Patent law is currently in a state of flux. Apple and Samsung [corporate websites] have been embroiled in continuous patent litigation [JURIST report] in courts around the world. Last month the US Supreme Court [official website] granted certiorari [JURIST report] in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. [cert. petition PDF; JURIST report], which deals with the issue of whether human genes are patentable. In September 2011 President Barack Obama signed [JURIST report] the America Invents Act (AIA) [text, PDF; HR 1249 materials] into law. The AIA changed the patent system from first-to-invent to first-to-file, allowing the US Patent & Trademark Office [official website] to keep all of the fees generated from patent filing rather than having them diverted by Congress, allowing third parties to introduce relevant material to patent examiners during the patent application review process and removing the "best mode" requirement from patents.

In October 2011 the UK Parliament [official website] voted 483-111 against holding a national referendum [JURIST report] on remaining an EU member. In that proposal, the referendum would have put forward three options for a vote: to remain in the EU, to leave the EU, or to re-negotiate membership terms. In 1975 the UK held a referendum [BBC backgrounder] to determine whether to leave the European Economic Community (EEC). There, only two years after the country had joined the EEC, just over 67 percent of voters supported the move to remain in the European institution.

Though content neutral, we conclude that the Indiana law is not narrowly tailored to serve the state's interest. It broadly prohibits substantial protected speech rather than specifically targeting the evil of improper communications to minors. ... Subsequent Indiana statutes may well meet this requirement, but the blanket ban on social media in this case regrettably does not.

The rights of convicted sex offenders have been the subject of many constitution-based lawsuits. In October a California resident sued [JURIST report] four Orange County cities over sex offender ordinances. In August a federal appeals court struck down [JURIST report] the Indiana sex offender registry saying it violated due process. In January the US Supreme Court [official website] ruled 7-2 [JURIST report] that people who were convicted of sex offenses before the enactment of the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act [final guidelines, PDF] did not have to register under the act until the attorney general validly specified that the provisions applied to them. A few days earlier, a federal appeals court struck down [JURIST report] a city ordinance that banned sex offenders from libraries in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The court granted certiorari [JURIST report] in the two cases last month. Both cases could have an important impact on the ongoing same-sex marriage [JURIST backgrounder] controversy in the US. In early December Washington Governor Christine Gregoire certified the results of Referendum 74 [JURIST report] which legalized same-sex marriage in the state. In the same time frame, the Coalition for the Protection of Marriage, a non-profit corporation in Nevada which opposes same-sex marriage, petitioned the US Supreme Court [JURIST report] to grant certiorari to determine whether the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause requires Nevada to change its definition of marriage from the union of a man and a woman to the union of two persons. In November, the office of the Maryland Attorney General released an opinion [JURIST report] stating that same-sex couples can obtain marriage licenses, allowing Maryland to become the ninth US state to allow same sex marriage after Maine and Washington [JURIST reports] enacted similar measures in November.

In December Indian authorities charged six suspects [JURIST report] with murder after the death of the gang rape victim. In December Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh [official profile] called for peace [JURIST report] after a protest over sexual violence resulted in a clash between protesters and police.

Thailand's lese majeste laws have generated controversy. US citizen Joe Gordon was released [JURIST report] from a Thai prison in July on a royal pardon that commuted a two-and-a-half-year sentence for defaming the Thai royal family. Gordon was sentenced [JURIST report] in December 2011 after pleading guilty in October. UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression Frank La Rue [official website] recently condemned the lese majeste law [JURIST report] shortly after the guilty plea was submitted: "The threat of a long prison sentence and vagueness of what kinds of expression constitute defamation, insult, or threat to the monarchy, encourage self-censorship and stifle important debates on matters of public interest, thus putting in jeopardy the right to freedom of opinion and expression. ... This is exacerbated by the fact that the charges can be brought by private individuals and trials are often closed to the public." In 2009 Amnesty International [advocacy website] called for a public trial [JURIST report] for a Thai political activist accused of lese majeste. In 2009 a Thai court sentenced an anti-coup protester to 18 years in prison [JURIST report].

The challenge was initially brought in August 2010 by Sherman, who has said on his website [advocacy website] that the decision of the District Court was "bizarre" and "preposterous." In October 2010 the Seventh Circuit rejected [JURIST report] Sherman's challenge to the constitutionality of an Illinois statute that mandates a daily moment of silence in public schools. The court reversed an April 2009 ruling [JURIST report] that the Illinois Reflection and Silent Prayer Act [text] is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion in public schools. The appellate court instead found that the statute had a secular legislative purpose that neither advanced nor inhibited religion.

The Syrian government has been engaged in a bloody conflict with numerous opposition groups [BBC backgrounder] since March 2011 when nationwide protests opposing the government of President Bashar al-Assad [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive] began. The revolt against Assad has lasted 22 months and the death toll has reached 60,000 [JURIST report] and began with protests that quickly turned into violence between Assad's forces and demonstrators. UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay [official profiles] stated last Friday that the continued violence in Syria has been harming civilian human rights [JURIST report] and humanitarian attempts at aiding those in need. More than 50 countries asked [JURIST report] the UN Security Council earlier this month to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official websites]. In October Pillay urged [JURIST report] world powers to work toward ending the suffering in Syria, emphasizing uniformity and cooperation among leaders to quell the violence.

Last month, the Chief Judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled [JURIST report] that Somalia's territorial waters extend no more than 12 miles from shore, concluding that the US has jurisdiction to prosecute a band of pirates accused of murdering four Americans in 2011. The month before, the UN Security Council condemned [JURIST report] piracy and acts of armed robbery against vessels off the coast of Somalia. The Security Council urged the international community to develop a comprehensive response to discourage these acts.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor concurred to suggest that the question of whether any agency decision is immune from equitable tolling has not been answered. "I write separately to note that the Court's decision in this case does not establish that equitable tolling principles are irrelevant to internal administrative deadlines in all, or even most, contexts. The Court is correct that our equitable tolling cases have typically involved deadlines to bring suit in federal court. But we have never suggested that the presumption in favor of equitable tolling is generally inapplicable to administrative deadlines."

[T]he parties' dispute in this case turns on the agency's interpretation of its own regulations. Petitioners construe "adequate and well-controlled studies" to mean peer-reviewed, published studies suggesting marijuana's medical efficacy. The DEA, in contrast, interprets that factor to require something more scientifically rigorous. ... The DEA's construction of its regulation is eminently reasonable. Therefore, we are obliged to defer to the agency's interpretation of "adequate and well-controlled studies."

Marijuana [JURIST news archive] was a hot-button issue in several states in the November 6 election [JURIST report], with Washington and Colorado legalizing the drug. The Colorado initiative [Amendment 64, PDF] introduces an amendment to the state constitution, allowing adults over 21 to possess up to an ounce and privately grow up to six plants, although public use will be banned. In Oregon the Cannabis Tax Act Initiative [Measure 80, PDF] failed by approximately 55-to-45 percent [Examiner.com report] of the vote. Medical marijuana was legalized in Massachusetts for the first time as over 60 percent of voters approved Question 3 [Petition 11-11, PDF], an indirect initiated statute that will allow marijuana use by patients [Harvard Crimson report] with "debilitating medical conditions" and create 35 medical marijuana dispensaries. Conversely, the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act [Issue 5, PDF] was rejected by voters [AP report] in that state by approximately a 52 to 48 percent margin. The measure would have allowed doctors to issue a certificate to anyone with a "qualifying medical condition" to grow, process and use marijuana. Also on the ballot in Montana was a veto referendum regarding a 2011 revision [SB 423] of a 2004 law that established medical marijuana use in the state.