Even late last year, when critics of the foreign intelligence statute argued for changes, the only members of Congress who know about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.
Some critics in Kenya have also questioned the constitutionality of the Rome Statute, arguing that it is incompatible with the Constitution of Kenya, which was passed by a referendum in 2010.
Lawyers for a man who was charged under a seldom-used state terrorism statute argued on Tuesday that the law was too unconstitutionally vague to be applied in this case and that the evidence presented to the grand jury was not legally sufficient to support the charges.
On Friday, Mr. Avila's lawyers filed a motion under the new statute arguing that recent developments in biomechanical science that were unavailable at the time of their client's 2001 trial indicate that Nicholas Macias's death may have been the result of an accident.
Kneeland, representing himself, argued that the statements he made did not rise to level specified by the statute, and argued that the statute violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The Chamber of Commerce, which hired a former attorney general, Michael B. Mukasey, to lobby for changes to the statute, has argued that aggressive application of the law has caused companies to shy away from overseas investments for fear of being scrutinized.
"The starting point is, of course, the language of the statute," Maley argued.
Like other suffragists in Britain and the United States, she based her case on the words person and persons in the voting statutes, arguing that such unspecific words were no basis for the exclusion of one entire sex from voting.
But in South Dakota, lawmakers in 2007 excluded bicycles, tricycles and any other "unpowered foot-pedal conveyance" from the drunken-driving statutes, arguing that this might help intoxicated people find safer ways home.
There are, of course, many countries without quotas that still have more women in boardrooms; opponents of such statutes argue that these examples are evidence that quotas aren't the only way to boost the numbers.
