Month: June 2015

  • Case of the Day: Zivotofsky v. Kerry

    The case of the day is Zivotofsky v. Kerry (S. Ct. 2015). At least since US recognition of the State of Israel in 1948, the United States has never recognized the sovereignty of Israel or any other state over Jerusalem. The State Department’s practice, when issuing passports to US citizens born abroad, is to list……

  • Case of the Day: Rana v. Islam

    The case of the day is Rana v. Islam (S.D.N.Y. 2015). Mashud Rana alleged that the defendant, Monirul Islam, Bangladesh’s former consul general in New York, and his wife, Fahima Tahsina Prova, had lured him to the United States to work as a domestic servant with false promises and then mistreated him. We’ve seen similar……

  • Case of the Day: Aviation & General Insurance Co. v. United States

    The case of the day is Aviation & General Insurance Co. v. United States (Fed. Cl. 2015). The plaintiffs were insurance and reinsurance companies that had insured the aircraft hulls used on EgyptAir flight 648 and PanAm flight 103, two flights that were victims of terrorist attacks that, the United States determined, were sponsored by……

  • Belfast Project: Chris Bray On The The Ivor Bell Case

    Chris Bray, friend of Letters Blogatory and critic of the US and UK governments in the Belfast Project case, is back with an update on the British authorities’ decision to proceed with the prosecution of Ivor Bell. After more than a year of bumbling indecision, the Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland has taken a bold……

  • Case of the Day: Ashraf-Hassan v. Embassy of France

    The case of the day is Ashraf-Hassan v. Embassy of France (D.C. Cir. 2015). Saima Ashraf-Hassan, a Pakistani national, was employed by the French embassy. She brought a claim of workplace harassment. The embassy answered the complaint without raising sovereign immunity and participated in discovery. Just before trial, the embassy sought to dismiss the case……