Human Rights Watch and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed an amicus brief in the case of Ashcroft v. Al-Kidd before the Supreme Court. The case challenges the US government's misuse of the material witness statute to investigate…

INTRODUCTION This case involves ongoing, undisputed, and lethal constitutional violations in the California state prison system.  As the lower court found, and the State does not dispute, “the medical and mental health care available to inmates in the…

On December 5, 2007, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a challenge to the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At stake are provisions in the law that prohibit the 330 Guantanamo Bay detainees – and any other non-citizen the president declares to…

The detention and military commission systems created by the Executive to hold and try persons seized in the “war on terror” and implemented at the United States Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (“Guantánamo”) violate the well-established norms of…

The Open Society Institute (OSI) and DKT International have recently initiated two separate but similar lawsuits against the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) regarding the so-called “anti-prostitution pledge” in legislation…

Human rights Watch joined with many other organization to file an amicus brief in Goodman v. State of Georgia et. al. urging the Supreme Court to rule that Title II of the Americans with Disability Act, as applied to prisoners with disabilities, is a…