Congress was forced to revise the act following the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Stevens [Cornell LII backgrounder], in which the 1999 law was struck down [JURIST report] for being substantially overbroad and therefore in violation of the First Amendment [text]. Legislators hope that the new amendments to the law will afford it greater enforceability and staying power in their efforts to ban crush videos. Following the Supreme Court's decision, animal rights activists focused on the narrowness of the ruling, as well as the dissent, and called on [JURIST comments] Congress to revise the law.

Last month, the ICC affirmed [judgment, PDF; press release] a trial chamber ruling and dismissed [JURIST report] Bemba's appeal challenging the admissibility of his case before the ICC. The court also concluded that the ICC's jurisdiction over the case does not violate a Rome Statute provision that prohibits the ICC from hearing cases after a country has decided not to prosecute the person concerned. In April, defense lawyers argued before the court that charges against Bemba should be dropped [JURIST report] because he had been denied due process and the charges are illegal. In addition, defense lawyers claimed that Bemba lacked the financial resources [JURIST report] necessary to ensure a fair trial. The ICC ordered Bemba to stand trial in July 2009 for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity [JURIST report] committed between October 2002 and May 2003 while he was a military leader of the Congo Liberation Movement (MLC). Bemba was arrested [JURIST report] in Belgium in May 2008 after the ICC issued a sealed warrant for his arrest. The charges in the arrest warrant included rape, torture, outrages upon personal dignity and pillaging.

Last month, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia [official website] extended the deadline [JURIST report] for Congress to approve the Indian Trust settlement to January 7, 2011, marking the seventh time [case materials] an extension had been granted since the settlement was reached [JURIST report] in December 2009. The settlements arose from two cases. Elouise Cobell originally filed litigation in 1996 related to DOI's alleged mismanagement of the Indian Trust, which was established by Congress in 1887 to hold proceeds from government-arranged leases to Indian lands. Although it was determined that the US government had not engaged in fraud, it was held that DOI unreasonably delayed accounting of the trust. In 1999, black farmers alleged in Pigford v. Glickman [BFAA backgrounder] that they were being denied USDA farm loans or forced to wait longer for loan approval than were non-minority farmers. The USDA and Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] announced a $1.2 billion settlement [JURIST report] in February.

Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] released a report [JURIST report] in June stating that Libya had made some progress with regards to human rights, but that the situation remained "dire." The report included violations by the ISA, which "appear[s] to have unchecked powers to arrest, detain and interrogate individuals suspected of dissent or of terrorism-related activities." AI also echoed concerns about the use of the death penalty, which the group expressed weeks earlier when it condemned the execution [press release; JURIST report] of 18 people, including foreign nationals, in Libya. HRW issued a similar report [text; JURIST report] in December, finding that Libya is making strides towards greater transparency and acknowledgment of human rights but that it still has a long way to go.