Law students and JURIST special guests comment on their legal experiences around the world. http://jurist.org/dateline JURISTremove_this@pitt.edu JURIST Guest Columnist Caio Abramo, LL.M. candidate at the Graduate School of Law, Economics and Governance at the University of Utrecht, is currently doing preliminary studies in international public law. He discusses Brazil's obligation to prosecute political crimes committed during the rule of the military dictatorship...In 1964, a military coup d'état led by the higher tier of Brazil's military deposed President João Goulart, setting up a dictatorship that would officially last until 1985. With the promulgation of the new Constitution in 1988, a new democratic order was finally initiated. However, despite the new order, the dictatorship's mark was noticeably left on both the government and civil society. The commission of http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/caio-abramo-brazil-dictatorship.php 2012-02-10T11:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/caio-abramo-brazil-dictatorship.php Megan McKee JURIST Guest Columnist Corrie Thearle, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Class of 2012, is a Senior Editor for the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law. She discusses the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Jones and its implications for Fourth Amendment search jurisprudence...The Supreme Court's recent decision in United States v. Jones reinvigorated an area of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that had lain dormant for almost half a century. Since 1967, courts have followed the two-part Katz v. United States test, which requires that a person must 1) have a subjective expectation of privacy that 2) society finds reasonable, in order to determine whether Fourth Amendment protection http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/corrie-thearle-jones.php 2012-02-07T16:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/corrie-thearle-jones.php Megan McKee JURIST Guest Columnist Robert Borrelle, Syracuse University College of Law Class of 2013, works in the Disability Rights Clinic at Syracuse University. He argues that the current medical model of disability used in the US legal system should be rejected in order to further societal and legal recognition of Disability culture... Litigation has played a crucial role in social movements throughout the history of the US. The importance of Brown v. Board of Education to the Civil Rights Movement is one example of how a lawsuit can be an invaluable asset to furthering an oppressed group's goals. Established legal precedent like Brown can clear a path to a brighter and http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/robert-borrelle-disability-awareness.php 2012-02-06T22:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/robert-borrelle-disability-awareness.php Elizabeth Hand JURIST Guest Columnist Crystal Whalen, Texas Tech University School of Law Class of 2012, is a student attorney at the Regional Public Defender's Office for Capital Cases in Lubbock, Texas. She argues in favor of moving away from the death penalty and makes a case for its unconstitutionality...As Americans, we would like to assume that each and every one of us is protected by the US Constitution. We want to assume that the police cannot just come into our homes on a Sunday night, while we are watching television, and randomly search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. We want to assume that if we were arrested, we would have http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/crystal-whalen-death-penalty.php 2012-02-02T22:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/02/crystal-whalen-death-penalty.php Leigh Argentieri JURIST Senior Editor Edward SanFilippo, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Class of 2013, argues that alternative business models can address societal changes in the US... (His opinions are not intended to represent those of JURIST)Americans are restless. A call for change comes from many corners. The Occupy movement emphasized issues of income disparity, and it unexpectedly brought to light an uneasy challenge to constitutional rights, such as the right to peacefully gather. Whether real change will follow the demonstrations remains to be seen. The Tea Party movement seems to have quieted for the moment, even though a number of its preferred politicians have been elected to public office, offering http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/Edward-SanFilippo-intentional-community.php 2012-01-31T22:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/Edward-SanFilippo-intentional-community.php Leigh Argentieri JURIST Assistant Editor Kimberly Bennett, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Class of 2014, argues that although it will be described as judicial activism, same-sex couples must be granted the same rights as opposite-sex couples under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment... (Her opinions are not intended to represent those of JURIST)The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is currently deciding the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the 2008 initiative that amended the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized by the state. Opponents of the amendment argue that it is unconstitutional based on the Due Process Clause http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/kimberly-bennett-gay-rights.php 2012-01-30T08:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/kimberly-bennett-gay-rights.php Megan McKee JURIST Guest Columnist Joshua Hausman, University of Pittsburgh School of Law Class of 2012, is a Managing Editor for the University of Pittsburgh Law Review and is a Teaching Fellow in the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project. He discusses the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Jones and its possible ramifications on Fourth Amendment search jurisprudence...On Monday, the Supreme Court took a small but significant step towards reconciling the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable governmental searches with the realities of modern surveillance technology. In the case of United States v. Jones, the Court unanimously held that the tracking of the defendant's automobile via a GPS device constituted a Fourth Amendment http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/joshua-hausman-jones.php 2012-01-26T19:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/joshua-hausman-jones.php Dwyer Arce JURIST Guest Columnist Perveen Ali, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is currently researching issues of international refugee and human rights law. Here she discusses the challenges Iraqi refugees face in returning home safely and with dignity...The 2003 war in Iraq and subsequent internal security crisis led to the forced displacement of four million Iraqis. Insurgents, counter-insurgency operations and sectarian militias targeted persons for their religious, ethnic and political affiliations, subjecting them to kidnappings, rapes, murders, torture, lootings and evictions. Nearly two million Iraqis sought refuge in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, where they found themselves living in legally precarious situations. http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/perveen-ali-iraq-refugees.php 2012-01-22T15:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/perveen-ali-iraq-refugees.php Megan McKee JURIST Guest Columnist Lauren Mack, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law Class of 2012, is the Copyright Chair for the Cardozo Intellectual Property Law Society. She argues that two proposed pieces of legislation that seek to curb Internet piracy through the use of DNS filtering violate the First Amendment...With two controversial bills intended to curb copyright and trademark infringement on the Internet currently pending in both houses of Congress, the debate over how to best fight online piracy is certain to erupt in 2012. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House of Representatives and the Preventing Real Online Threats of Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/lauren-mack-DNS-filtering.php 2012-01-13T15:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/lauren-mack-DNS-filtering.php Megan McKee JURIST Guest Columnist Leila Sayed-Taha, DePaul University College of Law Class of 2012, currently works as a translator for Ace Languages Centre, where she aids asylum seekers at the Immigration Advisory Service. Here she discusses the ongoing issue of immunity as troops withdrawal and private contractors remain, and she examines the circumstances in which Iraqi citizens previously employed by the US military have been left...In October, the Iraqi Parliament refused to grant immunity to American servicewomen and men serving in Iraq after the initially agreed upon withdrawal date. This withdrawal date had been established by the Bush administration in 2008. After almost nine years of US military engagement in Iraq, http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/leila-sayed-taha-iraq.php 2012-01-13T14:00:00-05:00 http://jurist.org/dateline/2012/01/leila-sayed-taha-iraq.php Elizabeth Imbarlina