President Trump finally signed a coronavirus relief package Sunday after several days’ delay. The president signed the bill Sunday night, but issued a statement that “wasteful items need to be removed” from the bill, indicating that the White House would send a “redlined version” back to Congress “insisting that those funds be removed from the [...]
Over 500 bereaved relatives of COVID-19 victims in Italy announced Wednesday that they were pursuing civil action against Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Health Minister Roberto Speranza and Governor Attilio Fontana of Lombardy, one of Italy’s worst-affected regions. The plaintiffs are members of a committee named “Noi Denunceremo” (we will go to court), which has committed [...]
Following a death row inmate testing positive for COVID-19, several US senators Tuesday sent a letter to the Department of Justice’s Inspector General requesting that he open an investigation into why the Trump administration resumed federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. The US federal government has executed 10 people since July, and three more are [...]
Spain’s Supreme Court Friday ordered lower courts to investigate deaths caused by COVID-19 in the country’s nursing homes. The Court additionally ordered probes into possible misuse of government funding to purchase flawed or fraudulent medical equipment. The instructions follow a previous ruling that complaints filed by unions, professional organizations, relatives of COVID-19 victims, and a [...]
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal, STF) decided Thursday that it is constitutional for the State to order compulsory vaccination against COVID-19. The State cannot forcibly immunize its citizens. But fines, bars on attending certain places and on enrollment in school may be imposed upon vaccination refusal. Brazil has been one of the nations [...]
The US Supreme Court Thursday denied a request to allow in-person classes to continue in the face of an order by Kentucky’s governor shuttering schools because of a surge in Covid-19 cases. Kentucky Democratic governor Andy Beshear issued two executive orders on November 18, the first requiring limitations on persons in restaurants, bars, gyms, and [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the state’s COVID-19 mask mandate. The court found that the complaint was a “shotgun complaint.” It criticized the complaint for supplying “irrelevant factual allegations and legal conclusions,” having “arguments that stray from the statutory and constitutional underpinning [...]
Despite the recent spate of federal executions, a report released Wednesday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) reveals record-low state executions and new death sentences in 2020. Seventeen people were executed this year, of whom 10 were executed by the federal government. This is the first time in American history that federal executions exceeded state [...]
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions for religious gatherings in New Jersey and Colorado until district courts can hear the cases. In both cases, petitioners challenge restrictions imposing stricter limitations on religious gatherings as violations of the First Amendment. The petitioners argue that the restrictions on religious institutions are harsher [...]
Nguyen Nhat Cam and nine other defendants were found guilty Saturday by the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam for exploiting a testing kit purchasing scam. Cam was the former chief of Hanoi’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), while five of the other nine defendants were senior officials. The rest of the defendants were [...]
