Search Results for: 2015-10-21

The US Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in Snyder v. United States, a case involving illegal gratuities paid to a local government official. The issue is whether the federal government can use 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1)(B)—known as federal funds bribery—to prosecute those who give and take illegal gratuities or whether the statute only [...]

In the wake of the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, many of Israel’s supporters, myself included, have succumbed to the understandable impulse for violent retribution. Israel is a land that I love, both culturally as a Jew — and third-generation Holocaust survivor — and spiritually as an ordained cantor. It follows that [...]

“Where there were great military actions, there lies whitening now the jawbone of an ass.” Saint-John Perse (French poet, 1887-1975) As film, the core importance of “Oppenheimer” lies in its messages on human survival. The personal, emotional and romantic aspects of the film are captivating, to be sure, but they are less consequential than any [...]

Indian law students are reporting for JURIST on law-related developments in and affecting India. This dispatch is from Sunidhi Das, a JURIST Assistant Editor and a second-year student at National Law School of India University, Bengaluru.    On February 27, 2002, a tragic incident unfolded at the Godhra station in Gujarat, India, when a train [...]

The year 2024 is an important one for Sri Lanka. It is a presidential election year, and a resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council to gather evidence of international crimes for use in future prosecutions is due for renewal. After the public ousters of the former-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2023, Ranil Wickremesinghe [...]

The current conflict engulfing Israel and Palestine raises significant issues of international law and policy. This is part one in an anticipated two-part series that will discuss some of the relevant legal questions before the International Criminal Court (ICC; Part I) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ; Part II).  With both courts located in [...]

The US government has again desecrated the memory of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the latest example of the Biden administration having broken its promise to work to end the death penalty, it announced its intention to seek a federal death sentence against Peyton Gendron, the 19-year-old who horrifically murdered 10 [...]

On Jan. 25, the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) plans to execute Kenneth Smith by forcing him to breathe pure nitrogen gas, an untested execution method with profound legal and ethical consequences. Death penalty abolitionists worldwide have railed against this form of capital punishment, but these efforts have thus far failed to alter the state’s [...]

As we prepare to usher in 2024, the outlook on Alabama’s administration of the death penalty holds many terrible knowns, and an even greater number of grim unknowns. At the top of any capital punishment-watcher’s list: Is Alabama really going to move forward with the first state-sanctioned nitrogen gassing execution in US history? If all goes according [...]

It is Thanksgiving Day. The aroma of turkey; of dressing; candied sweet potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; freshly baked yeast rolls; giblet gravy, and of pies emanating from the kitchen fills our nostrils. Home is the place to be today. But have you ever given thought to the law of the gobbler? This Day in [...]