It is true that some of these resource problems are also experienced by the general population in Liberia. However, prison inmates are under direct state control and completely dependent on the state to meet their most basic needs. Irrespective of resource constraints, the government must put in place a system that ensures the basic human rights of those in its custody. In all circumstances, the government has a clear and binding obligation not to expose prison inmates to conditions that constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

Liberia has been elsewhere criticized for its poor human rights record in recent years. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile] emphasized [UN News Centre report] in a 2010 progress report [text, PDF] that reconciliation in Liberia [JURIST report] hinges on the development of its national security and its legal institutions. Along with poor prison conditions Liberia struggles [JURIST report] with corruption in its criminal justice system and sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and forced marriage, according to a UN Mission in Liberia [official website] combined quarterly report [text, PDF] released in April 2008. In 2007, the UN independent expert on the promotion and protection of human rights in Liberia urged the country to accelerate its human rights efforts [JURIST report], and in particular called on the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) [official website] to begin operations. The TRC held its first public hearings [JURIST report] after several months delay due to lack of funding. The TRC is investigating possible war crimes that occurred during the civil war that ended in 2003, but does not have the authority to try cases.

Despite the effectiveness of Section 5 in deterring unconstitutional voting discrimination since 1965, Congress in 2006 found that voting discrimination by covered jurisdictions had continued into the 21st century, and that the protections of Section 5 were still needed to safeguard racial and language minority voters. Understanding the preeminent constitutional role of Congress under the Fifteenth Amendment to determine the legislation needed to enforce it, and the caution required of the federal courts when undertaking the "grave" and "delicate" responsibility of judging the constitutionality of such legislation—particularly where the right to vote and racial discrimination intersect—this Court declines to overturn Congress's carefully considered judgment.

The Arizona Attorney General [official website] filed a similar suit [JURIST report] in August seeking to enjoin enforcement of the Section 5 rules in that state. In 2009, the US Supreme Court [official website] upheld [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] the Section 5 provisions of the VRA in Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District Number One v. Holder [Cornell LII backgrounder]. The court voted 8-1 in favor of permitting the appellant municipality to "bail out" from the preclearance requirement if it can establish a history of compliance with the VRA, but declined to rule on the constitutionality of the 25-year extension of the act. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts opined that "things have changed in the South," observing that "[b]latantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare." The plaintiff was a municipal utility district in Texas that wanted to be exempted from the requirement and was challenging the most recent extension generally. At their enactment in 1965, the requirements were only supposed to be in place for five years. Section 5 has since been extended several times.

While Tuesday's request may result in an end to this trial, it would not be the end of Chirac's legal woes. Last week, the prosecutor's office began an inquiry into allegations [JURIST report] against Chirac and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin over the receipt of millions of dollars from African leaders. The accusations against the two former French officials were made by a lawyer who worked as an aide to Chirac and claims to have participated in the passage of over $20 million in cash [Reuters report] from African leaders to be used as political donations. All of the alleged donations came from leaders of former French colonies. An investigation will also be launched by the Paris Bar into the actions taken by the accuser as his involvement with the passage of these funds is unethical within the legal profession. Villepin, like Chirac, had also been the subject of another trial, which involved accusations that he participated in a smear campaign [AP report] against current President Nicolas Sarkozy [official website, in French], but was recently acquitted.

The original 2009 ruling held that Joel Tenenbaum [defense website] is liable for illegally downloading music. Four record companies, including Sony BMG and Warner Brothers [corporate websites], brought suit against Tenenbaum in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts [official website], accusing him of illegally downloading 30 songs [complaint, PDF] in violation of copyright laws. Tenenbaum admitted to downloading hundreds of songs, and Gertner directed the jury to consider only the amount of damages [Boston Globe report].

This is the second time this month the Supreme Court has blocked a Texas execution, pending a decision on certiorari. Last week, the court ordered a stay of execution [JURIST report] for Duane Buck. Buck's appeal is not arguing his innocence, but rather improper practices during his sentencing hearing. A clinical psychiatrist testified that Buck, a black man, was more likely to commit another crime due to his race, and thus should be given the death penalty. The same psychiatrist had testified similarly in six other sentencing hearings that resulted in the death penalty, all of which have been overturned. The appeal alleges a violation of equal protection created when the prosecution asked leading questions to elicit racially-charged responses and when then-attorney general John Cornyn [official website] guaranteed sentencing rehearings in the seven cases. Under Cornyn's administration, six of the rehearings took place, but his successor, Greg Abbott [official website], has not conducted one for Buck, whose legal team has lost appeals in all courts lower than the Supreme Court as well as an appeal of clemency to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. It is unknown when the court will accept or deny certiorari.

Earlier this month, the California Supreme Court [official website] heard oral arguments on whether intervening advocacy groups can defend Proposition 8 in court, in response to a certified question [JURIST reports] by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website]. When Judge Vaughn Walker struck down the same-sex marriage ban [JURIST report] last year, then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and former attorney general and current Governor Jerry Brown [official website], who were originally defendants in the lawsuit, refused to continue defending the measure on appeal [JURIST report], leaving defendant-intervenors Project Marriage [advocacy website] and other groups to defend the law.

Last month, members of the Belarus Parliament introduced a bill that would ban so-called "silent protests" [JURIST report], including those involving large groups of people basically doing nothing. Nonetheless, silent protests continue [RT report], largely in defiance of Lukashenko. Earlier this year, Belarus' Minsk City Court delivered suspended sentences for two former presidential candidates, Uladzimer Nyaklyaeu and Vital Rymasheuski, convicted of organizing protests following the re-election [JURIST reports] of Lukashenko. The two-year suspended sentences were handed down days after former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikau [Free Belarus Now profile] was sentenced to five years [JURIST report]. Hundreds of activists were arrested after protesting Lukashenko's 2006 presidential win, including opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich [JURIST reports]. While Lukashenko has since sought to improve his country's ties with western nations, the US State Department has historically criticized Belarus' human rights record [JURIST report]. The UN General Assembly Third Committee and the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights [JURIST reports] have similarly denounced Belarus for human rights abuses.

Damages were initially awarded in February [JURIST report] by the Provincial Court of Sucumbios in Ecuador, finding that Texaco, which was acquired by Chevron in 2001, polluted large areas of the country's rain forest. That month, Chevron filed a lawsuit against plaintiffs' lawyers and consultants in the case, claiming that professionals for the plaintiffs were attempting to extort Chevron. The damages were then enjoined in New York in March. In July, the Second Circuit upheld [LAT report] a May ruling [NYT report] by the Southern District of New York ordering filmmaker Joe Berlinger to turn over to Chevron certain outtakes from his 2009 documentary Crude [film website]. Chevron claims the outtakes show plaintiffs' lawyers discussing illegal and unethical tactics, including ghost-writing a court appointed expert's report, intimidating a judge and colluding with government officials. Chevron claims that a 1995 cleanup agreement between Ecuador and Texaco, completed in 1998 at a cost of $40 million, absolves Chevron of all liability.