A US federal judge for the District of Columbia Sunday struck down a Trump administration rule that would have ended food stamps for 700,000 Americans. The court struck down the rule after finding it arbitrary and capricious for its failure to account for the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on food stamp recipient numbers. The [...]
A US district court judge denied a motion for a preliminary injunction Friday from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn to exempt its parishes from New York state’s restrictions on religious gatherings in coronavirus hotspots. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s public health order on October 6 shut down non-essential businesses and placed restrictions on gatherings [...]
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court ruling Thursday denying an extension to Arizona’s mail-in ballot deadline for members of the Navajo Nation. Six members of the Navajo tribe filed the lawsuit in the federal district court for the district of Arizona on August 26, alleging that Arizona’s requirement that mail-in ballots be [...]
UN Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana is urging the international community to lift sanctions on North Korea to lessen the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a report published Thursday. There have been no officially confirmed cases of COVID-19 in North Korea. The borders went on complete lockdown at the beginning of the year. Because [...]
A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Wednesday that Texas federal courts potentially have the authority to change the election policy allowing poll workers to forgo wearing facial coverings. A Texas voting rights group originally brought the lawsuit against Governor Greg Abbott in July. The group argued that Texas’ [...]
The Nigerian government on Thursday announced a ban on police brutality protests in the country’s capital of Abuja. The #EndSARS protests have taken social media by storm and led the youth of Nigeria to the streets in protest. The protest began after the death of a young man at the hands of the Special Anti [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a district court injunction on Tuesday against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requiring safer conditions to protect detained immigrants from COVID-19. The Ninth Circuit held that the district court is permitted to offer injunctive relief “to remedy unconstitutional conditions of confinement.” The court stated that [...]
Freedom House, a human rights watchdog group, released a report on internet freedom in the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday criticizing government internet freedom violations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report outlined three recent, prevailing issues over internet freedom: Three notable trends punctuated an especially dismal year for internet freedom. First, political leaders used [...]
A Florida appeals court on Friday overturned the trial court’s ruling in favor of Florida teachers challenging the order that they argued “forced” school districts to reopen. The court held that the union’s case was not strong enough to qualify for the injunction issued by the trial court and that the trial court “exceeded the [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a temporary stay on Saturday allowing Governor Greg Abbott to limit each county to one drop-off site for absentee ballots for the upcoming election. On Friday, a federal judge had granted a preliminary injunction against the governor’s limit. The plaintiffs had noted that the governor’s [...]
