Cruz Varas (C V) , his wife and son (all Chilean nationals) had applied for political asylum but the National Immigration Board held that, from the information given, they had not invoked sufficiently strong reasons to be considered as refugees under national or international law and that they should be expelled. In an unsuccessful appeal …Read more

The Appellants brought this challenge to the constitutionality of an Alabama statute which authorized the Alabama Department of Correction’s (DOC) policy of mandatory testing of all present and future Alabama state prisoners for HIV antibodies, as well as the forced segregation of HIV-positive inmates. Two classes were involved in the action: the Appellant class, which …Read more

Jens Soering was a German national who came to the United States to study at the University of Virginia. While there, he became friends with Elizabeth Haysom, a Canadian national.  Haysom’s parents did not approve of Soering and Haysom’s relationship.  In March 1985 the couple made plans to kill Haysom’s parents.  They rented a car …Read more

This case considered the practice of “forced disappearances” by the Government of Honduras, which included secret surveillance, kidnapping and executions. The Court found as proved that “[d]uring the period 1981 to 1984, 100 to 150 persons disappeared in the Republic of Honduras, and many were never heard from again.” It recognized patterns in these disappearances …Read more

The Appellant, Ford, was convicted of murder in a Florida state court and sentenced to death in 1974. There was no suggestion that he was incompetent at the time of the offense, at trial, or at sentencing. However in 1982, Ford began to manifest gradual changes in behavior, which, based on a psychiatric examination, indicated …Read more

Angel Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez (“AMVR”), a UNAH student, was arrested without warrant in Tegucigalpa on September 12, 1981. Eyewitnesses saw members of the National Investigation Directorate and G-2 (Intelligence) of the Armed Forces of Honduras apprehend and take AMVR to an unknown location. On September 9, 1981, the Government of Honduras recognized the jurisdiction of …Read more

Respondent, Romeo, a severely mentally retarded adult male, was involuntarily committed to the Pennhurst State School and Hospital (Pennhurst), pursuant to the applicable involuntary commitment provision of the Pennsylvania Mental Health and Mental Retardation Act. While at Pennhurst, Respondent was injured on several occasions through his own violence and the reaction of other residents. He …Read more

The applicant, a United Kingdom national who had previously been diagnosed with having a paranoid psychosis, claimed that the United Kingdom unlawfully deprived him of his liberty when authorities forcibly recalled him to a hospital for the criminally insane in which he had completed a prior sentence for a violent crime. At the time of …Read more

The Respondent, Gamble, an inmate in a state correctional facility, brought suit challenging the actions of the appellants, medical personnel at the facility, claiming they had subjected him to cruel and unusual punishment for inadequate treatment of a back injury suffered while he was undertaking prison work. After sustaining the injury, Gamble was seen by …Read more

The Court considered three cases together that involved individuals sentenced to death. One case involved a black man who was convicted of murdering a homeowner during an attempted burglary. He was committed to a psychiatric hospital after arrest and diagnosed as suffering from mild to moderate mental impairments with psychotic episodes, but was later found …Read more