Russia opposition party files lawsuit to block Putin parliamentary candidacy News
Russia opposition party files lawsuit to block Putin parliamentary candidacy

[JURIST] An official with Russia's Union of Right Forces (SPS) [party website, in Russian] told a news conference Thursday that the opposition political party had filed a lawsuit with the country's Supreme Court [official website, in Russian] requesting that Russian President Vladimir Putin [official website] not be allowed to run as a candidate in the country's upcoming parliamentary elections. Putin currently appears at the top of the list of candidates submitted by United Russia [party website, in Russian] for the December 2 election. If elected, Putin would be forced to turn down the post after the election, leading to SPS's allegation that the Putin's candidacy provides United Russia with an unfair advantage.

Putin's second term as president ends next year with a presidential election scheduled for March 2008. He previously ruled out a constitutional amendment [JURIST report] that would allow him to pursue a third term in office. Reuters has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

White supremacists overthrow government in Wilmington, North Carolina

A group of white supremacists overthrew the government of Wilmington, North Carolina on November 10, 1898, killing at least dozens of Black people in the process. The city's Republican government resigned after the 500-2,000 strong white mob burned the offices of a Black-owned newspaper and terrorized black neighborhoods. The new state Democratic government passed laws in 1899 disenfranchising Black voters across North Carolina. Learn more about the 1898 Wilmington Coup.

Supreme Court limited free speech in wartime

On November 10, 1919, the US Supreme Court ruled in Abrams v. United States that the federal government could criminalize speech if it was of a type tending to bring about harmful results, in this case, resistance to the United States war effort. In a powerful dissenting opinion, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes countered that even during wartime, free speech could only be curtailed when there was clear and "present danger of immediate evil or an intent to bring it about."

Leonid Brezhnev dies

On November 10, 1982, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died of a heart attack. He had served as leader of the USSR from October 1964 until his death. Following his death, the Soviet Union cycled through three more leaders during the 1980s until Mikhail Gorbachev allowed the country to dissolve in 1991. Read an obituary of Leonid Brezhnev from the New York Times.