Israel allows Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem News
Israel allows Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem

[JURIST] Under pressure from the United States, the Israeli Cabinet led by Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [official profile] has decided to allow Palestinians to vote in Jerusalem during the January 25 Palestinian parliamentary elections [BBC backgrounder] so long as militant groups are not on the ballot. Israel had threatened to bar [JURIST report] the residents of east Jerusalem from voting locally because Hamas [BBC backgrounder] candidates were running; Palestinian authorities had responded that they would cancel the election if Jerusalem residents were barred. Jerusalem Arabs will now cast absentee votes in local post offices. The compromise was reached by an Israeli cabinet of ministers from the centrist Kadima party [Wikipedia backgrounder] since the ministers from the hard-line Likud party [official website] resigned this week. In the context of the continued hospitalization of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon [BBC profile, official website], Israeli Attorney General Meni Mazuz [official profile] has instructed Olmert to continue as acting prime minister until Israel's March 28 elections.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.