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[JURIST] Blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] arrived in New York on Saturday, resolving a US-China struggle that began when Chen escaped house arrest [JURIST report] last month and fled to the US embassy in Beijing, seeking protection from Chinese authorities. In a press conference Saturday evening Chen thanked the US for its help and the Chinese government for its cooperation and its promise to respect his citizenship rights in the future. Chen left the US embassy [JURIST report] earlier this month out of fear that the Chinese government would hurt his family if...

[JURIST] The US District Court for the District of Utah [official website] on Tuesday overturned [order, PDF] Utah Code §§ 76-10-1206 and 76-10-1233 [text], major parts of a Utah law that regulate electronic materials potentially harmful to minors. Originally passed in 2005, the law was challenged [JURIST report] by the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah [advocacy website] as overbroad and in violation of the First Amendment [Cornell LII backgrounder]. Judge Dee Benson held that the First Amendment precludes prosecution under § 1206 for simply posting material harmful to minors on a generally accessible website. The decision limits the application...

[JURIST] UN Special Rapporteur on torture Juan E. Mendez [official profile; press release] concluded his nine-day visit to the Republic of Tajikistan [BBC profile] on Friday, stating that he was pleased with the country's recent modifications designed to aid in eradicating torture, but that mistreatment of suspects remains the norm. Mendez is especially encouraged by the recent introduction of a new criminal provision that defines torture and provides penalties for it. He does believe, however, that "a relatively low penalty does not offer a strong disincentive to commit torture." Mendez urged the total elimination of pressure tactics on detainees to...

[JURIST] Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi [BBC News profile] died in Libya on Sunday after losing his battle with cancer. His brother reported that Megrahi, 60, died in his home in Tripoli [BBC report] after his health deteriorated rapidly due to his condition. Megrahi was a former Libyan intelligence officer and the only person convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 [BBC News backgrounder] over the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. Megrahi and another Libyan were indicted in Scottish and US courts in 1991, but Libya refused to extradite them until an agreement was reached...

[JURIST] The US International Trade Commission (ITC) [official website] on Friday concluded its investigation [notice, PDF] into a complaint that a number of Motorola mobile phones infringed on several Microsoft [corporate websites] patents. The decision affirmed the ruling of an administrative law judge in December that Microsoft had proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Motorola had in fact violated one of the several patents allegedly infringed. The ITC order requires Motorola to stop importing and selling certain models of mobile phones and to pay to Microsoft "a reasonable royalty rate in the amount of $0.33 per device" already...

[JURIST] The Israeli Knesset [official website] Wednesday rejected a bill that would have legalized civil marriages in the country. The "Freedom of Choice in Marriage" bill was proposed to allow marriages not approved by Jewish Law [Jerusalem Post report], including same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] and marriages between a Jewish person and a gentile. Currently marriages in Israel are only conducted in religious institutions, and the bill would have allowed the creation of civil marriages not recognized by the Chief Rabbinate. Knesset Member Nitzan Horowitz [official profile] submitted the bill [Shalom Life report] to the Knesset earlier this month. He had...

[JURIST] Malawi [BBC backgrounder] President Joyce Banda announced in her first national address [text] on Friday that she will decriminalize homosexual acts. The provisions she intends to repeal are Section 153 and 156 [ILGA backgrounder, PDF] of the Penal Code, which provide 14 years or 5 years imprisonment, respectively, for anyone engaging in male homosexual activity or relationships. Lesbianism is not criminalized in Malawi. The laws have been widely criticized by the international community. The announcement comes as a move to normalize relations with Malawi's development partners in response to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama Administration's [official...

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia [official website] decided [text, PDF] to uphold Section 5 [DOJ backgrounder] of the Voting Rights Act [text] Friday, affirming the ruling of the district court below [JURIST report]. Section 5 requires covered jurisdictions to clear changes in voting districts, polling places and other electoral processes with the Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] or federal courts. It relies heavily on patterns of past discrimination to determine which state, county and local governments must obtain pre-clearance for election changes. According to the DOJ [list of jurisdictions], nine states and many...

[JURIST] The Maryland Court of Appeals [official website], the state's highest court, ruled [opinion, PDF] Friday that a lesbian couple legally married in California can get a divorce in Maryland. Even though Maryland does not currently allow same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder], the court ruled 7-0 that valid same-sex marriages performed out-of-state should be recognized for purposes of divorce. The court concluded:Under the principles of the doctrine of comity applied in our State, Maryland courts will withhold recognition of a valid foreign marriage only if that marriage is "repugnant" to State public policy. This threshold, a high bar, has not been...

[JURIST] Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant [official website] on Thursday signed [press release] legislation [HB 921 materials] that would require voters to show photo identification at all elections. The bill enacts a constitutional amendment that was approved by 62 percent of Mississippi voters [JURIST report] in the November election. Upon signing, Bryant said:This legislation is about protecting the integrity of Mississippi's elections. ... This legislation is a direct result of the majority of Mississippians expressing their desire for a constitutional voter ID requirement in the state. We want everyone to participate in the election process, and we want that process to...

[JURIST] The US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee [official website] approved legislation [press release] Thursday that would suspend foreign aid to countries that host Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir [ICC materials; JURIST news archive] who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] on genocide and war crimes charges. The provision is part of the Fiscal Year 2013 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, which must be voted on by the full House of Representatives and then reconciled with a separate Senate version. The amendment, passed by voice vote, was backed by Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) [official website], who...

[JURIST] The Brazilian Access to Information Act took effect Wednesday, increasing government transparency. The law will allow citizens to seek access to information that has previously been shrouded in secrecy despite a constitutional provision [Article 5, XXXIII text] requiring public access to information. Speaking at a ceremony Wednesday to mark the swearing in of a truth commission [JURIST report] that will investigate human rights abuses under the country's military dictatorship, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff [official profile, in Portuguese] said [statement, in Portuguese] that, "the new law represents a major institutional improvement to Brazil, expression of the transparency of the State,...

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Thursday that a New York town council beginning its meeting with prayer is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. Town board meetings in Greece, NY [official website] are led with prayer, typically Christian-based, although the town maintains that any denomination is welcome to lead the council in prayer. Due to this stipulation, the plaintiffs alleging that this practice violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment [text] received a summary judgment dismissal in district court. The Second Circuit overturned that judgment and ruled that while prayer...

[JURIST] Brazil President Dilma Rousseff [official profile, in Portuguese] on Wednesday swore in seven members of a truth commission [press release, in Portuguese] who will investigate alleged human rights violations that occurred under the country's military dictatorship. On the same day, the commission held its first meeting [Estadao report, in Portuguese], which dealt primarily with bureaucratic matters. The commission is authorized to investigate abuses that occurred under Brazil's military dictatorship, which reigned the country from 1964 to 1985, but its findings will not lead to any trials [Al Jazeera report] due to a military-era amnesty. During the swearing-in ceremony, Rousseff,...

[JURIST] Illegal immigrants [JURIST backgrounder] face constitutional and human rights violations in Georgia detention centers, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia (ACLUGA) [advocacy website] reported [text, PDF; press release] Wednesday. The ACLUGA concluded that the suspected illegal immigrants live in squalor conditions, without access to appropriate medical care. It also documented overwhelming reports of due process rights being denied.Violations include coercion by immigration judges and deportation officers to get detainees to sign stipulated orders of removal, overburdened court dockets, delays in the removal process, failure to provide pro bono representation information, and lack of adequate language access for non-English...

[JURIST] Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin [official website] signed into law on Thursday a bill [H 464 materials] outlawing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking [JURIST news archive], making Vermont the first US state to ban the controversial technique used to extract natural gas from the ground. Fracking is the process of injecting a high pressured mixture of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to break through rock and release oil and natural gas. Most major oil companies [CNN report], including Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell and BP, employ this technique to obtain shale oil and gas. Proponents of fracking say that...

[JURIST] A Egyptian court on Thursday acquitted 14 police officers charged in the deaths of protesters during popular uprisings last year. Then men were charged with killing protesters on January 28, 2011, one of the most violent days during the revolution. Nearly 200 police officers and government officials, including former president Hosni Mubarak [Al Jazeera profile; JURIST news archive], have been charged in connection with the deaths of at least 846 protesters, but acquittals have been common. Out of 10 cases, there have been nine acquittals [AP report] and one suspended sentence, causing some critics to accuse authorities of failing...

[JURIST] Alabama Governor Robert Bentley [official website] on Thursday called a special legislative session [proclamation, PDF; press release] to discuss changes to the state's tough immigration law [HB 56, PDF]. The move comes one day after state lawmakers gave final approval to a bill [HB 658 text] that would have amended the law to make it easier to defend in court. Rather than signing or vetoing the bill, Bentley called the special session, saying:The essence of the law must remain the same, and that is if you live or work in Alabama, you must do so legally. ... We must...

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York [official website] on Wednesday blocked [opinion, PDF] a portion of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) [text, PDF] which allows for the indefinite detention of suspected terrorists, finding that it violates the First Amendment [text]. Section 1021 of the NDAA affirms the authority of the president under the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) to detain indefinitely any "person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its...

[JURIST] An Afghan detainee who was handed over to authorities in Afghanistan by UK forces won permission on Wednesday to challenge the legality of the transfer. Before the High Court of Justice in London, Serdar Mohammed claimed that he had been transferred by British forces to a prison in Afghanistan where he was tortured by the Afghanistan intelligence service until he confessed that he was a member of the Taliban. The court felt there was "an arguable case" that required being heard out by a jury in order to determine the legality of the transfer. Observing the potential for torture,...