Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Wednesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ)  will open an investigation into the Minnesota Police Department (MPD) to determine whether there is a “pattern or practice” of excessive force and discriminatory, unconstitutional policing. The probe comes a day after MPD officer Derek Chauvin was convicted for the murder of [...]

The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases on Monday: Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation and Sanchez v. Mayorkas. These cases will determine which Alaskan native groups are eligible to receive COVID-19 relief funds and will impact tens of thousands of immigrants living and working in the US under a [...]

The US House Judiciary Committee voted on Wednesday to advance legislation that would create a commission to develop a plan for distributing reparations to descendants of people who were enslaved as well as victims of the systemic racism that is still engrained in the US government and society today. The legislation, known as HB 40, [...]

The Nevada Assembly passed a bill on Tuesday that would abolish the death penalty and retroactively convert all current capital sentences to life without parole. Although several similar bills have been floated before, most recently in 2017, they have never made it out of committee. Nevada has 70 people on death row but has not [...]

The Biden administration’s Army Corps of Engineers indicated on Friday that they would not stop the flow of oil through the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) despite the threat it poses to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe’s water supply. The project is currently operating without a federal permit. DC District Court Judge James Boasberg shut down [...]

As several state legislatures draw criticism over voter suppression bills, Kentucky lawmakers passed a bipartisan bill that was signed into law on Wednesday. HB 574 expands access to the polls and introduces new voting security measures. It passed 91-3 in the Kentucky House and 33-3 in the state Senate, which are both controlled by Republicans. [...]

XTO Energy, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil, sued Energy Transfer LLC on Monday in a Texas state court for breach of contract involving disputed fines related to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The lawsuit claims that Energy Transfer pipeline operators charged XTO unnecessary fines and revoked production volume credits when a series of events outside [...]

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit against the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Thursday for failing to classify certain species as endangered within a reasonable time frame. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) created a system for processing requests to list species as threatened or endangered. Interested parties can submit a petition [...]

The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) v. Alston, a case concerning whether the NCAA’s ban on education-related payments to student-athletes is a violation of antitrust law. Last year, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the NCAA could not categorically deny academic benefits [...]

Civil rights groups in Georgia filed another lawsuit against state officials on Monday over SB 202, a voting rights bill that imposes several barriers to accessing the polls. This legislation retaliates against widespread voter registration efforts in communities of color during the 2020 presidential election results, which resulted in record turnout but provoked baseless claims [...]