The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in a free speech challenge to the Biden administration’s encouragement of platforms to remove posts that officials deemed misinformation, including posts relating to elections and COVID-19. The lawsuit, filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana along with five individuals, raises critical questions about the intersection [...]
Search Results for: vaccines
Canada government announces appeal of court decision on Freedom Convoy and Emergencies Act authority
The Canadian government announced Friday it would file an appeal of a Federal Court judgement that found it acted illegally when responding to Freedom Convoy protests in 2022. That judgement held that the government’s invocation of the federal Emergencies Act in response to the protests exceeded its authority and violated some protesters’ constitutional rights. Canada’s [...]
Massachusetts school officials ask for National Guard support to prevent 'potential tragedy'
Members of the Brockton School Committee urged the city’s mayor on Friday to ask Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey for National Guard support. Student violence and a high rate of teacher absences instigated the request. Four committee members—Joyce Asack, Tony Rodrigues, Claudio Gomes, and Ana Oliver—specifically requested that temporary National Guard support be deployed at Brockton [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit blocked on Thursday prison inmates’ lawsuit against Oregon Governor Kate Brown and others for putting the inmates on the lowest tier of priority for access to the COVID-19 vaccine. The court found that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act immunized state officials and the vaccine [...]
William Hibbitts is JURIST’s Deputy Editorial Director. He files this report from Halifax, Nova Scotia. A Canadian Federal Court judge ruled Tuesday in Ottawa that the Canadian government exceeded its authority and violated some protesters’ constitutional rights by invoking the federal Emergencies Act in response to the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests, which brought Canada’s capital [...]
Romania launches investigation into top government officials over vaccine procurement scandal
The National Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) of Romania announced Thursday the initiation of a criminal investigation into a high-profile case involving the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines targeting three individuals, including former Prime Minister Florin Cîțu and former Ministers of Health Vlad Voiculescu and Ioana Mihăilă, for alleged crimes of abuse of office. In a press release, [...]
This Day in History: The Law of Gobblers and Other Tasty Sides
It is Thanksgiving Day. The aroma of turkey; of dressing; candied sweet potatoes; green bean casserole; cranberry sauce; freshly baked yeast rolls; giblet gravy, and of pies emanating from the kitchen fills our nostrils. Home is the place to be today. But have you ever given thought to the law of the gobbler? This Day in [...]
Rule of Law Chronicles: In America, the Kids Are Not Alright
This article is the fourth in a series covering attacks on the rule of law. The rule of law is a political philosophy premised on the promise that all citizens, leaders, and institutions are accountable to the same laws, guaranteed through processes, practices, and norms that work together to support the equality of all citizens [...]
US federal court affirms Connecticut law ending religious immunization exemptions
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Friday affirmed in part a dismissal of a challenge to Public Act 21-6, Connecticut’s repeal of religious exemptions from state immunization requirements for “schoolchildren, college and university students, and childcare participants.” The case is an appeal from the US District Court for the District of Connecticut. [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday that former government employees can sue the city of San Francisco, California for infringing on their religious freedom after they were denied exemptions from receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The court found that the vaccines are remotely “derived” from aborted fetal stem cells and that [...]