U.S.: Restrictions Undercut Legal Aid Fund for the Poor

For the past 14 years, the non-profit company set up by the U.S. Congress to provide legal services for the poor has been forced to short-change the needy because of severe government restrictions on how it can use its funding, critics charge.

Q&A: To Try With Nukes as With Mines

Since the expiration of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) in December, U.S. and Russian negotiators have been busy hammering out a new pact that will reduce the number of nuclear warheads deployed in both countries by about one-quarter, according to Washington.

MIGRATION-US: Broken System Costing Billions

As the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama and Congressional lawmakers prepare to tackle comprehensive immigration reform, a leading immigration advocate says government inaction has "cost the country billions of dollars, while doing little to impede the flow of unauthorised immigrants."

U.S.: Obama Criticised for Health Package Abortion Ban

The largest civil liberties group in the U.S. faulted President Barack Obama for signing an executive order on Wednesday that bans federal funds from being used for abortion procedures and revives funding for expired abstinence-only sex-education programming.

U.S.: Republicans Seek Deal on Detainees

The prominent scholar who believes that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, self-styled mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks, should receive no trial is nonetheless advising Sen. Lindsey Graham on a proposal to the White House to create "an overarching detainee framework", including a new approach to habeas corpus petitions and indefinite detention of "too dangerous to free" detainees without trial.

U.S.: Families Sue Over Guantanamo Deaths

The families of two prisoners who died at the U.S. Navy Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are asking a federal court to reconsider its ruling dismissing their lawsuit, which seeks to hold federal officials and the U.S. government accountable for their sons' torture, arbitrary detention, and ultimate deaths.

HEALTH-US: Maternal Deaths on the Rise

Despite the fact that the United States spends more on maternal health than any other country in the world, deaths in childbirth among U.S. women are on the rise and already surpass the morbidity rates in most developed countries.

CLIMATE CHANGE: In Canada, No News is Bad News

Canada's climate researchers are being muzzled, their funding slashed, research stations closed, findings ignored and advice on the critical issue of the century unsought by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government, according to a 40-page report by a coalition of 60 non-governmental organisations.

POLITICS: U.S. Lifts Restrictions on Web Services

After U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's January address on the role of internet freedom in U.S. foreign policy, the Barack Obama administration appears to be taking the first steps to introduce specific legislation and policies to exploit the role of the internet in opening up those countries ruled by oppressive or authoritarian governments.

U.S.: ACLU Ad Challenges Military Commissions

Civil libertarians hit back hard Sunday at reports indicating that the Barack Obama administration is about to cave in to pressure from Congress and local groups in New York City and is not only considering transferring the cases of suspected terrorists to another federal court, but even moving them to the military commission system.

RIGHTS-US: Senate Debates Indefinite Detentions

Civil liberties advocates and U.S. constitutional law scholars lost no time in condemning proposed legislation introduced in the Senate Thursday that would hand the government the power to indefinitely detain terrorism suspects without charge and to conduct trials through military commissions only.

U.S.: Grassroots Groups Get More Bang for Donors’ Bucks

While "community organising" has become a punch line for late- night comedians since the election of Barack Obama as U.S. president, the activity "delivers enormous benefits to communities," according to a new study conducted by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP).

RIGHTS-US: Justice Not Always Blind, Especially to Gender

When Legal Momentum, a U.S. advocacy group that works with all aspects of gender in the legal system, started its National Judicial Education Programme in 1980, gender discrimination was an unacknowledged problem in the country's courtrooms.

RIGHTS-US: “He” the People?

Despite having equality on paper, women continue to be shut out of most leadership positions in the United States, and some experts say that the persistence of language in which male is the default gender is an overlooked factor.

U.S.: Senate Torture Probe Uncovers Missing Emails

The Justice Department investigation into whether the authors of the George W. Bush-era "torture memos" were guilty of professional misconduct did not have full access to the emails used by those lawyers and by other key figures in the investigation, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former counsel to the Vice President David Addington.

ENERGY: Coal-Fired Power on the Way Out?

The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States.

U.S.: Hispanic Farmers Seek Redress for Years of Bias

When the Barack Obama administration urged Congress to settle a protracted anti-discrimination lawsuit for 1.25 billion dollars on behalf of African American farmers last week, Lupe Garcia of Las Cruces, New Mexico was paying close attention.

U.S.: CIA Briefed Congress on Renditions

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) briefed members of Congress from both political parties numerous times about the agency's interrogation and detention programmes, several prominent human rights groups said Monday.

U.S.: Gov’t Sued Over Cell Phone Tracking

If you are a U.S. resident who owns a cell phone, you should care about the outcome of a court case that "could well decide whether the government can use your cell phone to track you - even if it hasn't shown probable cause to believe it will turn up evidence of a crime."

U.S.: High Court to Revisit Terrorism Support Law

Next week, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider one of the most consequential cases to arise from the "global war on terror".

U.S.: Nuke Plants Back in Vogue, as Climate Bill Stalls

After decades of debate, the United States is poised to build its first new nuclear reactors since the early 1970s.