Voters in Maine on Tuesday overturned a law allowing same-sex couples to wed, dealing a fresh setback to the U.S. gay marriage movement in a race that attracted national attention.
Two City workers who are each suing a Japanese investment bank for £1.5 million say they were driven from their jobs because they were not male and not Japanese.
Spring Design, a maker of electronic readers, is suing Barnes & Noble Inc (BKS.N), claiming the bookseller´s newly launched Nook reader illegally copied its dual-screen design after the two discussed a possible partnership.
Judge Eloy Velasco of the Spanish National Court [official website, in Spanish] on Monday indicted seven people for their alleged involvement in helping the suspected perpetrators of the 2004 Madrid train bombings [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] flee Spain after the attacks. Six of the seven have been charged [El Pais report, in Spanish] with belonging to a terrorist organization and the seventh person has been charged with collaboration. Altogether they are accused of providing money, housing, food, and forged documentation to the suspected perpetrators. The nationalities of the seven indicted include four Moroccans, an Algerian, and a Tunisian, and the nationality of the seventh is unknown. One of the indicted, a Moroccan is already in Spanish custody, four are on provisional release, and the whereabouts of the remaining two are unknown. If convicted, the six charged with belonging to a terrorist organization can face up to 12 years and the collaborator up to 10 years in prison. The men are required to be in court later this month.
Judges of the Supreme Court of India [official website] on Monday voluntarily made public disclosures of their financial assets [list]. The assets of 21 of the current judges have been posted on the official court website in an effort to increase judicial transparency. This voluntary listing of assets comes after months of harsh criticisms from the legal community and the public concerning judicial accountability. While the move has been lauded as a step in the right direction, Transparency International [advocacy website] has questioned the benefit of disclosure when there is no way to confirm that it is entirely accurate, given the announcement that the judges will not entertain any queries or scrutiny [CJAR press release, PDF] of assets listed. The decision [JURIST report] to go public with the listing of assets was based on a consensus among the judges as there is no current law that requires them to do so.
A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on Monday denied [opinion, PDF] a motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging patents on human genes, allowing the case to proceed. The suit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) [advocacy websites] on behalf of patients and scientists challenging patents held by Myriad Genetics [corporate website] on the BCRA genes [NCI backgrounder], which are associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Plaintiffs allege that the patents are illegal under patent law and unconstitutional under the First Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, and Article I of the Constitution [text]. The plaintiffs also claim that the patents are essentially a monopoly that restricts scientific research and patient care. In allowing the case to move forward, Judge Robert Sweet noted that the case has implications for the broader issues of patenting human genes:
Apple may be continuing its efforts to block unauthorized hardware from being able to take advantage of its software, if reports are accurate from early testers of an upcoming OS X update.
Australia´s central bank on Tuesday raised interest rates for the second time in just over a month as evidence mounts the nation´s economic recovery is building momentum.
Facebook said Thursday a California court has awarded the social networking website $711 million in damages in an anti-spam case against Internet marketer Sanford Wallace.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev [official profile] on Sunday signed into law [press release, in Russian] a bill that introduces stricter punishments for those convicted of manipulating the stock market. Traders and journalists convicted of market manipulation involving more than 1,000,000 rubles may now face prison time between two and seven years, along with fines [AFP report]. The law passed through the State Duma and the Federation Council [official websites, in Russian] last month.
e Obama administration, top lawmakers, and news organizations reached an agreement [press release] Friday on legislation that would protect journalists from being forced to reveal their sources in federal court. The compromise version of the Free Flow of Information Act [HR 985 materials] would extend protections to journalists by creating a qualified privilege for those who refuse to disclose confidential sources. It would allow judges to weigh the greater public and national security interests against the need to uncover a journalist´s source. The protection would extend to subpoenas for journalists´ information as well as any efforts made to investigate phone and Internet records journalists utilized to obtain any information. In an announcement of the compromise, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) [official website] said:
The Obama administration on Friday filed a motion to dismiss [text, PDF] a federal lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) [text; JURIST news archive]. The suit was brought [JURIST report] in July by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley [official profile] and challenges the DOMA on constitutional grounds. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] argued that states that allow same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive] cannot force the federal government to provide benefits to those couples. The Obama administration still maintains that DOMA is discriminatory but says it must continue to defend standing federal statutes:
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced Sunday that Mexico´s extradition of 11 fugitives [press release] to the US on Saturday has brought the number of extraditions this year to a record 100. The individuals face charges ranging from conspiracy to distribute and distribution of narcotics, to money laundering, molestation, and murder. The announcement of the extraditions came the day before US Attorney General Eric Holder was due to meet with his Mexican counterpart Arturo Chavez [official profiles]. Holder applauded Mexico´s cooperative efforts with the US:
New House health care bill unveiled House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) [official website] unveiled [press release] the House health care reform bill [text, PDF] at an event on Capitol Hill on Thursday morning. The $894 billion health care package, a combination of similar bills passed by House committees over the summer, would provide insurance [AP report] to 36 million more people, extending coverage to nearly 96 percent of Americans. The bill, entitled the Affordable Health Care for America Act, would expand eligibility for Medicaid [official website], the federal-state insurance program for low-income Americans, and includes subsidies for middle-class citizens whose employers do not provide access to affordable coverage. The bill also includes a so-called "public option," a requirement for employers to offer insurance to their employees and a prohibition on refusing coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Speaking on the steps of the US Capitol, Pelosi praised the bill saying:
Former French president Jacques Chirac has been ordered to stand trial on embezzlement charges dating back to his time as mayor of Paris, an unprecedented move against a former French head of state.
The Hawaii Supreme Court [official website] on Tuesday dismissed the last claim seeking a permanent ban on the sale of lands ceded by the former monarchy. Claims were originally filed by four members of the Native Hawaiians [advocacy website] and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) [official website] in order to prevent the sale of 1.2 million acres of land. Three of the four Native Hawaiian defendants and OHA reached a compromise [Honolulu Advertiser report] with the state that would require approval by two-thirds of both houses of the state legislature before any of the ceded lands could be sold. The agreement was part of Hawaii State Senate Bill 1677. The fourth defendant, University of Hawaii professor Jonathan Osorio, rejected the compromise and continued with his lawsuit, but the court dismissed his suit Tuesday. Hawaii Attorney General Mark Bennett [official website] said [press release, PDF] he was "pleased" with the court´s decision.
The US House Financial Services Committee [official website] voted 49-14 Wednesday to approve new regulations governing investment rating agencies. The Investor Protection Act [HR 3817 text, PDF], sponsored by Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) [official website], modifies the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 [text, PDF], giving the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [official website] the authority to monitor and punish ratings agencies. Kanjorski sees the need for increased regulation, saying [press release]:
A judge in the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] on Tuesday dismissed [opinion, PDF] a lawsuit challenging the Obama administration´s decision [JURIST report] to ease restrictions on stem cell research [JURIST news archive]. Nightlight Christian Adoptions [advocacy website] claimed that the removal of restrictions on stem cell research would lower the number of embryos available for adoption. Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that this claim was speculative and that for Nightlight to have standing to sue they would need to show that donors were choosing to donate embryos for research instead of adoption:
The Kuwaiti Constitutional Court [official website, in Arabic] ruled Wednesday that female lawmakers are not required to wear the hijab [JURIST news archive], or traditional Muslim headscarf. The ruling was in response to a petition brought by four voters seeking to invalidate the election of two of the four women who became the first female members [BBC report] of the Kuwaiti National Assembly in June because they refuse to wear the hijab.
An Italian appeals court on Tuesday upheld the bribery conviction of David Mills, a British barrister and former lawyer to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Mills was sentenced in February to a four-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly accepting USD $600,000 in bribes for offering false testimony at two trials in 1997 and 1998 involving Berlusconi broadcasting company Mediaset. A lawyer for Mills said he plans to appeal [AKI report] to Italy´s high court, the Court of Cassation.
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