Omar Khadr was charged after he was captured following a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002 in which he threw a hand grenade that killed one US soldier and wounded another. In August 2010 the military judge rejected Khadr's claim that his confession was a byproduct of torture [JURIST report]. Earlier that August, the same judge ruled that Khadr's confession was admissible at trial [JURIST report]. Canada had previously declined to seek Khadr's repatriation [JURIST report] after his former lawyers obtained a ruling in the Supreme Court of Canada [official website] that the interrogation of Khadr by Canadian officials while in detention violated section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [text]. According to the ruling, Canadian officials questioned Khadr, who was captured at age 15, even though they knew he was being indefinitely detained, and, in March 2004, he was questioned with knowledge that he was subjected to three weeks sleep deprivation by US authorities. Still, that ruling did not force the government to seek his repatriation.

Even countries that have long been recognized as protecting human rights pass laws that infringe individual's right to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association. In March, Switzerland was criticized [JURIST report] for a proposal to change the existing law imposing heavy fines of 100,000 Swiss Francs ($110,000) for people who protest without prior governmental authorization. In December, a UN panel of independent human rights experts urged [JURIST report] Malaysia not to adopt a proposed bill, the Peaceful Assembly Act 2011 [bill, PDF], that forbids the country's citizens under the age of 21 and non-citizens from assembling, enacting conditional access for media to public gatherings and outlawing street protests altogether. A month earlier Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria reported [JURIST report] that Syria committed several human rights violations including the right to peaceful assembly. Also in November, Egypt was called on [JURIST report] by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] to ensure the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association after the UN special rapporteurs on summary executions, freedom of expression, human rights defenders and freedom of peaceful assembly issued a joint statement [text] revealing the violence against peaceful protesters.

The UN Security Council on Monday demanded the release of the detainees [JURIST report]. The Presidents of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia last week joined the ICC in calling for the immediate release [JURIST report] of the four staff members. Last week, Carr reported that three officials from the ICC and the Australian ambassador to Libya were able to visit [JURIST report] and assess the condition of the four ICC staff members. A spokesperson for the ICC said earlier that day that the Libyan government had failed to explain [JURIST report] why the four ICC staff members were detained and that their continued detention is a violation of international law. Earlier this month, a pre-trial chamber of the ICC granted a request by the Libyan government to postpone an order to transfer Saif al-Islam to ICC custody, after the Libyan government formally challenged [JURIST reports] the right of the ICC to try Saif al-Islam last month. In April, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the ICC to report Libya to the UN Security Council [JURIST report] for failing to turn over Saif al-Islam. Libya expressly denied [JURIST report] the ICC's request for such action and stated that Saif al-Islam will face trial within the country.

The trial against Patek, the last of the individuals responsible for the Bali bombings, began [JURIST report] in February. Patek was extradited [JURIST report] by Pakistani government to Indonesia after he was arrested [Jakarta Post report] in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011, a few weeks before US special forces killed Osama Bin Laden [JURIST news archive] in the same town. In November 2008, three men were executed after they were convicted of the 2002 bombings and after the Indonesian Supreme Court rejected [JURIST reports] last-minute appeals filed by relatives of the three men.

Th[e] regulatory history [of the FCC] makes it apparent that the Commission policy in place at the time of the broadcasts gave no notice to Fox or ABC that a fleeting expletive or a brief shot of nudity could be actionably indecent; yet Fox and ABC were found to be in violation. The Commission's lack of notice to Fox and ABC that its interpretation had changed so the fleeting moments of indecency contained in their broadcasts were a violation of §1464 as interpreted and enforced by the agency "fail[ed] to provide a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice of what is prohibited."

The court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in the case in January. The broadcasters argued that the definition of "patently offensive," which has been created through an amalgamation of past sanctions the FCC has doled out, is unclear. The Solicitor General, appealing the Second Circuit's ruling [decision, PDF; JURIST report] that the FCC's policy is unconstitutionally vague, argued that the policy is clear and provides constructive notice. Attorneys for Fox argued that the current policy is unduly vague and that there are enough outside protections (such as a V-chip) to prevent indecency from reaching those who do not want to hear it. The court granted certiorari [JURIST report] to hear the case in June 2011.

The court's decision overturns a decision [text] by the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upholding the defendants' original sentences based on the old sentencing guidelines. The court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in the case in April. The court agreed to hear the case in November 2011.

The lawsuits came after the death of the US-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] who was killed in a US drone strike [JURIST report] in Yemen in September 2011. A legal memorandum written by the DOJ justified [JURIST report] the decision to kill al-Awlaki despite an executive order banning assassinations and a federal law against murder. The memo was seen as bringing clarity in the legal debate and respond to public criticism over whether the president can order the killing of US citizens abroad as part of a counterterrorism measure. The ACLU had criticized [press release] that the targeted killing violates both US and international law.

On Sunday, Bangladesh police arrested [JURIST report] Mir Kashem Ali for allegedly being an auxiliary to the Pakistani armed forces and running a torture facility at the Dalim Hotel during the war. The ICTB issued earlier that day an arrest warrant against the chairman of Diganta Media Corporation [Facebook page] and senior leader of the JI. He was the eighth high-profile leader who has been indicted for the crimes committed during the war. A week earlier, the ICTB indicted [JURIST report] former Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader Abdul Alim on 17 counts of crimes against humanity, Bangladesh's national news agency reported. In May, the ICTB indicted [JURIST report] Matiur Rahman Nizami, the chief of the JI, and Abdul Quader Molla, Nizami's deputy, for alleged human rights atrocities committed during the war. During the same month, Ghulam Azam, former head of the JI, was indicted [JURIST report] by the ICTB for similar charges. He had been taken into custody [JURIST report] in January after his request for bail was denied.

If unconsenting nonmembers pay too much, their First Amendment rights are infringed. On the other hand, if unconsenting nonmembers pay less than their proportionate share, no constitutional right of the union is violated because the union has no constitutional right to receive any payment from these employees. The union has simply lost for a few months the "extraordinary" benefit of being empowered to compel nonmembers to pay for services that they may not want and in any event have not agreed to fund.

The decision of the court overturns a decision [text] by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which held that the union was not required to issue notice to nonmembers halfway through the year. The Ninth Circuit overturned a District Court decision ordering SEIU to return the money to the nonmembers. The SEIU voluntarily agreed to return the money to the nonmembers shortly after the Supreme Court granted certiorari in June 2011. They asked the court [motion, PDF] to dismiss the case for mootness in October 2011, arguing that the plaintiffs had already received everything they had asked for. In its decision on Thursday, the court determined as a preliminary issue that the case was not moot because the union did not provide an adequate method of refund for the nonmembers. The court also suggested the union attempted to make the case moot "to insulate a decision from review by this Court."

BiH has been continuously prosecuting, convicting and sentencing those responsible for the killing during the massacre and even those who left the country are being brought back to face charges. Last week, the country's war crimes court [official website] sentenced [text, PDF; JURIST report] four former Bosnian Serb soldiers [case materials, in Croatian] for their involvement in the 1995 massacre. Franc Kos, Stanko Kojic, Vlastimir Golijan and Zoran Goronja were found guilty of crimes against humanity, and the court sentenced Kos and Goronja to 40 years each, Kojic to 43 years and Golijan, because he was under 21 at that time, to 19 years in prison. In May, US resident Dejan Radojkovic was deported [JURIST report] to BiH to stand trial before the country's court for his actions as a police commander in Srebrenica during the 1995 massacre. He was arrested in 2009 after it was revealed that he did not disclose his involvement in the conflict and his appeal was rejected in February. He was the second to be deported after his commanding officer, Nedjo Ikonic, was deported in 2010 [JURIST report]. A day earlier, the war crimes court convicted [JURIST report] Dusko Jevic and Mendeljev Djuric for taking part in the killing of 1,000 Muslim men during the massacre after it found that the two former Bosnian Serb police officers were guilty of aiding and abetting genocide. They had been indicted on genocide charges in January 2010 after being arrested [JURIST reports] in October 2009. In January the court also upheld the conviction [JURIST reports] and 31-year sentence of Radomir Vukovic for his part in the 1995 massacre.

The fact that will ultimately determine the maximum fine Southern Union faces is the numbe of days the company violated the statute. Such a finding is not fairly characterized as merely "quantifying the harm" Southern Union caused. Rather, it is a determination that for each given day, the Government has proved that Southern Union committed all of the acts constituting the offense.

The decision of the court overturns a ruling [text] by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit finding that Aprendi does not apply to sentences of fines. The court heard oral arguments [transcript] for the case in March. The court granted certiorari [JURIST report] to hear the case in November 2011.

Apple [corporate website] has been in the news recently as it faces lawsuits around the world. On Monday, Eastman Kodak [corporate website] filed a lawsuit [JURIST report] against Apple alleging that the company is illegally using its patented technology that was developed when the two companies worked together in the 1990s. Last Friday, a federal judge revived [JURIST report] a case against Motorola [corporate website] after he tentatively dismissed [JURIST report] it a week earlier. Also this month, another court ruled [JURIST report] that Apple has to defend itself against lawsuits filed by the company's customers under two California consumer protection laws. Judge Lucy Koh for the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] allowed plaintiffs to pursue claims that Apple caused them to overpay for their devices.

In November of last year the Swedish Svea Appeals Court [materials] upheld [JURIST report] the convictions of TPB founders. In April 2009 the website operators were sentenced to one year in prison for abetting copyright infringement [judgment, PDF, in Swedish; JURIST report]. In June 2009 several Hollywood production companies filed suit [JURIST report] in Sweden against the operators of TPB, seeking an injunction. The US companies, including Disney, Universal and Columbia Pictures, filed a writ to sue in the Stockholm District Court, requesting that the court order the owners to cease and desist operations.

On Tuesday, the prime minister's position became vacant after the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry [JURIST news archive] announced that Gilani ceased to be the country's prime minister since the date of his conviction in April [JURIST reports]. Gilani had been convicted of contempt of court for disobeying a court order to open corruption cases against President Zardari after he was charged [JURIST report] in February.

The generals' relentless expansion of their authority to detain and try civilians now goes far beyond their powers under Hosni Mubarak. These decrees are the latest indication yet that there won't be a meaningful handover to civilian rule on June 30. Increasing military authority over law enforcement will invite continued abuses from an unaccountable military, Human Rights Watch said. Abuses by the military over the past year-and-a-half, including torture of protesters in detention and excessive use of lethal force in dispersing protests, have gone unpunished because civilian prosecutors do not have jurisdiction to investigate complaints against military personnel.

Although the recent elections in Egypt went smoothly, the Election Commission has not yet announced a winner [AP report], and both sides are claiming victory. The constitutional council was finally elected [JURIST report] last week by the now-dissolved parliament, after political and legal controversy threatened to halt the drafting of a new constitution. Egyptian lawmakers reached an agreement [JURIST report] on the composition of the constitutional council earlier this month. The composition of the constitutional panel has been intensely debated, and the domination of the proceedings by Islamists [JURIST reports] has been extremely controversial. The debate surrounding the composition of constitutional panel follows an Egyptian court ruling in February that the elaborate voting system in the parliamentary elections was unconstitutional [JURIST report].

Divar is the second judge to draw the public's attention recently. Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] was acquitted [JURIST report] in February by the country's Supreme Court in a 6-1 decision. He had been accused of abusing his power by ordering the exhumation [JURIST report] of 19 mass graves in Spain in order to assemble a definitive national registry of Civil War victims, despite a 1977 law that provides amnesty for Franco-era crimes. In January, he had argued during his second trial that his investigation was not politically motivated [JURIST reports] but rather was driven to bring justice for the victims of the alleged crimes. In another case against the judge, the Supreme Court convicted him for ordering illegal wiretaps in jailhouses within a month after the trial started [JURIST reports].

Virginia Tech has faced several lawsuits over the deadliest shooting incident in US history [WP backgrounder], which left 33 dead and 25 wounded. In June 2008, 24 of the 32 victims' families agreed to the $11 million dollar settlement [JURIST report]. The settlement gave each family $100,000 plus medical expenses and provided for meetings with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Virginia Tech administration and police officials. Many of the families had considered wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits against the state of Virginia after an independent state panel reported that different school policies could have avoided some of the deaths, but the settlement terms required the families to release their claims. In December 2007 Congress passed by voice vote an act that closes a loophole [JURIST reports] that allowed the shooter to purchase firearms despite a court order mandating psychiatric treatment.