There are currently cases in 28 states challenging the provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). On Thursday, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II [official profile] announced [press release; JURIST report] that he will file a petition for certiorari before judgment with the US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive], asking the court to hear an appeal in the case of Commonwealth v. Sebelius [materials], the Commonwealth of Virginia's challenge to the health care reform law. Earlier this week, a judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida [official website] struck down [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] the law as an unconstitutional overreaching of Congress' Commerce Clause [Cornell II backgrounder] power. The entire law was voided in that case, as the judge found the individual insurance mandate to be unserverable. That decision is expected to be appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website]. Earlier in January, a judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Virginia [official website] dismissed [JURIST report] a lawsuit challenging a provision of the health care reform law. In October, a federal judge in Michigan ruled [JURIST report] that the law is constitutional under the Commerce Clause as it addresses the economic effects of health care decisions, and that it does not represent an unconstitutional direct tax.

In January, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev [Guardian profile; JURIST news archive] signed into law a bill that ratified the New START treaty. The Russian Federation Council voted to ratify the treaty [JURIST report] earlier that month. Russia's lower house originally approved the treaty [JURIST report] in December. Earlier that month, the US Senate voted 71-26 [JURIST report] to ratify the treaty. US President Barack Obama and Medvedev signed the treaty [JURIST report] in Prague in April. The agreement, reached [JURIST report] last February, is the first nuclear agreement between the two nations in nearly 20 years. The US State Department began negotiating [JURIST report] the treaty with Russia in 2009. Nuclear disarmament between the US and Russia, whose nuclear arsenals comprise 95 percent of the world's nuclear weapons, languished during the Bush administration. The treaty is considered a key part of easing tensions between the two countries, which reached a high point after the 2008 Georgia conflict [BBC backgrounder].

Earlier this week, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) [advocacy website] used the death of a Guantanamo detainee to highlight what it claims are problems with the detention system [press release; JURIST report] currently used by the US for dealing with suspected terrorists. The deceased, Awal Gul, had been at the Guantanamo Bay detention center since October 2002, suspected of having aided the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan [DOD press release, PDF]. Gul died on Tuesday of an apparent heart attack after he had completed some aerobic exercises. The CCR believes that the circumstances surrounding Gul's death illustrate the inherent problem with the detention center and the policy the US follows in detaining and indefinitely holding suspected terrorists, claiming that the facility has become a purgatory, where people are held indefinitely. What to do with Guantanamo detainees remaining in US custody continues to be a significant issue. In January, Human Rights Watch criticized President Barack Obama [JURIST report] for failing to shut down the facility as he promised during the 2008 presidential campaign. Earlier last month, Obama signed a defense authorization bill that prohibits the transfer of detainees to the US for trial [JURIST report], further confusing the future of the 177 men currently at the facility. In an effort to reduce the population at the facility, the US has been transferring detainees [JURIST report], some to their native countries.