The US Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a second case involving the scope of the government’s ability to invoke state secret privilege and declined to hear a case challenging the male-only military draft on the basis of gender discrimination. When the court last reviewed the male-only draft rule in the 1981 decision Rostker v. [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed a Ninth Circuit rule that required courts reviewing immigration decisions to assume that testimony from petitioners was credible and true unless the immigration judge (IJ) made an explicit adverse credibility determination. This consolidated case involved two asylum seekers whose initial testimonies were later undermined by new facts that [...]
In an order list released Tuesday, the US Supreme Court declined to hear Johnson & Johnson’s appeal seeking to undo a $2 billion judgment over claims that their talc-based baby powder contained cancer-causing asbestos. The pharmaceutical giant claimed that its due process rights were violated when lower courts consolidated 22 cases from 12 different states [...]
A US judge on Wednesday declined to grant preliminary approval for a settlement against Bayer over claims that their Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. Research first published by a cancer-focused working group formed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2015 claimed that glyophosate was “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Although conflicting studies have since been released, including [...]
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a bill on Monday that blocks state institutions and businesses from requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to receive goods or services. SB 267 says that state government entities and their agents “may not issue vaccine or immunization passports … or any other standardized documentation for the [...]
US President Joe Biden’s 36-member commission to study US Supreme Court reforms met for the first time on Wednesday, following increased public pressure to add new court seats in response to the current court’s decision to take on a case that could upend Roe v. Wade, a landmark abortion rights case. The commission was established [...]
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday that there is no standalone “community caretaking” exception to the Fourth Amendment that would allow police to conduct a warrantless search and seizure of a person’s home as part of a welfare check. This case, Caniglia v. Strom, involved a welfare check, which led to police searching and [...]
British legislators introduced a bill on Wednesday to recognize animals as sentient beings, setting the stage for new reforms under the government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare. Some of the proposals include prohibitions on the live shipment of animals and bans against shark fins, ivory, and the import of hunting trophies from endangered animals. A [...]
A group of South Korean fisheries
Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaydah, who has been detained for 19 years without charges or a trial, filed a complaint on Friday with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions (UNWGAD) requesting intervention in his case. Zubaydah was captured in Pakistan after the September 11 attacks and was held and tortured by the CIA in [...]
