The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Thursday that Ohio must pay $382,529.98 to cover attorneys’ fees accrued by Planned Parenthood, the ACLU of Ohio and other organizations who challenged the state’s abortion legislation. The suit relates to a 2004 law placing limits on the prescription of mifepristone, a pill used to [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Wednesday dismissed Tennessee’s suit against the federal government over financing refugee resettlement within the state. Tennessee contended that the federal government should foot the bill on all costs associated with refugee resettlement. In passing these expenses on to the states, Tennessee argued, the federal government [...]
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 [...]
Kenyan National Treasury Cabinet Secretary, Henry Rotich, was arrested Monday on charges that he financially mismanaged a dam construction contract awarded to the Italian company CMC di Ravenna. In a statement, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Noordin Haji, outlined the course of the investigation, which began in September 2018 and was made public in March. [...]
The US House of Representatives approved an amendment to the defense bill for fiscal year 2020 on Friday that would require the president to obtain congressional approval before ordering a military strike against Iran. The amendment passed 251-170, largely along party lines but with 27 Republican representatives signing on. The bill itself, the 2020 National [...]
Chilean President Sebastián Piñera signed a bill into law on Thursday that will lift the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases involving minors. Originally introduced in 2010, the bill was reintroduced at Piñera’s urging after a surge in reports that former Santiago Cardinals Francisco Javier Errazuriz Ossa and Ricardo Ezzati had covered up allegations of [...]
US Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta announced his resignation Friday amid renewed criticism concerning his handling of a sex crimes case against Wall Street billionaire Jeffrey Epstein during Acosta’s tenure as US Attorney in Miami. Though Acosta’s involvement in the Epstein case was a matter of controversy during his March 2017 confirmation hearing, the issue gained [...]
The US Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) withdrew its plans to construct a US Penitentiary and Federal Prison Camp in Letcher County, Kentucky, on Thursday. A group of federal prisoners and advocacy groups, including the Abolitionist Law Center and Green Justice, challenged the construction of the new prison in a federal lawsuit. The complaint outlined [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that property owners who have had their property taken by state or local governments may file a Fifth Amendment takings claim in federal court without having to first exhaust remedies in state court. The Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause requires that the government provide “just compensation” when taking private [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Friday that a Mississippi prosecutor unconstitutionally excluded black jurors from the murder trial of Curtis Flowers. The conviction will be set aside and Curtis Flowers retried. Flowers has been tried six times for the murder of four people in 1996; two of the trials ended in mistrials and, in [...]
