US President Joe Biden opined Friday without legal effect that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which ensures equal rights on the basis of sex, has been added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment. In the statement, Biden said: It is long past time to recognize the will of the American people. In keeping with [...]

New York judge Juan Merchan on Friday ordered Donald Trump to appear for sentencing on January 10 for his hush-money conviction, finding that a president-elect does not enjoy presidential immunity. Trump’s motion to dismiss the indictment is based on the presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act, and the Supremacy Clause, requiring the government to [...]

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that a suspected drug sale constitutes an “exigent circumstance” that justifies warrantless search, which would otherwise be considered a violation of privacy under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The case concerns the tension between the constitutional right to privacy and the police’s power to search when obtaining [...]

The Hong Kong Court of First Instance upheld prison authorities’ refusal to grant remission to a prisoner convicted of offenses “endangering national security” on Friday. The case marks the first judicial review against the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO) enacted by the region’s legislature in March of this year. The petitioner, Ma Chun Man, had asserted [...]

The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal ruled on Tuesday that the exclusion of same-sex couples in the current public housing policies and inheritance laws amounts to unlawful discrimination and is unconstitutional. Regarding the right to apply for public housing as a family unit, the court held that the exclusive spousal eligibility for application for [...]

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear competing racial discrimination allegations raised by Armenia and Azerbaijan against each other under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Armenia alleges that Azerbaijan has committed acts of murder, torture and inhuman treatment, arbitrary detention, and [...]

The UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, condemned the Philippines on Monday for depriving a journalist of her right to a fair trial without delay. Khan urged the authorities to resolve her case promptly. Frenchie Mae Cumpio, now a 25-year-old investigative journalist, appeared before the Tacloban City Regional Court that day [...]

The American Civil Liberties Union on Tuesday filed a class action lawsuit challenging two Kentucky abortion bans for violating the state’s constitutional right to privacy and self-determination. The case concerns two different abortion bans. The first “six-week ban,” under the state’s statute section 311.7706, prohibits doctors from terminating pregnancy if there is a detectable fetal [...]

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded on Tuesday that Russian authorities have committed torture as a crime against humanity in Ukraine. The commission’s report confirmed that torture practices were widespread in all Ukrainian provinces under Russian control and in Russia’s detention facilities. The commission collected testimonies from civilians who had been [...]

US District Judge Christopher Conner on Tuesday dismissed Republicans’ challenge against a state law that obligates Pennsylvania to accept military and overseas ballots cast without requirements of providing identification proof. The case concerned Pennsylvania’s Uniform Military and Overseas Voters Act (UMOVA), which allows overseas and military voters to mail in ballots without providing identification proof. [...]