The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday upheld preliminary injunctions blocking implementation of a 2019 rule changing the criteria the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can use in making a public charge inadmissibility determination. The rule changed the definition of “likely to become a ‘public charge'” to include anyone likely to participate [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday heard cases involving when American corporations can be sued, and when they can sue. The first case, Nestle v. John Doe I, et al., considers whether an American corporation can be held liable under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) for human rights abuses that occur outside of the US. [...]
The Michigan Court of Claims granted injunctive relief Tuesday to gun rights groups challenging a prohibition on the open carry of firearms at polling places on Election Day. On October 16, Michigan’s Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, acting in her capacity as the chief electoral officer, issued the directive prohibiting open carry of firearms “within 100 [...]
In a per curiam decision Tuesday, the Texas Supreme Court upheld Governor Greg Abbott’s October proclamation limiting early ballot drop-off locations to one per county. The proclamation issued on October 1 prohibited county officials from designating multiple ballot drop-off locations prior to Election Day, citing health concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and election integrity. [...]
Slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz and Democracy for the Arab World Now, Inc. (DAWN) filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a US district court against Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and a couple dozen others. The complaint alleges that key elements of the conspiracy to murder Khashoggi took place at the Saudi embassy in [...]
A court-appointed steering committee filed a joint status report on Tuesday providing an update on their efforts to reunite migrant children separated from their parents as part of the Trump administration’s so-called “zero tolerance” immigration policy in 2017 and 2018. According to the report, of the 1,030 children identified as a class in Ms, L [...]
The US Senate Judiciary Committee continued confirmation hearings on Tuesday for President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the seat of the late Justice Ginsburg, Judge Amy Coney Barrett. Senator Lindsey Graham, the Judiciary Committee Chair, started the day with a line of questioning on Barrett’s judicial philosophy, textualism, which led to a civics lesson on [...]
US Supreme Court heard rescheduled oral arguments by phone on Tuesday for the second day of the 2020 term. The first case before the court, Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, looked at a 2015 Arkansas law, Act 900. The Act regulates Pharmacy Benefits Managers (PBMs), the intermediaries between health insurance plans and pharmacies, to [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia filed an order Monday granting a preliminary injunction barring Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents from conducting credible fear interviews ordinarily conducted by Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) asylum officers. The government claims that CBP agents tasked with conducting asylum interviews “receive ‘training consistent [...]
A California Superior Court judge in Alameda County granted a preliminary injunction on Monday, preventing The Regents of the University of California (UC) from considering ACT and SAT scores in admissions or scholarship decisions. Plaintiffs in the case argued that UC’s “test-optional” policy violates the Americans with Disability Act by denying applicants with disabilities “meaningful [...]
