UK minister: UN should focus less on rights of terrorists News
UK minister: UN should focus less on rights of terrorists

[JURIST] UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke [official profile] Wednesday denounced a statement issued by the UN's Special Rapporteur on Torture [official website] Manfred Nowak urging the UK to refrain from deporting Islamic radicals [JURIST report] for fear that they will face torture by their home countries. In an interview with Great Britain's ITV News, Clarke said, "The human rights of those people who were blown up on the Tube in London on July 7 are, to be quite frank, more important than the human rights of the people who committed those acts." British police have detained ten suspected radicals set for deportation and the country is currently negotiating with Middle Eastern and North African nations to create bilateral agreements that promise "humane and proper" treatment of the exiles. Manfred Nowak [UN profile] has argued that these agreements do not provide a complete guarantee against torture [press release], but Clarke said the planned deportation proceedings [JURIST report] will start in the near future. CNSNews has more.

THIS DAY @ LAW

International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism

November 9 is the International Day Against Fascism and Anti-Semitism [UNITED factsheet]. On November 9, 1924, American gay activist Henry Gerber and several associates formed the Society for Human Rights, the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society received a charter from the State of Illinois in December but was disbanded in July 1925 after a police raid which led to Gerber's arrest and trial (albeit not conviction). Pay a virtual visit to Henry Gerber House, now a registered Chicago landmark.

Supreme Court strikes down Massachusetts anti-draft law

On November 9, 1970, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 in Massachusetts v. Laird not to hear the case of the state's anti-draft law. Massachusetts had passed a law, which allowed its citizens to decline to fight in any undeclared war, even if the person was drafted. The law was passed in opposition to the draft and the war in Vietnam. The First Circuit found the war constitutional and thus struck down the law.