UK court rules failure to equip troops properly may violate their rights News
UK court rules failure to equip troops properly may violate their rights

[JURIST] Sending British soldiers on patrol or into combat with inadequate equipment could be a violation of their human rights, the High Court of Justice ruled in London Friday. The British Ministry of Defence [official website] had argued that the Human Rights Act [text] does not apply to soldiers on active service abroad outside bases under British military jurisdiction, but Lord Justice Lawrence Antony Collins [University of London profile] ruled that British service members are entitled to legal protection of their human rights "wherever they may be."

Collins also rejected a bid by UK Defence Secretary Des Browne [official website] to gag coroners in military inquests, which would have barred them from using phrases such as "serious failure" when describing a soldier's cause of death as it might open the government to civil liability. The Telegraph 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.