California Governor Gavin Newsom announced plans Thursday to commute all 548 death sentences in the state to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. In an open letter to Californians, Newsom said capital punishment could not be administered fairly and had resulted in wrongful convictions. “I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s [...]

People have an understanding of many things they haven’t yet experienced, things they know from hearsay or brief reading. People have a tenuous, reasonable, or profound understanding of some things and subjects. Of Saturn’s rings; of watching the Super Bowl live; of driving a Formula 1 car; of how AI works; of Stephen Curry’s three-point [...]

The US District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday enjoined the US government from deporting some 200 Afghan nationals detained in the US to Afghanistan or Pakistan. The temporary restraining order (TRO) requires the government to confirm that it will not send a number of asylum seekers back to Afghanistan or [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Tuesday declined to reconsider a decision pausing restrictions on the Justice Department’s communications with election officials, leaving the stay in place during ongoing ballot processing and counting. The court’s denial of full-court rehearing followed an 11-judge en banc panel’s 6-5 decision earlier Tuesday to reinstate [...]

Considered as literary genre, the Trump presidency is best described as “farce.” Though the “script” is ludicrous prima facie, it is simultaneously malignant and intermittently murderous. In a no-longer implausible scenario, this president’s simplifying approach to complex strategic problems could trigger unmanageable episodes of nuclear terrorism or nuclear war. There is more. Even on a [...]

International Criminal Court (ICC) President Tomoko Akane addressed the UN General Assembly Monday, calling on the 193 member-nations to take “concrete actions” on sanctions imposed on the ICC by US President Donald Trump on October 9.  Nine of the 18 judges appointed to the court, including Akane, are under sanctions for fulfilling their duties to [...]

Amnesty International on Tuesday called on Malian authorities to reveal the fate and whereabouts of politician Mountaga Tall and his son, Cheick Mamadou Tall, six months after both men went missing in Mali’s capital city, Bamako. Tall is a lawyer and the leader of the National Congress for Democratic Initiative (CNID), an opposition party in [...]

Amnesty International on Monday published a letter calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to provide the medical records of a Nicaraguan asylum seeker named as Anabell, who experienced a miscarriage while detained. The letter, addressed to ICE field office director Sam Olson in Kentucky’s Campbell County, demands the medical records so that Anabell may [...]

Do we have kings in this country? Any child could tell you: “No.” Yet modern presidents talk about “inherent powers” like a magician opening Pandora’s box. Does Article II of the Constitution really let them do whatever they think is good for the country, even if Congress never gave them permission? The administration’s pre-election lawsuits [...]