The DOJ rejected a stricter Texas law [JURIST report] in April, noting that SB 14 would have a disproportionate impact on the state's Latino voters, and that the law is potentially discriminatory. The charge came only a month after the DOJ sent a letter [JURIST report] claiming that the law violated Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. There are currently 33 US states [NCSL backgrounder] that have passed legislation requiring voters to present some form of ID at the polls, including 17 states requiring photo ID. The issue remains legally controversial, with litigation in states such as South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Minnesota [JURIST reports].

The austerity measure that faces heavy criticism was approved [JURIST report] by the Greek Parliament [official website, in Greek] in February securing a second bailout for the country to avoid bankruptcy amidst rioting and violence in downtown Athens. Tension was sparked right after the 199-74 vote for the austerity measure when protesters and police officials clashed resulting in looting and burning of buildings. Prime Minister Lucas Papademos [official profile] warned that rejecting the measure would jeopardize Greece's standing in the European community. In July of last year, UN Office of the Commissioner on Human Rights [official website] Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights, Cephas Lumina, warned [JURIST report] Greece that implementation of previous austerity measures to solve its economic crisis [BBC backgrounder] could result in serious violations of basic human rights. The Greek Parliament passed previous austerity measures with $40 billion in budget cuts, in addition to selling $72 billion in state assets, under pressure from them International Monetary Fund (IMF), the EU and the European Central Bank [official websites], which want to stave off Europe's first sovereign default.

In July, responding to the controversial decision by the Cologne state court, the German government announced [JURIST report] that it will act swiftly to lift criminal sanctions imposed on circumcision. Spokesperson for Chancellor Angela Merkel [official website, in German], Steffen Seibert, said that without adequate protections for the practice of circumcision, Jewish and Muslim communities would not be able to live in Germany because the practice is so fundamental to the groups.

Fracking has been a contentious issue in the US recently. In July North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue vetoed a bill [SB 820 materials; JURIST report] that would have lifted the state's ban on fracking. In May Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin signed into law [JURIST report] a bill outlawing fracking in the state. In January the New Jersey Legislature passed an amendment to a bill that establishes a one-year ban on fracking [JURIST report]. Legislators re-introduced the bill this year after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie conditionally vetoed legislation last June that would have permanently banned fracking in New Jersey [JURIST report]. In October the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to develop standards [JURIST report] for wastewater discharge from fracking. Last June New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued the US government [JURIST report] for its alleged failure to study the risks of fracking.

In 2007 a $4.09 billion settlement was reached [JURIST report] between insurance companies and WTCP. WTCP was seeking damages from the airlines in the range of $8.4 billion, which they estimate would be the cost of replacing the two towers. The judge in this case has limited to their earnings to the "lesser of fair market value or replacement cost" of the towers which he has put at $2.805 billion—the price WTCO agreed to pay the for the lease for the towers two months prior to the 9/11 attack.

Ban's statement comes on the heels of his request last week for an immediate investigation [JURIST report] into civilian deaths in Syria. On August 19 the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) [official website] ceased its work [JURIST report]. According to UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Edmund Mulet, the mission's work had to be stopped because the two conditions required by the UN Security Council to renew UNSMIS' mandate—the cessation of the use of heavy weapons and the reduction in violence from all sides—were not met. In mid-August the head of UNSMIS Lieutenant General Babacar Gayee expressed concern [JURIST report] about the growing number of civilian casualties in violent clashes between government forces and armed opposition groups. In July UN Chief Military Observer in Syria Major-General Robert Mood stated that Syrian authorities were committed to implementing the six-point peace agreement [JURIST report] that was reached a week earlier. In June a UN commission stated that Syrian forces may have been responsible [JURIST report] for the killing of more than 100 civilians in Al-Houla in May. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad [JURIST news archive] had denied [JURIST report] the allegations stating that "not even monsters" would carry out the attacks.

This is the latest development in the ongoing reproductive rights controversy [JURIST backgrounder]. In August the Fifth Circuit upheld Louisiana's Act 490, which allows the Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) [official website] to revoke an abortion clinic's license [JURIST report] immediately after a regulation violation, rather than allowing the abortion clinic time to comply with the regulation. That same month, a Kansas judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the state's new abortion clinic regulations after state officials asked that they be upheld without a trial. In July a judge for the US District Court for the District of Arizona [official website] declined to block enforcement of a new Arizona abortion regulation [HB 2036 materials; JURIST report] that will ban abortions after 20 weeks unless there is a medical emergency. Earlier in July a federal judge blocked a Mississippi law [JURIST report] that would have effectively shut down the state's only abortion clinic.

The arrest of the chief justice sparked weeks of tension and unrest that drew international attention. A court in the Maldives in July refused to hear a case [JURIST report] about the legality of the arrest of the chief justice, saying it did not have jurisdiction. Earlier that month the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) [advocacy website] claimed that press freedom in the country has been deteriorating [JURIST report] since Nasheed's resignation in February. In April the Maldives Police Service referred the case against Nasheed to the Prosecutor's General Office two months after an arrest warrant was issued for him [JURIST reports]. Nasheed has claimed that the arrest and charges against him were politically motivated. A group of Maldives lawyers in January asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website] to review the legality of the arrest of Chief Justice Abdulla Mohamed [JURIST report]. During the same month, the Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs had asked [JURIST report] the UN to help them to resolve the unrest arising out of the arrest of the chief justice.

In November former ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo detailed the charges [JURIST report] against al-Senussi and Saif al-Islam to the UN Security Council [official website]. Saif al-Islam was arrested in November, is currently in Libyan custody and faces trial this month [JURIST reports]. Earlier in November Ocampo said that he has evidence against Saif al-Islam for his role in planning attacks on Libyan civilians [JURIST report]. According to Ocampo, Saif al-Islam hired mercenaries to assist him in carrying out his plans to attack civilians that protested the rule of his father.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court has explained that "[t]he Amendment embodies broad and idealistic concepts of dignity, civilized standards, humanity, and decency." Among other things, the Eighth Amendment does not permit the unnecessary infliction of pain on a prisoner, either intentionally or because of the deliberate indifference of the responsible prison official. Any such infliction of pain is deemed "wanton." The wanton infliction of pain on an inmate violates the Eighth Amendment. Prisoners have long been held to have a right to humane treatment, including a right to adequate care for their serious medical needs. It may seem strange that in the United States citizens do not generally have a constitutional right to adequate medical care, but the Eighth Amendment promises prisoners such care.

Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court declined to rule [JURIST report] on a similar case, letting a lower court's decision that found hormone therapy for transgender inmates as medically necessary stand. The standing decision from the Seventh Circuit was analyzed [JURIST comment] by JURIST contributor John Knight [profile], who suggested that laws and regulations against transgender therapy are "blatantly discriminatory" due to "popular biases being put ahead of medical research, singling out a small group of inmates, and blocking medical treatments necessary only for them."