A court in Nanjing in eastern China’s Jiangsu province sentenced a popular blogger, Qiu Ziming, to eight months in jail Tuesday for his comments about Chinese soldiers who died in a border clash with Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley in June of last year. The Chinese government released casualty figures from the Galwan Valley clash [...]
The Texas legislature on Tuesday passed a bill that will criminalize performing an abortion in Texas if the US Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. House Bill 1280 is designed to take effect 30 days after any US Supreme Court ruling limiting the right to abortion. It states that Texans “may not knowingly, perform, induce, [...]
![US Supreme Court declines to hear appeal by death row inmate who sought to die by firing squad](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/05/Supreme-Court.jpg)
The US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal Monday from a death row inmate who sought to have his sentence carried out by firing squad because he believes it would be less painful than the state’s preferred method of execution. Ernest Johnson, a death row inmate in Missouri, suffers from epilepsy as a result [...]
At a bipartisan congressional hearing on Tuesday, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi proposed a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to human rights concerns. Pelosi called on governments around the world not to honor the Chinese government by allowing their heads of state to go to China for the [...]
![US Supreme Court rules jury unanimity rule does not apply retroactively](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/04/supreme_court_1617725796.jpg)
The US Supreme Court held Monday that individuals whose convictions became final before Ramos v. Louisiana, holding that jury verdicts in criminal trials must be unanimous under the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution, do not receive the advantages of jury unanimity on federal collateral review. In April 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Ramos that [...]
![EU court supports litigants opposed to imports from Israel settlements](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/11/EU_1606755140.jpg)
An EU court ruled Wednesday in favor of Tom Morenhourt and six other citizens seeking to withhold the importation of goods from and regulate commercial transactions with Israeli settlements on occupied land that Palestinians seek for an independent state. This ruling rescinds a 2019 decision by the European Commission not to register a European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) [...]
![Minnesota judge’s ruling allows longer sentence for Derek Chauvin in George Floyd murder case](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/02/george_floyd_1613316972.jpg)
The Minnesota judge who oversaw Derek Chauvin’s murder trial issued a ruling on Wednesday that could significantly increase the amount of time Chauvin spends in prison. Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was found guilty last month of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter in the death of George Floyd in May 2020. In [...]
A member of the Oath Keepers militia group and heavy metal guitarist on Friday became the first defendant to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with the US Capitol riot on January 6. Jon Ryan Schaffer, who originally faced six charges, entered into a plea deal where he agreed to fully cooperate with investigating, [...]
Kenya’s high court issued a 30-day stay order Thursday suspending a move by the government to close the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps housing hundreds of thousands of refugees from war-torn neighboring countries such as Somalia. The case arose after Kenya’s Interior Minster Fred Matiang’i announced the government’s desire to close the Dadaab and Kakuma camps. Matiang’i’s [...]
![Virginia highest court rules city can remove two Confederate statues](https://www.jurist.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/06/Screen-Shot-2020-06-09-at-5.15.11-PM.png)
The Supreme Court of Virginia Thursday ruled that the city of Charlottesville can remove two Confederate statues, including one of General Robert E. Lee for protesting the removal of which a deadly white supremacist rally took place in 2017. The court overturned a Charlottesville Circuit Court decision in favor of a group of residents who sued to [...]