The Tennessee Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the state’s lethal injection protocol over a challenge by several death row inmates who argued the three-drug injection inflicted unnecessary pain. In July the Tennessee Department of Corrections revised the protocol to eliminate pentobarbital, providing for a three-drug injection now including midazolam to provide pain relief. The 33 [...]

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor voiced alarm Tuesday over the current use of solitary confinement as the court declined to hear a case challenging the practice. Although she agreed with the decision to not hear this case, the justice expressed her overall concerns about the extreme mental anguish caused by solitary confinement and the [...]

UK Prime Minister Theresa May  announced Tuesday that all couples will now have the choice to enter into a civil partnership rather than to get married. May stated that allowing this union for all couples was necessary since some individuals “want to formalize their relationship but don’t necessarily want to get married.” This change stems [...]

Egypt’s highest court, the Court of Cassation , on Monday upheld death sentences for 20 individuals previously convicted  of a fatal attack on a local police station in August 2013. The incident stemmed from a pro-Muslim Brotherhood  demonstration outside the capital, in which armed forces killed hundreds. Earlier this month another Egyptian court sentenced 75 people to [...]

After the release of the grand jury report  last month that exposed  widespread abuse within the Catholic Church, hundreds of victims across Pennsylvania have been invited to join a massive class action lawsuit filed  in Allegheny County on Monday. Plaintiffs Ryan O’Connor and Kristen Hancock, on behalf of her minor child, are suing all eight [...]

Judge Lynn Norton of Idaho’s Fourth Judicial District Court  on Monday modified her previous decision  that called for the state to turn over execution records to allow for redactions of any identification of the source of drugs used during lethal injections. In the underlying case, Cover v. Idaho Board of Corrections, University of Idaho professor Aliza [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit  on Monday affirmed a lower court ruling  that Missouri cannot ban contributions between political action committees (PACs). In Free and Fair Election Fund v. Missouri Ethnics Commission, the district court had ordered a permanent injunction of a recently enacted provision of the Missouri Constitution, Art. VIII, § 23.3(12) . [...]

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) held  Tuesday that a Catholic-run German hospital was discriminatory in its dismissal of a Catholic doctor that had recently remarried. The head doctor of the clinic lost his job at the Catholic St. Vinzenz Hospital in Düsseldorf in 2009 after divorcing his wife and subsequently marrying a new partner in [...]

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said Thursday that Indian authorities detained five activists and raided the homes of several others on Tuesday for allegedly inciting caste-based violence in January. Maharashtra police arrested the activists based on India’s principle counter terrorism law, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act . Authorities allege that their actions at a large [...]

The UK Supreme Court  ruled  on Thursday that denying the widowed parent’s allowance to an unmarried mother was illegal. The widowed parent’s allowance, or 39A, is a contributory social security benefit payable to men and women with dependent children. Prior to this decision, a widowed parent can only claim the allowance if they were married to [...]