After more than three years of legal dispute, a federal judge in North Carolina approved a settlement Tuesday that will allow transgender people to use the bathrooms in state buildings that match their gender identities. North Carolina’s House Bill 2 (HB 2), “the bathroom bill,” was passed in March 2016, requiring transgender people to use [...]
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller testified Wednesday in two hearings about his findings (released in a 448-page redacted report in May) in the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. In his opening statements, Mueller touched on findings of his investigation and made a few remarks. “Our investigation found that the Russian [...]
Utah’s Supreme Court has unanimously struck down a state law requiring medical malpractice plaintiffs to obtain a “certificate of compliance” from a state agency. The court ruled that the law, known as the Malpractice Act, was unconstitutional as it violates the separation of powers doctrine by limiting the role of the judiciary. In Utah, a [...]
India’s federal government on Tuesday introduced two new labor code bills in the lower house of parliament. The Code on Wages and the Code on Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions are expected to affect about 500 million workers if passed. The Code on Wages seeks to regulate wage and bonus payments in all places [...]
The governor of New York signed a bill Monday making New York the first state to ban cat declawing. The bill adds a new section to the agriculture and markets law and expressly prohibits “the practice of declawing a cat.” The procedure “involves the removal of all or most of the last bone of each [...]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Tofurky Co. on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Arkansas Bureau of Standards challenging a new law (Act 501)that prohibits the labeling of plant-based meat alternatives as “meat” or related terms like “beef,” “pork,” “roast,” “sausage” and “burger.” Plaintiffs allege that Act 501 “is a restriction on commercial [...]
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a revenge porn bill into law on Tuesday. The bill makes it a class A misdemeanor to non-consensually share and disseminate an intimate image meant to cause emotional, physical or financial harm. The law, passed back in February, is meant to adapt to the growing reliance on technology and [...]
India’s parliament introduced the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill last week, but Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed some concerns over the legislation Tuesday. Following a 2014 Supreme Court decision in NALSA v. India, the country recognized the fundamental protected rights of third gender individuals. But according to HRW, the new proposed legislation does not [...]
The Rajya Sabha, the upper house of India’s parliament, approved a bill on Monday to amend the Protection of Human Rights Act of 1993. The bill was passed by the lower house of parliament (Lok Sabha) last week and will become law once it receives presidential assent. The bill was introduced to include, among other [...]
Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed a youth sentencing reform bill into law Monday. The new law includes a number of substantial reforms to Oregon’s juvenile justice system, reversing in part a tough-on-crime ballot measure voters approved in 1995. Overall, the reforms move to grant more discretion to judges, removing mandatory minimum sentences and lifting a [...]
