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 [...]
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law Wednesday that will provide disability benefits to first responders who contracted COVID-19 before vaccines were available. House Bill (HB) 3162, known as the Act-of-Duty Bill, previously only provided disability pay for various physical and mental conditions, including heart attacks. Specifically, the law provides benefits for those [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Thursday blocked President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees. The decision came from an en banc rehearing of the appeal, which was previously decided in favor of the government by a three-judge panel of the same court. The case turned on the central issue [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Tuesday issued a 10-2 opinion affirming a lower court’s decision to dismiss claims for federal hazard pay based on exposure to COVID-19 made by a group of federal correctional officers from Connecticut. The court considered “whether theory of recovery satisfies one of specifically delineated categories for [...]
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhnom Ghebreyesus Saturday spoke with the Director of China’s National Health Commission Ma Xiaowei about the COVID-19 surge the country is currently facing. During the meeting, Chinese officials provided information to WHO on the outbreak in China. The information included “outpatient clinics, hospitalizations, patients requiring emergency treatment and [...]
Nationwide protests in response to the brutal murder of George Floyd have put a spotlight on the profound injustices of the criminal legal system. Much of the criticism has rightly focused on the abuses in policing and incarceration. But along with abusive policing, another urgent threat that impoverished communities face under this system is the [...]
As the COVID-19 cases continue to rise at an exponential pace in India even after the sweeping federal lockdown, the Parliament of the country has commenced the Monsoon Session which runs from 14th September to 1st October this year. The decision by the Secretariats of both the Houses of the Indian Parliament to dispense with the [...]
Several pharmaceutical companies are beginning middle or late stage trials of experimental COVID-19 vaccines in Brazil and South Africa, leaving trials in other developed countries for sometime later. Meanwhile, in the United States, Black and other minority recruitment for trials lag: Michael said several factors have led to “a perfect storm of not goodness” for [...]
The global chaos created by COVID-19 has proven to be a stress test for modern governance. The pandemic and its fallout have proven especially revealing in the context of European data policy, which is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), promulgated in May of 2018. But, COVID-19 has exposed its fault lines. While [...]
Now is the time for many state authorities to act decisively to avert more pandemic driven bar exam chaos. Without prompt action more testing failures, disruption, and delays are almost certain. The evidence is in. The case is open and shut. Conventional in-person bar exams cannot and need not be held, at least so long [...]
