The only allegations pertaining to any injury in fact suffered by Patient Roe are as follows: (1) "Roe is a patient of Dr. Criscito who pays himself for his care," and (2) Roe "is a citizen of the State of New Jersey who chooses who and how to pay for the medical care he receives from Dr. Criscito and others." These allegations are factually barren with respect to standing. ... These allegations are insufficient to establish injury in fact. First, Roe fails to set forth any current "actual" "concrete and particularized" injury. ... Second, Roe's allegations do not establish that a future "concrete and particularized" injury is "imminent."

In June, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] found [opinion, PDF] the individual mandate provision of PPACA constitutional [JURIST report]. The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) [advocacy website] plans to appeal [AP report] to the Supreme Court. Also in June, the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit [official website] heard arguments [JURIST report] regarding the constitutionality of the individual mandate. The appeal was brought by the DOJ after the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida [official website] struck down the entire health care law after it determined that the individual mandate exceeds Congress' authority [JURIST report] under the Commerce Clause. The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] decided it can rule on two challenges to PPACA after the court requested briefs [JURIST report] from all parties on whether the Anti-Injunction Act (AIA) [text], which prevents injunctions against taxes before the tax is imposed, would bar review of PPACA until it is implemented. The Fourth Circuit already heard arguments [JURIST report] in May to resolve a split decision between the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruling against the individual mandate and the Western District of Virginia dismissing a challenge [JURIST reports].

It is assumed that the biometric data remain stored. For users to delete their previously stored biometric information want, they must first work through the online help system. This is used to erase the biometric data path via the privacy settings. The corresponding function ("delete data from photo comparison database") does not exist. Elsewhere in the help system is a link that allows the user to contact the "Facebook photo team." Only there one can order the removal of all biometric information previously gathered about him. An opt-out possibility, although available, is difficult for the average user to find. In light of this seems particularly concerning that it is the default even for underage users face recognition. But even if Facebook was offering a user-friendly method to opt-out, it would not meet national or European data protection requirements. For storage of biometrics a pre-issued, unambiguous consent by the affected is required.

Facebook has frequently been under scrutiny for violating privacy laws in Germany. In July 2010, The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information initiated legal proceedings [JURIST report] against Facebook for accessing and saving non-users' personal information. Dr. Johannes Caspar [official profile, in German] stated the social networking site could be fined tens of thousands of euros [AP report] for violating Germany's strict privacy laws [materials, PDF, in German]. Facebook responded by changing the feature for German users. Earlier, he filed a complaint [Boston Globe report] against Google [corporate website; JURIST news archive], joining many in other countries in contending that their Street View feature violates privacy rights. Facebook has also faced privacy complaints in other countries. A South Korean regulator said in December that Facebook was not in compliance with the nation's data privacy laws [JURIST report] and must more earnestly seek consent from users before accessing their personal information. The Canadian Office of the Privacy Commissioner [official website] announced that it would launch a new probe [JURIST report] of Facebook to investigate privacy issues in response to complaints. Before that, five Facebook users sued the company in a California court alleging the site violated their privacy [JURIST report].

South Korea has already been investigating Google over data collection. In January, the South Korea National Police Agency [official website, in Korean] announced it had found evidence that Google illegally collected private data [JURIST report] in the process of producing its popular Street View [website] mapping service. The illegally captured data included hundreds of thousands of emails, instant messages, passwords and search histories [Korea Times report] through unencrypted Wi-Fi networks. The information was discovered on 79 hard disks [JoongAng Daily report] seized from Google's Seoul office, which police raided [JURIST report] last year. Earlier this year, the Obama administration backed Internet privacy legislation [JURIST report] at a hearing before the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation [official website]. The hearing followed reports released in December by the US Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) [reports, PDF] petitioning for stronger online privacy protections, while maintaining the innovation of the Internet.

It is my hope that the Iranian authorities will view my mandate as a secure and legitimate space in which to take steps to comply with its international human rights obligations, as well as an opportunity to address the areas of concern communicated to Iran during its interactions with the international community on human rights issues.

Iran has been heavily criticized for its alleged human rights abuses. Jailed Iranian journalist Isa Saharkhiz [Iran Press profile] in July urged [letter, DOC, in Persian] Shaheed to investigate prison conditions in Iran [JURIST report]. Saharkhiz alleged that the treatment of both political and general prisoners in Iran amounts to crimes against humanity [RFE/RL report], and compared the conduct of prison authorities to that of Joseph Stalin in Soviet-era concentration camps. In May, rights groups decried [JURIST report] Iran's persecution of lawyers. In January, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran [official website] claimed that Iran is on an "execution binge" [JURIST report], killing one prisoner every eight hours. In January, prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh was sentenced [JURIST report] to 11 years in prison. Sotoudeh was found guilty [Guardian report] of "acting against national security" and "making propaganda against the system" for which she will serve five and one years, respectively. She was the lawyer for Arash Rahmanipour, who was arrested for his role in the post-election protests on charges of moharebeh, or being an enemy of God. Rahmanipour was executed [JURIST report] in January 2010. Also, in January, Iranian chief prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi delivered a speech at Tehran University indicating that he would prosecute opposition leaders [JURIST report] for political unrest that took place after the country's 2009 presidential election [JURIST news archive].

The Guatemalan civil war resulted in more than 200,000 deaths, mostly among Guatemala's large indigenous Mayan population. According to a UN report [text, in Spanish; press release] released in 1999, the military was responsible for 95 percent of those deaths. Earlier in June, the UN said it approved of the arrest [JURIST report] of a former top Guatemalan military figure accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. General Hector Mario Lopez Fuentes, former chief of staff of Guatemalan armed forces from 1982-1983, is accused of directing military attacks against citizens, namely indigenous Mayans. Villages were destroyed and women and girls were systematically raped under his authorization. In response many deaths during the civil war, the Guatemalan government founded the National Compensation Program (PNR) in 2003 to deal with claims by civilians affected by the civil war. The PNR, after setting up its administrative structure, has begun to use its $40 million budget to work through a backlog of more than 98,000 civilian complaints. More than 1,000 complaints were filed in 2008. The PNR hopes to file the majority of the complaints within the next year.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in March 2011 is considered one of the biggest man-made environmental disasters of all time and the largest nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Following the 9.0 magnitude Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on March 11, three Fukushima reactors experienced full meltdowns, while the other three malfunctioned in various other ways. Due to the tsunami, flood waters swept in and out of the building, becoming irradiated and affecting the surrounding area. Japan has been criticized for its handling of the crisis, and international reception to nuclear energy has fallen sharply since the incident. In a Forum op-ed, Fukushima Illustrates Need for Nuclear Policy [JURIST op-ed], Tamar Cerafici of the Cerafici Law Firm discussed how the Fukushima disaster should guide US policy.

Alpha Delta Chi sorority required its members to accept "Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord," to have "active participation in Christian service" and "regular attendance or membership in an evangelical church." The Alpha Gamma Omega fraternity had similar requirements in addition to signing a "Statement of Faith" expressing devotion to the Christian church and its tenets. In Christian Legal Society, the Supreme Court ruled that the "all comers" policy at Hastings, which limits funding to student organizations that adopt the school's nondiscrimination policy, is reasonable and viewpoint neutral and does not violate the First Amendment. The Ninth Circuit later dismissed a claim by the Christian Legal Society (CLS) [advocacy website] that the University of California-Hastings School of Law [academic website] selectively applies its nondiscrimination policy to CLS. In 2004, CLS became the first group to seek exemption from Hastings' nondiscrimination policy. CLS chapters exclude from affiliation anyone who engages in "unrepentant homosexual conduct" or holds religious convictions different from those in the "Statement of Faith", which all members are required to sign.

A French criminal court sentenced Noriega [JURIST report] to seven years in jail for money laundering in July 2010. Noriega, whose trial began days earlier [JURIST report], was convicted of laundering $3 million in drug profits by purchasing property in Paris. In April 2010, Noriega was extradited [JURIST report] from the US, where he had served a 17-year sentence on drug charges, after fighting extradition [JURIST report] since 2007. The US Supreme Court declined to reconsider [JURIST report] Noriega's petition to stop the extradition process. His lawyers filed the petition in February 2010 after the Supreme Court denied certiorari [JURIST reports] on the case a month earlier. Noriega, who has been declared a prisoner of war, sought to enforce a provision of the Geneva Convention [ICRC backgrounder] that requires repatriation at the end of confinement. Noriega and his wife were sentenced in absentia [Reuters report] to 10 years in jail by a French court in 1999, but France agreed to hold a new trial if he was extradited.

Hicks pleaded guilty to a charge of providing material support [JURIST reports] to terrorists at an appearance before a US military commission in March 2007 and was sentenced to nine months in prison. He was then transferred [JURIST report] to a maximum security prison near his hometown of Adelaide, South Australia to serve the remainder of his nine-month prison sentence. Under the plea agreement, Hicks was required to state that he "has never been illegally treated" while being held as an enemy combatant by the US and that his detention was lawful pursuant to the laws of armed conflict. Hicks was also prohibited from having contact with the media for a period of one year, ordered not take any legal action against the United States for his treatment during his five-year detention, and required to turn over any profits from an eventual sale of his story to the Australian government. Hicks' detention and trial have been heavily criticized, with the Law Council of Australia, for example, calling Hicks' trial a "charade" [JURIST report]. JURIST Special Guest Columnist and former Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser argued that Hicks' trial before a US military commission demonstrated the disturbing willingness of two allegedly democratic governments to abandon the rule of law for an expedient and evil purpose in his op-ed entitled "The US, Australia and David Hicks: Abandoning the Rule of Law."

IVF is a type of fertility treatment for couples who have had difficulty conceiving children. Through IVF, a woman's eggs are removed and fertilized outside the body. Successfully fertilized embryos are then implanted into the woman for gestation. The rest are frozen or discarded, which the Catholic Church, Costa Rica and other organizations see as destruction of human life. Costa Rica is the only Western nation that bans the practice and has been under increasing criticism for that ruling. Although the nation is known for a progressive human rights and civil liberties record, the government usually holds to the Catholic Church's edicts on many social issues. Last August, the Supreme Court of Costa Rica ruled 5-2 to disallow a nationwide referendum [JURIST report] on whether to recognize same-sex civil unions [JURIST news archive]. The referendum was to be on the ballot during the December municipal elections after qualifying for the ballot through a petition.

New York began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples last week, just one month after Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) [official website] signed the legislation [JURIST report] into law. Same-sex marriage continues to be a controversial and divisive issue through the US, although a recent poll [materials] suggests support for legalization is growing. However, the Minnesota Senate [official website] in May approved [JURIST report] a voter referendum [SF 1308 text] to amend the constitution to ban same-sex marriage. In April, a Montana judge dismissed a lawsuit [JURIST report] that had called for the state to provide legal status to same-sex relationships. Also in April, the Indiana Senate [official website] overwhelmingly approved [JURIST report] an amendment to the state constitution that would ban same-sex marriage or any "substantially similar" status, and the Wyoming Senate [official website] in February approved a bill that would void in Wyoming any same-sex marriages and civil unions [JURIST report] performed in other jurisdictions. In addition to New York, same-sex marriage is currently legal in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire and the District of Columbia [JURIST reports].

After careful and actual personal consideration of the matter, I have concluded that disclosure of the three categories of information described below and in more detail in the classified Giuliano Declaration could reasonably be expected to cause significant harm to the national security, and I therefore formally assert the state secrets privilege over this information.

The FBI has come under controversy for its investigation of Muslims in the US before. In 2009, FBI Director Robert Mueller [official profile] said the FBI will continue investigating mosques [JURIST report] when there may be evidence or information regarding criminal wrongdoings after the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan [advocacy website] sent a complaint to Holder alleging the FBI had been asking members of the Islamic community to spy on religious leaders and followers. The alleged conduct might be allowable under the attorney general's guidelines [text, PDF] passed in 2008 governing FBI investigations, which rights groups say open the door to racial and religious profiling [ACLU backgrounder]. In February, a man claimed [LAT report] that he had been commissioned by the FBI to infiltrate several Orange County mosques. The informant had provided information to the agency regarding Ahmadulla Sais Niazi, a Muslim man accused of lying about his ties to al Qaeda. Last year, the FBI responded to criticism [press release] regarding alleged investigations into mosques and the Muslim community claiming that "the FBI [does not] have a surveillance program to monitor the constitutionally protected activities of houses of worship." Although Mueller has defended the new attorney general guidelines as a "necessary step" in fighting terrorism, the proposed guidelines were amended [JURIST reports] by the DOJ last year before they came into effect to appease Congress and civil rights groups.

Vu's sentence drew the criticism of rights groups around the world. Human Rights Watch (HRW) [advocacy website] Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson said Tuesday [press release] that, "[Vu] was jailed for political reasons in a trial that violated his rights. Vietnamese authorities should at least do the right thing now with a fair and independent appeals hearing. Rather than playing a revolving door game with peaceful government critics, this is an opportunity for the Appeals Court to correct the serious due process violations during Dr. Vu's trial in April and ensure that his appeal is in full accordance with fair trial standards." He is among several dissidents in Vietnam who have been convicted for anti-government activity. In January, a Vietnamese court sentenced former communist official Vi Duc Hoi to eight years in prison [JURIST report] for advocating democracy and a multi-party system. In January 2010, a Vietnamese court sentenced [JURIST report] writer and democracy activist Pham Thanh Nghien to four years in prison on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda. That same month, a Vietnamese court convicted four democracy activists [JURIST report] of subversion. Following the one-day trial, human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh [JURIST news archive] was sentenced to five years in prison. The four defendants were accused of activities aimed at ending communist rule in Vietnam. Dinh admitted to advocating multi-party democracy in Vietnam and joining the banned Democracy Party. Prior to Dinh's conviction, a Vietnamese court sentenced [JURIST report] pro-democracy dissident Tran Anh Kim in December 2009 to five-and-a-half years in prison for subversion.

Officials chose a new location for Mubarak's trial for security reasons after reporting [JURIST reports] that the trial would take place at a convention center in downtown Cairo. The trial will also be televised internationally [JURIST report]. The announcement came amid speculation [Reuters report] that the trial would take place at a Red Sea resort because of Mubarak's alleged poor health. Many Egyptians contend that Mubarak is not ill and that members of the government have claimed the ex-president is sick in an effort to avoid a swift, public trial. Last week, an Egyptian criminal court postponed the trial [JURIST report] of former interior minister Habib el-Adly, who also faces murder charges in relation to the pro-democracy demonstrations, until Wednesday. In March, a commission of Arab and Egyptian human rights groups accused Mubarak [JURIST report] and the police of murdering protesters during the demonstrations in Egypt. Mubarak could face the death penalty [JURIST report] if convicted of ordering attacks on protesters. Amnesty International (AI) [advocacy website] reported that at least 840 people were killed [JURIST report], and more than 6,000 were injured, during the Egyptian protests.