Legal News

In a narrow 5-4 decision late Wednesday, the US Supreme Court prevented New York Governor Andrew Cuomo from setting strict limits to numbers of people gathered for worship in churches and synagogues out of concern for the spread of Covid-19. The majority granted an emergency stay of an executive order imposing capacity limitations for accommodations [...]

A class action lawsuit on behalf of New York City’s houseless families was filed against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration on Tuesday for their failure to provide stable internet to city shelters. This suit comes within days of the city’s announcement that any in-person education would be suspended amidst a spike in COVID-19 cases. Local [...]

UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Dubravka Šimonovic said Monday that a “pandemic of femicide and gender-based violence against women is taking the lives of women and girls everywhere.” Her announcement comes two days prior to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This day has been recognized since 1981, and [...]

The number of young people awaiting trial and sentencing in England and Wales has doubled over the past year due to courts being temporarily closed due to Covid-19, according to a new report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation. The report released Wednesday showed that there are concerns that children in prolonged uncertainty could be [...]

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lin Jian has denounced as “groundless” assertions in a recent Canadian national cyber threat assessment report that named China, as well as Iran, North Korea and Russia, as its greatest cyber-crime risks, fearing espionage and attacks on critical Canadian infrastructure.  The report by the Canadian Communications Security Establishment [...]

Amnesty International on Wednesday issued a warning about US President Donald Trump’s refusal to cooperate with US President-elect Joe Biden and its dire impact on what it called the “human rights crisis” presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. The human rights organization condemned Trump’s refusal to cooperate, concluding that the lack of cooperation and its resulting [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Coumbiaruled Wednesday that the Trump administration must halt its expulsion of unaccompanied minor migrants. The plaintiff, a 15-year-old migrant from Guatemala, alleged that the current US practices constituted violations of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the Immigration and [...]

A group of Orthodox Jewish synagogues in New York State filed an emergency application on Monday with the US Supreme Court seeking relief from state COVID-19 restrictions. The applicants, Agudath Israel of Kew Garden Hills and Agudath Israel Madison, are synagogues affiliated with Agudath Israel of America, a national grassroots Orthodox Jewish organization. The relief [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to reinstate a District Court order requiring Texas prison officials to enact basic safety precautions for the coronavirus. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from this decision with Justice Elena Kagan joining. The case was filed by two inmates at the Wallace Pack Unit, a geriatric prison in Texas. Laddy [...]

Hungary and Poland vetoed the EU budget and COVID-19 recovery package Monday in objection to a rule of law clause. The leaders of Hungary and Poland took issue with a provision that would tie the funds to respect for democratic norms. Another provision would allow a qualified majority of EU governments to impose sanctions on [...]