Federal judge rules that public has no right to view entire execution process News
Federal judge rules that public has no right to view entire execution process

[JURIST] A federal judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas [official website] has ruled that journalists and the public do not have the right to view every part of the execution process under the First Amendment. Judge Susan Webber Wright ruled Monday that, unlike court proceedings, public access to executions is not needed to ensure that the process is fair. Wright also noted that according to the US Supreme Court, journalists do not have an unfettered right to enter prisons, where the majority of executions now take place.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in July on behalf of a chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists [advocacy website] and others, claiming that the Constitution protects the right of the public [press release] to view governmental proceedings and that "preventing witnesses to an execution from viewing the entire execution process violates the First Amendment." AP has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

UN General Assembly approves Palestine partition plan

The UN General Assembly approved UN Resolution Resolution 181 (II) on November 29, 1947, recommending that the British Mandate for Palestine be split into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone for Jerusalem. The vote in the assembly was 33 for to 13 against, with 10 abstentions. The resolution sparked a war between Palestinian Arabs and Jews in 1947 and a wider war after Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded the new State of Israel in 1948. Read Resolution 181 (II).

UN divided Palestine between Arabs and Jews

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab territories, leading to the establishment of a Jewish state the following year. Read UN General Assembly Resolution 181.

Defense Secretary Robert McNamara resigns during Vietnam Conflict

On November 29, 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara announced that he was resigning from his office to accept an appointment as head of the World Bank. The announcement came as the Vietnam Conflict was becoming increasingly unpopular in the United States and abroad.