it is a public nuisance for public libraries to provide obscene or harmful materials [...]
India Supreme Court rejects plea to verify votes polled through machines
The Indian Supreme Court (SC) rejected Friday a plea seeking 100 percent cross-verification of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) data with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) records. An EVM is a voting device that uses electronic means to aid or complete the tasks of casting and counting votes. The VVPAT, introduced during India’s Lok Sabha [...]
King Charles III has given his assent to the UK government’s legislation which will allow asylum seekers to be sent to Rwanda. The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill 2024 received Royal Assent on Thursday and will now become law in the UK. Royal assent is the final stage in the British legislative process, [...]
European Court of Justice official finds Meta misused user data
Advocate General (AG) Athanasios Rantos of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on Thursday issued an opinion, largely siding with an Austrian lawyer and privacy activist who sued Meta for misusing his personal data to send him targeted advertisements. Meta is the parent company of popular social media platforms like Facebook and [...]
Marissa Zupancic is JURIST’s Washington DC Correspondent, a JURIST Senior Editor and a 3L at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She’s stationed in Washington during her Semester in DC. Today I attended oral arguments at the US Supreme Court for Trump v. US, a case concerning whether a president has absolute immunity after they [...]
US Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Idaho abortion ban case
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Wednesday in the case concerning whether a 1986 federal law preempts Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. The Idaho statute criminalizes performing or attempting to perform an abortion unless not doing so would result in the mother’s death. The Biden administration argues that the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act [...]
Explainer: Supreme Court Set to Hear Oral Arguments on Presidential Immunity
The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Trump v. US on Thursday in a case entailing alleged federal election interference in 2020. Trump is enmeshed in multiple criminal and civil cases as he prepares to run for reelection in November. This will be the second time this term a case concerning former President [...]
Legislating Identity: A Critical Analysis of the Anti-LGBT Bills in Kenya and Ghana
Recent Afrobarometer survey data (Round 8, 2019-2021) paints a stark picture with 86% of Kenyans and 93% of Ghanaians expressing intolerance towards the LGBT community. This high level of intolerance exists despite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guaranteeing non-discrimination based on sexual orientation. Furthermore, across Africa, laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual activity remain commonplace. [...]
US Supreme Court split on whether to allow broader punishment for people camping in public spaces
The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on whether enforcing public camping ordinances against unhoused people without adequate shelter is cruel and unusual punishment and, therefore, prohibited by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution. The case, Grants Pass v. Johnson, originated in southern Oregon. The central question before the court revolves around the [...]
The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal of a decision that struck down an ATF final rule aimed at limiting ghost guns. Ghost guns are weapons parts kits that can be put together to create a firearm without having to register it. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit previously [...]
