California Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed a bill  into law that will end the practice of assigning bail to defendants awaiting trial. A pretrial risk assessment system will replace the bail system in determining if a defendant can be released. Those who are deemed to be low risk of public safety or failure to appear [...]

Public-sector union employees in Missouri filed a lawsuit  on Monday in the St. Louis County Circuit Court challenging Missouri’s “paycheck protection” law , arguing it violates the state’s constitutional protections to free speech, association and petition, as well as equal protection, protection against impairment of contracts, and the right to organize and bargain collectively. Plaintiffs argue [...]

A three-judge panel of the US District Court for the Middle District of California on Monday once again struck down North Carolina’s congressional map after a finding that the state’s legislature improperly relied on political data to draw the map in such a way as to retain as many Republican seats as possible. The opinion [...]

Several human rights groups signed a letter  on Tuesday calling on Google to end its efforts to develop a censored search engine for China, code named Project Dragonfly. The letter accuses Google of “accommodating the Chinese authorities’ repression of dissent,” which would cause Google to participate in China’s violations of freedom of expression and privacy of [...]

US State Department legal advisor Jennifer Newstead urged judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Tuesday to deny Iran’s request to order the US to suspend the re-imposition of sanctions by President Donald Trump in May. The first wave of US sanctions was imposed on Iran on August 7 with the rest of the [...]

A UN human rights panel report  released Tuesday suggests that parties to the armed conflict in Yemen have been perpetuating crimes under international law . The Group of International and Regional Eminent Experts on Yemen was appointed  by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on the human rights situation in the country [...]

The California Legislature  on Monday approved a bill BSB-1127] that would allow California students to use medical marijuana on school campuses. California state law has allowed minors access to medical marijuana since the 1990s but so far has prevented school campuses from permitting usage. Parents would have to take their children off school grounds in [...]

A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia , ruled  Saturday that portions of President Donald Trump’s May 25 executive orders making it easier to fire federal employees overstepped his authority as president. The first  amended collective bargaining procedures in federal employment. The second  limited the amount of time federal employees can engage in union activities at [...]

Amnesty International (AI) called upon countries to ban fully autonomous weapons systems  on Monday, the first day of the UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Group of Governmental Experts (GGE) on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems  meeting. AI states that technology related to advanced weapons systems are outpacing international law. Future technologies may be able to replicate [...]

The International Court of Justice  heard oral arguments  from Iran’s legal counsel on Monday in a lawsuit filed by Iran allegint that US sanctions violate the 1955 Treaty of Amity, Economic Relations, and Consular Rights. Oral arguments from the US are expected on Tuesday. Iran argues that the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) has stated that [...]