The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Friday that the majority of the public officials named as defendants in the federal Flint water crisis lawsuit should remain in the case. The opinion affirms the district court’s denial of several motions to dismiss with respect to former public officials like Michigan Governor Rick [...]

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on Thursday that the United States will be submitting notice of its withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies on Friday, May 22, 2020. Secretary Pompeo noted reasons for the US withdraw were that Russia “has undermined central confidence-building function of the Treaty – and has, in fact, [...]

A judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a decision on Monday allowing a salvage company to go ahead with an expedition to recover artifacts from the wreckage of the Titanic. R.M.S. Titanic, Inc. (RMST) was appointed salvor-in-possession of the wreckage in 1994, and has carried out many dives [...]

Despite President Donald Trump’s statement during a press briefing on Friday that religious services would be considered “essential” operations during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, a Federal Appeals Court ruled the same day that the California Governor’s order banning in-person religious services is binding. The South Bay United Pentecostal Church challenged Governor Gavin Newsom’s May 4th [...]

During a press briefing on Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that places of worship will be considered “essential” operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump stated that “they have places ‘essential’ that aren’t essential, and they open. And yet the churches aren’t allowed to open and the synagogues and—places of faith—mosques, places of faith.” Under [...]

The EU General Court rejected gas pipelines Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG’s challenges to EU Directive 2019/692 on Wednesday. In May 2019 the EU passed Directive 2019/692, which requires that bundled gas pipelines owned by the same company running between member states (in this case Germany) and third countries (in this case [...]

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill into law Thursday that decriminalizes personal marijuana possession. The bill, SB 2, assigns a civil rather than criminal penalty for simple marijuana possession. SB 2 presumes marijuana possession in measurements of an ounce or less as simple possession. A summary of the bill as enacted by the governor’s [...]

The US Copyright Office issued a report on Thursday claiming that the safe-harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) now favors tech companies over rights-holders. After studying the issue for years and taking into consideration more than 92,000 comments, the Copyright Office suggests that “Congress may wish to fine-tune” the statute. The report [...]

Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, was released from federal prison into home confinement on Thursday as the Justice Department seeks to halt the spread of COVID-19 among inmates. Cohen’s release comes a week after President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was released from prison amid similar concerns. Cohen sought release [...]

Switzerland’s Supreme Court denied an appeal on Wednesday by the Senior Women for Climate Protection, finding that it is too early to claim fundamental rights violations based on climate change. The Senior Women for Climate Protection alleged that Switzerland’s government was failing to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in a way that would correspond [...]